Book News

Youths walk past a mural calling for peace in Ferguson, Mo., on a building up the street from the city's police department a day before the grand jury decision was announced. David Goldman/AP hide caption

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, seen here in 1982, speaks to reporters following the announcement of his Nobel win. Among the materials in his archive are the many drafts he prepared for his Nobel acceptance speech. Hasse Persson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a draft of which is seen here, may never have taken the rambling form it did, had he not seen a letter similarly styled by his friend Neal Cassady. Bertrand Langlois/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Daniel Handler — aka Lemony Snicket — apologized Thursday for his "ill-conceived attempts at humor" during the National Book Awards ceremony Wednesday. Robin Marchant/Getty Images hide caption

In her speech Wednesday night in New York, Ursula K. Le Guin declared, "The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom." Robin Marchant/Getty Images hide caption

In the Costa-nominated H Is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts how her relationship with a goshawk like this one helped her to grapple with the loss of her father. sirius_r/iStockphoto hide caption

Jonathan Franzen, pictured here at The New Yorker Festival Fiction Night in 2009, won the National Book Award for his third novel, The Corrections. Joe Kohen/Getty Images hide caption

Mo'ne Davis stares down a batter during a Little League World Series game in August. Rob Carr/Getty Images hide caption

Alain Mabanckou, a French novelist born in the Republic of Congo, wrote a letter to support Cameroonian poet Dieudonne Enoh Meyomesse. Etienne de Malglaive/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Isabel Allende has earned laurels for her work in both Chile and the United States. Peter Morgan/AP hide caption