NBCC Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Awards with Roundtable

E.L. Doctorow and John Ashbery to participate

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 9/11/2009 8:04:00 AM

The National Book Critics Circle is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its awards this year. As part of the festivities, E.L. Doctorow and John Ashbery, who won the first NBCC Awards in fiction and poetry (for Ragtime and Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, respectively) will talk about the organization’s legacy at a discussion on September 12. Doctorow and Ashbery will be joined by NBCC president Jane Ciabattari and past presidents John Freeman, Herb Leibowitz, Richard Locke, Rebecca Miller, Elizabeth Taylor and Art Winslow. The discussion, which will also address the future of literary criticism and book culture, will take place at WNYC’s new Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in New York City. The discussion will be webcast live and posted on the NBCC board blog, Critical Mass.