Friends, we hope you’re having a good summer so far! Our members have been busy this past week reviewing books by authors including Sarah Gerard, Dinaw Mengestu, m.s. RedCherries, Joy Williams, and Ruby Todd, and interviewing writers like Jonathan Lethem, Laura van den Berg, and Rachel Kushner. Stay cool, stay safe, and thanks for reading!
Member Reviews/Essays
NBCC Emerging Critics Fellow Hannah Bonner reviewed Eliza Barry Callahan’s The Hearing Test for The Sewanee Review‘s blog.
For The New Republic, Kristen Martin wrote about Lawrence Ingrassia’s A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Medical Mystery (and her own experience with genetic testing for inherited cancer syndromes). Kristen also reviewed Sarah Gerard’s Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession With the Unthinkable for The Washington Post and Tracie McMillan’s The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism for The Nation.
Chris Barsanti reviewed the book and exhibition American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson for Rain Taxi Review of Books.
Former NBCC board member and Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing recipient Steven G. Kellman reviewed Dinaw Mengestu’s Someone Like Us for Arts Alive San Antonio.
Kitty Kelley wrote about Bill Maher’s What This Comedian Said Will Shock Youfor The Georgetowner.
NBCC lifetime member Heller McAlpin reviewed Honoré de Balzac’s The Lily in the Valley, translated by Peter Bush, and Eric Hazan’s Balzac’s Paris: The City as Human Comedy for The Wall Street Journal.
Anne Charles reviewed Rose Norman’s The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community by the Seafor The Gay & Lesbian Review.
Nicole Yurcaba reviewed m.s. Redcherries’ Mother and Liz Riggs’ Lo-Fi for Southern Review of Books.
Samantha Neugebauer reviewed Joy Williams’ Concerning the Future of Souls for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Carole V. Bell reviewed Emily Nussbuam’s Cue the Sun!for NPR and Mateo Askaripour’s This Great Hemispherefor The Boston Globe.
Cory Oldweiler reviewed The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio for The Boston Globe.
Diane Scharper reviewed The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox for the Washington Examiner.
Hamilton Cain reviewed Michael Lobel’s Van Gogh and the End of Nature for On the Seawall.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Michael Callahan’s The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard and Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling’s The Memo for BookTrib.
Benjamin Woodard reviewed Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams for On the Seawall.
Nell Beram reviewed two books for Shelf Awareness: Back in Black: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories, edited by Don Bruns; and Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ’70s New York by Guy Trebay.
Julia M. Klein reviewed Corey Brettschneider’s The Presidents and the People for The Boston Globe and Ruby Todd’s Bright Objects for the Los Angeles Times.
Charles Green reviewed Harry W. Kendall’s Truth Crushed to Earth: The Legacy of Will Parker for Blueink Review.
John Skoyles reviewed two books of poetry by Eugenio Montale: Late Montale, translated by George Bradley, and Butterfly of Dinard, translated by Oonagh Stransky and Marla Moffa, for On the Seawall.
Julia Flynn Siler reviewed James Tejani’s A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth for The Wall Street Journal.
Lisa Russ Spaar reviewed Heather Treseler’s Auguries & Divinations for On the Seawall.
Member Interviews
NBCC Vice President/Membership and Technology Rebecca Hussey and Frances Evangelista interviewed Between the Covers host David Naimon about literary podcasting and criticism on the latest episode of the One Bright Book podcast.
Former NBCC board member Anita Felicelli profiled Jonathan Lethem in connection with his latest, Cellophane Bricks, for Alta.
Adam M. Lowenstein interviewed the political philosopher Ingrid Robeyns about her new book, Limitarianism, for Reframe Your Inbox.
NBCC Co-Vice President/Events Jane Ciabattari’s Literary Hub conversation with Laura van den Berg focused on merging autofiction with speculative fiction in her new novel, State of Paradise.
Hollay Ghadery interviewed poets Shani Mootoo and Johanna Skibsrud on HOWL on 89.5 CIUT-FM and talked about their recent collections with Book*hug Press.
Chris Barsanti profiled Charles Burns for Publishers Weekly.
W. Scott Olsen interviewed Russian biologist/photographer Alexander Semenov for the Frames magazine podcast.
For their Book Cougars podcast, NBCC member Chris Wolak and Emily Fine spoke with Juliet Grames about her new literary mystery, The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.
Elaine Szewczyk wrote a profile of Rachel Kushner for Publishers Weekly.
Member News
NBCC member Kevin Anthony Brown’s Countée Cullen’s Harlem Renaissance: A Personal History will be published by Parlor Press on July 22, 2024. It is available for order here, and reviewers interested in receiving a copy can request one here.
Yana Kane had a poetry translation appear in Interpret. Her own poem “Machine Learning” was published in 128 LIT, and another poem, “The tenth sister,” appeared in Platform Review.
Frank Housh is the managing editor of The Buffalo Hive, now in public beta, which launches July 22, 2024. The Buffalo Hive is a not-for-profit journalism site with two primary functions: an open, comprehensive arts calendar and independent arts and cultural journalism. The Buffalo Hive‘s masthead includes editors and contributors with over a century of combined journalism experience; it fills the space for quality arts writing abandoned by corporate journalism in the past several decades. All work appearing in The Buffalo Hive is edited and all contributors are paid. If you are interested in contributing a book review, please contact Frank at frank@houshlaw.com.
Samantha Neugebauer published a short story, “Timeshares,” through Bridge Eight Press.
W. Scott Olsen’s book Fargo Street, a collection of 100 black-and-white street photography images of the Fargo, North Dakota, metro area (which includes the towns of Moorhead, Minnesota, and West Fargo, North Dakota), will be published in October, and is on pre-sale now (with a substantial discount). If any NBCC members want a review copy, please get in touch with Scott at olsen@cord.edu.