NYRB NEWS

Celia Paul and Judith Thurman Discuss ‘Self-Portrait‘

On November 12, 2020, artist Celia Paul discussed her new book, Self-Portrait, with New Yorker staff writer and author Judith Thurman. This virtual event is part of New York Review Books' ongoing series with Brooklyn's Community Bookstore.

‘Self-Portrait’ Receives Praise

The NYRB edition of Celia Paul's artistic memoir Self-Portrait, which was published earlier this month, has garnered positive reviews from writers and critics at the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New York Times. You can read excerpts from the write-ups below:

“[T]hat is the duality of Paul’s life: She experiences art both as a woman and an artist. The two identities are inextricable from one another, and the tension between the two poles is electric. . . . Self-Portrait is a beautifully written bildungsroman, a “portrait of the artist” as a young woman. It is also, more uniquely, a powerful resource for artists who face the dueling responsibilities of creation and caregiving. You don’t have to be a woman or a mother to feel this friction.” —Jessica Ferri, Los Angeles Times
“Self-Portrait is not an exercise in setting the record straight, the unvarnished truth about a great man. Nor is it the work of an artist’s muse, speaking up at last. It’s an account of a life so rigorously dedicated to art and family that fame seems beside the point. . . . Self-Portrait documents a woman learning to trust—not Freud, not other artists, but herself. . . . As a writer, [Paul is] possessed of a heightened sensibility, a particular vantage on to the world. . . . Celia Paul is a more gifted writer than she has any business being; it’s almost unfair. . . . Self-Portrait reads like a novel.” —Rumaan Alam, The New Republic
“Captivating . . . Paul writes about her struggle to love someone while dedicating herself to her painting, explaining in her prologue that she hopes her book will “speak to young women artists — and perhaps to all women — who will no doubt face this challenge in their lives at some time and will have to resolve this conflict in their own ways.” . . . Self-Portrait reveals an abjection that declines to announce itself as such. . . . The arc of Paul’s story is not one of triumph, but endurance.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

‘Suppose a Sentence’ in the Press

Brian Dillon's remarkable new essay collection, Suppose a Sentence, was published in late September, and the reviews are steadily rolling in! Below you can read some notable praise from critics at The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and more.

“[A] record of appreciation, a rare treasure in an age that rewards bashing. . . . Dillon’s affinities prove eclectic and unexpected. He knows some authors, among them Roland Barthes, exhaustively. Others, like the jazz critic Whitney Balliett, he admits he has just discovered. He admires James Baldwin, Maeve Brennan and Annie Dillard. Best of all, he loves writers who craft sentences crooked with clauses, like Thomas Browne and Thomas De Quincey. . . . Dillon writes similarly digressive sentences. Suppose a Sentence has many rewards, but its greatest gift is its exuberant style.” —Becca Rothfield, The New York Times Book Review
“Marvelous. . . . [Dillon] is no slouch himself at crafting a phrase. . . . The product of decades of close reading, Suppose a Sentence is eclectic yet tightly shaped. Mr. Dillon has a taste for the more eccentric prose stylists, and lights with delight upon the likes of John Ruskin, who ‘insisted he knew perfectly well if, or when, he had lost his mind.’ His essay on Thomas De Quincey is a small masterpiece. . . . Mr. Dillon’s book is a record of successive enrapturings.” —John Banville, The Wall Street Journal
“In this delightful literary ramble, Dillon (Essayism), a creative writing professor at Queen Mary University of London, expounds upon remarkable sentences from a variety of voices in literature, past and present. . . . The well-chosen sentences themselves are worth the price of admission, but Dillon’s encyclopedic erudition and infectious joy in a skillful piece of writing are what stamp this as a treat for literary buffs.” —Publishers Weekly
“These chronologically arranged picks from the 17th century to today are the ‘few that shine more brightly and for the moment compose a pattern.’ The author plumbs biography, autobiography, and history to add context and background, with particular attention to each author’s literary style. . . . A learned, spirited foray into what makes a sentence tick.” —Kirkus Reviews

Alyson Waters Wins the French-American Foundation Translation Prize for 'A King Alone'

We're excited to report that Alyson Waters has won the French-American Foundation's 2020 Translation Prize (fiction category) for her translation of Jean Giono's A King Alone, which was published by NYRB Classics in June 2019. She will join the two winners of the nonfiction category, Michael Loriaux and Jacob Levi, on Thursday, September 10, at 1pm EDT for an online celebration via Zoom. The French-American Foundation will publish RSVP details for the event on their website next month. Information about the Translation Prize can be found by following this link.

And look out for more work from Alyson Waters in just a few weeks: Her translation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's No Room at the Morgue arrives on August 11 from NYRB Classics.

Tribute to Frederika Randall (1948–2020)

The Arkansas International has set up a memorial page for author, journalist, and translator Frederika Randall, who died on May 12, 2020, at her home in Rome. On the page you can read tributes from Tim Parks, Jhumpa Lahiri, Giacomo Sartori, and others. Jim Hicks and Olivia Spears have also penned tributes to Randall at The Massachusetts Review and the Center for the Art of Translation, respectively.

For NYRB Classics, Randall translated Guido Morselli's The Communist and Dissipatio H.G., the latter of which will be published in December of this year.

"We are lucky to live in a time that boasts many fine translators of Italian prose, but even in that good company her brilliance stood out, and those of us who love Italian literature, or the art of translation, are poorer now." —Geoffrey Brock, editor-in-chief of The Arkansas International

Virtual Events in May

Though in-person events are off the table for the indefinite future, we have plenty of virtual events coming up, including two later this month.

The first is a conversation between Katherine Silver, translator of Julio Ramòn Ribeyro's The Word of the Speechless (published in fall 2019 by NYRB Classics), and the award-winning novelist Mauro Javier Cárdenas. Hosted by City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, the event will take place on Zoom on Thursday, May 14, at 9pm EST. For more information and to reserve a spot, click here.

To celebrate the release of Curzio Malaparte's Diary of a Foreigner in Paris, NYRB Classics editorial director Edwin Frank will join author Gary Indiana for a discussion of the book. Hosted by Community Bookstore, the event will take place on Crowdcast on Thursday, May 21, at 7:30pm EST. To register and learn more, click here.

Be sure to check our events page and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to hear about more online book talks in the coming months.

New York Review Books at AWP 2020

New York Review Books will be at this year's AWP Conference & Bookfair from Thursday, March 5, to Saturday, March 7. If you're attending the conference, we'd love for you to stop by and say hello! You can find us at booth 1058 in the Henry B. González Convention Center. We'll have a selection of discounted titles available along with free copies of The New York Review of Books. Follow this link to see the bookfair map and a list of exhibitors.

20th Anniversary Event at the New York Institute for the Humanities

On Thursday, February 6, at 6pm, join us at the New York Institute for the Humanities for a special talk to celebrate the 20th anniversary of NYRB Classics. Moderated by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, "Writing on the Run: Classics About Travel and Place" will feature Yasmine El Rashidi on Sleepless Nights (Elizabeth Hardwick), Suketu Mehta on Jejuri (Arun Kolatkar), Daniel Mendelsohn on Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Emily Raboteau on An African in Greenland (Tété-Michel Kpomassie). This is the second of four planned talks on NYRB Classics, so look out for more events later this year. Follow this link to RSVP.