Heather Scott Partington
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hspartington.bsky.social
Heather Scott Partington
@hspartington.bsky.social
550 followers 480 following 23 posts
Book critic & teacher. Board member and fiction chair @bookcritics.bsky.social.
📍Elk Grove, CA.
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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
ilanaslightly.bsky.social
Incredibly grateful for this wonderful review of BEINGS by @hspartington.bsky.social at @altajournal.bsky.social. Such a joy and privilege to be read so lovingly <3.

www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...
Out of the Archives
In her sophomore novel, Beings, Ilana Masad weaves three compelling narratives about trust and belief.
www.altaonline.com
October 13, 2025 at 4:38 PM
hspartington.bsky.social
Come see us at the @bookcritics.bsky.social booth at #AWP25! We have 50th anniversary stickers!
Round sticker with blue background and 50th anniversary NBCC logo.
March 28, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
NBCC President @hspartington.bsky.social: “Never has there been a more urgent need for criticism, for free speech, for writing that questions, talks back to, and interprets other writing.” #NBCCAwards
March 20, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
NBCC President @hspartington.bsky.social: “The National Book Critics Circle affirms the right of every person to see themselves reflected in books. As the NBCC moves into our next chapter, we stand with the organizations fighting to protect our rights to write and read.” #NBCCAwards
March 20, 2025 at 10:53 PM
hspartington.bsky.social
Livestream the NBCC Awards tonight at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT, or join us in person at the New School, 66 w 12th st, New York! Free tickets still available!
National Book Critics Circle Awards Ceremony for Books Published in 2024
YouTube video by National Book Critics Circle
www.youtube.com
March 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
NYC friends, we'd love to see you at the ceremony in person this evening! We have tickets available, so feel free to drop by The New School Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street—the ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. Eastern!
March 20, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Tickets are still available for the NBCC Finalists' Reading (3/19, 6:30 PM ET), NBCC Awards (3/20, 6:30 PM ET), and NBCC Awards Reception (3/20, 8:30 PM ET). All events are at the New School in New York.
wildboundlive.com/events/nbcc2025
March 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
hspartington.bsky.social
Tickets for the NBCC Awards are still available, but the reception will sell out soon. Reserve yours now!
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Mar 8
Tickets are still available for the 2024 NBCC Finalists’ Reading, Awards, and Reception!

3/19 Finalists’ Reading: Free
3/20 Awards Ceremony: Free
3/20 Reception: $75 NBCC members/ $100 nonmembers

www.wildboundlive.com/events/nbcc2...
The National Book Critics Circle Awards Ceremony — Wildbound Live
A celebration of literary excellence honoring the National Book Critics Circle 2024 award winners.
www.wildboundlive.com
March 9, 2025 at 3:34 PM
hspartington.bsky.social
The @bookcritics.bsky.social Emerging Critics Fellowship gave me a community when I was a new critic. It put me in the room with some of literature's most brilliant minds and it gave me the confidence I needed to write with authority. Please apply! nbcc.submittable.com.
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Mar 7
NBCC’s Emerging Critics Fellowship is accepting applications for 2025-2026. Apply at nbcc.submittable.com. Deadline: Friday, May 9 at 11:59 PM Pacific.
March 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
NBCC President @hspartington.bsky.social wrote about Highway 99 towns and Manuel Muñoz's "The Consequences" for Alta's California Book Club:
‘The Consequences’: Giving Voice to Ghosts
In this newsletter, critic Heather Scott Partington writes about Manuel Muñoz’s Central Valley and her own.
buff.ly
March 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Statement on the Trump Administration’s January 20, 2025
Executive Order Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Americans:
On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both. Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices. If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund. Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically. This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history. Sincerely, the undersigned, American Booksellers Association American Booksellers for Free Expression Andrews McMeel Annie's Foundation Audio Publishers Association Authors Against Book Bans Berry Powell Press Cardinal Rule Press Charlesbridge Publishing Chestnut Publishing House Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz Developmental Texts Empowering Latino Futures EveryLibrary Firewater Media Group Florida Freedom to Read Project Foreword Reviews Freedom to Read Project Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) IngramSpark Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship Lambda Literary Latino 247 Media Group Lee Wind, author Levine Querido Library Futures Livingston Parish Library Alliance Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship Macmillan Children's Publishing Group The National Book Critics Circle National Coalition Against Censorship NorthSouth Books Nosy Crow Patagonia Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County PEN America PFLAG Fresno PubWest Rattling Good Yarns Press Read Freely Alabama Red Comet Press LLC Rutherford County Library Alliance Sara Paretsky, Writer SCBWI SEAT SparkPoint Studio St Tammany Library Alliance Stone Bridge Press Texas Freedom to Read Project Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing We Need Diverse Books Logos of the organizations that have signed the statement.
February 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
You can register and get tickets for our finalists reading and awards ceremony here: www.wildboundlive.com/events/nbcc2...
The National Book Critics Circle Awards Ceremony — Wildbound Live
A celebration of literary excellence honoring the National Book Critics Circle 2024 award winners.
www.wildboundlive.com
January 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We hope you’ll join us at our finalists reading on March 19 and awards ceremony on March 20!
January 23, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We want to extend our deepest thanks to our friends who have made all of this possible: Wildbound PR, The New School, Purslane, Curious Elixirs, Brooklyn Brewery, Foley Family Wines and Spirits, Morgenstern Books, and Arader Galleries.
January 23, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Congratulations to all of our finalists and winners! www.bookcritics.org/2025/01/23/n...
January 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We’re excited to announce that in honor of our 50th anniversary, we’ll be joined at the NBCC Awards ceremony by Maxine Hong Kingston!
January 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Congratulations to Sandra Cisneros, the winner of the 2024 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award!
January 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Congratulations to @thirdworldpress.bsky.social, the winner of the 2024 Toni Morrison Achievement Award!
January 23, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Congratulations to Lauren Michele Jackson, the winner of the 2024 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing!
January 23, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
Congratulations to Lori Lynn Turner, the winner of the 2024 NBCC Service Award!
January 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre, are By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle (Harper), Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham (Hogarth), Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen (St. Martin’s), Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok (Yale University), and When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
January 23, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize are The Children of the Ghetto: Star of the Sea by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies (Archipelago), Fiction, Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions), Fiction, A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translated from the Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper (Penguin Classics), Nonfiction, Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden (Open Letter), Fiction, O by Judith Kiros, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson (World Poetry), Poetry, and Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger (Transit), Nonfiction.
January 23, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Nonfiction! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Nonfiction are The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll (Penguin Press), Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader), The Freaks Came Out To Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano (PublicAffairs), Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson (St. Martin’s), and We’re Alone by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf).
January 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Heather Scott Partington
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Fiction! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Fiction are Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Godwin by Joseph O'Neill (Pantheon), James by Percival Everett (Doubleday), My Friends by Hisham Matar (Random House), and Us Fools by Nora Lange (Two Dollar Radio).
January 23, 2025 at 3:03 PM