
Maureen Corrigan
Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2019, Corrigan was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle.
Corrigan served as a juror for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her book So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures was published by Little, Brown in September 2014. Corrigan is represented by Trinity Ray at The Tuesday Lecture Agency: [email protected]
Corrigan's literary memoir, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading! was published in 2005. Corrigan is also a reviewer and columnist for The Washington Post's Book World. In addition to serving on the advisory panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, she has chaired the Mystery and Suspense judges' panel of the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize.
-
A young woman tries to free her cousin from a dangerous living situation in a crumbling family mansion in Silvia Moreno-Garcia's new novel. Mexican Gothic injects fresh blood into a classic genre.
-
The family at the center of Lynn Steger Strong's novel is on the brink of bankruptcy. Wantis a portrait of how close to the edge people are — despite the seeming safeguard of middle-class jobs.
-
Known for her meditative travel memoirs, Mary Morris' wanderings were nearly curtailed by a serious ankle injury. All the Way to the Tigersis a passage deep into the broken places that shaped her.
-
Brit Bennett's new novel centers on two light-skinned African American sisters — one of whom "passes" for white. The Vanishing Half is compelling — if somewhat melodramatic.
-
Nancy McKinley mixes screwball humor with social criticism in a collection of interlocking stories about two women who work at a mall in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
-
Benjamin Taylor, one of Roth's closest friends during the last decades of his life, has written a memoir that rekindles Roth's voice: brilliant, profane, and so very funny.
-
With much of the world on lockdown due to the pandemic, critic Maureen Corrigan turns to books for companionship. Her recommended reads span fiction, nonfiction and poetry — some old, some new.
-
The author of Station Eleven weaves together stories of a hotel worker and an ultra-wealthy con man in a novel that captures how precarious life is — in a way that feels particularly resonant now.
-
Lily King's new novel centers on a woman who's spent six years working on her own novel. It's a story of ambition — and what happens when the markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.
-
Elizabeth Tallent's profound memoir explores writer's block and the allure of perfectionism. After her third short story collection came out in 1993, she didn't publish another book for 22 years.