The National Book Critics Circle Awards

Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism.

In addition, we award two prizes voted on by membership: the John Leonard Prize for the best first book in any genre and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, for the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United States. We also award the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, which recognizes outstanding work by a member of the NBCC, and the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award and Toni Morrison Achievement Award, which are given respectively to individuals and literary institutions for transformative contributions to book culture.

2025 NBCC Award Winners

  • We Do Not Part

    Fiction

    Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris

    We Do Not Part

    Hogarth

  • Empire of AI

    Nonfiction

    Karen Hao

    Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI

    Penguin Press

  • A Perfect Turmoil

    Biography

    Alex Green

    A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled

    Bellevue Literary Press

  • Mother Mary Comes to Me

    Autobiography

    Arundhati Roy

    Mother Mary Comes to Me

    Scribner

  • Night Watch

    Poetry

    Kevin Young

    Night Watch

    Knopf

  • Hayek's Bastards

    Criticism

    Quinn Slobodian

    Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right

    Zone Books

  • Baldwin

    John Leonard Prize

    Nicholas Boggs

    Baldwin: A Love Story

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Sad Tiger

    Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer

    Sad Tiger

    Seven Stories

  • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

    Frances FitzGerald

  • Toni Morrison Achievement Award

    NPR and PBS

  • Elizabeth Taylor

    NBCC Service Award

    Elizabeth Taylor

2025 NBCC Award Finalists

  • Fiction

    The Antidote
    Audition
    On the Calculation of Volume
    The Wilderness

    • Karen Russell

      The Antidote Knopf

    • Katie Kitamura

      Audition Riverhead

    • Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell

      On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) New Directions

    • Angela Flournoy

      The Wilderness Mariner

  • Nonfiction

    America, America
    Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
    King of Kings
    No More Tears

    • Greg Grandin

      America, América: A New History of the New World Penguin Press

    • Barbara Demick

      Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins Random House

    • Scott Anderson

      King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation Doubleday

    • Gardiner Harris

      No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson Random House

  • Biography

    Love, Queenie
    Pride and Pleasure
    Queen Mother
    Trouble Maker

    • Mayukh Sen

      Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star W. W. Norton

    • Amanda Vaill

      Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Ashley D. Farmer

      Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore Pantheon

    • Carla Kaplan

      Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford Harper

  • Autobiography

    Memorial Days
    Paper Girl
    Shattered
    A Truce That Is Not Peace

    • Geraldine Brooks

      Memorial Days Viking

    • Beth Macy

      Paper Girl Penguin

    • Hanif Kureishi

      Shattered Ecco

    • Miriam Toews

      A Truce That Is Not Peace Bloomsbury

  • Poetry

    Chronicle of Drifting
    Death of the First Idea
    The Other Love
    Unravel

    • Yuki Tanaka

      Chronicle of Drifting Copper Canyon

    • Rickey Laurentiis

      Death of the First Idea Knopf

    • Henri Cole

      The Other Love Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Tolu Oloruntoba

      Unravel McClelland & Stewart

  • Criticism

    Exophony
    Greyhound
    One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This
    To Save and Destroy

    • Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

      Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue New Directions

    • Joanna Pocock

      Greyhound Soft Skull Press

    • Omar El Akkad

      One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This Knopf

    • Viet Thanh Nguyen

      To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other Harvard University Press

  • John Leonard Prize

    Crown
    Hunchback
    Mood Machine
    Salvage
    The Slip

    • Evanthia Bromiley

      Crown Grove Press

    • Saou Ichikawa, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton

      Hunchback Hogarth

    • Liz Pelly

      Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist Atria/One Signal Publishers

    • Hedgie Choi

      Salvage University of Wisconsin Press

    • Lucas Schaefer

      The Slip Simon & Schuster

  • Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    Exophony
    Heart Lamp
    Near Distance
    The Frog in the Throat
    The Wax Child

    • Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

      Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue New Directions

    • Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi

      Heart Lamp And Other Stories

    • Hanna Stoltenberg, translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen

      Near Distance Biblioasis

    • Markus Werner, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann

      The Frog in the Throat NYRB

    • Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken

      The Wax Child New Directions

  • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

    • Edna Bonhomme

    • Priscilla Gilman

    • Julia Klein

    • James Marcus

2025 Longlisted Books

  • Fiction

    • Madeleine Thien

      The Book of Records W.W. Norton

    • Lily King

      Heart the Lover Grove

    • Ayşegül Savaş

      Long Distance Bloomsbury

    • Caren Beilin

      Sea, Poison New Directions

    • Tash Aw

      The South Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Nonfiction

    • Brandy Schillace

      The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story W. W. Norton

    • Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

      Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings Harper

    • Aatish Taseer

      A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile Catapult

    • Michael Koresky

      Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness Bloomsbury

    • Michael Luo

      Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America Doubleday

  • Biography

    • Sam Tanenhaus

      Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America Random House

    • Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys

      Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Claire Hoffman

      Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Sue Prideaux

      Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin W. W. Norton

    • Philip Hoare

      William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love Pegasus Books

  • Autobiography

    • Margaret Atwood

      Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts Doubleday

    • Michael Thomas

      The Broken King Grove

    • Hala Alyan

      I'll Tell You When I'm Home Avid Reader Press

    • Yiyun Li

      Things in Nature Merely Grow Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Hester Kaplan

      Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography Catapult

  • Poetry

    • Camille Ralphs

      After You Were, I Am McSweeney's

    • Arthur Sze

      Into the Hush Copper Canyon

    • Hedgie Choi

      Salvage University of Wisconsin

    • Gary Jackson

      small lives University of New Mexico

    • Natalie Shapero

      Stay Dead Copper Canyon

  • Criticism

    • A.S. Hamrah

      Algorithm of the Night: Film Writing, 2019-2025 n+1

    • Andrea Long Chu

      Authority: Essays Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Rasheedah Phillips

      Dismantling the Master's Clock: On Race, Space, and Time AK Press

    • Ian Penman

      Erik Satie Three Piece Suite Semiotext(e)

    • Hito Steyerl

      Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat Verso Books

  • Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    • Elvira Hernández, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky and Alec Schumacher

      Bodies Found in Various Places Cardboard House

    • Nasser Rabah, translated from the Arabic by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal and Khaled Al-Hilli

      Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece City Lights

    • Ye Hui, translated from the Chinese by Dong Li

      The Ruins Deep Vellum

    • Moshtari Hilal, translated from the German by Elisabeth Lauffer

      Ugliness New Vessel Press

    • Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris

      We Do Not Part Hogarth

    • Christian Lehnert, translated from the German by Richard Sieburth

      Wickerwork Archipelago