News of note for readers: April 16, 2026

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

• Congratulations to the ten winners of the 2026 Whiting Award for emerging writers; each honoree receives $50,000 to help them launch their career (NPR).

• Writers Tayari Jones, Yiyun Li, and Freida McFadden have made TIME's annual 100 most influential people list (TIME).

• Oprah Winfrey has chosen Go Gentle — Maria Semple's first novel in ten years — for her April book club (Oprah Daily).

• Android users in the US and UK can order physical books through Spotify's partnership with Bookshop.org right now; iOS users in those countries will receive that feature next week (Book Riot).

• Chicago Public Library and Chicago Public Schools are expanding the partnership in which district school ID cards double as library cards for students (Block Club Chicago).

• Barbara Gordon, author of the groundbreaking addiction memoir I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, died April 7 at age ninety (The New York Times).

• Kelly Jensen has been enjoying the audio version of Judy Blume by Mark Oppenheimer, and there are seven interesting facts from this mysteriously controversial biography that she wanted to highlight (Book Riot).

• See the cover for Blow Yourself Up by Ankur Thakkar and learn about the design process for it (Electric Literature).