Links of Interest: March 4, 2026

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Culture & Politics

  • How did DOGE decide what NEH grants to cut? Last year, the Authors Guild filed a lawsuit against the USx government for terminating already-approved grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities. During discovery, it was revealed that DOGE staffers used AI to determine which projects were related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Read Mike Masnick at Techdirt.
  • A literary novelist decides it’s better to have a day job to pay the bills. TL;DR: “And so after a year of experimenting with ‘professional’ writing, I’m back to working a day job (part-time, contract based). Not because the experiments failed but because they taught me what I needed to know for now. I finished the first draft of my next novel before starting work, again using the career break as a much-needed burst of momentum. And then I was lucky enough to find a part-time job, prioritizing free time over maximizing income so I can have the space to work on the writing I enjoy, without the pressure to monetize it.” Read Emily J. Smith at Unresolving.
  • The Lee & Low diversity survey has been postponed. The survey launched in 2015 and has been one of the very few diversity surveys in the publishing industry. Jason Low, publisher and co-owner of Lee & Low Books, says the publisher will focus more on fighting book bans, plus there’s now increasing hostility toward efforts aimed at equity and inclusion. Read at Publishers Weekly.
  • Bookmarked helps Texas public schools manage library collections to comply with state law. The software startup paid at least $80,000 in lobbying and hired a lobbying firm to support SB 13, which requires districts to pull books featuring content deemed by local school boards to be sexually explicit. Read Max Ufberg at Fast Company.

Trends

  • What happens when fanfiction becomes less of a subculture and increasingly drives dominant culture? Agent Alyssa Morris looks at the challenges of the fanfiction community. Read at Romancing the Phone.
  • Trends buzzing ahead of London Book Fair: There’s a significant push into the Regency romantasy subgenre, plus stories that blend cozy elements with horror. Read Tom Tivnan at The Bookseller (sub may be required).
  • Should podcasts be blamed for declining nonfiction sales? I agree with publisher Kenneth Whyte—looking at the problem in this way is simplistic and misguided. Read at SHuSH.

AI

  • The Supreme Court refuses to hear a case on AI and copyright. Computer scientist Stephen Thaler sought to copyright a piece of art he created in 2018 with AI. The Copyright Office declined to award copyright in 2022 because AI-created work is not protected. A lower court ruled that copyright only applies to human-created art, and that ruling now stands. Read Blake Brittain at Reuters. (Still, the status of copyright and AI-assisted work is complicated. Learn more.)
  • The Authors Guild has expanded its “human certification” program for books. The only problem—and it’s a big problem,as quite a few people have pointed out—is that it’s done on the honor system. I’m sorry to say that certification without some kind of independent verification is not meaningful. Of course one might argue there is no way to know with 100 percent certainty whether AI has been used in a work, so this has to be on the honor system, but then … how can you really certify? This problem is not going away anytime soon. Learn more.
  • UK’s Pan Macmillan launches AI Academy for employee training. According to a press release, staff will learn to use AI across departments, including editorial, design, finance, and operations. Pan Macmillan CEO Joanna Prior says, “By mastering responsible AI, we aren’t just improving workflows; we are unlocking the time and energy needed to focus on what truly matters: building deep relationships and finding new ways to bring stories to life. This isn’t about replacing the human touch—it’s about enhancing it.” Read the release.