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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
The Launch of a $50 Million Literary Arts Fund
Some good news for your Wednesday! Publishers Weekly reports that the Literary Arts Fund has launched to “award at least $50 million to the nonprofit literary sector over the next five years.” The fund is supported by seven charitable foundations, including the Mellon Foundation, and will focus on organizations and publishers that, for instance, champion historically underrepresented authors. The news comes as the current administration slashes federal arts funding with an eye toward groups that don’t espouse their views or that engage with DEI seemingly on just about any level. Poet and President of the Mellon Foundation Elizabeth Alexander said, “American philanthropy can play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists,” and it certainly appears that outside groups will need to step in as federal funding checks out.
Michelle Obama Has a New Book Out Next Month
But don’t expect another Becoming or The Light We Carry. Obama’s newest, The Look, is a coffee table book about my forever First Lady’s style and is fittingly cowritten with her stylist Meredith Koop. I’ve been watching and loving Obama’s style evolution of late: the nails, the hair, the lewks. She’s always done her own thing, but I see her stepping deeper down her visionary path as she moves farther away from the White House (please stop asking this woman to run for president; she’s forging her own way). Read all about the new book, which does touch on how she dressed while serving as acting First Lady, and an interview with Michelle Obama about self-confidence, wearing the uniform, being in the public eye, and more at People.
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Horror Writers on the Scariest Stories
For today’s Halloween treat, I bring you a ghoulish article from The Guardian asking horror writers to share the scariest stories they’ve read. Get recommendations from Mariana Enríquez (Somebody is Walking On Your Grave), Stephen Graham Jones (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter), Alma Katsu (Fiend), and more. One of my creepiest reads is included on this list. I will never enter forbidding houses near Dover thanks to White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.
Esquire Names Its Best Books of 2025
And it’s a decent one! It includes some of my anticipated reads from earlier in the year that, I feel, got buried in the mix as 2025 progressed. The list gathers a variety of styles, categories, and genres. But, am I missing something or are there no books by Black writers listed? This is my only gripe. Read more about Esquire‘s best books here.
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