July 13, 2011
By Helen Vendler
Although we all know the hazards of reading poetry in translation, translations are my only way to gain an acquaintance with poets writing in languages I do not know—Polish, German,
June 29, 2011
By Lia Purpura
1. Oh, the summer reading list! Summer: the battleground, where ought to’s and true loves slug it out. What I should be reading/what I want to fall into. The profligate
June 22, 2011
By Paula Giddings
Historians will tell you that the race/gender divide got its political start when the 15th Amendment allowed black men, but not women of any color, to vote in 1870. But
June 15, 2011
By Paula Fox
Each summer, we ask writers who have won or been finalists for NBCC awards what they’re reading and what they look forward to reading in the months ahead. This year,
June 6, 2011
By NBCC
“This book is possibly best described as Don Quixote meets Proust. Maqroll is a wanderer, a man who spends his days getting mired in impossible ventures and then extricating himself
June 2, 2011
By Rigoberto Gonzalez
Forgotten Borough: Writers Come to Terms with Queens, SUNY Press, Excelsior Editions, 2011. Nicole Steinberg is the editor of the literary anthology Forgotten Borough: Writers Come to Terms with Queens,
June 1, 2011
By Steven G. Kellman
At 101, Hans Keilson became the oldest finalist for an NBCC book award when his novel “Comedy in a Minor Key” was selected last January as one of five titles
May 20, 2011
By Carsten Jensen
Former book reviewer Carsten Jensen offered a Danish perspective on the state of book reviewing today in the National Book Critics Circle’s PEN World Voices 2011 conversation (video here). He
May 18, 2011
By Morris Dickstein
In his 2007 book of essays, A Mirror in the Roadway, Morris Dickstein asked,”Why write about literature?” (Not to be rewarded with money, fame, and love….nor to be widely read,
May 17, 2011
By Cynthia Ozick
In her 2006 essay collection The Din in the Head, Cynthia Ozick writes of 'this persistent internal hum” that is set off “by the individual's solitary engagement with an intimate