Critical Notes

“A tapestry of literary activism and erudition, passion and precision, action with words.” So writes the El Paso Times about Red-Inked Retablos, the latest book from NBCC board member Rigoberto

Meredith Maran's Why We Write in BookPage's “9 noteworthy books for book lovers,” a lighthearted list of “books about books.” Just a month after winning the 2012 NBCC Criticism award for

Chinua Achebe's death last week brought to mind PEN American Center's celebration of the author's work, as recalled by David Ulin. Among the Philip Roth birthday notices, Steve Kellman's “Four

Wrapping up the “13 Bests of AWP 2013” for the Huffington Post, Ru Freeman named NBCC board member and AWP organizer, Harvard professor, NBCC criticism finalist and poet Stephen Burt

Dallas News kvells,  book editor Michael Merschel grabs a quote from Ben Fountain re his NBCC fiction award for “Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.” NBCC's multitasking web manager David Varno

First up, video of the National Book Critics Circle finalists reading, complete list of National Book Critics Circle award winners, video of Sandrof lifetime achievement winners Sandra Gilbert and Susan