
Maureen Corrigan
Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2019, Corrigan was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle.
Corrigan served as a juror for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her book So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures was published by Little, Brown in September 2014. Corrigan is represented by Trinity Ray at The Tuesday Lecture Agency: trinity@tuesdayagency.com
Corrigan's literary memoir, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading! was published in 2005. Corrigan is also a reviewer and columnist for The Washington Post's Book World. In addition to serving on the advisory panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, she has chaired the Mystery and Suspense judges' panel of the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize.
-
Book critic Maureen Corrigan has been diving into lighter literary novels and mysteries, searching for books suited for the beginning of summer. Here are some of her picks.
-
Hernan Diaz's novel is constantly pulling a fast one on the reader. It opens with the saga of a Wall Street tycoon, but soon another narrative comes to upend the truth of everything that came before.
-
In this droll, emotionally wrenching and profound memoir, novelist Brian Morton attempts to see his mother as a whole person — not just in relation to him, or, God forbid, as an eccentric "character."
-
Mandel's latest work is an ingeniously constructed, deeply absorbing novel that summons up three fully realized worlds in three distinct time periods — including the 25th century.
-
Scottish author Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, in 2020. His latest work is a suspense story wrapped around a novel of acute psychological observation.
-
Hamilton was the most award-winning YA author in American literary history, and the first Black author to win a Newbery Medal. A new collection showcases five of her most haunting novels.
-
In Julie Otsuka's novel, a rag-tag group of regulars is disrupted when a crack appears at the bottom of the community pool. The Swimmers explores how mundane routines shape our days.
-
Julia May Jonas' debut novel centers around a women's lit professor whose feminist credentials are jeopardized because of her husband's bad behavior — and by her own relationship with a colleague.
-
Tessa Hadley's sharp new novel centers on a middle-aged wife and mother who falls for a much younger musician. Free Love is a domestic novel that's as eclectic and alive as the times it captures.
-
Hanya Yanagihara's much anticipated 700-page novel is a deliberately difficult work, made of up dazzling moments that tend lose their luster when pressed together.