American Society of Journalists and Authors

It’s back! ASJA’s well-regarded client networking event, Virtual Client Connections (also known as VCC) returns on Nov. 12 and 13. Past clients include Slate, Landscape Architecture Magazine and Boston Globe/StudioB. This year, writers have seen assignments dry up and regular clients cut their budgets, so it’s the perfect time to bring back one of ASJA’s favorite events, Virtual Client Connections.

Forget what you’ve heard about using a certain number of words or paragraphs of someone else’s book, song, or poem in your own work without needing to get their permission. It’s probably wrong. Fair use is more complicated and nuanced than that, according to Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, vice president of editorial at Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Tasmiha Khan’s 2025 Peter Lisagor Award, for best education reporting, small print/online. (Photo courtesy Tasmiha Khan.) Right off the bat, you’ll notice that this profile of ASJA member Tasmiha Khan includes a picture of the prestigious journalism award she won, not of her. That’s intentional. As a Muslim American Bengali woman, Khan prefers not to publicly display her own image.

October kicks off the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ annual membership drive and we invite you to join us! ASJA is the country’s only professional organization specifically for self-employed nonfiction writers, including freelance journalists, nonfiction book authors, and content writers. ASJA supports independent writers at all stages of their careers.

Photo courtesy Cristine Rochol/PMPA ASJA has officially opened student membership, providing a new generation of nonfiction storytellers with the opportunity to access benefits from the country’s largest professional organization for independent writers and tap into the collective wisdom of its more than 700 existing members. As a first-generation college student, I know how life-altering having access to professionals in the field you want to pursue can be.

From 2001 to 2020, the average number of books banned from U.S. school libraries in a year was 38. By 2025, that number had escalated to 5,245, according to  the American Library Association (ALA). Public libraries saw a similar jump. The average number of books banned by public libraries increased from three a year in 2001 to 2020, to 92 in 2025. Given the gravity of the crisis, ASJA is observing Banned Books Week, Oct. 4-10, 2026, by hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

When Sam Hoffmeister, editor for Irrigation & Lighting, assigned ASJA member and journalist Carol Brzozowski an article on diversity and workplace culture, he said he wanted a story that was solutions oriented. Rather than focusing on debate or ideology, Hoffmeister wanted the piece to provide actionable ideas and examples that business owners and managers could realistically apply to improve diversity within their own operations, Brzozowski recalls.

(matthewhenry photo courtesy Wikimedia) I didn’t learn to truly listen until 2012, when I returned to graduate school as an adult and received a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine. Now, I use the tools I acquired in the program all the time in my writing. Other writers can apply it to their work, including journalism, content marketing writing, and nonfiction books. Let me explain.

ASJA offers members many perks, including professional tools, networking events, and discounts. A perk we are reintroducing is the ASJA Bookstore on Bookshop.org. The ASJA Bookstore is a compilation of books written by ASJA members, winners of ASJA Awards, conference speakers, and presenters at ASJA webinars. The ASJA Bookstore benefits members in two ways.

Less than a week ago, the moment arrived that a lot of authors have been waiting for since 2024. One of the biggest AI companies in the world agreed to a historic $1.5 billion settlement to end a class action copyright infringement lawsuit. Cue the cheers – and the arguments over who is owed what. Bartz v. Anthropic is the first major copyright infringement lawsuit to be settled against an AI company for using books without permission to train its large language models.