NBCC Reads Conversation on Books about Conjugal Love at Book Passage in Corte Madera, August 4, 7 pm, with NBCC President, Jane Ciabattari, Balakian winner Molly Giles, NBCC members Meredith Maran and Greg Sarris. Including Annie Dillard THE MAYTREEs, Jane Smiley’s A PRIVATE LIFE, Evan Connell’s MR. BRIDGE and MRS. BRIDGE.

Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA 94925-1145
(415) 927-0960

NBCC “Name that Author” returns for the third year, with 2008 champ Brigid Hughes, 2009 champ Martha Southgate, and a host of challengers. John Reed, emcee.

Moderator Bethanne Patrick with NBCC members Britt Peterson (Foreign Policy) and Sarah Courteau (Wilson Quarterly), and novelist Rick Moody in conversation about The Next Decade in Book Culture.

NBCC Reads: Gary Giddins, Lore Segal and Brenda Wineapple in conversation with James Marcus, Favorite Books about Conjugal Love.

National Book Critics Circle and Graywolf Press at the Minneapolis Public LIbrary: A Reading by NBCC Award Winners and Finalists, including Eula Biss, Marlon James, and Stephen Burt. A conversation about criticism in 2010 after the reading will be moderated by Graywolf editor Jeff Shotts.

Jane Ciabattari, Lev Grossman, Roxana Robinson, in conversation with Noreen Tomassi.

National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced (plus winners of the Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement and the winner of the Balakian Award for Excellence in Reviewing).

National Book Critics Circle Awards: Finalists Reading

The Next Decade in Book Culture

A conversation sponsored by the National Book Critics Circle

Moderated by National Book Critics Circle board member John Reed

With these little handy things called books on slated for extinction, what
is a reviewer to do?  IPads, Nooks, Kindles?  What are these little plastic
things with buttons?  And what are they doing to our beloved reflections?
We are set on the launch pad—the engines are heavy with fuel, and are
rumbling.  But where are we going?  We bring together a panel of writers,
editors, and professionals, established on the vanguard, to discuss
prospects for the review and how it may change, in the near future.

Carolyn Kellogg writes about books for the Los Angeles Times. She started
her first litblog in 2004, was the web editor for the radio show
Marketplace and is a blogging consultant for the Getty Museum.

Will Murphy is Executive Editor at Random House.  Previously he was
Humanities Editor at the University of Minnesota Press, and Literary
Editor at the University of California Press.  His authors include Salman
Rushdie, Bernard-Henri Levy, Nassim Taleb, Jeff Shaara, Jon Clinch, Bing
West, and David Brooks.

Ed Nawotka is the founder and editor-in-chief of
PublishingPerspectives.com, a daily online trade magazine for the
international publishing community. He is also a contributing editor at
Publishers Weekly and a widely published freelancer. Prior to starting
Publishing Perspectives, he was book columnist at Bloomberg News and daily
news editor of Publishers Weekly.

Denise Oswald is Editorial Director of Soft Skull Press. Prior to that she
was Senior Editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, where she oversaw the Faber
and Faber list for nearly a decade. While there her authors included
Pulitzer, PEN, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences award winners; as
well as national and regional bestsellers. Among the wide variety of
artists she’s worked with are Colin Beavan, Anne Carson, Courtney Love,
and Neil LaBute. She currently sits on the advisory board of The Feminist
Press. 

John Reed is a National Book Critics Circle board member and Books Editor
of The Brooklyn Rail. His work has been published in Open City, Artnet,
Artforum, Paper Magazine, New York Press, Brooklyn Rail, Timeout New York,
Bomb Magazine, Playboy, Art in America, Los Angeles Times, and many other
venues.  He is author of the novels, A STILL SMALL VOICE (Delacorte
Press), THE WHOLE (MTV / Simon & Schuster), the bestseller, SNOWBALL’S
CHANCE (Roof), the recently released ALL THE WORLD’S A GRAVE: A NEW PLAY
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Penguin/Plume), and the forthcoming TALES OF WOE
(MTV Press).

Craig Morgan Teicher is a poet, critic and blogger.  He is the editor of
MediaBistro’s eBookNewser blog, the poetry editor of Publishers Weekly,
and a prolific freelance reviewer.  His new book of stories and fables,
Cradle Book, is due out in June from BOA Editions. He is a National Book
Critics Circle board member.

Kate Travers is a marketing, media, and branding strategist to publishers,
authors and literary organizations. Most recently, Kate was the Strategic
Marketing and Special Events Director at powerHouse Books and the
powerHouse Arena. Kate began her career in publishing nearly ten years ago
at HarperCollins Publishers. She moved on to become the Director of Mariner
Books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Strategic Marketing Director at the
Literary Ventures Fund. Kate serves on the Literary Council of The
Brooklyn Book Festival and is a member of the Women’s Media Group.

Introduction by Jane Ciabattari, NBCC president.

Jakob K. Javits Center, Room 1E14
665 West 34th Street
New York, NY

Have a conversation with leading literary critics about the work of some of the writers at this year’s Festival—including Sherman Alexie, Quim Monzó, Peter Schneider, Martin Solares, and Peter Stamm. Who are their influences? How has their work been received, both here and abroad? Members of the National Book Critics Circle trace the journey these writers have traveled from publication to translation to critical attention.

This Critical Moment: The Journey—A National Book Critics Circle Conversation
When: Friday, April 30
Where: Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street, New York City
What time: 1–2:30 p.m.

With NBCC board members Eric Banks, Jane Ciabattari, Rigoberto González,
and Mary Ann Newman , Director of the Catalan Center at New York
University’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies.

Free but reservations are required. Please call ACF’s reservation line at
(212) 319-5300 ext. 222 or e-mail reservations@acfny.org.

Co-sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum and the National Book Critics
Circle

The Roger Shattuck Conference on the Future of Criticism at the Center for
Fiction, 17 East 47th Street, April 17, 1 pm. 

NBCC members please note: This conference is free, but because of limited
space, RSVP required to events@centerforfiction.org The Center won’t let
anyone in who is not registered. 

The Future of Criticism
                  April 17, 2010

    1:00-1:10pm Film on Roger Shattuck
    1:10 -1:30pm     Robert Weil remembers Roger Shattuck

    1;30-1:45pm     Presentation of Shattuck Awards for Criticism

    1:45–2:45pm Provocation:  Literary Criticism Today

            Conversation between Daniel Mendelsohn & Thomas Mallon

            Introduced by:  Noreen Tomassi
    2:45-3:00pm Break

    3:00-4:15pm Panel— Criteria & Approaches

            Christopher Ricks, Denis Donoghue, Liesl Schillinger

                    Moderator:  Morris Dickstein

    4:15-4:30pm Break

    4:30-5:45pm Panel—The Future of Criticism

                Jed Perl, Maud Newton, John Freeman

                Moderator:  Jane Ciabattari

    5:45-6:30pm Closing Comments:  Shattuck, Proust, and The Future

                Conversation between Michel Braudeau, Editor,
Nouvelle Revue

                Française &  Lorin Stein, The Paris Review

Wine and Cheese Reception Following

Provocation: Literary Criticism Today
Thomas Mallon’s, Auhor of seven novels, including Henry and Clara, Bandbox
and Fellow Travelers and non-fiction books on plagiarism, diaries, letters
and the Kennedy assassination, as well as two volumes of essays (Rockets
and Rodeos and In Fact). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic
Monthly, The New York Times Book Review and other publications; has taught
at Vassar College, the George Washington University and the Bread Loaf
Writers’ Conference. The recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller
fellowships, as well as the National Book Critics Circle award for
reviewing, he has been literary editor of Gentlemen’s Quarterly and deputy
chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Daniel Mendelsohn. Award-winning author of six books, critic, and
contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, The New York
Review of Books, The Paris Review among others. He is the recipient of the
National Book Critics Circle Award for Excellence in Review, and the George
Jean Nathan Prize for Drama Criticism, and the Guggenheim Foundation
Fellowship.

Panel – Criteria & Approaches
Dr. Morris Dickstein. Literary and cultural critic and author, currently
the Distinguished Professor of English and Theater at the Graduate Center
of City University of New York.

Dr. Denis Donoghue. The Henry James Professor in English and American
Letters at New York Univeristy, Chair of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences’ Nominating Committee, and a Fellow with the British Academy, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Council of Learned
Societies, his most recent books is On Eloquence.

Dr. Christopher Ricks. William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the
Humanities at Boston University, co-director of the Editorial Institute
and a Professor of Poetry at Oxford; editor, critical writer and former
president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.

Liesl Schillinger. Literary critic and regular contributor for the New
York Times Book Review.

Panel – The Future Of Criticism
Jane Ciabattari. President of the National Book Critics Circle, a blogger
on Critical Mass and the author of the short-story collection Stealing The
Fire.

John Freeman. Former president of the National Book Critics Circle and a
prolific book reviewer, currently the American editor of Granta.

Maud Newton. Writer, critic and blogger, whose blog and work has been
sited in The New York Times Book Review, New York Magazine, The New Yorker
and Bookforum, among many others.

Jed Perl. Writer and art critic for The New Republic and author of many
books including Paris Without End: On French Art Since World War I, and
most recently Antoine’s Alphabet: Watteau and His World and New Art City:
Manhattan at Mid-Century.

Closing Comments: Shattuck, Proust and the Future
Michel Braudeau. Novelist, former book critic at L’Express, editor at Le
Monde. Currently, Editor-in-Chief of La Nouvelle Revue française; author
of Flight of the Monarch (and Other Reflections) a book of essays.

Lorin Stein. Senior editor at Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, whose authors
include Richard Price, Denis Johnson, recent translations of Roberto
Bolano, Jonathan Franzen, Jefferey Eugenides, among many other prominent
writers; recently named editor of the Paris Review.

NBCC AT AWP IN DENVER:

Friday, April 9 at 10:30 am

Rooms 401, 402
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level
F140.

National Book Critics Circle: The Practice and Purpose of Poetry
Reviewing. (Kevin Prufer, Matthew Zapruder, Craig Morgan Teicher, Nickole
Brown, Timothy Donnelly.)

Poetry books sell in small numbers, yet the poetry publishing scene is
booming with new books. Readers’ enthusiasm often takes the form of book
reviewing—in literary journals, on blogs, and in the pages of newspapers
and magazines. There’s some debate about what the point of poetry
reviewing really is: to explain esoteric writing? To keep the art form
from getting sloppy? To please the poet under consideration? In this
panel, poetry reviewers, publishers, and poets will debate these
questions.

Tickets for this event are $40 until March 1 and $45 thereafter (bring Paypal receipt for entrance) and at the door.

NBCC Awards Ceremony: Announcement of the 2009 NBCC Award winners will take place at 6:00 p.m. in The New School University’s Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St., New York City. The event is free and open to the public.

$25, payable via paypal (bring receipt for entrance) or by check at the door. Reservations required. Open to current members only.

Annual NBCC Membership Meeting, March 11, 2010, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm, with a presentation on Advanced Social Media for Book Critics and Others in the Book Biz by Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Journalism School & contributing editor, DNAinfo.com and a panel on The Next Decade in Book Culture featuring current and incoming board members with perspectives from around the US: Mark Athitakis (Washington, D.C.), Colette Bancroft (St. Petersburg), Karen Long (Cleveland) Scott McLemee (Washington D.C.) and Elizabeth Taylor (Chicago).

Reading by finalists for the NBCC awards in autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The event is free and open to the public.

Announcing the finalists for the NBCC awards in autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and the winners of the Sandrof award for lifetime achievement and the Balakian award for criticism.

Special guest announcers: Anthony Appiah, President, PEN American Center, 2008 Sandrof award winner, to announce the Sandrof award; Balakian winner Albert Mobilio to announce the Balakian award; 2008 finalist Elizabeth Strout, fiction; 2008 winner Ariel Sabar, autobiography; 1999 finalist Jean Strouse, biography, 1997 and 2008 finalist Vivian Gornick, criticism; 2008 finalist Brenda Shaughnessy, poetry, and 2000 nonfiction winner Ted Conover.

Literati-a-Go-Go
hosts the National Book Critics Circle
Pointless Holiday Mingle

Whiskeytown Bar
Starts at 6:30 pm, December 9
2-for-1 drinks

29 East 3 Street (between 2nd Ave and Bowery)
212 505 7344

Join the NBCC and PEN American Center in honoring the 2009 PEN/Beyond Margins Awards. This year’s winners are Uwem Akpan for Say You’re One of Them, a new Oprah pick; NBCC poetry award winner Juan Felipe Herrera for Half the World in Light,; and Lily Hoang for her poetry collection Changing. They will be reading from their work, and joining W.W. Norton editor Brendan Curry in a conversation about “Crossing Over,” moderated by NBCC President Jane Ciabattari.

As one newspaper towns go to no newspaper towns, as bloggers get sponsors, as networking sites burgeon in content, what is the future of the book review?  We are poised now at the juncture—the transition is underway.  But a transition to what?  For some, the readership created by the internet is something to applaud.  We bring together a panel of writers, editors, and professionals, established on the vanguard, to discuss prospects for the review and how it may change, in the near future.
A National Book Critics Circle panel for the 2009 BEA
 
Ben Greenman (New Yorker, writer/reviewer)
Bethanne Patrick (PW blogger, Twitter and more)
David Nudo (Formerly New York Times, PW and Shelfari)
Otis Chandler (Goodreads CEO and founder)
Peter Krause (seems like a brand new thought, syndicates reviews to internet sites through his company, TacticCompany, formerly of Muze)
Moderated by John Reed, Books Editor, the Brooklyn Rail, NBCC board member

The world is more connected than ever, and hybrid culture has replaced the neverexistent mainstream. What do these revolutions hold for the short story? Who is its audience? And how do elements travel across cultures in the story differently than in the novel? Granta’s American editor John Freeman will lead the discussion.  Part of PEN World Voices Festival.

With Nadeem Aslam, Nam Le, Fuad Rifka, and Antje Rávic Strubel; moderated by John Freeman.

Free and open to the public.
Cosponsored by Granta and the Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Celebrate the publication of the landmark new Graywolf anthology New European Poets with a panel discussion about and readings from the work of some of the most exciting and important new poetic voices from Europe.

With Christopher Bakken, Peter Covino, Marilyn Hacker, Wendy Lesser, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Adam Sorkin, and Alissa Valles; hosted by Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer.  Part of PEN World Voices Festival.

Free and open to the public.
Cosponsored by Graywolf Press and NYU Creative Writing Program.