This morning, the eminent critic Dwight Garner published a lament for the institutional book critic—via his own institution, The New York Times. Lord knows this isn’t the first swansong of its kind. We’ve covered the recent destruction of The Washington Post‘s Book World, and the larger phenomenon of diminishing coverage. And also, you’ve been outside.
It’s true that these events are major bummers for those of us who value criticism. It’s probably also true that the erosion of hubs like Book World bode ill for a healthy arts culture. But today, I’m inclined toward silver linings.
Modern readers may take heart in the fact that there are many excellent critics thwacking through the slop—albeit with freelance machetes, on newfangled platforms. Some of our greats, like Becca Rothfeld or Andrea Long Chu, occupy one of the last seven(?!) institutional critic jobs. But there are other critical voices out there—they just need to be tracked down.
I personally wish reliable, salaried employment for all the freelancers who crave it. But speaking for the books: when in doubt, we follow the byline. Here are five great book critics writing (or rapping) today—and where you can find them.
Grace Byron, Defector and Substack
At a moment when mastheads are leaking anchors, Grace Byron’s new books column at Defector is cause célébrer. The highly prolific novelist and public thinker known for her bylines in The New Yorker, Dirt, The Nation, Lux, and The Baffler (among other places) has recently parked her talents at your favorite sports and culture site.
Byron’s a canny, bold, and incisive critic. (Her latest on Ben Lerner will get your groupchat talking.) But I especially love her byline because she often applies a welcome materialist lens—as in this recent Substack comment on Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume.
Meghna Rao, Substack
Rao’s chatty, approachable style makes her regular bookish Substacks a treat for the inbox. In print, the author and essayist has written about Banu Mushtaq’s literary rebellion. But in her newsletters, she zips formally between criticism, fiction, and essay, and covers subjects ranging from techno-optimism to Lucy Sante’s theory of the “back brain.”
Rao’s capacious personal taste—paired with a fixation on craft—is what makes her mini-reviews so engaging. She’s also a scrupulous reader and thoughtful curator. I always look forward to her surprising round-ups.
Edna Bonhomme, The Nation and The New Republic
Bonhomme is a Berlin-based journalist, historian, and author of A History of the World in Six Plagues.
She’s recently considered the projects of Angela Flournoy and Namwali Serpell in thorough, even-handed reviews. But what I love best about Bonhomme’s criticism is her sense of scope. Her background in science and history has led to a fascinating jurisdiction. She’s written about everything from orgasmic meditation cults to the racist origins of the pandemic.
Anahid Nersessian, NYRB and London Review of Books
Nesessian is a poet, professor, and essayist with a knack for keen analysis. She’s previously turned her critical eye on the novels of Virginie Despentes (for The New Yorker) and the poetry of Keats. She’s also written beautiful personal prose about divorce.
Describing her critical style in a recent interview, the (also excellent) New Yorker critic Merve Emre praised Nersessian’s gaze. Her pieces evoke “a certain highly intelligent form of leftist critique that does not sacrifice aesthetics on the altar of politics.”
Jack Edwards, YouTube
Some of you will need no introduction to Edwards, the precocious English lit student who has racked up more than a million followers on YouTube. Half critic, half concierge, Edwards’ round-ups are generally distinguished by a cheerfulness.
As a critic, Edwards likes to give a thorough summary and then make a clear, concise case for a book. As he did two weeks ago when praising the authenticity in Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection. (The narrators in this collection are “not man-yells-at-cloud.”)
Though he can go low, Edwards’ passion for the printed word fills this jaded Millennial with hope for Book World. See particularly: videos like this one, praising books that AI could never write.
Now this is just a hint of critical leg, Mr. Garner. We could get into the BookTokkers; and I could point you to a dozen other freelancers worth flagging. In the meantime, let’s take a little heart. The great critics are out there. If you can just take a moment to set your Google alerts.
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