NBCC READS: A LITERARY SHOWCASE A TALK OF THE STACKS EVENT
Wednesday, November 3rd, 7:00 PM
Minneapolis Central Library
Pohlad Hall 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
This special edition of the Minneapolis Central Library's “Talk of the Stacks” series features three authors who were recognized in this year's NBCC awards. Eula Biss won the NBCC Award for criticism for Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays; Stephen Burt was a finalist in the criticism category for Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry; and Marlon James was a finalist in the fiction category for The Book of Night Women. Jeffrey Shotts, senior editor at Graywolf Press and editor of Biss and Burt’s respective books, will moderate.
EULA BISS is the author of The Balloonists and Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, which won the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She teaches nonfiction writing at Northwestern University and is co-editor of Essay Press. Her essays have appeared in Harper’s and the Believer. She lives in Chicago.
STEPHEN BURT is the author of two critical books on poetry, including Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry, a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, as well as two poetry collections, including Parallel Play. His essays and reviews have appeared in the Believer, the Nation, and the New York Times Book Review. He is an Associate Professor of English at Harvard University. Visit him online at http://www.closecallswithnonsense.com.
MARLON JAMES was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and is the author of The Book Of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Iron Balloons, Bronx Noir, and Silent Voices, and his nonfiction has been published in the Caribbean Review of Books. He was a judge for the PEN Beyond Margins Award and the 2010 Young Lions Award. Marlon James teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
JEFFREY SHOTTS joined Graywolf in June 1996 and currently serves as Senior Editor. He completed an M.F.A. in Poetry at Washington University in Saint Louis and rejoined Graywolf in 2002. He is currently a Poetry Editor for Post Road magazine at Boston College, and he is on the advisory boards of the Literary Arts Institute at the College of Saint Benedict, Essay Press, Whit Press, and the White Pine Festival. He has served as an adviser and on informational panels for the Bush, MacArthur, and Poetry Foundations and the Minnesota State Arts Board. A published poet, essayist, and critic, Shotts has taught or lectured on poetry and editing at a variety of colleges and universities across the country and is currently a Visiting Instructor at Macalester College, his alma mater, where he teaches courses in creative writing and on literary publishing. He is the editor of three of this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award nominees: Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays by Eula Biss (which won the award for criticism), Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry by Stephen Burt, and Chronic by D. A. Powell.