Critical Notes

New Reviews and More from NBCC Members

By Jennie Hann

A tall shelf filled with works of fiction

Happy Summer, NBCC Members and Friends!!

As always, please stay safe, and thanks for reading!!

Member Reviews/Essays

NBCC board member Mandana Chaffa reviewed Ada Limón’s new collection of poetry, The Hurting Kind, for the Chicago Review of Books.

NBCC VP/Events Jane Ciabattari covered the Bay Area Book Festival in Six Acts for Lit Hub.

For The Atlantic, Lauren LeBlanc wrote about Joanne Greenberg’s novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, which first appeared pseudonymously in 1964 and was reissued this month.

Jenny Shank reviewed Elif Batuman’s Either/Or and Marie Myung-Ok Lee’s The Evening Hero, both for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Bill Thompson reviewed Hannibal: Rome’s Greatest Enemy by Philip Freeman for The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina.

Julia M. Klein reviewed The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz for Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.

For Kirkus Reviews, Tom Beer wrote about new biographies by Antonia Fraser, NBCC finalist Lucasta Miller, and NBCC winner Leo Damrosch.

At Lit Hub, Michael Lindgren wrote an encomium to the late, great Roger Angell.

Erik Gleibermann wrote an essay on Warsan Shire’s debut poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, for Ploughshares.

Marc Weingarten reviewed Kim Stanley Robinson’s The High Sierra: A Love Story for The Wall Street Journal.

Jake Cline reviewed Nell Zink’s Avalon for The Washington Post.

Frank Freeman reviewed Albert Camus and the Human Crisis by Robert Emmet Meagher for Today’s American Catholic.

W. Scott Olsen reviewed Westlands: A Water Story by Randi Lynn Beach for Frames Magazine.

Member Interviews

NBCC board member Lori Feathers and her co-host Sam Jordison wrapped up their collective read of The Brothers Karamazov by talking with Lan Samantha Chang, author and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, for the “Across the Pond” podcast.

NBCC VP/Events Jane Ciabattari interviewed Vanessa Hua about Forbidden City, her new novel about the forgotten women in Mao’s inner circle, for Lit Hub.

NBCC board member Mandana Chaffa interviewed John Waters about his new novel, Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance, for the Chicago Review of Books.

W. Scott Olsen interviewed Lauren Walsh, Director of the Gallatin Photojournalism Lab at New York University, for the Frames Magazine photography podcast. (Walsh also teaches at The New School and directs Lost Rolls America, a national archive of photography and memory).

Kathleen Rooney interviewed Toya Wolfe about her debut novel, Last Summer on State Street, for Chicago Magazine.

Anne Charles spoke with writer/professor John Weir about his recent short story collection, Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me, for the cable access show All Things LGBTQ.

Kate Knibbs interviewed author K. Allado-McDowell and the AI known as GPT-3 about the novel they co-wrote together, Amor Cringe, for Wired.

Julia M. Klein interviewed Dan O’Brien about two books on his cancer ordeal for Brown Alumni Magazine.

Ryan Chapman interviewed Mark Haber about his novel Saint Sebastian’s Abyss for BOMB Magazine.

Member News

Jenny Shank’s collection Mixed Company: Stories is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in General Fiction.

Former NBCC board member and author Kerri Arsenault and Brown University historian Bathsheba Demuth have co-founded The Environmental Storytelling Studio (TESS), whose main mission is to help academics marry scholarship with storytelling to reach a broader audience. TESS is supported by The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES).

Partner News

Our friends and partners at the PEN/Faulkner Foundation have shared a recording of their forty-second annual award celebration. In conjunction with the Scottish Rite Foundation, they also invite all NBCC members to attend a free virtual event with Jeffrey Frank on Tuesday, June 7, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Frank will discuss his latest book, The Trials of Harry S. Truman.

“Fiction Room, M through R” photo by former NBCC board member Katharine Weber. Used with permission.

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