Critical Notes

Roundup: Derek Walcott, Jhumpa Lahiri, Lorrie Moore, the top books of the spring, and more

By Eric Liebetrau

Your reviews seed this roundup; please send items to NBCCCritics@gmail.com.

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Don't forget to check out our 2013 30 Books in 30 Days.

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Barbara Spindel talks to Alex Myers about his debut novel, Revolutionary.

NBCC board member Eric Liebetrau reviews Justin Hocking's debut memoir, The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld.

Celia McGee's Center for Fiction column “Junior Edition: New Books for Younger Readers #2.”

“In Defense of Derek Walcott”: NBCC board member David Biespiel's latest Poetry Wire.

“Latino Lens: A Migrant Workers' Son Finds Magic in Books.” NBC News talks with NBCC board member Rigoberto González.

Parul Kapur Hinzen reviews Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland for the arts and literature journal Jaggery.

Michelle Bailat-Jones' novel Fog Island Mountains has won the Christopher Doheny Award at the Center for Fiction.

“The Crime Novelist Who Reinvented Soccer Writing.” Tobias Carroll examines the soccer novels of David Peace.

John Domini reviews Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation.

Marion Winik reviews B.J. Novak's One More Thing.

For the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Julie Hakim Azzam talks with children's book author and illustrator Shane Evans.

Paul Devlin takes a look at Ralph Ellison's record collection.

In the New York Times, Adam Kirsch asks, “Are the New ‘Golden Age’ TV Shows the New Novels?” Kirsch also explores “The Forbidden Books of Jewish Magic.”

Heller McAlpin reviews Annabelle Gurwitch's I See You Made an Effort.

Carmela Ciuraru takes a look at some newly released books.

Which Book Came First? A Quiz with NBCC board member Carolyn Kellogg.

For BBC.com, NBCC board member Jane Ciabattari offers her top 10 books for the spring.

“These Stories Consider Solitude, With Echoes Of Emily Dickinson.” Maureen Corrigan on Lorrie Moore.

Joelle Biele reviews Lucie Brock-Broido's Stay, Illusion, a 2013 NBCC poetry finalist, at Harvard Review.

Karl Wolff reviews Joel Shepherd's science fiction actioner, Crossover. He also reviews Richard Fulco's novel, There Is No End To This Slope.

NBCC board member Mark Athitakis will offer a class on “Writing About Books.”

Former NBCC board member Katharine Weber reviews Alice Hoffman’s Museum of Extraordinary Things.

“Yiyun Li takes us back to the months after Tiananmen Square and to a fatal poisoning.” NBCC board member David Ulin reviews the author's second novel, Kinder Than Solitude.

John M. Wills reviews Jason Mott's The Returned.