This weeks Literary Ledger 27 to 03 April 2026

Welcome to your weekly roundup of all things books! We’re keeping it short and sweet, just five stories to keep you in the loop without overwhelming you. Think of this as your quick fix for staying connected to the book world.

I) Harlequin Goes AI: Romance Meets Animation

I suppose some big publishers aren’t resisting the AI trend, they’re joining it, likely not wanting to miss out. Harlequin Enterprises (a division of HarperCollins) is a global publisher based in Toronto, Canada, known for romance and women’s fiction. They recently announced a multi-year agreement with an AI entertainment company called Dashverse, which specialises in short-form videos. Together, they will co-produce forty animated micro-dramas inspired by Harlequin’s romance titles.

The videos themselves will be developed by illustrators but assisted by the production system, Frameo. This can be a bit misleading in terms of understanding how much AI is actually involved. To break it down: the story and core illustration are created by humans, while animation, scaling, efficiency, and visual generation appear to be AI-driven, from what I’ve gathered.

The tricky part, which I’ve discussed here before, is that “AI-assisted” is incredibly vague. Someone can assist you in nearly every step, but if you came up with the original idea, it can technically still be considered human work. Many argue this approach saves money and speeds up production compared to a fully human process. But these “assists” are reducing jobs to smaller, more limited roles. Honestly, how long until AI is used to write the books themselves, simply because it’s cheaper and faster? Just because something is cheaper doesn’t mean it’s better, even for a company as large as HarperCollins, especially in a book industry that thrives on human creativity and connection.

Interestingly, after the partnership was announced, some Harlequin authors whose titles were selected for adaptation said on the social platform Threads that they hadn’t been notified of the deal in advance, though Harlequin claimed they would receive royalties. I’m honestly tired of talking about AI at this point. 

II) HarperCollins Meets AI… Again

HarperCollins is very popular today, but once again, because of AI! The publisher has announced another multi-year partnership, this time with Toonstar, another “AI-powered” animation studio, to adapt its titles into original YouTube series. The first project is Friendship List, based on Lisa Greenwald’s popular YA series of the same name, with HarperAlley set to publish an accompanying graphic novel inspired by the animation. No timeline for the project has been provided yet.

HarperCollins and Toonstar will co-produce the animation franchises, with episodes ranging from two to ten minutes depending on the series. HarperCollins has described the process as “creator-led,” but details on how authors will be involved, or whether they will receive royalties, remain unclear. This announcement came just a couple of days after the Dashverse partnership.

III) AI Reading Unpublished Manuscripts… I Promise This Is the Last One

I suppose I should call this the Literary AI Ledger, because there’s more AI news, but I’d like to focus on something else. Still, I want to cover the top stories, and these are them.

It has been speculated, based on conversations at the Book Fair, where editors may have grown a little too comfortable sharing common practices, that some editors are uploading unpublished, confidential manuscripts into AI tools like ChatGPT to speed up their reading and evaluation. These concerns were raised by a literary agent at Curtis Brown.

I mean, it’s obvious why this is a problem: manuscripts are private intellectual property. Uploading them to AI tools could expose them to third-party systems. Authors are typically required to disclose AI usage, but editors may not be held to the same standard. Reading manuscripts is literally a core part of their role, so what else could be offloaded to AI? It’s wild to think they could be putting themselves out of their own jobs! While this isn’t proven to be widespread, it’s certainly believable.

IV) Yulia Navalnaya Launches One Book Publishing to Fight Censorship

Yulia Navalnaya has launched a new independent publishing house, One Book Publishing. Interestingly, the idea came to her while she was trying to publish her late husband’s memoir, Patriot, by Alexei Navalny. She realised the process might be more effective if she published independently rather than relying on other houses, so she decided to start her own publishing company.

This is both a personal and political move. Censorship in Russia has made many books unavailable, and her publishing house aims to bring these works back to readers, especially for a Russian-speaking audience. Navalnaya emphasises the importance of keeping Russian readers connected to global literature. One Book Publishing will focus on contemporary literature, translated works, and books by Russian-language authors, pushing back against cultural isolation and state control.

V) International Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist

The shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2026 has been announced, featuring six translated novels. The prize recognises fiction translated into English, with the award split between the author and the translator. This year’s shortlist was selected from an impressive 128 submissions, first narrowed to a longlist of 13 before being reduced to six finalists:

• Daniel Kehlmann – The Director – A once-renowned film director is drawn back into Nazi-controlled Europe, facing a moral dilemma as he becomes entangled with the regime he once hoped to escape.

• Marie NDiaye – The Witch – In a repressive household, twin girls inherit powerful witchcraft that drives them toward freedom, forcing a painful break from their controlling family and the limitations imposed on their mother.

• Yáng Shuāng-zǐ – Taiwan Travelogue – In 1930s colonial Taiwan, a Japanese writer falls for her Taiwanese interpreter, only to confront the hidden forces shaping their relationship.

• Shida Bazyar – The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran – A polyphonic novel tracing one Iranian family’s experiences from revolution to exile in Germany and back again, exploring how their lives and identities unfold across decades of political upheaval and cultural change.

• Rene Karabash – She Who Remains – A woman in the Accursed Mountains becomes a sworn virgin to escape an arranged marriage, unleashing tragedy within her family, and years later recounts her story, revealing long-buried truths and lost possibilities.

• Ana Paula Maia – On Earth As It Is Beneath – On the site of a former plantation, a brutal penal colony faces its final days as inmates are hunted each full moon, exposing humanity’s capacity for violence and the consequences of societal neglect.

Each shortlisted title receives £5,000, split between author and translator. The overall winner, worth £50,000, will be announced in May 2026 at a ceremony in London. Excitingly, the majority of authors and translators on this year’s list are women.