Award-Winning Book Critic Ron Charles Speaks at Principia
Principia welcomed Ron Charles (US’80, C’84), book critic and feature writer at The Washington Post, for several talks and events on the School and College campuses last month.
The first evening of his visit, Charles spoke about his career and offered insight into the state of contemporary literature during a question-and-answer session moderated by editorial director Dr. Trudy Palmer (US’72) in Ridgway Auditorium on the School campus. The following night, he gave a talk entitled “Novels: The Anti-Twitter We Need Now More Than Ever” in Wanamaker Hall on the College campus. Charles also spoke alongside librarians Lisa Roberts (C’90) and Edith List (US’88, C’93) in Marshall Brooks Library at “A Totally Hip Open House with the Totally Hip Book Reviewer.”
Over the course of his presentations, Charles provided a behind-the-scenes view into the process of selecting and reviewing novels. His office receives an influx of over 150 books each day from publicists representing authors hoping to gain notice in The Washington Post, which reaches over 100 million readers each month. “Our assistant whittles submissions to about 15 books per day,” Charles said. “Then, alongside colleagues, I decide which titles to feature, mindful that a review can make an enormous difference in a book’s success. We make a concerted effort to review works by women and minorities to counter decades of under-representation.”
Audiences on both campuses were treated to Charles’s wry humor in clips from his Totally Hip Video Book Review series, which he produces with his wife, Dawn (Thomas, C’83) Charles. Charles also visited classes offered by the English and Mass Communication Departments, the departments that sponsored his visit. A natural teacher (Charles taught English at the College from 1986–93), he engaged students in discussion about literature, poetry, getting published, and postgraduate opportunities. “And in spite of the anti-Twitter message in my talk, I realize you need to responsibly promote your own work on social media,” he emphasized in a Creative Writing seminar taught by Dinah Ryan (C'78). “Twitter and Facebook are crowded platforms, but you should be ‘discoverable,’ on the Google search engine with your work.”
Throughout his visit, Charles made a compelling case to read—especially new fiction by young authors producing “great work,” as he described it. During his talk in Wanamaker, he recommended several recent titles:
-
There There, a debut novel by Tommy Orange, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Native American tribes
-
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan, a Canadian writer whose parents immigrated from Ghana
- A Place for Us, a debut novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza, a 27-year-old American author of Indian descent
Charles also recommended The Library Book by Susan Orlean, a well-established author and staff writer for The New Yorker. In this whodunit-style, nonfiction work, Orlean explores the 1986 Los Angeles Library fire, the largest library disaster in American history. In the process, she delivers a paean to libraries and librarians everywhere.
For sophomore Della Christy, the editor-in-chief of the Pilot and global studies major who introduced Charles in Wanamaker Hall, the most meaningful interaction with him occurred in her Literary Editing course taught by English Professor Sara Wienecke (C'09). “Ron shared how books have changed his life,” she said. “He explained how they transform our own perspective in a positive way, teaching us about empathy and humanity. It’s important we pay attention.”