The blog of The Top Ten author J. Peder Zane.
Newspaper book reviews
Friday, April 27, 2007
I grew increasingly alarmed during my three years service on the board of the National Book Critics Circle by the reduction of newspaper book sections across the country. So I proposed a campaign in which we would raise awareness about this issue and make the case for why our work matters.
Unfortunately, my notion became a necessity almost immediately after I left the board in March, as book reviews around the country suffered a series of cuts. NBCC board member Art Winslow chronicles this bloodbath in a recent column.
Under the leadership of John Freeman and Jane Ciabattari, the NBCC has launched an impressive campaign to document this troubling trend and to fight it at its website. Writers such as Nadine Gordimer, George Saunders and Rick Moody have joined book review editors - e.g. Marie Arana (Washington Post) Bob Hoover (Pittsburgh Post gazette) - and others (i.e. Catherine Brady, president of AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs) to argue for the necessity of books coverage to a healthy culture.
This is a lot to read. I'll return with my thoughts on the subject next week.
Posted by J. Peder Zane at 8:01 AM
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