Great news for everyone who loves books about language: Kristel Doreleijers' "Superbrabants" has won the Taalboekenprijs 2026. This makes it the best popular book about the (Dutch) language of the year.
The winner was announced on Saturday morning on the radio program "De Taalstaat." The jury, consisting of Ton den Boon, Peter Debrabandere, Mathilde Jansen, Vibeke Roeper, and Geertje Slangen, described the book as "amazingly readable" and "a lot of fun to read."
What I find most appealing about the jury's assessment is that it's a book that brings together old and new perspectives on dialects. Dialects are often seen as something from the past, so a popular book that shows how these old and new perspectives on regional languages coexist is exactly the kind of language book I enjoy reading.
Doreleijers will receive €3000 and a certificate.
You can listen to the announcement here:
https://www.nporadio1.nl/fragmenten/de-taalstaat/01a12531-1368-7077-9…
Source: Tzum
Writing a novel is a dream many of us share, but going from an idea to a coherent, living story is a real challenge. For a long time I circled around my notebooks without daring to start, until I understood that it takes as much method as creativity. It all begins with an idea that obsesses you — the one you just can't forget is probably the right one.
Next, you need a solid plot. The three-act structure helped me enormously: the setup, the confrontation where obstacles pile up, and then the resolution. Every scene needs a reason to exist. But what readers remember most are your characters, so give them desires, fears and an arc. A good character isn't perfect; they're human.
I also learned to find my pace: a realistic goal, a few hundred words a day, and a routine. What matters isn't writing fast, but writing often. Once the first draft is done, you let it rest, rewrite it, and then have it read by beta readers who are kind but honest.
Today, publishing is more accessible than ever: traditional publishing or self-publishing, print, ebook or audiobook. But the most important thing is to start. Inspiration comes from writing, not from waiting.
Source: Écrire un roman
The Frankfurt Book Fair, billed as the world's largest book fair, officially opened on Wednesday, 7 October 2026 in Germany. According to a report by ANTARA, the event brings together more than 4,000 publishers from over 100 countries and regions. The fair runs until Sunday, 11 October at Messe Frankfurt and is expected to attract more than 230,000 visitors. The fair was first held in 1949.
According to the organizers, this year's program focuses on several issues: international crises and conflicts, the application and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), copyright trade, children's and young adult literature, and audiobooks. There are seminars, forums, performances, book signings and readings, so that publishers, writers and media can exchange ideas and readers can meet authors in person.
The report gives special attention to the 336-square-meter joint pavilion with China, which showcases more than 3,000 titles and over 4,600 selected books. The pavilion combines a book exhibition, copyright negotiations, cultural exchange and interactive experiences. Chinese publishing and cultural institutions will hold 55 events during the fair, ranging from thematic seminars and author dialogues to copyright cooperation signings and new book launches.
As a reader who follows the world of writing, I am interested in two things. First, how AI will be discussed among publishers and authors at a fair whose core business is buying and selling copyrights. Second, the spotlight on children's literature and audiobooks, which shows that the ways people enjoy stories keep evolving. I hope Indonesia will also become more active in introducing its writers at events like this.
Source: ANTARA News
An Observador report has shaken the French literary world, and it deserves close attention. On a Friday in September, the Académie Goncourt announced that the novel by the Haitian-Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien would be withdrawn from the list of candidates for France's most important literary prize. The academy said it was protecting the integrity of the prize and that it opposes the writing of texts with the help of artificial intelligence. It will only comment again on 6 October, when the finalists are announced.
The book is «C'était ça ou mourir», published in March by Éditions du Boréal in Quebec and in August by Éditions Grasset in France. The suspicions emerged on 21 September, the same day Orélien received the Prix Fnac for best novel. An anonymous X account called “Balance ton Claude” claimed the text was almost entirely generated by AI and that several passages scored “100% AI” on the Pangram detector. Observador clarifies that the account is in fact a collective that includes the essayist and Le Figaro columnist Samuel Fitoussi.
Grasset, part of the Vivendi group, dismissed the allegations as fake news and argued that AI detectors are themselves fallible systems. The author categorically denies the claims: he says the repetitions point to Haitian and Caribbean literary tradition and to his own poetics, that he has always enjoyed writing, and that he is assembling a dossier with his editors to prove authorship. He has also said he has suffered racist attacks since moving to France.
Since 1903 the Goncourt has been awarded by the “Les Dix”, ten writers who choose the best novel of the year in French. The cash prize is symbolic, but it can multiply sales and translations.
I have no way of knowing who is right, and the detection tools are indeed debatable. But the case shows how the question “who wrote this?” has come to weigh on literary prizes.
Source: Observador
The Swedish Academy has announced that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Canadian poet Anne Carson, 76. According to VnExpress, the prize is worth 12 million kronor (about 1.2 million US dollars). She is the 19th woman to win the prize in 125 years, and the second Canadian woman after Alice Munro.
The Academy described her work as bold and inventive, a playful dialogue with the classical tradition that creates new forms for contemporary literature. Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee, said her work sits at the crossroads between a philologist's love of language and a poet's desire to find new meaning.
Born in Toronto in 1950, she has studied ancient Greek since high school and holds a doctorate in classical literature. The works mentioned include Eros the Bittersweet (1986), the verse novel Autobiography of Red (1998), which recreates Geryon, the monster from Greek myth, the translation If Not, Winter of fragments of Sappho (2002), Nox (2010), a memorial to her brother, and Float (2016), a set of 22 small volumes that can be read in any order.
Another VnExpress article, titled "Writing Against Boredom," describes her as a writer who breaks conventional literary forms, mixing the classical with the modern, reason with emotion, and the academic with the accessible. She draws on Homer, Sappho, Euripides, Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust, but retells old stories in ways that reverse familiar readings.
I have not read much of her work, so the detail that intrigues me most is Float, the book that lets readers choose their own reading order. If you want to start with Carson, this seems like an interesting gateway.
Source: VnExpress
Good news for anyone interested in the history of books: the private collection of 525 works belonging to Prof. Dr. İsmail Erünsal is now available digitally. According to TRT Haber, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced it.
Erünsal donated the collection to the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library on August 6. Ersoy describes him as a well-known figure in the study of Ottoman book and library history, and says the donation has turned a centuries-old scholarly and literary heritage into a treasure everyone can benefit from. Erünsal, who built the collection over the years with his own resources, sees the works as a national value entrusted to the public good, and says he gave them so they would be better protected and easier for researchers to reach.
What stands out is the speed. In about two months, conservation, restoration, digitization and cataloguing were completed and the collection was opened to researchers. It can be accessed at www.yek.gov.tr.
The report highlights some of the contents. In literature, there is a divan (poetry collection) that Şeyh Galib wrote by hand at 18 or 19; it is one of 15 author manuscripts in the collection. The oldest dated copy is the Dîvân-ı Emir Şâhî from 1523. There is also a previously unknown divan by Cezerî Kasım Paşa, a poet of the age of Bayezid II, along with rare texts by Keşfî and Urfalı Mustafa Hattî. In economics and diplomacy, there is a 288-page Narh Defteri (price register), an important source for Ottoman price history, and the embassy account (Sefaretname) of Seyfullah Ağa. The Mirâtü'l-Işk is cited as an important source for the history of 16th-century Melamism.
News like this heartens me: rare manuscripts that sat on one person's shelves for years now appear on everyone's screen with a single click.
Source: TRT Haber
If you dream of publishing a book, you should read SVT's news from last Friday. The Swedish Writers' Union (Sveriges Författarförbund) has once again warned authors against signing contracts with Bookea Group, the parent company of the hybrid publisher Lava förlag. The warning has been sent to members.
The reason is that Bookea has been in corporate restructuring (företagsrekonstruktion) since this summer, which, according to the union, increases the financial risk for authors and translators. The union also calls the hybrid model a problematic middleman between authors and publishers. In a hybrid model, the author co-finances the publication. The union argues that the author then takes on a considerable share of the financial risk, while potentially being locked into rights and having limited control over the work.
SVT presents some figures. Lava calls itself the largest book publisher in the Nordics. It published 486 titles in 2023, with a profit of 12.3 million kronor. The following year it made a loss of 9.2 million kronor. In its application to the Stockholm District Court, Bookea wrote that it could not pay wages and supplier debts. In autumn 2024 the union had already warned about unfair contracts and unreasonable confidentiality clauses, but withdrew that warning after dialogue with Lava.
Anna Bergius, who succeeded founder Peter Norrman in 2025, stepped down as CEO in August. Acting CEO Ann-Charlotte Baudin tells SVT that the company needs to improve in some areas and that the work is ongoing. She defends the hybrid model, saying it fills an important function in an industry where it is hard to get in.
I think this is a useful reminder: before paying to be published, read the contract carefully, compare your options, and preferably ask the Writers' Union.
Source: SVT Nyheter
Travelogue of Taiwan won the International Booker Prize in May, but recently there have been reports that its English translation was infringed. According to a Central News Agency report, the English translator Jin Ling issued a statement on October 6 saying that her English-language rights had been infringed by a European publisher and that she had taken legal action.
The agency that handles the book's international rights, Kwang Lei International Rights Agency, also issued a statement on the evening of October 7. Kwang Lei explained that it represents the rights of Spring Hill Publishing and helps license foreign publishers to translate and publish the book in their local languages. In June this year, the European publisher submitted a cover for review, and at that point Kwang Lei confirmed that the publisher was using Jin Ling's English translation without her permission. Kwang Lei immediately asked for publication to be suspended and made clear that it could not be published without authorization, but after several rounds of communication the publisher decided to publish anyway without permission.
Kwang Lei stressed that it had never represented Jin Ling's English translation, and that the original license did not include rights related to the English edition. It said it regrets not having checked further at the time whether the publisher had secured English translation rights, and that it will review its process, check the source and authorization of translations more strictly, and tighten its contract and licensing procedures. Kwang Lei has now asked the publisher to stop publishing, supports Spring Hill Publishing's position that the contract should be terminated, and has handed the matter to lawyers. Because the case has entered legal proceedings, it says it cannot comment on more details for now, and the report does not name the publisher.
What this reminds me of is that as a book wins prizes and travels the world, every link in the chain of translation, licensing and rights needs to be checked carefully. The translator's labor should also be clearly seen, and I hope the way this is handled gives everyone involved a reasonable account.
Source: Central News Agency
The Beirut Arab International Book Fair is being held for its 67th edition this year, from October 9 to 18, 2026. I read about it on Al Jazeera Net and wanted to summarize it for anyone who cares about books and publishing. The fair was first held in 1956.
This year 163 publishers are taking part, with around 100 seminars (the event's title says more than 90) featuring some 250 speakers on history, geography, politics, economics, literature, poetry, theater, artificial intelligence and university education.
What stands out to me is the context. The fair takes place after the destruction left in southern Lebanon by the Israeli war, an economic crisis that has lasted since the autumn of 2019, and the fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran. Salwa Al-Senioura Baassiri, head of the Arab Cultural Club that organizes the fair, said that holding it under these conditions is a challenge to the way things are, that culture is essential in times of crisis, and that the region needs communication rather than fighting.
Some seminars focus on the heritage that southern Lebanon has been losing, including archaeological and historic sites. Lebanon's culture minister Ghassan Salameh said that three of the five castles on UNESCO's list of endangered heritage sites have fallen under Israeli occupation, and the fourth has been damaged. The fair also has a section on bookmaking, from the history of printing, color separation and binding to typeface and cover design, and seven universities are showing book covers designed by their students.
The fair was not held in 2019, 2020 or 2021 for various reasons, including protests, the Beirut port explosion and renovation work, and it resumed in March 2022. To me, its continuation carries a simple message: even in the hardest times, the book remains a place where people can meet.
Source: Al Jazeera Net
Noritake Suzuki's picture book Kireteru (It's Cut Open) has been chosen as the grand prize winner of the 36th Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Awards. I read about it in a Real Sound Book article, and it made me happy enough to want to share it.
What makes this award distinctive is that it is decided by votes from readers who visit the Kenbuchi Picture Book Village in Hokkaido, rather than by a panel of experts. The article describes it as a warm award close to everyday life. This year the winner was chosen from 269 entries.
Kireteru (Poplar Publishing, October 2025) is the second book in the ?! picture book series. A delicious-looking roll cake seems to be cut, yet unexpected things keep happening, which the article describes as a humorous picture book that is fun for children and adults alike. The first book, Tareteru (It's Dripping), has been reprinted several times, and the series has sold more than 160,000 copies in total.
Suzuki was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, in 1975. After working as a graphic designer, he became a picture book author. He has won the 17th Japan Picture Book Award Reader's Prize for Boku no Toire (My Toilet), the 62nd Shogakukan Children's Publishing Culture Award for Shigotoba Tokyo Skytree (Workplace: Tokyo Skytree), first place at the 15th MOE Picture Book Shop Awards 2022 for Ookii Pinch Zukan (Big Trouble Picture Dictionary), and first place at the 17th MOE Picture Book Shop Awards 2024 for Ookii Pinch Zukan 2.
What I like most is that this award was decided by readers' votes. Books that people of all ages, from small children to adults, pick up and simply find fun have been recognized, so if this one catches your eye, why not look for it at a bookstore or library?
Source: Real Sound Book
For Banned Books Week, the American Library Association published a list of the 150 most challenged books documented between 1990 and 2025, and Literary Hub's Brittany Allen went through it by category. I found her breakdown more revealing than the headline numbers.
Some context first: the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 4,235 challenged titles last year, the second-highest total on record. Of the 150 on the list, adult classics account for 20, including Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, alongside Salinger, Twain, Wright, Morrison and Huxley. Allen was surprised to see newer books like Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants there too.
The biggest group by far is young adult fiction, with 81 titles. Allen notes that books touching on gender and sexual content were challenged more often than those about gun violence, racial violence, mental illness, drugs or the immigrant experience. Ellen Hopkins has 14 books on the list and Lauren Myracle has six. There are 11 children's and middle-grade titles, mostly about gender identity or queer families, such as Julián Is a Mermaid and And Tango Makes Three, plus eight graphic novels, eight memoirs, and 10 romantasy books, nine of them by Sarah J. Maas.
A few oddities show up as well: five puberty guides, one anti-racist handbook, and a hard-to-categorize group that includes two Rupi Kaur collections and a ghost-story compilation, which Allen suggests may be a leftover of the Satanic Panic.
Her conclusion is that book banners show little logic in their choices, and she encourages readers to pick up the titles, which are listed at ala150.org. That strikes me as a good, practical way to mark the week: read one.
Source: Literary Hub
I'd been following the rumors about the rights and the translation for several years, and here it is: Azbuka is publishing Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day" in a translation by Maxim Nemtsov. It's the author's longest novel — 1,232 pages — first published in English in 2006.
Over at Gorky, Stanislav Raspechenko lays out in detail what to expect. The story spans roughly 1893 to the 1920s: from the Chicago World's Fair to the First World War. Around two hundred characters, family lines of miners and inventors, an occult detective story, and, on their own, the Chums of Chance aboard the airship Inconvenience, who give the book an almost adventure-novel air.
What I especially love is how the text brings together the Second Industrial Revolution, anarchism, Tesla and Edison's "war of the currents," the Michelson–Morley experiment, and even the Tunguska event. And yet, compared to "Gravity's Rainbow," it seems easier to read — and that, the reviewer writes, is exactly the trap: the endings don't fit together into a neat puzzle.
If you've been missing "that" ambitious Pynchon, and not just adaptations like "One Battle After Another," autumn 2026 is a good moment to pick up a thick volume and take your time.
Source: Gorky
