Thirteen popular books have been banned from all public schools in Utah in the first wave of bans expected under a new law that prohibits books when at least three of the state’s 41 school district boards claim they contain pornographic or indecent material.

Lorrie Moore has won the prize for fiction and Judy Blume received a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle.

One of the world’s largest and most influential publishers, Simon & Schuster is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein and the Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards.

Jonathan Glazer’s chilling Auschwitz-set drama, “The Zone of Interest,” has been named best movie of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Judy Blume, James Patterson and Michael Connelly are among 24 prominent writers who have raised more than $3 million to help PEN America open a center in Miami and expand it efforts to counter Florida’s surge in book bannings in recent years.

This week’s new entertainment releases include a new album from Lucinda Williams, the kickoff of the 20th season of the reality dating show “The Bachelorette” starring a 27-year-old therapist from Georgia who was featured on the last season of “The Bachelor,” and Idris Elba is stuck on the worst flight ever in the new series “Hijack” for Apple TV+.

It’s still Mario Time at the box office.

In a lifetime of amazing plot twists, Judy Blume is enjoying another at age 85.

A recent Wyoming school board meeting was yet again packed with opponents of mask mandates when things took an abrupt turn and a parent started reading out sexually explicit passages from a book available in school libraries.

This undated image released by Joseph Jones shows author Eric Jerome Dickey in Antigua. Dickey, the bestselling novelist who blended crime, romance and eroticism in "Sister, Sister," "Waking With Enemies" and dozens of other stories about contemporary Black life, has died at age 59. (Joseph Jones via AP)NEW YORK – Eric Jerome Dickey, the bestselling novelist who blended crime, romance and eroticism in “Sister, Sister,” “Waking With Enemies” and dozens of other stories about contemporary Black life, has died at age 59. Dickey's publicist at Penguin Random House, Emily Canders, told The Associated Press that the author died of cancer Sunday in Los Angeles. “I am truly saddened to hear about the passing of Eric Jerome Dickey,” author Roxane Gay tweeted Tuesday.

Natalie Portman participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the film "Lucy in the Sky" in New York on Oct. 2, 2019, left, and the cover of "Natalie Portman's Fables," a book of popular children's fables with a friendlier, more gender inclusive twist. (AP Photo, left, Feiwel & Friends via AP)NEW YORK – Natalie Portman is putting her body through the paces to get into fighting shape for her next Marvel movie. Motherhood is what makes her latest project, “Natalie Portman’s Fables,” so close to her heart. “Children’s books have this very special place in our lives because we read them over and over and over again like no other books," the 39-year-old actress said. For her next writing project, Portman is hoping to tackle something in her son's comfort zone, perhaps a graphic novel.