Around the World

The Hay Festival has positioned itself as a global leader in promoting freedom of expression, staging editions in Ukraine, Panama, and, later this month, Dallas, in an effort to target hotspots of political polarization. Candlewick Press has named Emma Ledbetter, formerly editorial director at Abrams Books for Young Readers, as its first editorial director of picture books. Sometimes, determination and craft, rather than inspiration, make for the strongest books, children’s author Aimee Lucido argues. With rightsholders awaiting final approval in their $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic, the New York Times talks with Andrea Bartz, one of the case’s named plaintiffs, about how she successfully faced down a tech giant. Also for the Times, Elisa Gabbert gives a retrospective on the Best American Poetry series, which editor David Lehman is retiring this year. A school district in central Texas has come under fire for purging more than 40 books from its curriculum, a decision the district says was based on a new state law, reports Spectrum 1. In Alta, Tom Zito argues for the literary value of Ross Macdonald’s novels, whose hard-boiled plotlines belie a “genuine literature of place.” Stephanie Kitchen looks at how Kenyan publishers have asserted autonomy in a post-colonial landscape. CBS chats with Sarah Jessica Parker about her decision to turn from TV to book publishing with her SJP imprint and book club. The Cut asks authors, editors, and other creatives how they find the time to read books. And Print considers the legacy of artist William Morris in book design.