Festival News

The 33rd Lviv International Book Forum began on 10 September in Ukraine and will run until September 13. During the opening ceremony, British writer and actor Stephen Fry read a poem by the late Ukrainian writer and poet Victoria Amelina. The festival program includes 125 events and focuses on “The Responsibility of Literature.” Speakers include Charlotte Higgins, Julian Barnes, Marci Shore, Karl Schlögel, Daniel Kehlmann, Mathias Énard, Lea Ypi, Kateryna Kalytko, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Serhiy Zhadan, and Volodymyr Yermolenko.

The 11th International Literature Festival Odesa (ilo) is on from 17 to 22 September in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova held as an offshoot of the FILIT Festival in Iași under the umbrella of the CHILL Festival. Organised by the Berlin-based Bebelplatz, this is the fourth edition of ilo to take place in exile. A major focus of the programme is Ukrainian literature under the conditions of war. International guests include Andrei Kurkov, Sergey Loznitsa, Lyuba Yakimchuk, Radka Denemarková, José Luís Peixoto, Tadeusz Dąbrowski, Julija Cimafiejeva and Alhierd Bacharevič, as well as numerous other authors from Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Romania and other European countries.

Macondo Literary Festival will take place in Nairobi from September 18 to 20 with the theme “Ink, Sea, Silence”. Featured guests include Canadian novelist of Ghanaian heritage Esi Edugyan, Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, Kenyan entomologist, artist, and naturalist Dino Martins, Nigerian writer and photographer Emmanuel Iduma, award-winning Botswana writer Lauri Kubuitsile, Réunion Island author Gaëlle Bélem, Egyptian writer Yasmine El Rashidi, Indian poet and novelist Meena Kandasamy, Iranian-American author Said Khatibi, Brazilian novelist Itamar Vieira Junior, Nigerian author Tochi Eze, and Indian/UAE-based author Deepak Unnikrishnan.

Crime writing festival Bloody Scotland is happening in Stirling 18-20 September. This year’s guest curator is Denise Mina and the line-up includes Lee Child, Richard Osman, Lucy Foley, Ardal O’Hanlon (Irish comedian and actor), Jane Harper,Tana French, Chris Brookmyre, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Louise Welsh, Abir Mukherjee and Harriet Tyce.

Words Beyond Borders International Literature Festival  will take place in Rajastan from 25-27 October. Open to the public, it will feature writings on diplomacy, with speakers including Norwegian novelist Janne Teller, Irish fiction laureate Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, South African writer Mandla Langa, Australian novelist Felicity Volk, Egyptian novelist MM Tawfik, Dutch scholar and translator Marcel Kurpershoek, German writer Thomas Prinz, US poet Indran Amirthanayagam, and Indian writer Vikas Swarup.

Industry News

Salman Rushdie, a U.S. citizen for the past decade, is to receive a literary honour reserved for the elite of American writers – a National Book Award medal for lifetime achievement.

The International Publishers Association (IPA) has announced the shortlist for its inaugural Freedom of Expression Defenders Award. The prize recognizes initiatives that are working to defend freedom of expression and the freedom to publish and read books. This year’s shortlist includes the Media Coalition, an American group that protects the media’s First Amendment rights; the Penguin Random House Intellectual Freedom Taskforce; Georgia’s Sovlab, or the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, which investigates the country’s Soviet totalitarian past and counters Russian misinformation; Germany’s StraightForward Foundation, which supports persecuted Russian artists; and the Turkish Journalists Association, the country’s first professional press organization.

Audible says that it has “quadrupled” the number of books it has translated from European languages into English so far in 2026, according to Publishers Weekly. By the end of the year, European translations—notably those from Germany, France, Spain, and Italy—will make up nearly a quarter of the company’s original audiobooks.

The plaintiffs in the AI copyright infringement case against OpenAI and Microsoft have filed a motion for summary judgment, Publishers Lunch reports. The suit was first brought in 2023 and is being led by the Authors Guild. Named plaintiffs include John Grisham, George R. R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult. “OpenAI’s GPT models pose an existential threat to those who write and publish books,” the plaintiffs have said.

Nigel Newton, the cofounder of Bloomsbury Publishing and its longtime chief executive, is planning to step back from his role at the publisher, Reuters reports. Newton founded Bloomsbury with three other publishers in 1986 and established the publishing house with key choices including the acquisition of J.K. Rowling’s first “Harry Potter” book.

Over the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s, many publishers have focused on reissuing old titles as much, if not more, than putting out new ones, the editors of n+1 observe. Imprints like NYRB Classics and Hagfish have built their businesses on making the old new again, and readers have met them there.

Forest Xiao wins the 2026 Klaus Flugge Prize for ‘the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration’ with her book Seven Babies (Walker Books).

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