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Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for the Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
She has written three memoirs, A Strong West Wind, Let's Take the Long Way Home, and New Life, No Instructions.
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Reproduced by permission of
Robert Birnbaum, first published in 2003.
Gail Caldwell was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1951, and is chief book
critic at The Boston Globe, where she has been on staff since
1985. Caldwell had been a finalist in criticism for both the Pulitzer
Prize (three times) and the American Society of Newspaper Editors Award
and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for 'for her insightful
observations on contemporary life and literature.' In a post-prize
interview with Dan Kennedy, Caldwell observes that her intention, is to
use her book reviews as a 'framework on which to build something more
lasting… to write about the range of human experience, and not just
whether to buy this book.' Gail Caldwell lives in Cambridge,
Massachusetts with Clemmie (short for Clementine), her Samoyed canine
companion.
This conversation took place at Mt Auburn Cemetery on a breezy late
summer afternoon. As is usually the case Rosie, my Labrador was in
attendance.
Robert Birnbaum: Are you used to living in Boston?
Gail Caldwell: No, but I ought to be. I have been here 20 years.
...
Laura Bell’s work has been published in several collections, and from the Wyoming Arts Council she has received two literature fellowships as well as the Neltje Blanchan Memorial Award and the Frank Nelson Doubleday ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
A Strong West Wind
Try:
Claiming Ground
by Laura Bell
Judy Blunt spent more than thirty years on wheat and cattle ranches in northeastern Montana, before leaving in 1986 to attend the University of Montana. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.... (more)
If you enjoyed:
A Strong West Wind
Try:
Breaking Clean
by Judy Blunt
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