News of note for readers: October 3, 2023

Catch up quick with the bookish news of the past few days ... or take a deeper dive into each story. Your choice!

BANS & CHALLENGES

• Two more large library systems have joined the Books Unbanned initiative, in which they offer free library cards to young people beyond their borders; San Diego Public Library's card is available to any American between twelve and twenty-six, and LA County Library's card is open to Californians ages thirteen to eighteen (Book Riot).

• Meanwhile, the New York Public Library has launched a Teen Banned Book Club, in which anyone over thirteen, anywhere in the US, can download the featured book for free; new picks will be released every two months (Book Riot).

AWARDS

• Catharina Coenen has won the 2023 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing for her collection of essays, Unexploded Ordnance; the award and its $10,000 purse alternate between fiction and nonfiction but is always given to a first-time, first-generation immigrant author (Literary Hub).

• Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo have won the 2023 Caine Prize for African Writing for the novelette A Soul of Small Places; it's the first win for a pair since 2000 and the first-ever win for Senegalese writers (The Guardian).

• The shortlist for the 2023 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry was revealed today; it reflects, in the judges' words, the "disruption" of the present moment (The Guardian)