A week ago National Book Critics Circle announced its 2021 nominees in multiple categories (see link below). For the second year in a row I am a judge of the John Leonard Prize for a first book, and I have known which titles are finalists for that prize for several weeks but was not at liberty to share that information until a week ago. Last year ( Read more... )

Brandon Taylor: On D.H. Lawrence & moral fiction

“It all sounds very abstract, I know. But for me, it comes down to this: moral fiction is not fiction that affirms your ideology about power systems and oppression. It does not make you feel like a good and righteous person. It may have no lessons for you to tweet about or put on Instagram or explain ( Read more... )

Catullus Sails to China, Four Poems by John Yau (thanks to John Madera who published them in Big Other in 2019 and posted this link in Small Press News on the poet's birthday)

Fascinating conversation with the author of the forthcoming short Roth biography in the Yale Jewish Lives series:



#PhilipRoth

#literarybiography

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It turns out only one of the six books I nominated for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize for a first book is a finalist (some years none of my nominees make it to the next round), and that book is Luster by Raven Leilani. This year there are seven finalists for Leonard Prize; Luster and the other six are listed in the ( Read more... )

13 days ago as a National Book Critics Circle voting member I
submitted my ballot on which I nominated six first books for
NBCC’s John Leonard Prize for a First Book. Any book published
in 2020 that is its author’s first published book is eligible. This
year I read 36 first books of varying genres, but all six books I
nominated are debut novels (in ( Read more... )

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This is a Davar Torah or sermon (click on link) I gave at Park Slope Jewish Center during Shabbat morning services on June 22, 2019, which was my brother Robert's 26th yahrzeit (death anniversary) on the Jewish calendar. I gave a shorter version of the same talk at AltShul two weeks earlier.


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The Diaries of Lea Goldberg translated by Tsipi Keller. The Hebrew poet's
travelogue of her 1937 trip to Italy


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