Critical Mass

The following remembrance ofStanley Elkin from NBCC member Abby Frucht kicks off the In Retrospect series'look back at his (first) winning novel, George Mills, which took home the fiction award in 1982 over books

The following essay by recent National Book Award finalist Joshua Ferriskicks off the In Retrospect Series look at Don Delillo's “White Noise,” a finalist for our fiction prize in 1985 (it was beat out by Anne

The following post from NBCC member Marc Weingarten concludes the In Retrospect series look back at Norman Mailer and “Executioner's Song,” his 1979 nonfiction novel which was a finalist for

This excerpt is from “Salvation” by Lucia Nevai, to be published in June 2008 by Tin House Books.  With abject, slavish desire, with off-hand, sloppy curiosity, with gratitude, with sedation, I

One form Mailer unequivocally mastered in his life time was the interview. Over the decades he gave hundreds of them, including right up until his death. The following dispatch comes from NBCC member Dylan

The following poem from National Book Critics Circle winning poet Mark Rudman kicks off the In Retrospect series look at Norman Mailer's 1979 finalist, The Executioner's Song. The poem, which Rudman sent to us this weekend,

The following excerpt from the Journals of John Cheever continues theIn Retrospect series look back at John Cheever's 1977 NBCC finalist, “Falconer.”  In reading old journals with Farragut's letters in mind, I

The posts belowregarding John Cheever's Falconerhave generated some mail regarding the upcoming John Cheever volumes to be published by the Library of America (an organization which won the NBCC's Sandrof

The following essay from Cheever biographer (and former National Book Critics Circle Award finalist)Blake Bailey continues the In Retrospect series look back at John Cheever's 1977 NBCC finalist, “Falconer.”  It would be hard to