Cape/Observer/Comica graphic short story prize – entries open

Rachel Cooke: What are we after? Only the best comic ever. The standard of entries is always amazingly high but if you think you could create something that good, you could be the winner we're looking for

The countdown to Manchester’s Literature Festival

A number of literary heavyweights are appearing in the city's seventh literature festival, now a highlight of the cultural calendar

Pop Up Festival of Stories makes a noise about children’s books

Children's illustrators, writers and poets are descending on London for a free two-day festival that includes a Roald Dahl disco and a Jacqueline Wilson quiz

Aldeburgh festival; Bow Down – review

Vivid stagings of Oliver Knussen's opera of Where the Wild Things Are and Birtwistle's experimental work impress Fiona Maddocks

Philosophy: Back to big thinking

Editorial: There is a new more expansive mood taking shape in British philosophy, as borne out at Hay-on-Wye

Banning Kindles is no way of celebrating books

Alison Flood: Is your e-reader turning you into a 'robot'? A campaign from Hay bookseller Derek Addyman to drive Amazon's Kindle out of town is just silly

Rachel Carson and the legacy of Silent Spring

Fifty years after the publication of the book that laid the foundations for the environmental movement, what have we learned from the biologist who saw the need for science to work with nature? Robin McKie reports

Cannes 2012: On the Road – review

Peter Bradshaw: Handsome shots and touching sadness don't compensate for the tedious air of self-congratulation in Walter Salles's road movie

Cannes film festival set to honour the bookworm

Coveted Palme d'Or likely to go to a screen adaptation, with many of this year's entrants borrowing from literature

Prestwich Book Festival aims to challenge the dominance of south Manchester

The festival has been set up to celebrate the authors and independent businesses that are thriving

Tehran International Book Fair launches crackdown on ‘harmful’ titles

Annual event that attracts 500,000 visitors a day has revoked licences of publishing houses and banned them from attending

World Shakespeare festival: around the Globe in 37 plays

The World Shakespeare festival, with performances from across the globe in nearly 50 languages, begins this weekend. Andrew Dickson travelled to India to find out more

Writer Idol gives books prizes the Simon Cowell treatment

Billy Mills: Move over Booker and Pulitzer prizes ... there's a new talent show coming to the West Cork literary festival. Writers, are you ready to face the judges?

Ideas that last: a new book prize

The Observer and the Bristol festival of ideas have teamed up to pick the most influential book from 50 years ago

Bologna children’s book fair digital award pits startups against Disney

Julia Eccleshare: In its 49th year the forever-young fair has launched a standalone digital prize – with companies such as the UK's Nosy Crow going up against the bigger boys