Kevin Bermingham will receive prestigious UI award for literary criticism.
By Brett Shaw
A well-known author will be honored today for his work in English-language literary criticism.
Kevin Birmingham, an instructor in the Harvard Writing Program and author of The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses will receive the University of Iowa 2016 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.
The Truman Capote Award includes a cash reward of $30,000, making it the largest annual cash prize in English-language literary criticism. The public ceremony will take place in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber.
The selection process for the award includes a panel of six critics and writers who each nominate two books of literary criticism. The nominated books are then reviewed and ranked by the panel.
“[The selected book] is usually breakthrough scholarship that really defines its field written with an incredibly authoritative literary demand,” said Garrett Stewart, the UI James O. Freedman Professor of Letters.
Birmingham received a Ph.D. from Harvard. He then became an instructor in the Harvard College Writing Program and has also taught a program called History and Literature.
“I started writing my book effectively right as I was finishing my dissertation at Harvard, and it took me about four and a half years to write,” Birmingham said.
From researching archives to spending a summer in Dublin, Ireland, Birmingham completed extensive preparation before he sat down to write.
“He has this command in his authorial voice where he knows everything about the topic because he has spent quite a lot of time mastering it,” said a friend of Birmingham, fellow writer Megan Kate Nelson.
The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses is Birmingham’s first book and was well-received by critics.
“It’s not just a piece of literary criticism,” Stewart said. “It’s been celebrated by the enormously wide number of reviews it’s received as being the work of an important new voice in creative nonfiction.”
Birmingham’s unique voice and ability to present nonfiction in an interesting and universal style sets him apart from typical scholarly works.
“His approach to literary criticism has this really charming mix of as a reader and as a scholar, and that gives him the ability to really write about literature in a way that connects with a lot of different people,” Nelson said.
Birmingham said he finds the recognition pretty incredible considering the astonishing list of recipients, a Nobel Prize winner among them.
“I was sitting with him when he got the email about winning the award,” said Matthew Pearl, a New York Times best-selling writer and friend of Birmingham. “I was probably excited sooner than he was because he didn’t quite believe it.”
The monetary prize that accompanies the Truman Capote Award encourages and rewards those who work in the field of literary criticism.
“The award allows me to reduce my teaching responsibilities so I can spend more time writing,” Birmingham said. “I voluntarily cut my paycheck in half and the prize money is basically paying my bills.”
The Truman Capote Award, Birmingham said, has given him the space and freedom to write and move forward with his career. Following the success of his first book, Birmingham is working on his next project. The second book will follow the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the author of many works, including Crime and Punishment.
“It’s like starting over,” Birmingham said. “It’s difficult. It’s part of what makes it exciting.”