Members and friends, we hope you’re doing well! Our critics have been keeping busy this past week with reviews of books by authors including Madeline Cash, Cristina Rivera Garza, Olga Tokarczuk, and Jennette McCurdy, and interviews with writers such as George Saunders, Kadir Nelson, Emma Straub, and W. Ralph Eubanks. Take care, and thanks for reading!
Member Reviews/Essays
Sebastian Stockman wrote a remembrance of the late journalist Dan McQuade for his Substack, A Saturday Letter.
Anna Della Subin reviewed Nora Berend’s El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary for the London Review of Books.
Joanne Diaz reviewed Water, a collection of poems by Rumi translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori, for Full Stop.
In his column for Kirkus Reviews, former NBCC President Tom Beer writes about the theme of friendship in three recent novels.
Sara Polsky reviewed Jonathan Gleason’s Field Guide to Falling Ill for the Chicago Review of Books.
Mary Karmelek reviewed Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs for The Brooklyn Rail.
Caroline Tracey reviewed Autobiography of Cotton, written by Cristina Rivera Garza and translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, for The Border Chronicle.
Celia McGee reviewed Kadir Nelson’s Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game for The New York Times Book Review.
Clea Simon reviewed House of Day, House of Night, written by Olga Tokarczuk and translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, for The Arts Fuse.
McKenzie Watson-Fore wrote a review-essay about HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones and the delicate art of humor about religion for her critical residency at MAYDAY magazine.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Jonathan Freeland’s The Traitor’s Circle for BookTrib.
Samantha Neugebauer reviewed Jennette McCurdy’s debut novel, Half His Age, for DCTrending.
Heather Treseler reviewed Henry David Thoreau’s Kalendar, Charts and Observations of Natural Phenomena, edited by Kristen Case, for The Lexington Observer.
Christina Acosta reviewed Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket and Jack Kelly’s Tom Paine’s War for the Historical Novel Society.
Paul Wilner previewed new works by George Saunders, Claire Oshetsky, and investigative journalist Scott Eden for the Nob Hill Gazette.
Shara Lessley wrote “Beautiful and Hopeless, Bright & Wrong,” a critical essay, for Adroit Journal‘s tribute to Larry Levis.
Emily Hall reviewed Kristina Ten’s Tell Me Yours, I’ll Tell You Mine for Heavy Feather Review.
Brian Tanguay reviewed The Secret War Against Hate by Steven J. Ross for the California Review of Books.
Tom Peebles reviewed Michelle Adams’ The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North on his personal blog.
Carl Hoffman reviewed Mike Pitts’ Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island for The Washington Post.
Tony Miksanek reviewed See One, Do One, Teach One: The Art of Becoming a Doctor by Grace Farris for the Journal of Medical Humanities.
Maryanne Hannan reviewed Kate Riley’s Ruthfor the Englewood Review of Books and Janet Rich Edwards’ Canticlefor the National Catholic Reporter.
Member Interviews
Elaine Szewczyk profiled Emma Straub for Publishers Weekly.
Mandana Chaffa, Vice President of the Barrios Book in Translation Prize and co-Vice President of Membership, interviewed George Saunders about Vigil for The Brooklyn Rail.
Adam M. Lowenstein interviewed Jean-Baptiste Fressoz about his book, More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, for Drilled.
Paul Wilner interviewed British film historian Paul Fischer about The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Spielberg and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema for the Nob Hill Gazette.
Sullivan Summer interviewed award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks about his book When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land for the New Books Network.
Member News
NBCC member Edna Bonhomme was interviewed by Harris Solomon in Public Books about her book A History of the World in Six Plagues, which comes out in paperback next month.
Brink, which is edited by NBCC member Hannah Bonner, is open for The Brink Literary Award for Hybrid Writing through February 28! The winner will receive $1,000, publication in the journal, and 4 copies of the issue in which their work appears. Diana Khoi Nguyen is the judge for this year’s contest. More information about submitting can be found here.
Shara Lessley’s poem “Sisyphus” was recently featured at Poem-a-Day.
NBCC member Bill Marx, president and co-founder of the book review nonprofit Viva la Book Review, is searching for reviewers based in the California and Chicago areas. Viva la Book Review regularly sends out calls for pitches and reviewers in collaboration with various partner local media outlets. Viva’s latest opportunities include calls for book review pitches from California- and Chicago-based critics. Request more information—and get notified about review opportunities firsthand—by signing up at vivalabookreview.org/contact.
Elizabeth Rosner was the first featured guest to be interviewed for the podcastTo Be Continued, on the subject of her book Survivor Café.
Robert Allen Papinchak’s poem “Quiet” has been accepted for publication by North of Oxford.
“The Stacks” by J B is licensed under CC BY 2.0.