Included in the excellent new issue of @washingtonmonthly.com!

Very pleased to be published in @washingtonmonthly.com today! And —“Bernie for Burlington”…what a fabulous biography!

A terrific experience to chair the @bookcritics.bsky.social nonfiction committee, with the amazing @gwinnma.bsky.social, @michaelschaub.bsky.social, Jacob Appel, Colette Bancroft, Iris Dunkle, Jonathan Leal. Congrats to all longlisted authors and all writers whose work we read during the last year!

This was a fun committee to serve on. Congratulations to all the winners—and, really, everyone who published a biography last year. I read so many books I loved, but we were only able to pick 10 for the longlist, alas! Many of your books I will carry with me for a while. Thank you!

Congratulations to these amazing writers! As a member of the @bookcritics.bsky.social fiction committee, I’ve felt so privileged to read your work!

My new review in @washingtonmonthly.com of Brian Soucek’s brilliant “The Opinionated University” published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social. All the arguments you need next time your administration decides to remain silent.

A fun crash course in art history in the guise of a novel: Thomas Schlesser's "Mona's Eyes" from @europaeditions.bsky.social. My review in @theartnewspaper.bsky.social: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/02/f...

A new book on the Vorticists finally puts the female artists front and center. My review of James King's "Our Little Gang" (@reaktionbools.co.uk) in @theartnewspapwr.bsky.social): www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/31/n...

Such a pleasure to speak with Anne Kim of @washingtonmonthly.com about the art of book reviewing.

Laurent Binet's brilliant art historical whodunnit "Perspectives" (@fsgbooks.bsky.social, @penguinbooksuk.bsky.social) makes the world of 16th-century Florence come alive. My review in The Art Newspaper: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/01/p...

New review in this week's @wsj.com of Henry Wiencek's "Stan and Gus" (@fsgbooks.bsky.social), a dual bio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the notorious Stanford White. Find out why I think a crab is the fitting symbol of their friendship: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

My take on Jonathan Aaron’s wonderful “Just About Anything” @cmupress.bsky.social in @ronslate.bsky.social’s “On the Seawall”: “Aaron’s poetry, for the length of a few lines, a handful of pages, persuades us that things or people that are gone aren’t, in fact, lost.” www.ronslate.com/on-just-abou...

My new review in @wsj.com--"The Shape of Wonder," @pantheonbooks.bsky.social, a very readable book, by astrophysicist Alan Lightman and abstronomer Martin Rees. Felt compelled to put in a reminder at the end that the humanities and arts are kind of cool, too: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

If you‘re curious about what‘s happening to higher ed in my state (Indiana), here‘s an indispensable analysis, with plenty of evidence, by my colleague Purnima Bose: againstthecurrent.org/atc238/india...

I am so thrilled to have won one of the two 2025 Kukula awards, and congratulations to all the finalists and fellow award winner Ian Johnson. My deep gratitude to @washingtonmonthly.com for making this award possible—and to Kukula Kapoor Glastris, too, for her work. What a legacy!

Audubon is usually associated with largeness—here’s my view of him as a miniaturist, published in @engelsbergideas.bsky.social. engelsbergideas.com/essays/when-...

Very happy to be a finalist. Book reviewers often work in obscurity—it’s so great of @washingtonmonthly.com to recognize our work. Congratulations to all the other finalists!

Congrats to all the poetry finalists of @bookcritics.bsky.social! It has been such an honor to serve on this committee!

What a delight to serve on the autobiography committee of @bookcritics.bsky.social! Congrats to all our finalists!

It has been such an honor to serve on the biography committee of @bookcritics.bsky.social. Check out our excellent finalists below!

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

Congratulations to Lori Lynn Turner, the winner of the 2024 NBCC Service Award!

Congratulations to @thirdworldpress.bsky.social, the winner of the 2024 Toni Morrison Achievement Award!

We’re excited to announce that in honor of our 50th anniversary, we’ll be joined at the NBCC Awards ceremony by Maxine Hong Kingston!

So happy to have been involved in selecting this fabulous list of finalists! Congrats to all!

A timely artist. My review of the Alfred Kubin exhibit at the Albertina in Vienna & the accompanying catalog. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/08/t...

I served on the poetry committee of @bookcritics.bsky.social. It was an honor to help select our first-ever poetry longlist for 2024. Congratulations to all these wonderful writers!

Here is our first ever longlist for biography 2024 @bookcritics.bsky.social. Proud to be a member of our biography committee and to help select these wonderful titles. Congrats to the authors!

Check out our autobiography longlist below. I served on the autobiography committee of @bookcritics.bsky.social, and it was a pleasure and an honor to spend the last few months in the company of these amazing writers! Congratulations!

How exciting to be able to share the @bookcritics.bsky.social’s longlist for the 2024 Criticism Award!

Our fiction longlist @bookcritics.bsky.social is out! Check out these amazing titles below!

My most recent article in @harvardmagazine.bsky.social: About Werner Sollors's new collection of essays and his decades of work redefining what it means to be "American"--scholarship more important than ever as we're facing another resurgence of nativist rhetoric. www.harvardmagazine.com/node/88621

So proud to serve on the amazing board of @bookcritics.bsky.social and to have been involved in this work!

Art critic John Berger‘s late-in-life correspondence with his son Yves, a painter, is entertaining and moving and full of unexpected comparisons. My review in The Art Newspaper: www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/12/03/i...

My review of Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie’s “The Use of Photography” (@sevenstories.bsky.social), just out in @TheArtNewspaper. www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/11/26/t...

I loved Arlie Hochschild’s new book, “Stolen Pride” (@thenewpress.bsky.social). A very timely book, of course, but also beautifully written. www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/02/t...

Our culture needs critical voices, and we need your help. Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle supports the art of literary criticism and honors outstanding literature. Please consider supporting the NBCC’s work with an annual or one-time donation. bookcritics.org/donate #GivingTuesday

New review in WSJ Books--on Peter Godfrey-Smith's "Living on Earth" and Katherine Rundell's "Vanishing Treasures" and why humans have little to be proud of. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Celebrating Caspar Savid Friedrich—my review in The Art Newspaper: www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/09/10/t...

Jones Very's poetry is intense, austere, and just a little bit strange--except when he writes, beautifully, about plants and birds. In Clark Davis' "God's Scrivener" (Chicago), Very finally gets the treatment he deserves. My review in this weekend's WSJ: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Lots of books have been written about Thoreau. This one will last. My review of Lawrence Buell's "Thoreau" in this weekend's book section of the Wall Street Journal. tinyurl.com/mskyktyj