- N.K. Jemisin argues that “we need speculative fiction now more than ever.” (Esquire)
- Grace Lapointe examines Tiktok’s “books that made me forget I was reading” phenomenon. (Book Riot)
- If anyone has ever argued with you that “boop” is not a word or if you’ve ever gotten into a debate about what “the ick” means, Ella Creamer has good news for you about some words that have been inducted into the Cambridge dictionary. (The Guardian)
- Deepa Bhasthi reflects on her work translating Kannada. (The Paris Review)
- Anna Dumitru presents a photo essay of “micro-libraries” from around the world. (ArchDaily)
- Lisa Kusel talks about how she created a book-within-a-book for her latest thriller. (CrimeReads)
- Paul Cooper shares what we can learn about the Sumerians from examining their literature. (LitHub)
- Cooper’s Fall of Civilizations podcast is one of my favorites. The deeply researched and brilliantly written episodes are always worth waiting for.
- Joanna Kakissis, Polina Lytvynova, and Laurel Chor discuss the endurance of the Ukrainian literary and publishing scene. (NPR)
- Mike Hixenbaugh, Tyler Kingkade, Scott Friedman, and Eva Parks dive into a two-year-long self-assigned “investigation” by Scott London, who went hunting in school libraries for “harmful materials” in Texas. (NBC)
- David Harris reports on one of the wildest stories I’ve heard in years of following censorship news: a Florida judge has ordered that a seven-year-old testify in a lawsuit against the Escambia County School Board after the board removed library books. (Law & Crime)
- …and censorship news from the good people of Book Riot.
