Books and literature

Staffers at Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama, San Francisco’s City Lights Books and The Nook in Cedar Falls, Iowa, are among 600 booksellers receiving $500 holiday bonuses from James Patterson.

Poet and former Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni died at 81. News4’s Jummy Olabanji spoke about memories from taking classes with Giovanni.

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a law to prohibit book bans in the state and enshrine protections against civil and criminal charges for librarians who comply with the law.

Kamala Harris and breakout star Chappell Roan were among the year’s most talked-about people. Their names were also among the most mispronounced.

Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” its word of the year.

David Tatel, a former federal judge, sat down with News4’s Jummy Olabanji to discuss the inspiration behind his new memoir: Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice.

Award-winning author TJ Klune (“The House in the Cerulean Sea”) on when he felt able to quit his day job and when he first felt like he’d made it as a writer.

Halloween may be over, but that doesn’t mean the frightful fun has to end. Northern Virginia has lots of spooky stories just dying to be told. In this 4 Your Reading, Jummy Olabanji speaks to paranormal researcher and author Alex Matsuo about her book, “Haunted Northern Virginia.” 

Author Kate Andersen Brower discusses her book titled: “The Hill: Inside the Secret World of the U.S. Capitol,” which teaches kids about the history and inner workings of Congress’ home base.

The Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang for what the Nobel committee called her “intense poetic prose.”

D.C. award-winning author Jason Reynolds is among 22 new recipients of a MacArthur “genius grant.” Here’s a look at his work and what’s next for him.

“The book uses the same techniques as the show to encourage speech and 20 milestones, all through a playful story!”

Banned Books Week started in 1982 and draws attention to censorship.

Two new reports provide a mixed but compelling outlook on the wave of book removals and challenges as the annual Banned Books Week begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide.

Joe Moore infiltrated the Florida KKK for the FBI back in 2007. While embedded, he helped thwart an assassination attempt on then-Sen. Barack Obama. He warns against extremism in 2024. News4’s Tony Perkins discusses the book and the history inside.

The 78-year-old country music legend has made it her mission to improve literacy through her Imagination Library book giveaway program. And in recent months, it has expanded statewide in places like Missouri and Kentucky.

Joe Moore, a former Army sniper, was embedded in the KKK reporting back to the FBI. His book, “White Robes and Broken Badges,” shares his experiences.

News4’s Jummy Olabanji visits an Alexandria, Virginia native who makes Paris her home and makes the city a home base for her business.

Edna O’Brien has died at age 93. She was one of the world’s most admired and controversial writers who scandalized her native Ireland with her debut novel, “The Country Girls,” which was censored and even burned.

Richard Behar’s new biography, “Madoff: The Final Word,” takes readers into the fraudster’s final years in prison, and all that came before.