Natasha Trethewey Wins Pulitzer Prize
Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard has won the Pulitzer Prize. What's the opposite of schadenfreude? When great things happen to great people who deserve it, I become filled with a level of euphoria that is hard to quantify. It's as if the universe has shown itself to have order and Nietzsche proven wrong about the mortality of the omniscient being.
If you don't know Natasha Trethewey's work, it's time to recognize: check out this video of her award-winning poetry.
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You may already be aware of the pending demise of the book-review section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here’s a bit more info, courtesy of last week’s visitor, Peder Zane, book-review editor of The Raleigh News and Observer and former board member of the National Book Critics Circle, including a link to the NBCC’s blog. I’ve also pasted in the full text of the petition so you can decide if you want to sign it. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, please consider doing so. Reviewers are crucial to us as writersand as readers. And if you want to write reviews, you’ll need book review editors to send them to.
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From Peder Zane:
As you may know, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the latest paper announce plans to reduce its books coverage. In response, the National Book Critics Circle is circulating a petition against this move. Below is the email the group's president, John Freeman, is sending out describing the two-pronged effort.
First is the petition, which can you sign by clicking here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/atl2007/petition.html
Second, the NBCC is asking various figures in publishing - writers, publishers, booksellers and critics - to make the case for the important of books and book reviews at this time of peril.
"Top Ten" contributor George Saunders has written the first short piece in this series which you can read here:
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/
To: The Atlanta Journal Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s recent decision to eliminate its book editor positionand, possibly, its book review sectionis demoralizing beyond words. The AJC's book section is one of the best-edited literary pages in the country. It provides Atlanta, which ranks #15 on the University of Wisconsin’s list of most literate cities in the U.S., with a powerful and necessary cultural dialogue. Under the astute guidance of the section’s editor Teresa Weaver, the books page has demonstrated an admirable commitment to both literature and nonfiction works which have grappled with some of America's most complicated issues and themes.
Not only has the AJC’s book section helped to champion such important writers as Edward P. Jones, William T. Vollmann, and Colm Toibin, not to mention Paul Hendrickson and Monica Aliall of whom are now recognized as major literary voicesbut it has struck a fine balance by also letting readers know, through in-depth interviews and event listings, about more popular authors who make Atlanta a stop on their book tours. If the major newspaper in a major market like Atlanta lacks a book section, then we may soon be missing authors, too, when publishers decide not to send their writers to a city where the primary forum of ideas and review is ignoring them.
I am a subscriber to and/or a frequent reader of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and I want the AJC to continue publishing a book section edited by Teresa Weaver that gives Atlanta a unique, thoughtful approach to books, one that represents a diverse array of voices, and is not simply fed by wire copy from the Associated Press or the New York Times.
Sincerely,
http://www.petitiononline.com/atl2007/petition.html
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