Kahani, an ad-free literary magazine directed mainly (though not exclusively) at children of South Asian background (See an article about it here), published on a shoestring in Newton, has received a 2007 Parents' Choice Approved Award. The award is given by the Parents' Choice Foundation, a nonprofit group that rates media for children. Kahani means story in Hindi.

Albert Murray, the novelist, poet, and cultural critic, has been awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal by Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, it was announced today. Murray, who is 90, is the author of many books. Institute director Henry Louis Gates Jr. said in a statement, "We present Albert Murray with the Du Bois Medal today to let him know that his life's work is not only valued, but also recognized as vital and central to our intellectual and artistic tradition."

Murray not only wrote of the century in which he lived most of his life, but lived it with many of its greatest names, who were his friends: Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Romare Bearden, Robert Penn Warren, Duke Ellington, and many others. My colleague Mark Feeney wrote a memorable profile of Murray in the Globe August 1, 1993, which was included in Roberta S. Maguire's anthology, "Conversations with Albert Murray" (University of Mississippi Press, 2000). From Mark's piece:

"Albert Murray is 'what a man of letters should and could be,' says the novelist John Edgar Wideman. 'He represents the best in thought and writing.' Walker Percy speculated that Murray's essay collection, The Omni-Americans, published in 1970, 'well may be the most important book on black-white relations in the United States, indeed on American culture, published in this generation.' Or there is what Ellington wrote about his friend 20 years ago, when Murray's first novel, Train Whistle Guitar, was published: 'He doesn't have to look it up. . . . If you want to know, look him up. He is the unsquarest person I know.' Short of having the pope call you the holiest person he knows, it's hard to imagine a more authoritative order of praise."

In response to the outcry raised by John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, over the elimination of the book-editor position at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the paper's editor, Julia Wallace, sent this email to Freeman and others:

"Thank you for your thoughtful note about our book coverage. Let me allay your fears: We are not killing our book coverage or book pages. So long as books are important to our readers, we will continue to dedicate space to them. Remember, this is the newspaper of Margaret Mitchell and Hank Klibanoff, a Pulitzer winner this year for his book on how the press covered the civil rights movement. Our own literary roots are deep, and we won’t forget that.

"Perhaps we have created some confusion as a byproduct of our newsroom restructuring. As you may have heard, we are implementing many changes in the way we gather and display our content in the newspaper and on our website. The point of this restructuring is to even better align our coverage with the interests of our readers. In the restructuring, many jobs are changing -– some are being eliminated. Our staffers are currently being asked to apply for the newly defined jobs. All will have jobs when this is completed. While we will no longer have a book editor, we will have an editor responsible for directing our book coverage. We won’t have a metro editor or food editor in the traditional sense either, but we will still cover local news and food with a vengeance. None of these changes means we’re planning to end our coverage of topics readers love -– far from it. We believe our newspaper readers want an engaging and sophisticated report on new books and that they want to read more about the local literary community and the fascinating people who populate it. We will be using freelancers, established news services and our staff to provide stories about books of interest to our readers and the local literary community. All this should shake out over the next few months...."

John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, notes that the Atlanta Journal Constitution has eliminated the job of book editor Teresa Weaver. It's not clear, Freeman says, what the fate of the book section will be -- it's hard to imagine elimination of all book reviews -- and Weaver has been invited to apply for another position. It's dispiriting, nevertheless, that a major newspaper would regard the position of book editor as expendable. We're supposed to be about reading, not just looking.

Neat timing on the part of the Unitarian Universalist Association, which this Sunday is giving a book award to Debby Applegate, who won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for "The Most Famous Man in America,'' her biography of Henry Ward Beecher. The brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, he was the most famous preacher of the nineteenth century until, in 1872, he was accused of seducing his best friend's wife.

Applegate learned of Henry Ward Beecher when, as a student at Amherst College, she was asked to put together a display of notorious but forgotten alumni. She became hooked on him, wrote her senior thesis about him, and stuck with him for her Ph.D. in American studies at Yale.

She will read, answer questions, and sign her book (now out in paperback) Sunday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. at First Parish Church in Cambridge (0 Church St. in Harvard Square).

The UUA award is given annually to the book judged to be the most significant contribution to religious liberalism.

Nonfiction
1. Eat, Pray, Love
By Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin.
2. The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion. Vintage.
3. Blink
By Malcolm Gladwell. Back Bay.
4. Top 10: Boston
DK Travel.
5. 2006/07 Boston Restaurants
Edited by Ruth Tobias. Zagat Survey.
6. The Tipping Point
By Malcolm Gladwell. Back Bay.
7. Dreams From My Father
By Barack Obama. Three Rivers.
8. Three Cups of Tea
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Penguin.
9. A Death in Belmont
By Sebastian Junger. Harper.
10. Frommer’s Boston Day by Day
By Marie Morris. Wiley.

From Borders Books & Music, Brookline Booksmith, Concord Bookshop, Harvard Book Store, New England Mobile Book Fair, Newtonville Books, and Porter Square Books.

Fiction
1. The Road
By Cormac McCarthy. Vintage.
2. The Inheritance of Loss
By Kiran Desai. Grove.
3. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
By Kim Edwards. Penguin.
4. Intuition
By Allegra Goodman. Dial.
5. Absurdistan
By Gary Shteyngart. Random House.
6. Saving Fish From Drowning
By Amy Tan. Ballantine.
7. Love Walked In
By Marisa de los Santos. Plume.
8. The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead.
9. The Namesake
By Jhumpa Lahiri. Mariner.
10. In the Time of the Butterflies
By Julia Alvarez. Plume.

From Borders Books & Music, Brookline Booksmith, Concord Bookshop, Harvard Book Store, New England Mobile Book Fair, Newtonville Books, and Porter Square Books.

Nonfiction
1. A Long Way Gone
By Ishmael Baeh. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
2. The Secret
By Rhonda Byrne. Beyond Words.
3. Grace (Eventually)
By Anne Lamott. Riverhead.
4. Better
By Atul Gawande. Metropolitan.
5. How Doctors Think
By Jerome Groopman. Houghton Mifflin.
6. Everyday Pasta
By Giada De Laurentiis. Clarkson Potter.
7. The New American Story
By Bill Bradley. Random House.
8. Women and Money
By Suze Orman. Spiegel & Grau.
9. I Feel Bad About My Neck
By Nora Ephron. Knopf.
10. In an Instant
By Lee and Bob Woodruff. Random House.

From Borders Books & Music, Brookline Booksmith, Concord Bookshop, Harvard Book Store, New England Mobile Book Fair, Newtonville Books, and Porter Square Books.

Fiction
1. Nineteen Minutes
By Jodi Picoult. Atria.
2. What Is the What
By Dave Eggers. McSweeney’s.
3. Suite Française
By Irène Némirovsky. Knopf.
4. I Heard That Song Before
By Mary Higgins Clark. Simon & Schuster.
5. The Reluctant Fundamentalist
By Mohsin Hamid. Harcourt.
6. Shopaholic and Baby
By Sophie Kinsella. Dial.
7. Water for Elephants
By Sara Gruen. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
8. Whitethorn Woods
By Maeve Binchy. Knopf.
9. Heart-Shaped Box
By Joe Hill. Morrow.
10. Make Way for Ducklings
By Robert McCloskey. Viking.

From Borders Books & Music, Brookline Booksmith, Concord Bookshop, Harvard Book Store, New England Mobile Book Fair, Newtonville Books, and Porter Square Books.

SUNDAY: A panel discussion on ‘‘An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature’’ takes place at 3 p.m., in Fulton Hall, Boston College, Chestnut Hill. ... Debby Applegate discusses ‘‘The Most Famous Man in America: The B,’’ her biography of Henry Ward Beecher,’’ at 7:30 p.m., at First Parish Church, 3 Church St., Cambridge. ... Susie Davidson reads from her Holocaust book, ‘‘I Refused to Die,’’ at 2 p.m., at the Morse Institute Library, 14 E. Central St., Natick.

MONDAY: Walter Isaacson discusses ‘‘Einstein,’’ at 6 p.m., at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline ($2). ... Poets Philip Nikolayev and Hadara Bar-Nadav read at 8 p.m., at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle St., Cambridge ($3). ... A.M. Homes reads from ‘‘The Mistress’s Daughter,’’ at 6 p.m., at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge ($5). ... Zachary Leader discusses ‘‘The Life of Kingsley Amis,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Harvard Square Coop, Cambridge. ... Poet Geoffrey O’Brien and Ben Lerner read at 5:30 p.m., in Lamont Library, Harvard University, Cambridge.

TUESDAY: John and Martha McPhee discuss ‘‘Uncommon Carriers’’ and ‘‘L’America,’’ at 6:30 p.m., at First Parish Church, Cambridge ($5). ... Sheila Kohler discusses ‘‘Bluebird, or the Invention of Happiness,’’ at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Cambridge. ... Erica Wagner discusses ‘‘Seizure,’’ at 7:30 p.m., at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville. ... Walter Isaacson signs ‘‘Einstein,’’ at 7:15 p.m., at the Harvard Square Coop, Cambridge. ... Moira Linehancq reads from ‘‘If No Moon,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Winchester Public Library, 80 Washington St., Winchester. ... Joyce Antler reads from ‘‘You Never Call, You Never Write,’’ at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith. ... Children’s author Tony Di Terlizzi speaks at 7:30 p.m., in Vanderslice Hall, Boston College, Chestnut Hill ($15).

WEDNESDAY: Reverend Billy reads from ‘‘What Would Jesus Buy?,’’ at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books. ... Jonathan Cohn discusses ‘‘Sick,’’ at 6:30 p.m., at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. ... Chet Raymo discusses ‘‘Valentine,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Hingham Public Library, 66 Leavitt St., Hingham. ... Thalassa Ali discusses ‘‘Companions of Paradise,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Harvard Square Coop, Cambridge. ... Kevin Weeks and Phyllis Karas discuss ‘‘Brutal,’’ at 12:30 p.m., at Borders Back Bay, 511 Boylston St.

THURSDAY: Heather Cox Richardson discusses ‘‘West From Appomattox,’’ at 7 p.m., at Book Ends, 559 Main St., Winchester. ... Lucy McCauley discusses ‘‘Best Women’s Travel Writing 2007,’’ at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books. ... J.D. Scrimgeour discusses ‘‘Themes for English B,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Flint Memorial Library, 147 Park St., N. Reading. ... Daniel Kimmel discusses ‘‘The Dream Team,’’ at 7 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Boston University, Kenmore Square. ... Richard J. Ward reads from ‘‘Grampas Are for All Seasons,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Harvard Club, 374 Comm. Ave; call 617-536-1260 for reservations. ... Granta winners Olga Grushin, Uzodinma Iweala, and Akhil Sharma speak at 7 p.m., at the Harvard Square Coop. ... Susie Davidson discusses ‘‘I Refused to Die,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Maynard Public Library, 77 Nason St., Maynard. ... Myriam Cyr reads from ‘‘Letters of a Portuguese Nun,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Book Rack, 52 State St., Newburyport. ... I rish poet Peter Fallon reads at 4 p.m., in the Healey Library, UMass-Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd. ...Arthur Phillips reads from "Angelica," at 6:30 p.m., at the Harvard Book Store.

FRIDAY: Harry Gelber discusses ‘‘The Dragon and the Foreign Devils,’’ at 3 p.m., at the Harvard Book Store. ... Hanne Blank discusses ‘‘Virgin,’’ at 6:30 p.m., at the Harvard Book Store. ... The second annual Newburyport Literary Festival begins; for complete festival information, visit www.newburyportliteraryfestival.org ... Children’s author Carlyn Beccia reads at 4 p.m., at the Concord Bookshop, 65 Main St., Concord. ... John Holland discuses ‘‘Power of the Soul,’’ at 7 p.m., at Jabberwocky Bookshop, 50 Water St., Newburyport. ... Brian Malloy reads from "Brendan Wolf," at 7 p.m., at Calamus Bookstore, 92B South St.

Events are subject to change.

Any serious student of the American Civil War will delve into the 127 volumes of "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," published by the U.S. War Department in 1880. Many libraries have these books, arranged in long dusty lines, and they're also online. Much of the content consists of orders; that is, when a brigadier general was ordered to move forces in the line of battle, he would write an order to a regimental commander and a courier would gallop off on his horse, and the order in most cases was preserved.

It's safe to say that the general's order would not normally contain a sentence such as, "that knucklehead Grant wants this. I think it's asinine, but I guess we have no choice." People have always understood that to write something down, whether in war or peace, official or personal, was to take a risk.

I was reminded of this by my colleague Peter Canellos's thoughtful column this morning about the email accounts used by Bush administration officials. Numerous insiders, including Karl Rove, often used their Republican National Committee email accounts, rather than government accounts, and millions of emails were deleted in the process, possibly in violation of the Presidential Records Act. Noting that most people, even in the White House, also use email for strictly personal purposes, Canellos writes that there ought to be some reasonable compromise between the need to save official communications and government employees' right to have private conversations.

The point raises, not for the first time, the question of what exactly email is. Most people think of email (even more so "IMs" -- instant messages) as something like a telephone call, or even an in-person conversation, not as "writing" in the traditional sense. Even though they use a keyboard, and write sentences, and might even begin with "Dear So-and-so," and end with "sincerely yours," they do not think of emails as documents, apparently because usually no paper is involved.

We should rethink this assumption. Since it seems that emails are preserved in the innards of the computer universe, we should think of them exactly as we would a letter, whether we hit the delete-button or not. It would make us think before we write, and avoid all kinds of misfortune and embarrassment. The death of the personal letter is much lamented, but clearly reports of its demise, as with Mark Twain's famous telegram about his obituary, are greatly exaggerated.

The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon and the fiction winner is Oprah's current pick:

FICTION "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)
DRAMA "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire
HISTORY "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation" by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Alfred A. Knopf)
BIOGRAPHY OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY "The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher" by Debby Applegate (Doubleday)
POETRY "Native Guard" by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin)
GENERAL NON-FICTION "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright" (Alfred A. Knopf)

The much-anticipated auction of the O.J. Simpson book, "If I Did It," scheduled for tomorrow, was cancelled when the rightsholder, Lorraine Brooke Associates, Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida. A chapter 11 filing stops the auction because a debtor's assets must be retained pending a reorganization plan, approved by the court, which would meet creditors' claims.

The controversial book about the 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, which Simpson insisted was hypothetical and not a confession (he was acquitted of the murders in 1995), wrecked the career of editor Judith Regan after publisher HarperCollins cancelled the book and fired her last December. Lorraine Brooke, according to court statements by O.J. Simpson's lawyer, is owned by his children.

A Los Angeles judge Friday ruled that any receipts from the auction, and profits from the book, should go to Goldman's family, which won a $33 million wrongful death suit against the former football star, and not to Simpson's children. It's not clear that Lorraine Brooke Associates has any other creditor besides the Goldman family, which might mean that unless the book is destroyed, the Goldman family might still be be able to claim the profits eventually.

Poetry via pod? It's here. A nonprofit group called the Student Publishing Program has gotten together with a company called potcastGO.com to make poetry and poetry-related programming available beginning this month, which is National Poetry Month.

Starting today, there will be five new programs a week for the next 10 weeks. Samples include a question-and-answer connection with poet laureate Donald Hall, and a poetry contest for teens. There will also be the Greatest Living Poets program, with readings by poets and even writing advice from them to aspiring poets.

In a chat over at Boston.com, Gary Shteyngart, whose novel "Absurdistan,'' was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by the New York Times, proclaimed himself a "disciple of Fat Man Fiction,'' from Rabelais to Oblomov to his favorite American book of the past 25 years, "A Confederacy of Dunces'' by John Kennedy Toole.

Shteyngart lives in New York but comes to Boston often to visit his girlfriend. He's wild about the ribs at Redbones and will be speaking at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge tonight about his novel, now out in paperback.