Maureen Corrigan

For more than twenty years Maureen has been the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air. She is also a columnist for The Washington Post and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University where her courses are very popular. As a lecturer she’s been described as “brilliant,” “hilarious,” “passionate” and “eloquent.” She is the author of two books of her own; Leave me Alone I’m Reading and So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures, which was named one of the ten best books of the year by Library Journal.

Aside from her writings for The Washington Post and The Village Voice, Maureen has also written reviews for the New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Nation among others. She serves on the advisory panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers, as well as the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism. Last year, she won the Kukula Award for Excellence in Non-fiction Book Reviewing, given by Washington Monthly Magazine, and the John Seigenthaler Legends Award for free speech advocacy. She has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and has also been on the judges’ panel for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.