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WORK TITLE: Literary Journeys
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WEBSITE: https://www.johnmcmurtrie.com/about
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PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and editor. San Francisco Chronicle, books editor; Zyzzyva, senior editor; McSweeney’s Publishing, editor, freelance book critic, and manuscript editor; Stranger’s Guide, contributing editor; Kirkus Reviews, nonfiction editor, 2024–present.
AVOCATIONS:Baseball, tennis, French culture, architecture, music, ethnic food.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Literary Hub.
SIDELIGHTS
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John McMurtrie is a writer and editor who has worked at San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s Publishing, and Stranger’s Guide, and has contributed to New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Upon being named nonfiction editor at Kirkus Reviews in 2024, McMurtrie explained that he has an “insatiable curiosity” and anything becomes interesting to him: “That’s how I view the world. And I love books that have that power, books that open doors or help me perceive things differently.”
In 2024 McMurtrie edited Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels across the World of Literature, an illustrated guide to more than 75 of the most powerful works of fiction that center on a literary character’s journey. Discussing classical stories like Homer’s Odyssey and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, modern books like Kerouac’s On the Road and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and contemporary tales like Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, the short original essays delve into the nature of the quest and exploration, the metaphorical and spiritual journey of self-discovery, allegorical visions, and dangerous and tragic journeys. Lesser known books about Vietnamese, Arabic, Latino journeys add to the broad categories, along with Korean novelist Kang Eun Jin’s No One Writes Back and Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah’s Out of Darkness, Shining Light.
Contributors span professors, notable writers, critics, and academics, including Robert McCrum, Susan Shillinglaw, Maya Jaggi, Robert Holden, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, and Alan Taylor. A critic in Kirkus Reviews called the book “A richly illustrated catalog highlighting the literature of motion,” and commentaries are “described with intelligent commentary.” Accompanied by photos and artwork inspired by the books’ locales, “The bite-size entries offer punchy takes on celebrated literature …The result is a trip well worth taking,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. The short essays make the book “an ideal one to dip into without having to commit to any extended analysis or focus on a single example that may outstay its welcome,” declared Terry Potter in Letter Press Project.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2024, review of Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels across the World of Literature.
ONLINE
John McMurtrie homepage, https://www.johnmcmurtrie.com (October 1, 2024).
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (August 18, 2024), John McMurtrie, “Meet John McMurtrie, Our New Nonfiction Editor.”
Letter Press Project, https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/ (September 17, 2024), Terry Potter, review of Literary Journeys.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (July 30, 2024), “John McMurtrie Joins ‘Kirkus Reviews’ as Nonfiction Editor”; (August 2024), review of Literary Journeys.
Hi, I’m John. I am the nonfiction editor of Kirkus Reviews.
I served as the books editor of the San Francisco Chronicle for a decade and, most recently, I was an independent book editor, a senior editor of the literary journal Zyzzyva, an editor for McSweeney’s Publishing, and a contributing editor of the quarterly literary travel magazine Stranger’s Guide.
My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Literary Hub. I also wrote the introduction to Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels across the World of Literature, which Princeton University Press will publish on Sept. 10, 2024.
I am the recipient of the Friend of Independent Bookselling Award, from the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, as well as the Northern California Book Reviewers’ Recognition Award. I have also served on the jury panels of One City One Book: San Francisco Reads and the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards.
I have taught as well: In 2019 and 2020, I led classes in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at the University of San Francisco.
In 2023 and 2024, I completed two personal book-themed projects. One is a book-donation project—the Kenneth Baker Library—that I created in memory of a friend, the art critic Kenneth Baker. The other is an interactive manuscript of World War I memoirs that were written by my French grandfather; I paired his writing with scores of photographs that he took during the war, adding an online map that charts the many places where he was as a soldier.
In my introduction to my grandfather’s memoirs, I quote the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who wrote, “There is no past, so long as books shall live.” I agree with the sentiment, and I feel privileged to be a part of this ever-expanding world of books.
John McMurtrie Joins 'Kirkus Reviews' as Nonfiction Editor
Jul 30, 2024
John McMurtrie will join Kirkus Reviews as nonfiction editor, effective August 1, succeeding Eric Liebetrau, who left the magazine in June after nearly 20 years. He will report to Kirkus editor-in-chief Tom Beer.
McMurtrie previously served as the books editor of the San Francisco Chronicle for a decade. Most recently, he was senior editor of the literary journal Zyzzyva, an editor for McSweeney’s Publishing, and a contributing editor of the quarterly literary travel magazine Stranger’s Guide.
McMurtrie's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Literary Hub. He is also the general editor of Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across the World of Literature, published by Princeton University Press.
“John McMurtrie brings a wealth of editorial savvy and experience to Kirkus Reviews,” said Beer. “I’ve followed his career with admiration, and I’m thrilled to welcome him to the magazine. His high critical standards, excellent taste, and deep knowledge of the publishing industry will be tremendous assets to our nonfiction section and to the annual selection of the Kirkus Prize.”
Meet John McMurtrie, Our New Nonfiction Editor
BY John McMurtrie • Aug. 18, 2024
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Meet John McMurtrie, Our New Nonfiction Editor
John McMurtrie
Greetings, dear reader! I’m delighted to be writing to you as the new nonfiction editor of Kirkus Reviews.
I’ve worked in the book world for many years—as the books editor of the San Francisco Chronicle for a decade and as a freelance book critic, a manuscript editor, and an editor at McSweeney’s Books and the literary journal Zyzzyva. During that time, Kirkus was a rock for me. The breadth of its books coverage is astounding. It is very often the first outlet in the nation to write about thousands of titles. It’s also a reliable voice, known for its intelligence and verve. So I’m overjoyed to be a part of this treasured institution, joining a smart and kindhearted crew in helping guide readers and spark conversations about books.
I’m a proud generalist, led by my insatiable curiosity. On airplanes, I always request a window seat so I can stare outside. I’ll wonder: Who was living on that land down there, centuries ago? How is it that this steel behemoth is gliding so effortlessly through the air? What is the decibel level of a roaring jet engine relative to the cries of that poor baby in the next aisle? The novelist Gustave Flaubert had a fine observation about being alive to one’s surroundings: “Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.” That’s how I view the world. And I love books that have that power, books that open doors or help me perceive things differently.
It’s one of the most common questions in the book world—and, ideally, in life in general: What are you reading these days? Like anyone, I have my interests and passions—baseball, tennis, French culture (my mother was French), architecture, the art of Giotto and David Hockney and Stanley Whitney, the music of Nick Cave and Shirley Horn and Derrick Hodge, Japanese food, Vietnamese food, Ethiopian food—but I want to keep adding to them, as we all should. Books, of course, are among the best ways of making those discoveries, of lighting up our brains. So, what have I been reading? Here’s a sample—and you can read reviews of the books at kirkusreviews.com:
Feh by Shalom Auslander (Riverhead, July 23): Auslander’s memoir Foreskin’s Lament had me laughing out loud, and this one, as irreverent and insightful about his religious upbringing, has the same effect.
A Complicated Passion by Carrie Rickey (Norton, Aug. 13): I adore Agnès Varda’s films—her sense of curiosity helped fuel mine—and Rickey’s portrait of the director lovingly captures this singular talent.
Paradise Bronx by Ian Frazier (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Aug. 20): There can’t be enough books about walking in cities—I’m especially fond of Michael Kimmelman’s The Intimate City—and Frazier’s valentine to this underappreciated New York City borough is wonderfully eye-opening.
Paris in Ruins by Sebastian Smee (Norton, Sept. 10). You might feel you’ve had your fill of Impressionist art—all those sumptuous canvases we’ve seen so often—but Smee’s history offers an enthralling backdrop for this revolutionary art movement.
And what are you reading? Feel free to share your favorites. You can reach me at jmcmurtrie@kirkus.com.
John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.
McMurtrie, John LITERARY JOURNEYS Princeton Univ. (NonFiction None) $29.95 9, 3 ISBN: 9780691266398
A richly illustrated catalog highlighting the literature of motion, from Homer to Amor Towles and much between.
The "world of travel," notes former San Francisco Chronicle books editor McMurtrie, was once the province of men, though lately women and members of overlooked literary communities--Vietnamese, Arabic, Latine, and more--have been contributing significant works to the broad genre. The contributors take a suitably wide-ranging approach. It's surprising, in that regard, to see Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula categorized as works of travel literature, though the monster and the vampire do go off and see the world as part of their mischief-making. More expected works, such as The Odyssey and BashÅ's Narrow Road to the Deep North, figure prominently, described with intelligent commentary. Readers could do far worse than to use this book as a kind of suggested-reading list in which a few of the usual suspects--On the Road, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath--join the compendium. (The commentary on Twain, linking the Mississippi River to the great rivers of classical literature to be found in Homer and beyond, is particularly sharp.) It's toward the end of the book that the surprises begin to multiply, as the contributors proffer books likely not to be known to many readers--e.g., the Korean novelist Kang Eun Jin's No One Writes Back, whose protagonist is "a traveler who goes from motel to motel," or Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah's Out of Darkness, Shining Light, a novel that reimagines the African journey of David Livingstone. More familiar recent works--such as Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detectives, Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, Towles' The Lincoln Highway, and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove--round out the well-selected inventory of travelogues.
A pleasingly instructive survey for fans of literary travel.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"McMurtrie, John: LITERARY JOURNEYS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332916/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a08f8d99. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across the World of Literature
Edited by John McMurtrie. Princeton Univ, $29.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-691-26639-8
In this transportive survey, literature professors and other contributors reflect on the treks undertaken by characters in literary works ranging from Homer’s Odyssey to Amor Towles’s Lincoln Highway. Sam Jordison contends that though Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales ostensibly chronicles a band of pilgrims’ trip from Southwark, London, to Canterbury Cathedral, the religion-inflected stories actually offer “a tour around the clerical and lay structures of late-fourteenth-century England.” John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, argues Susan Shillinglaw, charts the Joad family’s migration from Oklahoma to California alongside a cultural shift toward a working-class consciousness grounded in the shared destitution brought on by the Dust Bowl. Elsewhere, contributors discuss Robert Bolaño’s perspective on “poetry as a journey, a way of life” in The Savage Detectives, Yann Martel’s allegorical vision of “a civilization entrapped with everything wild it has sought to cage” in Life of Pi, and Colson Whitehead’s assertion that America owes its “economic might” to the stolen labor of enslaved African Americans in The Underground Railroad. The bite-size entries offer punchy takes on celebrated literature and are accompanied by plentiful photos of artwork inspired by the books or the locales discussed in them. The result is a trip well worth taking. Photos. (Aug.)
posted on 17 Sep 2024
Literary Journeys: Mapping fictional travels across the world of literature, edited by John McMurtrie
If you are a fan of literary fiction, here’s a book that is going to be on the table next to your favourite reading-chair or sitting temptingly on your bedside table within easy reach. Why? Because general editor, John McMurtrie has curated a collection of superbly economical essays – nothing more than a two or three pages long – from some notable writers, critics and academics that explore the theme of travel in literary fiction and do it in such a way that makes the book an ideal one to dip into without having to commit to any extended analysis or focus on a single example that may outstay its welcome. And, as if to add a dose of delicious syrup on top of an already tasty plate of goodies, it’s packed with a fabulous array of subject appropriate artworks from all sorts of sources that illustrate virtually every page.
The books included here are organised in a sort of chronological order but also grouped under four key headings – ‘Quests & Explorations’, ‘The Age of Travel’, ‘Postmodern Movements’ and ‘Contemporary Crossings’. You probably won’t be reading this book from first page to last or in any systematic way and so this kind of grouping of books in broad chronological themes will help you decided what sort of mood you’re in and where to dive in.
I think it’s worth emphasising a couple of things about the notion of literary journeys at this point. Firstly, there are plenty of examples here that won’t come as any surprise to you because they signal the peripatetic nature of their subject matter right up front – Around the World in Eighty Days is a good example of that. But secondly, the physical journey can also be a metaphor for the personal or spiritual journey of self- discovery – or even psychological investigation (Heart of Darkness). Both of these are well catered for.
British and U.S. writers are well represented here and probably make up a majority proportion of the selections but I was delighted to see that literature from around the globe does get a healthy look-in. I was especially pleased to discover a range of works from authors that I am personally unaware of – especially in the ‘Contemporary Crossings’ section - so reading this was literally a voyage of discovery for me. Can I suggest you need to keep a good supply of Post-it stickers at hand to mark the pages of those books you’re going to have to go back and order copies of.
As you might expect, the short essays vary considerably in style and it would be wrong to pick out any of them for special attention because everyone will have their own favourites and, no doubt, everyone will also have ones that disappoint or infuriate them – such is the nature of this kind of anthology. But what I can say is that none of the authors have been too narrow in their contribution and while the theme of ‘journeys’ dominates, most books get a wider consideration and contextualisation.
I’d I also like to put in a word for the design and production of the book – which is a delight to look at and handle. My only criticism is that I’d have liked the name of the person who wrote each essay shown at the beginning or end of their contribution: you have to turn to the back credits where the contributors are listed alphabetically and scan through them to track down the piece you’ve just read. That all feels a bit clumsy.
But this is a small criticism for a book that will give lots of pleasure. Available now from Princeton University Press, you will be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be glad to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.
Terry Potter
September 2024