“A literary prize is, at best, one way of drawing readers to a book that deserves more serious attention than it might have gotten without a prize.” In a two-part essay on the New Yorker’s Page Turner blog, Michael Cunningham (a 1998 NBCC fiction award finalist for The Hours) discussed his role on last year’s Pulitzer Prize fiction jury; (in)famously, the full Pulitzer board declined to award a prize to any of the jury’s three finalists earlier this year.
Adam Kirsch meets with pioneering critic M.H. Abrams on his 100th birthday for Tablet.
Colette Bancroft reviews a new edition of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, featuring more than three dozen alternative endings, for the Tampa Bay Times.
Julia M. Klein reviews Barlett & Steele's The Betrayal of the American Dream for the Columbia Journalism Review.
Michael O’Donnell reviews James Mann’s The Obamians for the Washington Monthly.
Carolyn Kellogg reviews Matt Dojny’s novel The Festival of Earthly Delights for the Los Angeles Times.
Richard Z. Santos reviews Richard Lloyd Parry's true-crime book People Who Eat Darkness for the Rumpus and Ben Smiley's novel Don't Mess With Travis for the San Antonio Express News.
Ruth Franklin reviews W.G. Sebald’s poetry collection Across the Land and the Water for the New Republic.
….and for even more member news, check out the latest edition of the NBCC Newswire.
Your reviews and recommendations help seed these roundups: If you’re an NBCC member with a review you’d like considered for inclusion, please email nbcccritics@gmail.com. You can also get our attention by using the Twitter hashtag #nbcc, posting on the wall of our Facebook page, or joining our members-only LinkedIn group.