Girish Mahajan (Editor)

National Book Critics Circle Award

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Country
  
United States

Official website
  
bookcritics.org

Awarded for
  
"the finest books and reviews published in English"

First awarded
  
1975 publications (1976)

Ceremony date
  
March 16, 2017, 3:30 PM PDT

Presented by
  
National Book Critics Circle

Winners
  
LaRoseLouise Erdrich, LaRose, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, White RageCarol Anderson, White Rage, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, House of Lords and Commons: PoemsIshion Hutchinson, House of Lords and Commons: Poems, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, EvictedMatthew Desmond, Evicted, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted LifeRuth Franklin, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, Lab GirlHope Jahren, Lab Girl, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, The SelloutPaul Beatty, The Sellout, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, The ArgonautsMaggie Nelson, The Argonauts, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, Catalog of Unabashed GratitudeRoss Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate EpidemicSam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, Wendell Berry, Wendell Berry, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Carlos Lozada, Carlos Lozada, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Night at the Fiestas: StoriesKirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas: Stories, John Leonard Prize, John Leonard Prize, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary ShelleyCharlotte Gordon, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, Negroland: A MemoirMargo Jefferson, Negroland: A Memoir, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, LilaMarilynne Robinson, Lila, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, The Essential Ellen WillisEllen Willis, The Essential Ellen Willis, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, Citizen: An American LyricClaudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of EmancipationDavid Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Alexandra Schwartz, Alexandra Schwartz, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, RedeploymentPhil Klay, Redeployment, John Leonard Prize, John Leonard Prize, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the FleshJohn Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?Roz Chast, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, AmericanahChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Distant ReadingFranco Moretti, Distant Reading, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, Metaphysical DogFrank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged HospitalSheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, Rolando Hinojosa, Rolando Hinojosa, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Katherine A Powers, Katherine A Powers, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, A Constellation of Vital PhenomenaAnthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, John Leonard Prize, John Leonard Prize, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His WorldLeo Damrosch, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, Farewell - Fred Voodoo: A Letter from HaitiAmy Wilentz, Farewell - Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography, National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir/Autobiography

The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". The first NBCC awards were announced and presented January 16, 1976.

Contents

There are six awards to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year, in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Autobiography, Biography, and Criticism. Four of them span the entire NBCC award history; Memoir/Autobiography and Biography were recognized by one "Autobiography/Biography" award for publication years 1983 to 2004, then replaced by two awards. Beginning in 2014, the NBCC also presents a special "first book" award across all 6 categories, named the John Leonard Award in honor of literary critic and NBCC founding member John Leonard, who died in 2008.

Books previously published in English are not eligible, such as re-issues and paperback editions. Nor does the NBC Circle consider "cookbooks, self help books (including inspirational literature), reference books, picture books or children's books". They do consider "translations, short story and essay collections, self published books, and any titles that fall under the general categories".

The judges are the volunteer directors of the NBCC who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members, namely "professional book review editors and book reviewers".

Winners of the awards are announced each year at the NBCC awards ceremony in conjunction with the yearly membership meeting, which takes place in March.

National book critics circle awards ceremony for publishing year 2012


John Leonard Award

Award for a best first book in any genre.

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Ivan Sandrof was one founder of the National Book Critics Circle and its first President.

The Sandrof Award has also been presented as the "Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing" and the "Ivan Sandrof Award, Contribution to American Arts & Letters".

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

The Balakian Citation is annual. It honors Nona Balakian, who was one of three NBCC founders. For 43 years, Balakian was an editor on the staff of the New York Times Book Review. Five finalists are announced each year, one of whom is selected as the winner of the citation. The award has been called "the most prestigious award for book criticism in the country".

Finalists

Award year is for the book publication year, currently January 1 to December 31.

2016

The finalists were announced on January 17, 2017.

Fiction

  • Michael Chabon, Moonglow
  • Louise Erdrich, LaRose
  • Adam Haslett, Imagine Me Gone
  • Ann Patchett, Commonwealth
  • Zadie Smith, Swing Time

    • Nonfiction

  • Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
  • Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
  • Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
  • Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
  • John Edgar Wideman, Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File

    • Autobiography

  • Marion Coutts, The Iceberg
  • Jenny Diski, In Gratitude
  • Hope Jahren, Lab Girl
  • Hisham Matar, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between
  • Kao Kalia Yang, The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

    • Biography

  • Nigel Cliff, Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story
  • Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
  • Joe Jackson, Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary
  • Michael Tisserand, Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White
  • Frances Wilson, Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey

    • Criticism

  • Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
  • Mark Greif, Against Everything: Essays
  • Alice Kaplan, Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic
  • Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
  • Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

    • Poetry

  • Ishion Hutchinson, House of Lords and Commons
  • Tyehimba Jess, Olio
  • Bernadette Mayer, Works and Days
  • Robert Pinsky, At the Foundling Hospital
  • Monica Youn, Blackacre

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Margaret Atwood

    • John Leonard Prize

  • Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Michelle Dean

    • 2015

    The finalists were announced on January 18, 2016. The winners () were announced March 17, 2016 at the New School in New York.

    Fiction

  • Paul Beatty, The Sellout
  • Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies
  • Valeria Luiselli, The Story of My Teeth
  • Anthony Marra, The Tsar of Love and Techno
  • Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen

    • Nonfiction

  • Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
  • Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America
  • Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
  • Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
  • Brian Seibert, What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing

    • Autobiography

  • Elizabeth Alexander, The Light of the World
  • Vivian Gornick, The Odd Woman and the City
  • George Hodgman, Bettyville
  • Margo Jefferson, Negroland: A Memoir
  • Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

    • Biography

  • Terry Alford, Fortune’s Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth
  • Charlotte Gordon, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
  • T.J. Stiles, Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
  • Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
  • Karin Wieland and Shelly Frisch, Dietrich and Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives

    • Criticism

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
  • Leo Damrosch, Eternity’s Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake
  • Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts
  • Colm Tóibín, On Elizabeth Bishop
  • James Wood, The Nearest Thing to Life

    • Poetry

  • Ross Gay, Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude
  • Terrance Hayes, How to Be Drawn
  • Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things
  • Sinéad Morrissey, Parallax: And Selected Poems
  • Frank Stanford, What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Wendell Berry

    • John Leonard Prize

  • Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Carlos Lozada

    • 2014

    The finalists were announced on January 19, 2015. The winners () were announced March 12, 2015.

    Fiction

  • Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
  • Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
  • Lily King, Euphoria
  • Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea
  • Marilynne Robinson, Lila

    • General Nonfiction

  • David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
  • Peter Finn and Petra Couvee, The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book
  • Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
  • Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, translated from the French by Arthur Goldhammer
  • Hector Tobar, Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free

    • Poetry

  • Saeed Jones, Prelude to Bruise
  • Willie Perdomo, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon
  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
  • Christian Wiman, Once in the West
  • Jake Adam York, Abide

    • Autobiography

  • Blake Bailey, The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait
  • Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
  • Lacy M. Johnson, The Other Side
  • Gary Shteyngart, Little Failure
  • Meline Toumani, There Was and There Was Not

    • Biography

  • Ezra Greenspan, William Wells Brown: An African American Life
  • S. C. Gwynne, Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
  • John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
  • Ian S. MacNiven, "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions
  • Miriam Pawel, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography

    • Criticism

  • Eula Biss, On Immunity: An Innoculation
  • Vikram Chandra, Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty
  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
  • Lynne Tillman, What Would Lynne Tillman Do?
  • Ellen Willis, The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Toni Morrison

    • John Leonard Prize

  • Phil Klay, Redeployment

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Alexandra Schwartz
  • Charles Finch
  • B. K. Fischer
  • Benjamin Moser
  • Lisa Russ Spaar

    • 2013

    The finalists were announced on January 14, 2014. The winners () were announced on March 13, 2014.

    Fiction

  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (Knopf)
  • Alice McDermott, Someone (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Javier Marías, The Infatuations, translated by Margaret Jull Costa (Knopf)
  • Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (Viking)
  • Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch (Little, Brown)

    • Nonfiction

  • Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice (Norton)
  • Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (Crown)
  • David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf)

    • Poetry

  • Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion (Knopf)
  • Denise Duhamel, Blowout (University of Pittsburgh Press)
  • Bob Hicok, Elegy Owed (Copper Canyon)
  • Carmen Gimenez Smith, Milk and Filth (University of Arizona Press)

    • Autobiography

  • Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave (Knopf)
  • Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby (Viking)
  • Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped (Bloomsbury)
  • Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti (Simon & Schuster)

    • Biography

  • Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Doubleday)
  • Leo Damrosch, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (Yale University Press)
  • John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (Knopf)
  • Linda Leavell, Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Mark Thompson, Birth Certificate: The Story of Danilo Kis (Cornell University Press)

    • Criticism

  • Hilton Als, White Girls (McSweeney’s)
  • Mary Beard, Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations (Liveright)
  • Jonathan Franzen, The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus, translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen with Paul Reitter and Daniel Kehlmann (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Janet Malcolm, Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Franco Moretti, Distant Reading (Verso)

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

    • John Leonard Prize

  • Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Hogarth)

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Katherine A. Powers
  • Ruth Franklin
  • James Marcus
  • Roxana Robinson
  • Alexandra Schwartz

    • 2012

    The finalists were announced January 14, 2012. The winners () were announced on Feb. 28, 2012.

    Fiction

  • Laurent Binet, HHhH tr. by Sam Taylor
  • Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
  • Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son
  • Lydia Millet, Magnificence
  • Zadie Smith, NW

    • Nonfiction

  • Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  • Steve Coll, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
  • Jim Holt, Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story
  • David Quammen, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
  • Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

    • Criticism

  • Paul Elie, Reinventing Bach
  • Daniel Mendelsohn, Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture
  • Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey
  • Marina Warner, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
  • Kevin Young, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness

    • Poetry

  • David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations
  • Lucia Perillo, On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths
  • Allan Peterson, Fragile Acts
  • D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys
  • A. E. Stallings, Olives

    • Autobiography

  • Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us
  • Maureen N. McLane, My Poets
  • Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
  • Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies
  • Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, In the House of the Interpreter

    • Biography

  • Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
  • Lisa Cohen, All We Know: Three Lives
  • Michael Gorra, Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
  • Lisa Jarnot, Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography
  • Tom Reiss, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • William Deresiewicz

    • 2011

    The awards () were presented March 8, 2012, at the New School in New York City.

    Fiction

  • Dana Spiotta, Stone Arabia
  • Teju Cole, Open City
  • Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
  • Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child
  • Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories

    • Nonfiction

  • John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead: Essays
  • Maya Jasanoff, Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
  • James Gleick, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
  • Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
  • Amanda Foreman, A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

    • Criticism

  • David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything
  • Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews
  • Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.
  • Dubravka Ugresic, Karaoke Culture: Essays
  • Ellen Willis, Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music

    • Poetry

  • Bruce Smith, Devotions
  • Yusef Komunyakaa, The Chameleon Couch
  • Aracelis Girmay, Kingdom Animalia
  • Forrest Gander, Core Samples From the World
  • Laura Kasischke, Space, In Chains

    • Autobiography

  • Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing
  • Mira Bartók, The Memory Palace
  • Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America
  • Luis J. Rodriguez, It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing
  • Deb Olin Unferth, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War

    • Biography

  • Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of the Revolution
  • John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life
  • Paul Hendrickson, Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934–1961
  • Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
  • Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Robert Silvers, editor of New York Review of Books

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Kathryn Schulz

    • 2010

    The 2010 winners () were announced March 10, 2011.

    Fiction

  • Jennifer Egan, A Visit From the Goon Squad (Knopf)
  • Jonathan Franzen, Freedom (Farrar, Straus And Giroux)
  • David Grossman, To The End of the Land (Knopf)
  • Hans Keilson, Comedy in a Minor Key (Farrar, Straus And Giroux)
  • Paul Murray, Skippy Dies (Faber & Faber)

    • Nonfiction

  • Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (Spiegel & Grau)
  • S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American (Scribner)
  • Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (Random )
  • Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner )
  • Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Random)

    • Criticism

  • Elif Batuman, The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings (Harper )
  • Clare Cavanagh, Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West (Yale University Press)
  • Susie Linfield, The Cruel Radiance (University of Chicago Press)
  • Ander Monson, Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir (Graywolf)

    • Biography

  • Sarah Bakewell, How To Live, Or A Life Of Montaigne (Other Press)
  • Selina Hastings, The Secret Lives Of Somerset Maugham: A Biography (Random House)
  • Yunte Huang, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective And His Rendezvous With American History (Norton)
  • Thomas Powers, The Killing Of Crazy Horse (Knopf)
  • Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Lives And Legends (Doubleday)

    • Autobiography

  • Kai Bird, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 (Scribner)
  • David Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution (Twelve)
  • Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir (Twelve)
  • Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Hiroshima in the Morning (feminist Press)
  • Patti Smith, Just Kids (Ecco)
  • Darin Strauss, Half a Life (McSweeney’s)

    • Poetry

  • Anne Carson, Nox (New Directions)
  • Kathleen Graber, The Eternal City (Princeton University Press)
  • Terrance Hayes, Lighthead (Penguin Poets)
  • Kay Ryan, The Best of It (Grove)
  • C.D. Wright, One With Others (Copper Canyon)

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Sarah L. Courteau
  • William Deresiewicz
  • Ruth Franklin
  • Kathryn Harrison
  • Parul Sehgal

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Dalkey Archive Press

    • 2009

    The 2009 winners () were announced March 11, 2010.

    Fiction

  • Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
  • Marlon James, The Book of Night Women (Riverhead)
  • Michelle Huneven, Blame (Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)
  • Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (Holt)
  • Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Knopf)

    • General nonfiction

  • Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (Penguin Press)
  • Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books)
  • Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (Pantheon)
  • Tracy Kidder, Strength in What Remains (Random House)
  • William T. Vollmann, Imperial (Viking)

    • Criticism

  • Eula Biss, Notes From No Man's Land: American Essays (Graywolf Press)
  • Stephen Burt, Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry (Graywolf Press)
  • Morris Dickstein, Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression (Norton)
  • David Hajdu, Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture (Da Capo Press)
  • Greg Milner, Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music (Faber)

    • Biography

  • Blake Bailey, Cheever: A Life (Knopf)
  • Brad Gooch, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little, Brown)
  • Benjamin Moser, Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (Oxford University Press)
  • Stanislao G. Pugliese, Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • Martha A. Sandweiss, Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line (Penguin Press)

    • Autobiography

  • Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End (Norton)
  • Debra Gwartney, Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Mary Karr, Lit (Harper)
  • Kati Marton, Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America (Simon & Schuster)
  • Edmund White, City Boy ( Bloomsbury)

    • Poetry

  • Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan)
  • Louise Glück, A Village Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • D. A. Powell, Chronic (Graywolf Press)
  • Eleanor Ross Taylor, Captive Voices: New and Selected Poems, 1960–2008 (Louisiana State University Press)
  • Rachel Zucker, Museum of Accidents (Wave Books)

    • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Joan Acocella
  • Michael Antman
  • William Deresiewicz
  • Donna Seaman
  • Wendy Smith

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Joyce Carol Oates

    • 2008

    The 2008 winners () were announced March 12, 2009.

    Fiction

  • Roberto Bolaño, 2666. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
  • Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project, (Riverhead)
  • Marilynne Robinson, Home, (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
  • Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge, (Random House)
  • M. Glenn Taylor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, (West Virginia University Press)

    • General nonfiction

  • Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering, (Knopf)
  • Dexter Filkins, The Forever War, (Knopf)
  • George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776. (Oxford University Press)
  • Allan Lichtman, White Protestant Nation, (Atlantic)
  • Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, (Doubleday)

    • Autobiography

  • Rick Bass, Why I Came West, (Houghton Mifflin)
  • Helene Cooper, The House on Sugar Beach, (Simon and Schuster)
  • Honor Moore, The Bishop’s Daughter, (W.W. Norton)
  • Andrew X. Pham, The Eaves of Heaven, (Harmony Books)
  • Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, (Algonquin)

    • Biography

  • Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century, (Penguin Press)
  • Patrick French, The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, (Knopf)
  • Paul J. Giddings, Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, (Amistad)
  • Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, (Norton)
  • Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson, (Knopf)

    • Poetry

  • Juan Felipe Herrera, Half the World in Light, (University of Arizona Press)
  • Devin Johnston, Sources, (Turtle Point Press)
  • August Kleinzahler, Sleeping it Off in Rapid City, (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
  • Pierre Martory (trans. John Ashbery), The Landscapist, (Sheep Meadow Press)
  • Brenda Shaughnessy, Human Dark with Sugar, (Copper Canyon Press)

    • Criticism

  • Richard Brody, Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, (Metropolitan Books)
  • Vivian Gornick, The Men in My Life. (Boston Review/MIT)
  • Joel L. Kraemer, Maimonides: The Life and World of One Of Civilization’s Greatest Minds, (Doubleday)
  • Seth Lerer, Children’s Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter, (University of Chicago Press)
  • Reginald Shepard, Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry, (University of Michigan Press)

    • The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Michael Antman
  • Ron Charles
  • Kathryn Harrison
  • Laila Lalami
  • Todd Shy

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • PEN American Center

    • 2007

    The 2007 award winners () were announced on March 6, 2008.

    Fiction

  • Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games (HarperCollins)
  • Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead)
  • Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men (Dial Press)
  • Joyce Carol Oates, The Gravedigger's Daughter (Ecco)
  • Marianne Wiggins, The Shadow Catcher (Simon and Schuster)

    • General nonfiction

  • Philip Gura, American Transcendentalism (Hill & Wang)
  • Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815–1848 (Oxford University Press)
  • Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Doubleday)
  • Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA (Doubleday)
  • Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (Thomas Dunne BKs/St. Martin’s)

    • Autobiography

  • Joshua Clark, Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone (Free Press)
  • Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying (Knopf)
  • Joyce Carol Oates, The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973–1982 (Ecco)
  • Sara Paretsky, Writing in an Age of Silence (Verso)
  • Anna Politkovskaya, Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption and Death in Putin's Russia (Random House)

    • Biography

  • Tim Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer (Yale University Press)
  • Hermione Lee, Edith Wharton (Knopf)
  • Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison (Knopf)
  • John Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917–1932 (Knopf)
  • Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy (Penguin Press)

    • Poetry

  • Mary Jo Bang, Elegy (Graywolf)
  • Matthea Harvey, Modern Life (Graywolf)
  • Michael O'Brien, Sleeping and Waking (Flood)
  • Tom Pickard, The Ballad of Jamie Allan (Flood)
  • Tadeusz Różewicz, New Poems (Archipelago)

    • Criticism

  • Joan Acocella, Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints (Pantheon)
  • Julia Alvarez, Once Upon a Quniceanera (Viking)
  • Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream (Metropolitan/Holt)
  • Ben Ratliff, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  • Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

    • The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

  • Brooke Allen
  • Sam Anderson, book critic for New York magazine
  • Ron Charles
  • Walter Kirn
  • Adam Kirsch

    • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Emilie Buchwald, writer, editor, and founding publisher of Milkweed Editions, in Minneapolis.

    • References

    National Book Critics Circle Award Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA