Friends, we hope you’re all doing well. Our members have been busy this past week with reviews of books by authors including Sasha Vasilyuk, Laura van den Berg, Kevin Barry, Emily Nussbaum and more, and interviews with writers such as Brad Gooch, Katherine Rundell, and Lindsay Wong. Thanks for reading, and please stay safe.
Member Reviews/Essays
NBCC Emerging Critics Fellow Hantian Zhang reviewed Sasha Vasilyuk’s Your Presence is Mandatory for The Masters Review.
NBCC lifetime member Fran Hawthorne reviewed How the Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard for the New York Journal of Books.
Nicole Yurcaba reviewed Katya Apekina’s Mother Doll for World Literature Today.
NBCC Co-Vice President/Events Lauren LeBlanc wrote about J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace on the 25th anniversary of its publication for the Los Angeles Times as part of their 1999 Project.
Elizabeth Rosner wrote about antisemitism, intergenerational trauma, and translation for CNN.
Joan Frank reviewed Molly Giles’ Life Span for the San Francisco Chronicle.
NBCC Vice President/Secretary Colette Bancroft reviewed Laura van den Berg’s State of Paradisefor the Tampa Bay Times.
Yana Kane’s essay about Russophone poetry of witness and protest, “Different Coin, Equal Sum,” appeared in World Literature Today. Yana also had poetry translations appear in Rattleand Another Chicago Magazine.
Costa Beavin Pappas wrote about the art consultancy ArtD’Egpyte/CulturVator for Artnews.
Former NBCC board member Steve Paul highlighted the 100th birthday of Vincent O. Carter, a little-known expat African American writer undergoing a revival and renewed critical and biographical attention. His column appeared in KC Studio, a regional arts magazine.
Yvonne C. Garrett reviewed Colm Tóibín’s Long Island for The Brooklyn Rail.
W. Scott Olsen reviewed Entropy by Diane Tuft for Frames magazine.
Claude Peck reviewed The Heart In Winter by Kevin Barry for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Jake Cline reviewed Laura van den Berg’s State of Paradise for The Washington Post.
Hamilton Cain reviewed Emily Nussbaum’s Cue the Sun! for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Marcie Geffner’s short nonfiction story, “My People,” was published by The Jewish Writing Project.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg’s Roctogenerians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs for BookTrib.
Julia M. Klein reviewed Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath for The Washington Post.
For The Red Hook Star-Revue, Michael Quinn reviewed Mike Fiorito’s UFO novel For All We Know.
Alexander Pyles reviewed Psalms of My People by Lenny Duncan for U.S. Catholic.
In The Brooklyn Rail, John Domini had praise for Morgan Talty’s debut novel, Fire Exit.
Bill Thompson reviewed Ferris Jabr’s Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to LIfe for The Post and Courier.
Lisa Russ Spaar published an essay-review, “Architectural Intuitions,” a review of recent books by Vievee Francis, Linda Gregerson, and Ron Slate in Raritan, Spring 2024, Volume XLIII, Number 4.
Eric Olson reviewed Ruby Todd’s Bright Objectsfor The Washington Post.
Carol Iaciofano Aucoin reviewed Ben Shattuck’s The History of Sound for WBUR’s Arts & Culture.
Nell Beram reviewed three books for Shelf Awareness: Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable by Sarah Gerard; Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls by Susan Seidelman; and 1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose.
Member Interviews
Claude Peck interviewed Brad Gooch about his new Keith Haring biography, Radiant, for The Gay & Lesbian Review.
For Publishers Weekly, Emma Kantor profiled British author Katherine Rundell, who brings her acclaimed middle grade fantasy series starter, Impossible Creatures, as well as her nonfiction ode to endangered species, Vanishing Treasures, across the pond this fall.
For the Los Angeles Times, Jim Ruland talked to Punk Hostage Press publisher Iris Berry and editor Joe Donnelly about John Albert’s posthumous collection Running with the Devil: Essay, Articles, and Remembrances.
Hollay Ghadery interviewed Lindsay Wong for The (CanL)It Crowd, and George Lee about autofiction in his Guernica Prize-winning novel, Dancing in the River, for the Creative Nonfiction Collective.
Aiden Hunt interviewed poet-scholar and critic Aldon Lynn Nielsen in Philly Poetry Chapbook Review.
W. Scott Olsen interviewed Stephen Guenther for the Frames magazine podcast.
NBCC Vice President/Online Michael Schaub interviewed Gail Godwin for the Orange County Register.
Member News
Clea Simon was interviewed about her new book, Bad Boy Beat, by Caroline Leavitt for A Mighty Blaze’s LitFic series.
Lisa Russ Spaar published a short story, “A Trip to the Country,” at The Yale Review.
Yana Kane won the RHINO 2024 Poetry Translation Prize. There will be a virtual presentation of the 2024 issue of RHINO Poetry on July 18, and Yana will be one of the readers. The event also includes an open mic. More information about the event and a registration link can be found here.
Jack Rockwell’s co-translation of Julia Kornberg’s Berlin Atomized will be published by Astra House on Dec. 3, 2024. It is available for preorder, and reviewers interested in getting an advance copy can write to Rachael Small at rsmall@astrapublishinghouse.com.
“Barter Books” by drgillybean is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.