Ron Charles (born 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a book critic at The Washington Post. [1] His awards include the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award Nona Balakian Citation [2] for book reviews, [3] and 1st Place for A&E Coverage from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011. [4] He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. [5]
Charles grew up in Town and Country, Missouri, and graduated from Principia College and Washington University in St. Louis before getting a job as a teacher at John Burroughs School. [6] After a student's parent offhandedly suggested he try making a living as a book reviewer, [6] Charles sent his first book review to The Christian Science Monitor, which eventually hired him. He spent seven years as the Monitor's book review editor and staff critic. [2]
In 2005, he was hired by the Washington Post. Sometime after August 2010, with his review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, [7] Charles began a series of video book reviews for Post called "The Totally Hip Video Book Review". [8] In the series, Charles, sometimes featuring his wife, high school English teacher Dawn Charles, hams it up with sight gags and intentionally bad jokes. It is a satirical look at current books in the news and the art of book reviewing. [9]
Ron Charles (born 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a book critic at The Washington Post. [1] His awards include the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award Nona Balakian Citation [2] for book reviews, [3] and 1st Place for A&E Coverage from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011. [4] He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. [5]
Charles grew up in Town and Country, Missouri, and graduated from Principia College and Washington University in St. Louis before getting a job as a teacher at John Burroughs School. [6] After a student's parent offhandedly suggested he try making a living as a book reviewer, [6] Charles sent his first book review to The Christian Science Monitor, which eventually hired him. He spent seven years as the Monitor's book review editor and staff critic. [2]
In 2005, he was hired by the Washington Post. Sometime after August 2010, with his review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, [7] Charles began a series of video book reviews for Post called "The Totally Hip Video Book Review". [8] In the series, Charles, sometimes featuring his wife, high school English teacher Dawn Charles, hams it up with sight gags and intentionally bad jokes. It is a satirical look at current books in the news and the art of book reviewing. [9]