Critical Notes

Awards Finalists, Reviews from NBCC Members

By David Varno

The finalists for the 2019 NBCC awards were announced this past Saturday at Bo’s in New York, along with the winners of the John Leonard Prize, the Balakian, and the Sandrof. Find all the details here, and  buy your tickets for the reception following the awards ceremony on March 12.

NBCC Member Reviews

Kamil Ahsan reviewed Garth Greenwell’s second book, Cleanness, for the A.V. Club, noting how the author’s work “reclaim(s) the ‘filthy’ spaces of queer longing.”

Carlos Lozada reviewed Donald Trump Jr.’s book, Triggered, for the Washington Post, comparing it (un)favorably to his father’s Art of the Deal.

Julia M. Klein reviewed Adam Kay’s memoir, This Is Going to Hurt, for the Boston Globe.

Eric Liebetrau reviewed Jodie Kirshner Adam’s Broke for the Winter 2019-2020 issue of Columbia Magazine.

Lanie Tankard reviewed They Will Drown in Their Mothers’ Tears by Swedish author Johannes Anyuru for the winter issue of World Literature Today.

Lydia Pyne reviewed Elizabeth Hennessy’s On The Backs Of Tortoises for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Oline H. Cogdill’s review of Liz Moore’s Long Bright River for the Associated Press was picked up by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Heller McAlpin reviewed Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation for NPR.

Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein reviewed Divested: Inequality In The Age Of Finance by Ken-Hou Lin and Megan Tobias Neely for the New Republic.

Tayla Burney interviewed Crissy Van Meter for Kirkus about her debut novel, Creatures.

Bridget Quinn reviewed Stefano Bloch’s gritty and scholarly memoir, Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA’s Graffiti Subculture from University of Chicago Press for Hyperallergic.

Lisa R Spaar reviewed Andrew Zawacki’s latest collection Unsun: f/11 for Ron Slate’s On the Seawall.

Eric Nguyen reviewed Pain by Zeruya Shalev, translated by Sondra Silverstone for Necessary Fiction.

Alison Buckholtz reviewed Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit for the Florida Times-Union.

Former NBCC president Jane Ciabattari’s “Books to Read in 2020” for BBC Culture includes new novels from NBCC fiction award winners Louise Erdrich and Hilary Mantel.

Hamilton Cain reviewed Steve Inskeep’s Imperfect Union, which will run in this Sunday’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune.