Ron Charles (critic)
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Ron Charles (born 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American book critic, formerly of The Washington Post.[1] His awards include the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award Nona Balakian Citation[2] for book reviews,[3] and 1st Place for A&E Coverage from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011.[4] He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.[5]
Charles grew up in Town and Country, Missouri, and graduated from Principia College and Washington University in St. Louis before getting a job as a teacher at John Burroughs School.[6] After a student's parent offhandedly suggested he try making a living as a book reviewer,[6] Charles sent his first book review to The Christian Science Monitor, which eventually hired him. He spent seven years as the Monitor's book review editor and staff critic.[2]
In 2005, he was hired by The Washington Post. Sometime after August 2010, with his review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom,[7] Charles began a series of video book reviews for Post called "The Totally Hip Video Book Review", a satirical look at books in the news and the art of book reviewing.[8] In the series, Charles hams it up with sight gags and intentionally bad jokes; he is sometimes joined by his wife, high school English teacher Dawn Charles.[9]
In 2026, Charles was laid off by The Washington Post when it reduced its staff by one-third and eliminated the newspaper's books and sports sections.[10][11]