Eula Biss Wins Prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award
March 12, 2010--Graywolf Press is pleased to announce that
Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays by Eula Biss has been selected as the
winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. The
winners were announced last night during a ceremony at the New School's Tishman
Auditorium.
Jeffrey Shotts, senior editor at Graywolf Press, was
thrilled with the news. "The NBCC Awards are one of the majors," he
said. "It's gratifying to have an award come out of such a large and
distinguished body of critics and writers and serious people about the art and
craft of literature. We couldn't
be prouder of Eula Biss."
Notes from No Man's Land: American
Essays was named a best book of the year by Time Out Chicago and a School
Library Journal Best Adult Book for High School Students. Biss's spare,
sometimes lyric essays explore the legacy of race in America, artfully revealing
in intimate detail how families, schools, and neighborhoods participate in
preserving racial privilege. National Public Radio called the collection
"forceful, beautiful essays," and the Chicago Tribune said "Biss
is telling us the story of our country--one we never saw coming." The book
won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Read more...
By Tony Hoagland “Few [poets] deliver more pure pleasure. [Hoagland’s]
erudite comic poems are backloaded with heartache and longing, and they
function, emotionally, like improvised explosive devices: the pain comes at you
from the cruelest angles, on the sunniest of days. . . . Listen up, cats: This
plain, unincorporated, free-range American poet is one you’ll want to know
about.”
By Eamon Grennan "Whether he is describing the flight of swifts over Dublin, the sight
of his children in yellow macs climbing over cliff rocks, or his
passage through 'a bright bead-curtain of rain,' Grennan is a writer of
plainspoken reverence. " —The New Yorker
By Madelon Sprengnether "In these insightful essays, even the writing itself is cinematic, as
Sprengnether's memories and quick film summaries meld into one another,
making it seem as if the author hasn't just seen many movies, but has
actually lived one." —Publishers Weekly
By Natasha Trethewey "Inspired by Bellocq's Storyville portraits, Natasha Trethewey brings
to art a young 'octoroon', in 1912, gallant, dignified, undefeated in
her aspirations, yet barely able to breathe trapped and objectified in
the world of a New Orleans brothel. Hers—theirs—is a stunning
accomplishment." —Gail Mazur
