Donald J. Sobol, author of the popular "Encyclopedia Brown" series of children's mysteries, has died. He was 87.

Symphony Space is among the many places in the city that marks Bloomsday with a reading from Ulysses. Beginning at 7 P.M. Saturday, watch the live performance of this year's happening, called Bloomsday on Broadway, which will include readings from the novel's episodes "Sirens" and "Penelope," and musical performances central to the episodes.

The life of artist and children's book author Maurice Sendak was celebrated at a memorial service at the Metropolitan Museum on Tuesday. The creator of more than 100 books, including the classic Where the Wild Things Are, was remembered as a man driven by his need to create.

Ray Bradbury, the science fiction-fantasy master who transformed his childhood dreams and Cold War fears into telepathic Martians, lovesick sea monsters, and, in uncanny detail, the high-tech, book-burning future of "Fahrenheit 451," has died. He was 91. Listen to WNYC host Leonard Lopate interview Bradbury on July 16, 1990.

Writer and historian David McCullough and contemporary music composer Steve Reich will receive the academy's most significant prizes — gold medals for distinguished achievements in biography and music — during the star- and literati-studded annual American Academy of Arts and Letters luncheon in Manhattan on Wednesday.

The New York City Council met Monday morning to discuss Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed $100 million in budget cuts to the city's three library systems. Presidents from the libraries urged the council to restore the proposed cuts so they could avoid laying off hundreds of workers, closing library branches and limiting the number of books they can purchase.

Representatives from the city’s three library systems will testify before the City Council Monday about how the mayor’s proposed $100 million in cuts would impact patrons.

Maurice Sendak, the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen," died early Tuesday. He was 83.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, the first female secretary of state, a former astronaut and a musical pioneer are among this year's recipients of the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

President Barack Obama will award the medals at the White House later this spring.

Just for the record, the man who wrote, “April is the cruelest month” — this was before April was “National Poetry Month” — T.S. Eliot, was then a bank clerk. Chaucer was a civil servant and Wallace Stevens was an insurance executive.

Paul Auster, Robert Caro and Walter Dean Myers are among the writers who will get new literary awards from Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion on Thursday night.

Starting Thursday, yellow taxi passengers will find something new in the back of their cabs. It's not a stranger's cell phone. It's a poem.

The list of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners is out. Among this year's winners were the late Manning Marable for his book on Malcolm X, Brooklyn poet Tracy Smith and Kevin Puts for his "Silent Night" opera. For the first time in 35 years, there was no winner in the fiction category. See the full list of this year's winners here.

The owners and workers of the legendary Strand Bookstore are in a contract dispute, tussling over the implementation of a two-tier wage system, employee’s healthcare contributions and other benefits.

Judge Jennifer G. Schecter removed Marx's license for six months, fined him $500 and sentenced him to attend a defensive driving program, enroll in 16 sessions of counseling with a state-certified substance abuse counselor and install ignition interlock devices in his vehicles.

The financially struggling St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village will stay open after its landlord, Cooper Union, agreed to reduce its rent by 12.5 percent and forgive $7,500 in back rent.

Joan Didion's latest book, "Blue Nights," explores the death of her 39-year old adopted daughter Quintana. It's an event, “I hadn't dealt with it at any level, and I needed to,” she told WNYC's Leonard Lopate on Wednesday.

If you see a superhero walking around Midtown Manhattan this weekend, chances are he or she is here for Comic Con. The convention kicked off Thursday, and it is about more than just comics. Movies, television shows, books and video games — not all of them based on comics — are represented, and so are the fans.

The Adaptations Project has adapted "Kaddish," which the beat poet published 50 years ago, for the stage. "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)" is a multimedia one-man show that opens on Thursday night.

The "New Chapter" initiative lifts overdue fines for patrons under 18 at New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Library branches through October 31.