Members and friends, please join us for a special conversation about criticism for books in translation with judges of the Barrios Prize on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, led by Barrios Prize Chair Mandana Chaffa, and including NBCC President Adam Dalva, Hannah Jochmans, Laura Marris and Liz Wood! You can register here.
Member Reviews/Essays
Lauren Bo wrote a hybrid personal essay/review looking at Bashō’s The Narrow Road of Oku for the Cleveland Review of Books.
NBCC lifetime member Heller McAlpin reviewed Julie Orringer’s Luna, Phoenix, Queen and Ayad Akhtar’s The Radiance for NPR.
Andrew Holter reviewed Ashley Kahn’s book about the making of Paul Simon’s album Graceland, Days of Miracle and Wonder, for the Times Literary Supplement.
Sullivan Summer wrote about the creation of her literary criticism newsletter and critics’ directory, Black Lit Crit, for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Katherine Beaman reviewed Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, written by Mónica Ojeda and translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker, and Asmodeus, written by Rita Indiana and translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas, for Delicatessen.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Matcha on Monday, written by Michiko Aoyama and translated from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda; Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weidens; and Stitchedby Eli McCann for BookTrib.
James Marcus reviewed Emily Ogden’s Darkness Becomes Bright for The New Statesman.
Zack Graham wrote an essay about the Berlin nightclub Berghain for the new issue of AFM, featuring illustrations by Rama Duwaji, the first lady of New York City.
Tom Peebles reviewed Victor Sebestyen’s Weimar Germany: The Death of a Democracy on his personal blog.
Ron Slate reviewed Safe Rooms by Rae Armantrout, Diary of Small Discontents by John Yau, and Surety by Anna Zumbahlen for On The Seawall.
Karl Wolff reviewed The Language of Trees by Katie Holten for The Driftless Area Review.
Robert Allen Papinchak reviewed Vaim Hotel, written by Nobel Prize laureate Jon Fosse and translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls, for World Literature Today.
NBCC Online Chair Michael Schaub reviewed Mark Lamster’s Welcome to Paradox City: A Critical History of Dallas as Told Through Its Architecture for Places Journal.
Member Interviews
Jenny Bartoy interviewed Barbara Kingsolver about her latest novel, Partita, for The Seattle Times.
For The Village Star-Revue, Michael Quinn interviewed Snaxtime co-creator Justin Ulloa about Demon Summer, the debut YA fast-food horror novel he wrote with partner Jamie Dwyer under the pseudonym J.J. Buffet.
Sullivan Summer interviewed author and journalist Lucas L. Johnson II about his book, Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World, on the Additions to the Archive podcast.
Nancy Naomi Carlson interviewed Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson about translating Memorial de Ayres by Machado de Assis—with an excerpt from the novel—for On the Seawall.
Ellen F. Brown interviewed Rachel Beanland about her new book, The Half Life, for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Elaine Szewczyk profiled Sara Paretsky and Matthew Salesses for Publishers Weekly.
Zachary Fletcher profiled Bonnie Garmus for USA Today.
Stephen Patrick Bell interviewed Yiyun Li for the Chicago Review of Books.
NBCC Online Chair Michael Schaub interviewed Patrick deWitt and T. Geronimo Johnson for The Orange County Register.
Member News
Boston Review published the 2026 H. L. Mencken Memorial Lecture that Andrew Holter gave in Baltimore last month, on the subject of Mencken’s “social outrage”.
Joan Silverman’s newsletter promises a bit of respite from the news and information that assault us daily. Away From It All highlights “essays by leading writers on any and everything, but the news.” The current issue celebrates October, with a tribute to the great Van Morrison and Moondance. For more information, visit awayfromitall.substack.com.
Nancy Naomi Carlson’s translation of Abdourahman A. Waberi’s When We Only Have the Earth (University of Nebraska Press, African Poetry Book Series, 2025) has been shortlisted for this year’s Lewis Galantière Award from the American Translators Association (ATA). The ATA Galantière Award is given for a distinguished book-length literary translation from any language, except German, into English published in the United States. The award is bestowed biennially in even-numbered years, and for the 2026 award, the translations were published in 2024 and 2025. The winner will be announced on Oct. 29, 2026, at the ATA’s 67th Annual Conference in San Francisco.
“LVDB BOOKS” by m-louis .® is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.