Features

Beth Macy, author of Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. But as her mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. This was not an assignment Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the 40 years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues.

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The National Book Critics Circle Awards 2025

The finalists for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards have been announced in six categories: Autobiography, Biography, Criticism, Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry.

Other announcements included the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the NBCC Service Award, the winner and finalists for the Nona Balakian Citation, the finalists for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, and the shortlist for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards will be presented on March 26th at the New School in New York City, in a ceremony that will be open to the public and will be livestreamed on the NBCC’s YouTube channel.

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Los Angeles Times Book Prizes 2025

The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists and honorees for its 46th annual Book Prizes. Amy Tan will be honored with the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, and We Need Diverse Books will receive the Innovator’s Award. Additionally, Adam Ross will receive the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose.

The awards recognize outstanding literary achievements in 13 categories and celebrate the highest quality of writing from authors at all stages of their careers. The winners will be announced in a ceremony on Friday, April 17th at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, a prologue to the 31st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, taking place April 18-19.

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