At Book Critics Circle Party, Written Words Are the Stars

The Golden Globes seemed odd this year without celebrities, but the National Book Critics Circle reception for finalists Monday night did just fine without them, or most of the authors nominated. The stars that mattered — grouped together in the center of the room, wearing jackets in a wide range of colors and styles — were the books.“Please check them out,” the president of the National Book Critics Circle, John Freeman, said, invoking a quotation from Ezra Pound, “Literature is news that stays news.”Even without a red carpet beneath them, under the lights of the Housing Works Used Book Café, gleamed the books: Edwidge Danticat’s “Brother, I’m Dying” (Knopf) and Sara Paretsky’s “Writing in an Age of Silence” (Verso), among the finalists in the autobiography category; Vikram Chandra’s “Sacred Games” (HarperCollins) and Marianne Wiggins’s “The Shadow Catcher” (Simon & Schuster), among the finalists in the fiction category.A volunteer at the bookstore, Candace Beckmann, was drawn to Ben Ratliff’s “Coltrane: The Story of a Sound” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a nominee for criticism.“I hadn’t heard of this book, now I really want to read it,” Ms. Beckmann said.Finalists in attendance at the reception were nominees in the criticism category, Joan Acocella, author of “Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints” (Pantheon), and Alex Ross, author of “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Others in the crowd included book critic of Time magazine, Lev Grossman, literary agent Chris Calhoun of Sterling Lord Literistic, and lots of folks from the publishing houses: in publicity at HarperCollins, Tina Andreadis; in publicity at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Jeff Seroy; in publicity at John Wiley and Sons, Cynthia Shannon; in the editorial department at Verso Books, Julie McCarroll.The reception had little fanfare, as the finalists had already been announced two days before at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. But Mr. Freeman said he felt obligated to organize a celebration of the nominations in New York, and chose the Housing Works Used Book Café, because, like the Critics Circle, it is a nonprofit.Winners will be announced on March 6 at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, which is also the day the organization holds its annual meeting of members, more than 700 book critics.Tribute to Woody Guthrie Celebrates Stellar SongwriterThe Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway tribute to Woody Guthrie, which came to the Knitting Factory Monday night, offers a perfect balance of spoken word and song to celebrate one of America’s great songwriters.As narrator, Bob Childers brings a clear, folksy voice to Guthrie’s own writings — pure poetry, about love, war, finding one’s voice, and religion (“I got me a religion that’s so big, you’re in it, and no matter what you do, you can’t get out of it.”)Every musician in the show is remarkable, but Guthrie’s granddaughter, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and her husband, Johnny Irion, have a transporting presence when they are on-stage together. On this night, they made magic with a song they had not performed before, “How To Make A Folk Song.”The song was given to them by Sarah Lee’s aunt, and a daughter of Woody Guthrie, Nora Guthrie, the president of the New York-based Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives. Nora makes the decisions on who performs her father’s material, and she makes some pretty brilliant choices.Two New York artists are recording material from the archives this year, Nora said, though she wouldn’t name them.“We’re also up for a Grammy this year,” she said, referring to “The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie In Performance 1949,” nominated for Best Historical Album.And the foundation is busy ramping up for the centennial celebration of Guthrie’s birth, in 2012.All the performers came out for the final number, “This Land is Your Land,” including Guthrie’s great granddaughter, Olivia Irion. But Nora refused to take the stage.“Someone needs to stay down here, to balance everything out,” she said from the floor. No one argued with her since her explanation itself reflected the outlook of the man they were celebrating.agordon@nysun.com

At Book Critics Circle Party, Written Words Are the Stars

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