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Posts tagged as “novel”

T. Geronimo Johnson Named a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction

T. Geronimo JohnsonT. Geronimo Johnson, a lecturer in creative writing at the University of California at Berkeley, has been selected as one of five finalists for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. He also serves as director of the university’s Summer Creative Writing Program.
Johnson is being honored for his debut novel, Hold It, ‘Til It Hurts(Coffee House Press, 2012), a story of two brothers who have returned to the United States after serving in the war in Afghanistan.
Johnson is a native of New Orleans. He holds a master’s degree in language, literacy, and culture from the University of California at Berkeley and a master of fine arts degree from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.
The winner will be announced on March 19 and the award will be presented at the 33rd annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington on May 4.
article via jbhe.com

Review: Zadie Smith’s Novel "NW" Explores Black Upward Mobility

Zadie Smith, NW

Author Zadie Smith and the cover of her new novel, NW. (Photo of Zadie Smith by Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images)

NW, the latest literary contribution from Zadie Smith – the critically acclaimed author of White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and On Beauty – does not quake with theatrical plot twists or crackle with the suspense of a mystery or adventure, but it achieves a slow burn that captures the small disappointments, encumbrances, betrayals, and self-deceptions that make up the utter “dailyness” of tragedy.

Tracing the lives of Leah, Natalie (formerly known as Keisha), Felix, and Nathan from their working class roots in the council estate (or public housing) of Caldwell in London, to their divergent individual struggles to become “adults”, or whatever it is we mean by that, Smith renders the idea of personal identity in the cacophonous, commercial and consumerist world in which we live, a frail and exposed thing.

Review: Zadie Smith’s Novel “NW” Explores Black Upward Mobility

Zadie Smith, NW

Author Zadie Smith and the cover of her new novel, NW. (Photo of Zadie Smith by Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images)

NW, the latest literary contribution from Zadie Smith – the critically acclaimed author of White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and On Beauty – does not quake with theatrical plot twists or crackle with the suspense of a mystery or adventure, but it achieves a slow burn that captures the small disappointments, encumbrances, betrayals, and self-deceptions that make up the utter “dailyness” of tragedy.

Tracing the lives of Leah, Natalie (formerly known as Keisha), Felix, and Nathan from their working class roots in the council estate (or public housing) of Caldwell in London, to their divergent individual struggles to become “adults”, or whatever it is we mean by that, Smith renders the idea of personal identity in the cacophonous, commercial and consumerist world in which we live, a frail and exposed thing.