Ron Charles (critic)
American literary critic (born 1962) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]