Bookstores in Moscow are removing copies of Art Spiegelman’s Maus from the shelves, because the graphic novel has a swastika on the cover. The author told The Guardian, “I don’t think Maus was the intended target for this, obviously. . . But I think [the law banning Nazi propaganda] had an intentional effect of squelching freedom of expression in Russia. The whole goal seems to make anybody in the expression business skittish.”

President Obama criticized the media’s coverage of the unrest in Baltimore yesterday, saying that the coverage of isolated acts of violence obscures the larger issues,

The Wire’s David Simon spoke up on his website about events in Baltimore, where the National Guard was called out and a curfew declared after anger surged in response to yet another death in police custody (Freddie Gray’s funeral took place yesterday). Ta-Nehisi Coates saw the situation very differently: “When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.”

Six writers—Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje, Teju

Tonight, St. Joseph’s College is hosting a birthday tribute to the late, great novelist Gilbert Sorrentino. Organized by Doubleday editor (and Bookforum contributor) Gerald Howard and Greenlight Bookstore, the event will feature readings and discussions of his work by a stellar group of admirers, including Don DeLillo, Sam Lipsyte, Joshua Cohen, Christopher Sorrentino, Mark Chiusano, and James Wolcott.

Alexis Madrigal, a former reporter at The Atlantic and the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, has been named Fusion’s new editor in chief. Hillary Frey,

Without direct reference to the New Republic or its attack on him, Cornel West has responded on Facebook, noting the many reasons aside from sour grapes that one might have for criticising an American president (see today’s headlines for one example), and writing that “character assassination is the refuge of those who hide and conceal these issues in order to rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo.”

In his review of the latest Knausgaard installment, which will run in this Sunday’s New York Times, Jeffrey Eugenides brings some special expertise to bear, not just as a novelist,

BuzzFeed News has added two new reporters: the Financial Times’ Borzou Daragahi (as a Middle East correspondent) and the Washington Post’s Anup Kaphle (covering world news). Additionally, their current Middle East correspondent, Sheera Frenkel, will begin covering cybersecurity. Meanwhile, as Gawker grilled Buzzfeed’s editor-in-chief and its CEO on the “church and state” deletion of posts about their advertisers, they seemed keen to measure up as a new paper of record. Wouldn’t the New York Times think twice about reporting on its own ads, Jonah Peretti wondered? And Ben Smith called it “both

Turns out there was backstage drama at the Pulitzers this year. The WSJ reports that the board expressed “some worry” about the three fiction finalists being considered, and requested an extra submission from the jury to avoid a flashback to 2012, when nobody won.

At Vulture, Stephen Elliott notes that he is grateful director Pamela Romanowsky adapted his memoir, The Adderall Diaries, for the screen. But the author’s gratitude became mixed with disappointment when he went to see the film, which stars James Franco. “What I saw was a very different Stephen Elliott than the person I believe myself

The Washington Post‘s Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian, who’s been in prison in Iran since July, is now facing formal charges, including espionage.

Pulitzers were just announced—winners include Elizabeth Kolbert for The Sixth Extinction and Anthony Doerr for All the Light We Cannot See.

Michael Eric Dyson has attempted a demolition job on Cornel West in the New Republic, presenting West’s criticisms of the Obama presidency as the whining of a “spurned” and “embittered” political lover who “should have understood that Obama had had similar trysts with many others.” West’s intellectual

The Pulitzer Prizes awards will be announced today, starting at 3pm. You can watch the announcements live Meanwhile, Buzzfeed gives an exclusive sneak peak of the cover of Salman Rushdie’s forthcoming novel, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, which will be published by Random House in September.

The Los Angeles Times has named the winners of its annual book prizes.

Jennifer Weiner, the bestselling author who is also known for her feuds with Jonathan Franzen, has announced the publication of her new novel, Who Do You Love, which will go on sale August 11.

Editorial staffers at Gawker Media are trying to unionize: “The online media industry makes real money. It's now possible to find a career in this industry, rather than just a fleeting job. An organized work force is part of growing up." Asked for a response by Capital, Gawker owner and CEO Nick Denton was "intensely relaxed".

Simon & Schuster has signed a deal with the digital-media streaming company Playster, which offers subscribers access to books, games, movies and music. The agreement will give Playster unlimited access to some of the publisher’s backlist, including The Great Gatsby and

The EU accuses Google of breaking antitrust laws by abusing its enviable position atop the internet. But some say that by vanquishing one monster, you may help create more.

Is sweetness and light emerging as some sort of publishing micro-trend? First David Brooks lets us all in on the secret that "the résumé virtues" are less important than "the eulogy virtues", like bravery, kindness, and so on (better to look good at your own funeral than at work); and now the Bookseller reports that the Dalai Lama is collaborating with Desmond Tutu on The Book of Joy: Finding Enduring Happiness in an

HarperCollins has agreed to terms with Amazon on a new e-book deal, dispelling a rumor that the publisher was refusing to sign the contract. Like other major publishers, HarperCollins will set their own e-book prices, with Amazon appending a passive-aggressive note to the listing.

Rights to Harper Lee’s new book, Go Set a Watchman, have been sold in twenty-five countries so far, but foreign publishers must contend with strict security to get a look at the book. Lee’s agent, Andrew Nurnberg, is asking these publishers to travel to his London office and read the manuscript, saying, "We don't

At the New Yorker's Page Turner blog, Salman Rushdie says goodbye to Günter Grass, who died yesterday. In 1982, after making his "genuflections" before the great man in a village near Hamburg, Rushdie recalls getting drunk on schnapps with Grass and then singing his praises to the German press—"they would have preferred something cattier, but I had nothing catty to say," Rushdie reports. And he still doesn't: regardless of Grass's war record, Rushdie defends him as the author of "the greatest anti-Nazi masterpieces ever written, containing passages about Germans’ chosen blindness towards the