News of note for readers: June 4, 2025

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

• Bernardine Evaristo has received the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, a £100,000 (almost $135,800) honor that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction (The Guardian).

• Business Insider has joined the ranks of publications that have included books hallucinated by artificial intelligence on a must-read list, but this one was only shared with staffers (Semafor).

• Salman Rushdie thinks that AI won't truly pose a threat to authors until the tool is able to make people laugh (The Guardian).

• Director James Cameron's company has acquired rights to the fantasy novel The Devils by Joe Abercrombie; Cameron currently is set to at least co-write the screen adaptation (IndieWire).

• A video game called Tiny Bookshop, in which players "run a charming mobile bookshop in a quiet seaside town," officially arrives August 7 (YouTube).

• Read an excerpt from Lydi Conklin's debut novel, Songs of No Provenance (Literary Hub).