Former
New York political columnist Ross Barkan has
issued an apology and will take time away to “self-reflect” after the magazine cut ties with him over plagiarism concerns, leading Random House to halt sales of his forthcoming book on the rise of Zohran Mamdani. Popular true crime and horror podcast
Last Podcast on the Left is launching
a fiction imprint at Bindery Books next fall. And a new multi-year publishing program at McSweeney’s will revive the work of the
late experimental fiction writer Stephen Dixon. In other news, Warner Bros. is reportedly in negotiations for
film rights to Theo of Golden, with Tom Hanks eyed to star, per
Deadline. Utah has
banned Sapphire’s Push from public school libraries statewide, its first such removal of the new academic year and 37th overall, per the
Salt Lake Tribune. Meanwhile, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
threatened to punish public schools that don’t purge hundreds of “filthy” books from shelves, including sex-ed titles, the
San Antonio Current reports. Author Mesha Maren reflects on
how independent presses are embracing reissues as an antidote to corporate publishing, for the
Los Angeles Review of Books.
Vanity Fair talks with Zoe Kazan about her
Netflix series adaptation of East of Eden. Faber & Faber’s
Call Me By Your Name graphic novel debuts on the
Independent Publishers Caucus’s bestseller list. And former HarperCollins UK chief executive
Eddie Bell has died at 77.