Win-Win

We have our winners! Watchung Booksellers and Penguin Random House’s Nic Dufort are PW’s 2026 Bookstore and Sales Rep of the Year, respectively. National Book Foundation executive director Ruth Dickey unveiled a new five-year plan for the organization focused on doubling down the NBF’s promotion of literacy through in-person events and outreach. LGBTQ+ bookshops are seeing something of a renaissance in urban centers across the country as store owners identify a growing need for queer-centered third spaces. In other news, NPR received $113 million in charitable gifts from Connie Ballmer, wife of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, marking one of the largest donations in its history. NPR’s 1a looks at publishing’s looming AI-authorship crisis, while Slate questions whether it’s wise to rely on AI-detection software to manage it. Vogue tracks the rise of “bookish” influencers, and lands a rare interview with Nobel laureate Han Kang. The New York Review of Books takes a closer look at the fiction reprint program of far-right publisher Passage Press, while the Baffler examines a spate of new novels starring influencers. And for Harper’s, Dan Piepenbring digs into Laura B. McGrath’s new study of literary agents’ role in shaping American fiction.