In 2025, we were surviving, if perhaps not always thriving. We sang along to “Golden” in the grocery store and hung Labubus from our bags. We reheated nachos. We saw Sinners in multiple formats and got our first American pope. We elected Zohran Mamdani. We did not learn about six seven. We dressed up as the Coldplay couple for Halloween and started rewatching Mad Men. We talked too much about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth and definitely too much about Taylor Swift. Lily Allen told us everything. We started a global trade war, for some reason. We cancelled our Disney+ subscriptions and protested against ICE. We had our flights disrupted. We tracked recession indicators. We tracked the Freedom Flotilla. We did not really believe Anna Wintour was stepping down (as if she could). We put our money (not pennies) on the gorilla. We considered the benefits of the hive mind. We watched Justin Trudeau quit Canada to date noted astronaut Katy Perry (right?). We got really into “hockey.” There was also literary news:
The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year:
50.
Goodnight Moon became a stamp.
49.
Everyone was reading Lonesome Dove.
48.
A new Dr. Seuss book was discovered.
47.
HarperCollins UK was forced to pull copies of a book alleging Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump.
46.
Brad Lander did a sonnet.
45.
Legendary NYC bookstore Bluestockings closed.
44.
Na Kim redesigned Nabokov.
43.
Michael Crichton’s estate sued The Pitt for copying.
42.
Shein started selling books (and TikTok stopped publishing them).
41.
A new Literary Arts Fund was founded to distribute $50 million to artists and arts organizations.
40.
Over 300 writers pledged to boycott the New York Times opinion page over the paper’s anti-Palestinian bias.
39.
John Boyne’s nomination caused half of the writers on the Polari Prize longlist to withdraw before the prize itself was canceled.
38.
Bill & Ted did Godot.
37.
Elon Musk got roasted on X by Official Champion of Twitter Joyce Carol Oates.
36.
Baker & Taylor shut down, plunging libraries into chaos.
35.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah was pardoned and freed from prison.
34.
Pete Hegseth was, as ever, a childish clown (this time with literary references).
33.
NaNoWriMo finally called it quits.
32.
Sprayed edges were everywhere.
31.
AI ruined the em-dash.
30.
Simon & Schuster said they would no longer require their books to have blurbs.
29.
Jeff Bezos bought James Bond.
28.
On Tyrrany took over TikTok.
27.
Acclaimed poet Alice Oswald was arrested at a sit-down demonstration in support of Palestine Action.
26.
Salman Rushdie’s attacker was found guilty of attempted murder.
25.
Arthur Sze became the 25th US Poet Laureate.
24.
The Supreme Court voted to enable the censorship of books with LGBTQ themes in schools.
23.
Irish novelist Naoise Dolan joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza, and was abducted and detained by Israeli forces.
22.
Reading Rainbow came back, courtesy your favorite internet librarian.
21.
The U.S. revoked Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka’s visa.
20.
We all faced the tragic drama of the midlist author.
19.
Everyone had an opinion about the Wuthering Heights trailers.
18.
Trump deployed federal troops in D.C., and local bookstores suffered.
17.
Miss Rachel used her platform for good.
16.
László Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
15.
The NEA canceled grants for arts organizations that don’t align with their bizarre new set of priorities.
14.
Sally Rooney found herself (and her bestselling novels) under fire for her support of Palestine Action.
13.
Sarah Jessica Parker pivoted to reading.
12.
Don’t give J.K. Rowling your money.
11.
Olivia Nuzzi capped off a major scandal with a very bad book.
10.
Jane Austen turned 250.
8.
Trump fired the Librarian of Congress.
7.
Trump dismantled the Department of Education.
6.
Trump went to war with American universities.
5.
Trump defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS, and also the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
4.
Lila Shapiro published a blistering article about the sexual abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman in New York Magazine.
3.
Where oh where are all the straight white male novelists? (Like, winning the Booker?)
2.
Romantasy kept the publishing industry afloat.
1.
AI stole everyone’s books, and degraded everyone’s brains, and threatened everyone’s livelihoods, while also producing a whole lot of slop.
