Ron Charles
The Wonderlings Book Club is thrilled to announce a very special guest: Ron Charles, editor of Book World at The Washington Post!
The Wonderlings Book Club is thrilled to announce a very special guest: Ron Charles, editor of Book World at The Washington Post! Mr. Charles will join us for a live Facebook chat on Thursday, March 1st 12:30 (EST) so get your questions ready!
Ron is a true veteran of the study and discussion of great books and authors. He’s been a book reviewer for a sum total of more than 20 years combined, at The Washington Post and prior to that, the Christian Science Monitor, We’ll discuss that work as well as the process of book reviewing and who his own favorite authors have been, along the way.
Although his style is decidedly fun-loving, lighthearted and satirical (as we see in the delightful The Totally Hip Book Review, which he produces with his wife, Dawn), Charles is a veteran of all things literary.
Ron Charles interviews Lauren Groff (author of Fates and Furies) at the 2016 National Book Festival
Born and raised in St. Louis, Ron Charles earned an M.A. in English at Washington University in 1986 and began teaching American literature at Principia College (Elsah, Ill.). After the birth of his second daughter in 1991, his family moved back to St. Louis, where he taught English at the John Burroughs School and began writing freelance book reviews. Those essays eventually led to a job as the book section editor and lead critic for the Christian Science Monitor (1998-2005). In 2005, he became a senior editor and weekly critic for The Washington Post Book World. In early 2009 when The Post closed its stand-alone book section and integrated reviews throughout the paper, he was appointed deputy editor and given a weekly column in Style. In 2013, he was promoted to editor of Book World.
In 2009, he won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle. He was also a judge for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction (the year Donna Tartt won for her novel, The Goldfinch.)
Ron speaks on “The Business of Book Reviewing” at the Virginia Book Festival (March 20, 2010)
The PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown talks with book reviewer Ron Charles of The Washington Post about what he considered four of the best works of fiction (from 2011)
Ron also hosts Life of a Poet, a series of interviews in conversation with some of today’s most prominent poets, co-sponsored by Hill Center, The Library of Congress and The Washington Post. He’s interviewed everyone from Jeffrey Eugenides and Joyce Carol Oates to Margaret Atwood, and many, many others.
We are pleased to welcome him to The Wonderlings on Facebook next Thursday! Be sure to tune in, then, to participate in our interview!
And check out more of Ron’s book reviews here . . .
