Introducing Our Freedom to Read Issue

The Freedom to Read Issue

This week, Publishers Weekly highlights the fight and plight of librarians nationwide against the unprecedented surge in book banning efforts over the past few years. Check out our Freedom to Read issue here, read PW editorial director Jonathan Segura's letter from the editor here, and come back to this newsletter throughout the week for more on the most important topic in recent book business history. On Saturday night in Maryland, at the storied independent comics convention Small Press Expo, Drawn & Quarterly, Pulping Collective, and more were honored at the 2024 Ignatz Awards ceremony. After dozens of authors complained to the Authors Guild about the poor business practices of TouchPoint Press, the Guild said that TouchPoint founder Sheri Williams will make things right with authors and close the press. Speaking of publishers with shady reputations, Writer Beware reports that the Australia-based press Shawline Publishing, facing author lawsuits, has rebranded as New Found Books. Forbes looks into Amazon's potential interest in buying TikTok from ByteDance against the backdrop of a pending nationwide ban of the app, which the New York Times reports is being addressed in federal appeals court today. The New Republic profiles author and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, prophet of the unstoppable rise of AI. Slate talks with Emily St. John Mandel about her prescient, now decade-old novel Station Eleven, and the New York Times Magazine profiles Rejection author and Crit workshop founder Tony Tulathimutte. And Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury has died at 76.