Ron Charles, Former Washington Post Book Critic: A Tipping Point in US Books & Letters

This conversation is a part of Hill Center’s Life of a Poet series. Ron Charles will be in conversation with poet, editor, and Life of a Poet curator and moderator, Kyle Dargan.

A recent New York Times article mourned the end of the Washington Post’s Book World as a major blow to literary journalism and an inflection point in America’s literature. The current state of books and letters has been marked by increased federal intervention, including attempts to cut library funding and accelerated removal of books on gender and diversity from school libraries. Federal efforts have targeted library funding, though court challenges have temporarily blocked some initiatives. Meanwhile, a push for “patriotic education” and removal of certain materials in school libraries on military bases has occurred.

There is a perfect symmetry to this conversation between Ron and Kyle. On  April 10, 2013 Hill Center launched its Life of a Poet series in partnership with the Library of Congress and The Washington Post. Ron was our first moderator and his first guest was poet Elizabeth Alexander. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Hill Center resurrected the series on September 14, 2023 with Kyle Dargan moderating and curating the series. Elizabeth Alexander was his first guest.

Ron Charles has been a book critic for three decades. He began his career as editor of the book section at The Christian Science Monitor. In 2005, he moved to The Washington Post, where he served as the paper’s book section editor and a book reviewer. For six years, he created “The Book Report” for CBS Sunday Morning.

In 2009, he won the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. He also won first place for Arts & Entertainment commentary from the Society for Features Journalism and served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

For years, Charles has interviewed many of the nation’s leading poets in a series co-sponsored by Hill Center and the Library of Congress.

He now writes about books and literary culture on Substack at RonCharles.substack.com 

Kyle Dargan is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)–were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He’s worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program. He is currently an Associate Professor of literature and Asst. Director of creative writing at American University, as well as the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He also works as a Managing Editor for Janelle Monae’s creative company, Wondaland. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Dargan is a graduate of Saint Benedict’s Prep, The University of Virginia and Indiana University.