Katha Pollitt

10/04/2010

New Nation Column: "Feminist Mothers, Flapper Daughters?"

Read Pollitt's latest column on intergenerational feminism, "Feminist Mothers, Flapper Daughters?"

9/19/2010

New Nation Column: "Franzenfreude, Continued"

Check out Pollitt's most recent column, "Franzenfreude, Continued," an excellent assessment of how male and female writers' works receive different -- and gender specific -- praise.

9/08/2010

New Nation Column: "It's Better Over There"

An excerpt from Pollitt's newest column:

My first day back in New York after a year in Berlin, I got on the subway and found my end of the car dominated by an obscenity-shouting black man with a crutch and a suitcase spilling garbage. When he tried to leave the train at Penn Station, he fell and cursed so loudly at two young men who tried to help him up that they backed off. Not once in my time in Berlin did I see anything remotely like this scene. Berlin is a poor city by German standards, with homeless people and beggars and presumably mentally ill people as well. But it doesn't have the kind of destitution we take for granted in the United States, especially for African-Americans. The strong German safety net keeps people from plunging into the abyss.

8/30/2010

Pollitt Wins "Lifetime Achievement" American Book Award!

Congratulaions to Katha Pollitt, who has been awarded the American Book Award's "Lifetime Achievement" prize!

From The Nation website:

The Nation's Katha Pollitt has been awarded the thirty-first annual American Book Award's prestigious "Lifetime Achievement" prize, celebrating her contributions both as an essayist and a poet. This is Pollitt's first American Book Award; she will be honored on September 19 at the awards ceremony in San Francisco. Pollitt is the author of several collections of essays; her most recent books include Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories(2007) and her second collection of poetry, The Mind-Body Problem (2009). Other ABA winners this year include Amiri Baraka, Dave Eggers and Pamela Ushuk.

Pollitt has written for The Nation since 1980, and her regular column, "Subject to Debate" has run since 1995. You can read more about the awards here. The ceremony is open to the public.