SOLD OUT
Join BWW in celebrating the release of No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler with founding BWW director, Ben Mauk. Hosted by Shakespeare & Sons.
The reading and conversation is followed by an after-party in the store. Books and wine will be available for purchase throughout the evening.
No entry fee, but a RSVP is required! Please get your free ticket HERE.
About No Judgment:
From the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world.
In her writing for Harper’s, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literature—whether celebratory or scarily harsh—have become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in today’s fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space between the individual and the world seems to get smaller and smaller, and our opinions on books and movies seem to represent something essential about our souls? And to put it bluntly, why should you care what she—or anyone—thinks?
In this, her first collection of essays, Oyler writes with about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why we’re all so “vulnerable” these days, and her own anxiety. In her singular prose—sharp yet addictive, expansive yet personal—she encapsulates the world we live and think in with precision and care, delivering a work of cultural criticism as only she can.
Bringing to mind the works of such iconic writers as Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, and Terry Castle, No Judgment is a testament to Lauren Oyler’s inimitable wit and her quest to understand how we shape the world through culture. It is a sparkling nonfiction debut from one of today’s most inventive thinkers.
Lauren Oyler is a critic and novelist based in Berlin, Germany. Her essays on books and culture appear regularly in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper’s, the London Review of Books, and many other publications. Her debut novel, Fake Accounts, was published in 2021. A new collection of essays, No Judgment, will appear in March 2024.
Ben Mauk is a writer based in Berlin. His essays and reporting appear in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper's, Granta, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. He is the founding director of the Berlin Writers' Workshop. He is writing a book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux.