National Book Critics Circle at 50 & Brooklyn’s Indelible Influence

The National Book Critics Circle was conceived and founded in April 1974. What began with founding members John Leonard, Nona Balakian, and Ivan Sandrof over drinks at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan became a national conversation between critics. 50 years later, the National Book Critics Circle remains a force in American literary society through its awards, but also its community.

Now in its 50th anniversary year, this panel conversation considers the influence that Brooklyn along with its critics and writers have brought to American literary culture. Today, even after the move to remote work in 2020, Brooklyn stands out as home to much of the publishing industry. In both formal and casual channels, the borough has been a crucible for collaboration, networking, leverage, and celebration of writers. National Book Critics Circle board members past and present, including Michele Filgate, Maris Kreizman, David Varno, Jo Livingstone, Tobias Carroll, and others will discuss the borough's impact on books and criticism over the decades.

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PARTICIPANTS

Tobias Carroll is the author of five books, most recently the novel In the Sight. He writes a monthly column about books in translation for Words Without Borders.

 

 

 

 

Michele Filgate is the editor of a critically acclaimed anthology based on her Longreads essay, What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About, published by Simon & Schuster, and the forthcoming anthology What My Father and I Don’t Talk About. Michele earned her MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she was the recipient of the Stein Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Longreads, Joyland, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Paris Review Daily, Tin House, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, and other publications. She teaches or has taught creative writing at Columbia, NYU, The New School, The Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, Catapult, The Shipman Agency, and Stanford Continuing Studies. In 2016, Brooklyn Magazine named her one of "The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture." Photo credit Sylvie Rosokoff

 

Maris Kreizman is a columnist for Lit Hub. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Republic, and more. Her essay collection, I Want To Burn This Place Down, is forthcoming in 2025 from Ecco/HarperCollins. Her newsletter is called The Maris Review.

 

 

 

 

 

Jo Livingstone is a writer in New York and visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Varno is a reviews editor at Publishers Weekly and a former president of the National Book Critics Circle, where he currently chairs the fiction award. His writing has appeared in Alta, BOMB, the Literary Review, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Tin House, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere.
 

 

 

 

 

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor of Kirkus Reviews and a former president of the National Book Critics Circle. She was previously an editor at the Village Voice Literary Supplement and the book editor of Newsday and Bloomberg News. Her reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers and magazines.