Ron Charles (born 1962 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

) is a book critic at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. His awards include the 2008

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". for book reviews, and 1st Place for A&E Coverage from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011. He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Charles grew up in

Town and Country, Missouri Town and Country is a city in west St. Louis County, Missouri, United States with a population of 11,640 as of the 2020 census. It is home to Missouri Baptist Medical Center, (locally known as MoBap). Town and Country has the highest median hous ...

, and graduated from

Principia College Principia College (Principia or Prin) is a private liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. It was founded in 1912 by Mary Kimball Morgan with the purpose of "serving the Cause of Christian Science." "Although the College is not affiliated wit ...

and

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

before getting a job as a teacher at

John Burroughs School John Burroughs School (JBS) is a private, non-sectarian college-preparatory school with 631 students in grades 7– 12. Its 49-acre () campus is located in Ladue, Missouri (US), a suburb of St. Louis. Founded in 1923, it is named for U.S. natu ...

. After a student's parent offhandedly suggested he try making a living as a book reviewer, Charles sent his first book review to ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'', which eventually hired him. He spent seven years as the ''Monitor''s book review editor and staff critic. In 2005, he was hired by the ''Washington Post''. Sometime after August 2010, with his review of

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel '' The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...

's ''

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

'', Charles began a series of video book reviews for ''Post'' called "The Totally Hip Video Book Review". In the series, Charles, sometimes featuring his wife, high school English teacher Dawn Charles, hams it up with

sight gag In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretation ...

s and intentionally bad

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

s. It is a satirical look at current books in the news and the art of book reviewing.

Notes

External links

Ron Charles
articles at ''

''
"Totally Hip Video Book Reviewer"
videos at ''The Washington Post''
Ron Charles
at

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Interview with Ron Charles
by

Bookslut Jessa Crispin (born c. 1978 in Lincoln, Kansas) is a critic, author, feminist, and the editor-in-chief of ''Bookslut'', a litblog and webzine founded in 2002. She has published three books, most recently ''Why I Am Not A Feminist: A Feminist Mani ...

, 10/2009 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Ron 1962 births American literary critics Living people Writers from St. Louis The Washington Post journalists Journalists from Missouri The Christian Science Monitor people PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Principia College alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni

See also

Notes

External links