We’re happy to announce that the new president of the National Book Critics Circle is Adam Dalva! Adam is the former chair of the John Leonard Prize committee, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and The Atlantic. He is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Creative Writing at Rutgers University and a Contributing Fiction Editor of The Yale Review.
Adam takes over from Heather Scott Partington, who has served as president for the past two years. Heather has been an inspiring leader who grew the membership of the NBCC, guided us through our 50th anniversary celebrations, and managed to wrangle a group of 24 opinionated critics with grace, wisdom, and kindness. We will be forever grateful for her brilliant leadership.
Member Reviews/Essays
Daniel Mendelsohn has a review-essay on new translations of Catullus in The New Yorker.
Bekah Waalkes reviewed Jamie Hood’s Trauma Plot: A Life for The Atlantic.
Former NBCC President Tom Beer reflected on 25 years of reading in Kirkus Reviews‘ special issue dedicated to the Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far).
Jeanne Bonner reviewed The Propagandist by Cecile Desprairies for The Common‘s What We’re Reading feature. She was invited to share a book recommendation as a contributor to the magazine; The Common published two poetry translations by Jeanne last year.
NBCC lifetime member Heather Green wrote about Robert Pinsky’s “Forgiveness” for Poetry Daily’s “What Sparks Poetry: Life in Public” series.
Heller McAlpin reviewed Karen Powell’s Fifteen Wild Decembers for The Christian Science Monitor.
Julia M. Klein reviewed Joe Dunthorne’s Children of Radium for the Los Angeles Times.
NBCC board member May-lee Chai reviewed Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new essay collection, To Save and To Destroy: Writing as an Other, for The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Thomas Powers discussed nine books by or about Larry McMurtry for The New York Review of Books.
Al Kratz reviewed Twilight of the Gods by Kurt Baumeister for Bending Genres.
NBCC board member Grace Talusan reviewed Lynda Ty-Casper’s A Small Party in a Garden for The Kenyon Review.
Joan Frank reviewed Jennifer Haigh’s Rabbit Moon for The Washington Post.
NBCC lifetime member Fran Hawthorne reviewed The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian for the New York Journal of Books.
Former NBCC board member and Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing recipient Steven G. Kellman reviewed Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life for Arts Alive San Antonio.
Frank Housh published the first in a series of essays called “A Critic’s Manifesto” at Media Room.
Diane Scharper reviewed Reading Culture Through Catholic Eyes by James T. Keane for the National Catholic Reporter.
Lee Rossi reviewed Rebecca Foust’s You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems for Rhino Reviews.
NBCC board member Tobias Carroll wrote about March books in translation for Words Without Borders, and about Dispatches From the District Committee, written by Vladimir Sorokin and translated from the Russian by Max Lawton, for On the Seawall.
Cory Oldweiler reviewed Perspective(s), written by Laurent Binet and translated from the French by Sam Taylor, for The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Priscilla Gilman reviewed Audition by Katie Kitamura for The Boston Globe.
NBCC Co-Vice President/Events Lauren LeBlanc reviewed Kevin Nguyen’s Mỹ Documentsfor the Los Angeles Times.
Marcie Geffner reviewed Red Clay, a post-civil war historical novel by Charles B. Fancher, for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Ryan Ruby wrote about criticism as a way of life for New Literary History.
Nell Beram reviewed two books for Shelf Awareness: There and Black Again: The Autobiography of Don Letts by Don Letts and When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter.
Brian Tanguay reviewed J. B. Hwang’s Mendell Stationfor the California Review of Books.
Bruce Krajewski reviewed February 1933: The Winter of Literature, written by Uwe Wittstock and translated from the German by Daniel Bowles, for Common Knowledge.
Jake Casella Brookins reviewed Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons for the Ancillary Review of Books.
For Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of the 20th Century (So Far) special issue, NBCC Vice President/Online Michael Schaub wrote about the impact of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. And for Alta’s 25 Books That Define California issue, Michael wrote an appreciation of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.
Member Interviews
Rochelle Spencer interviewed Kima Jones for Solstice.
NBCC board member Tobias Carroll spoke with Ricky Lima about his new graphic novel for Publishers Weekly.
On the Write-minded podcast, Grant Faulkner interviewed agent Kate McKean about her new book, Write Through It, which is a roadmap to everything you want to know about how to stay the course on your publishing journey.
Member News
Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of The Odyssey, with introduction and notes, will be published on April 9 by University of Chicago Press.
NBCC board member Marie Myung-Ok Lee will participate in a panel, In A Room Of One’s Own: Inside A Writer’s Mind, alongside Aleena DeStefano and Mark Rozzo, with Renee Morales moderating. This is part of the first literary festival put on by Columbia’s literary journal, Quarto, and will be held at the second floor of Book Culture, 536 West 112th Street, New York City, on Saturday, April 12, from 6 to 8 p.m Eastern. You can reserve a spot here.
Kurt Baumeister’s Twilight of the Gods was reviewed by Selene dePackh for Heavy Feather Review. Kurt will be reading and in conversation with David Leo Rice at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn on April 8 at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Lisa Russ Spaar’s debut novel, Paradise Close, was reviewed by Christy Gualtieri at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Clea Simon’s The Butterfly Trap was reviewed by Matt Hanson at The Arts Fuse, who found it “engaging,” noting, “Simon’s keen eye for the way in which her characters willfully deceive themselves is on point.”