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Caroline Bird, whose book was inspired by the first year of a relationship, takes £10,000 honour for best collection alongside awards for Will Harris and Malika Booker

British poets have won all of this year’s Forward prizes for poetry, with Caroline Bird’s “audacious and erotically charged” The Air Year taking best collection, Will Harris’s RENDANG winning best debut, and Malika Booker winning for best single poem.

Bird’s sixth collection The Air Year, named for the first 12 months of a relationship before the “paper” anniversary, was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize in an online ceremony Sunday afternoon. A playwright, and published poet since the age of 15, Bird saw off competition from the acclaimed Native American-Latinx Natalie Diaz and the award-winning Pascale Petit.

Newly unearthed correspondence shows deep respect between Peter Pan and Treasure Island authors, who never met

They are two of the greatest writers in history and they were also the greatest of friends. But they never met, and the importance and intensity of their relationship has never before been fully understood.

Now, the lost letters of JM Barrie to Robert Louis Stevenson – missing for over a century – have been found in a cardboard box in a library archive and will be published for the first time in a forthcoming book. The letters reveal how ardently the young Barrie both adored and admired Stevenson, who was an older and more established writer. A year into their friendship, which was initiated by Stevenson, Barrie wrote to him: “To be blunt I have discovered (have suspected it for some time) that I love you, and if you had been a woman...” He leaves the sentence unfinished.

Lit in Colour, the publisher’s partnership with the Runnymede Trust, hopes to redress imbalances in English literature courses

The book publisher Penguin Random House has teamed up with the thinktank the Runnymede Trust to boost diversity in reading lists in schools.

The partnership – Lit in Colour – follows a recent report by Teach First which found that pupils could leave school in England without studying a novel or play by a black or minority ethnic author.

Friend of Maltese journalist recounts her battles against corruption for young readers

Her death brought thousands of people on to the streets of Malta and led to the resignation of a prime minister. Now the life of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has inspired a book for children.

Written and illustrated by her friend Gattaldo, the designer, Fearless: The Story of Daphne Caruana Galizia is being released by a UK publisher this month to mark three years since the Maltese writer was killed by a car bomb in October 2017.

Fearless: The Story of Daphne Caruana Galizia is published by Otter-Barry, and is available from otterbarrybooks.com for £12.99.

Proprietor Nancy Bass-Wyden appeals to customers as literary landmark suffers the effects of the pandemic

The Strand Bookstore, a landmark of literary New York, is in serious trouble, appealing for customers to help it stave off closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

Shirley Hughes and Philip Pullman among signatories of letter decrying lack of provision

More than 200 children’s authors and illustrators, including Shirley Hughes, Philip Pullman, Malorie Blackman and Matt Haig, have put their names to a letter decrying the government’s vote against providing free school meals for children in England during half-term.

This week, Conservative MPs rejected a Labour motion, inspired by the footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign on child hunger, by 322 votes to 261. Rashford has urged MPs to unite and stop being influenced by “political affiliation”.

Related: 'He does not give up': how Marcus Rashford became a hero to school kids

Charity says ebooks borrowing up 146% from March to August, with crime thrillers popular

They may have been closed for months during lockdown, but amid long days and many on furlough it has emerged that the nation turned to local libraries for cultural sustenance – with a surge in the lending of ebooks, and crime thrillers in particular.

In total, more than 3.5m additional ebooks were borrowed between the end of March and mid-August, according to the charity Libraries Connected, an increase of 146%. Adding audiobooks and e-comics, there was an increase of 5m digital items borrowed.

Helena Kennedy says CPS must pursue case against UAE minister accused of assaulting British citizen Caitlin McNamara at Hay Abu Dhabi festival

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service must be “brave” and set a legal precedent by taking on the case of a British citizen who has accused a senior gulf royal of sexual assault, says one of the UK’s leading lawyers.

Related: Gulf royal accused of sexual assault must go, says Hay literature festival

Curator of Hay’s inaugural festival in Abu Dhabi has accused Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan of sexual assault, which he denies

Hay literature festival will not return to Abu Dhabi until a senior Gulf royal is removed from his post as the United Arab Emirates’ minister of tolerance, after the curator of the inaugural Hay festival in the country accused him of sexual assault.

Caitlin McNamara was the curator of the first sister festival in Abu Dhabi, which was feted as an opportunity to promote freedom of expression, human rights and women’s rights in the UAE. In an interview with the Sunday Times, she accused Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan of sexually assaulting her on 14 February, 11 days before the festival began.

Related: As Hay festival opens in the UAE, authors condemn free speech abuses