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Should critics, especially those who write about relatively marginalized areas of culture, simply ignore work they don’t like? Should they treat it harshly? Or is there some third path between these two? Is a critic primarily a consumer reporter, telling her reader whether to go out and buy a book or a ticket to the show? Or is the critics’ first job to engage with the work at hand in an honest way, even if that means dismissing work that otherwise would go unnoticed?

These questions will be looked at by a panel moderated by Christopher Beha, associate editor, Harper’s Magazine, and including critics Ruth Franklin, Daniel Mendelsohn, Troy Patterson, and Jacob Silverman.

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