Members and friends, we hope you’re doing well! Our members have been busy this past week with reviews of books by authors including Meg Richardson, Mary Beard, Rachel Aviv, Valeria Luiselli, and Amitav Ghosh, and interviews with writers such as Maureen Burdock, Julian Brave NoiseCat, and Chris Lockhart. Take care, and thanks for reading!
Member Reviews/Essays
Karl Wolff reviewed Paradise Pawn by Meg Richardson for The Driftless Area Review.
Susan Shapiro wrote an essay for Newsweek that was inspired by Belle Burden’s bestselling memoir Strangers.
David Starkey reviewed Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard for the California Review of Books.
Meg Lemke compiled the Fall 2026 Comics & Graphic Novels Preview for Publishers Weekly.
Alana Pockros reviewed Rachel Aviv’s You Won’t Get Free of It for The New Republic.
Joan Frank reviewed Michael Klein’s Happiness Ruined Everything for The Arts Fuse.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Danielle Postel-Vinay’s Murder Most Delicious and Alexandra Andrews’ The Fine Heart of Lying for BookTrib.
Brian Tanguay reviewed American Alt by Chris Lockhart for the California Review of Books.
Cory Oldweiler wrote about Valeria Luiselli’s Beginning Middle Endfor The Boston Globe.
Robert Rubsam reviewed Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye for The Atlantic.
Lori O’Dea reviewed Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book for The Gay & Lesbian Review.
Nicole Schrag reviewed Dixie Dillon Lane’s Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream for The Wall Street Journal. Her journal article on British filmmaker Ken Loach’s North-East trilogy was also recently published in the Journal of British Cinema and Television.
Member Interviews
DW McKinney interviewed graphic novelist Maureen Burdock about her graphic memoir Sleepless Planet: A Graphic Guide to Healing from Insomnia for Mutha Magazine.
Former NBCC board member Anita Felicelli interviewed Julian Brave NoiseCat about We Survive the Night for Alta.
Sullivan Summer interviewed Amanda Johnston, founder of Torch Literary Arts, on the Additions to the Archive podcast.
Ian MacAllen interviewed Danielle Callegari about her new book, A Bite-Sized History of Italy, for Appetito.
Eric Olson profiled author Chris Lockhart for The Seattle Times, about his book American Alt and right-wing conspiracies in the Pacific Northwest.
Member News
Sullivan Summer launched Black Lit Crit, a weekly newsletter featuring work by critics who identify as part of the Black/African diaspora. Culled from over 100 sources each week, the site includes a directory of Black critics whose work is linked on the site. If you are a Black critic with a recent byline, please click here to be added to the directory.
Bill Henderson’s latest book, A Small Good Thing: Sketches From a Literary Life, will be published by Pushcart Press on Oct. 20.
Susan Shapiro will be moderating a panel with editors, agents ,and authors at the Women’s Media Group on Sept. 16 at Random House called Switching the Shelf: Rethinking Your Book Genre about what she calls “Genre Fluidity.” You can find more information and register here.
Joan Silverman’s newsletter, Away From It All, promises a bit of respite from the news and information that assault us daily. The newsletter highlights “essays by leading writers on any and everything, but the news.” The latest issue features essays by Steven Church, Naomi Cohn, and Adam Farrer. For more information, visit awayfromitall.substack.com.
“Summer road trip : day4 : Salem” by Paul Falardeau is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.