Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Finalists for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction
The shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, which “celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in narrative non-fiction written by women,” has been revealed. Six titles remain in the running:
- The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet
- Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt
- Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The lives and loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell
- Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska
- Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
- Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran
The winner will be announced June 11 and will receive a prize of £30,000.
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Gloria Steinem Announces New Memoir Out This Fall
On the occasion of her 92nd birthday, feminist legend Gloria Steinem has announced a new memoir due out this fall. An Unexpected Life, which explores the experiences that inspired Steinem’s activism and transmits her message to the next generation, will hit shelves September 22 from Random House. The core of that message? As she told Vanity Fair in an exclusive interview, “We need to remember that hope is a form of planning. If you’re not hopeful, you’ve given up.”
The Season’s Buzziest Memoir Snags an Adaptation Deal
This is one of those announcements that makes so much sense, I’m almost embarrassed that I didn’t anticipate it. Netflix is producing an adaptation Belle Burden’s buzzy divorce memoir Strangers with Gwyneth Paltrow set to star and executive produce. If you’ve somehow avoided the Strangers hubbub to date, Vogue‘s Emma Specter sums it up: “The role makes total sense for Paltrow for several reasons. Not only are she and Burden both very blonde and quite fancy, but the Goop founder and on-again-off-again actor has played a major role in modern divorce discourse.”
Everyone is Freaking Out About AI in Books
When news broke last week that Hachette had canceled publication of a buzzy thriller due to allegations that large portions of it were AI-generated, our own Sharifah Williams described it as “a nightmare publishing story for our times.”
Indeed, the incident has set the literary internet aflame, as authors, readers, and publishing professionals weigh in on how this happened and what it means. Here’s a sampling of the responses to catch you up
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