Wyatt Mason

Wyatt Mason (born 1969) is an American critic, translator and essayist. Mason was raised in Manhattan. He attended The Fieldston School in New York and the University of Pennsylvania and studied literature at Columbia University.He is currently a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine and a contributor to The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The New York Times Magazine.

In 2005, Mason received the National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. The NBCC judges called Mason "a critic of unrelenting energy and tough standards. He has exposed scholarly plagiarism, rescued dismissed writers from ignorance and oblivion, smartly scolded faddish novelists...and argued that many of us continue to confuse substance and surface in contemporary writers' work. Masterful at placing writers in dialogue with other writers...he always makes a case for new books he wants people to appreciate, embrace and struggle with." [http://www.bookcritics.org/citations/MasonCitation.html]

Mason also won the National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism in 2006, the judges stating: "At once compassionate and ruthless, Wyatt Mason seeks an understanding of his subject with endless erudition and a singular, tireless focus on quality. His criticism moves from the specific to bigger game – a defense of modernism and originality – and he’s not afraid to confront the authors with his findings.” [http://www.magazine.org/editorial/about_asme/press_releases/16842.cfm]

In May 2008 Mason began to write the blog [http://harpers.org/subjects/Sentences "Sentences"] for Harper's Magazine online.

Writing Available on the Web

* [http://www.harpers.org/ballad-for-americans.html on Edward P. Jones, from Harpers Magazine]
* [http://www.magazine.org/content/Files/Mason.May.pdf on E.E. Cummings, from Harper's Magazine]
* [http://www.magazine.org/content/Files/Mason.July.pdf on First Novels, from Harper's Magazine]
* [http://www.magazine.org/content/Files/Mason.October.pdf on Zadie Smith, from Harper's Magazine]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/061218crbo_books on R.K. Narayan, from The New Yorker]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/content/articles/051114crbo_books on Javier Marias, from The New Yorker]
* [http://www.aatia.org/sigs/LitTranInNews.htm on Translation, from The New Republic]
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n22/maso02_.html on David Foster Wallace, from The London Review of Books]
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n11/maso02_.html on Jonathan Safran Foer, from The London Review of Books]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine/17satire.html?ex=1316145600&en=dd095911c7d625b3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss on Satire, from The New York Times Magazine]

Interviews

* [http://www.pw.org/mag/dq_rimbaud.htm Poets and Writers Magazine]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/wmason.html Modern Library]