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.

2024 NBCC Award Winners

  • Fiction

    Hisham Matar

    My Friends

    Random House

  • Nonfiction

    Adam Higginbotham

    Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

    Avid Reader

  • Biography

    Cynthia Carr

    Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Autobiography

    Alexei Navalny, translation by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel

    Patriot: A Memoir

    Knopf

  • Poetry

    Anne Carson

    Wrong Norma

    New Directions

  • Criticism

    Hanif Abdurraqib

    There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

    Random House

  • John Leonard Prize

    Tessa Hulls

    Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir

    MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    Pedro Lemebel, translation by Gwendolyn Harper

    A Last Supper of Queer Apostles

    Penguin Classics

  • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

    Lauren Michele Jackson

  • Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

    Sandra Cisneros

  • Toni Morrison Achievement Award

    Third World Press

  • NBCC Service Award

    Lori Lynn Turner

2024 NBCC Award Finalists

  • Fiction

    • Marie-Helene Bertino

      Beautyland Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Joseph O'Neill

      Godwin Pantheon

    • Percival Everett

      James Doubleday

    • Nora Lange

      Us Fools Two Dollar Radio

  • Nonfiction

    • Steve Coll

      The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq Penguin Press

    • Tricia Romano

      The Freaks Came Out To Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture PublicAffairs

    • Gretchen Sisson

      Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood St. Martin’s

    • Edwidge Danticat

      We’re Alone Graywolf

  • Biography

    • Jane Kamensky

      Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below W. W. Norton

    • Jean Strouse

      Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Tiya Miles

      Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People Penguin Press

    • Amy Reading

      The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker Mariner

  • Autobiography

    • Manjula Martin

      The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History Pantheon

    • Wei Tchou

      Little Seed Deep Vellum

    • Zito Madu

      The Minotaur at Calle Lanza Belt

    • Erika Morillo

      Mother Archive: A Dominican Family Memoir University of Iowa

  • Poetry

    • Jennifer Chang

      An Authentic Life Copper Canyon

    • Oliver Baez Bendorf

      Consider the Rooster Nightboat

    • Dawn Lundy Martin

      Instructions for the Lovers Nightboat

    • Carl Phillips

      Scattered Snows, to the North Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Criticism

    • Legacy Russell

      Black Meme: A History of the Images that Make Us Verso

    • Jesse McCarthy

      The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War University of Chicago

    • Claire Bishop

      Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today Verso

    • Marianne Brooker

      Intervals Fitzcarraldo

  • John Leonard Prize

    • Rebecca Nagle

      By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land Harper

    • Vinson Cunningham

      Great Expectations Hogarth

    • Carrie Courogen

      Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius St. Martin’s

    • Cindy Juyoung Ok

      Ward Toward Yale University

    • John Ganz

      When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    • Elias Khoury, translation by Humphrey Davies

      The Children of the Ghetto: Star of the Sea Archipelago

    • László Krasznahorkai, translation by Ottilie Mulzet

      Herscht 07769 New Directions

    • Rodrigo Fresán, translation by Will Vanderhyden

      Melvill Open Letter

    • Judith Kiros, translation by Kira Josefsson

      O World Poetry

    • Iman Mersal, translation by Robin Moger

      Traces of Enayat Transit

  • Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

    • Joanna Biggs

    • Sarah Chihaya

    • Rhoda Feng

    • Jeremy Lybarger

2024 Longlisted Books

  • Fiction

    • Ayşegül Savaş

      The Anthropologists Bloomsbury

    • Danzy Senna

      Colored Television Riverhead

    • Vinson Cunningham

      Great Expectations Hogarth

    • Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti

      Sister Deborah Archipelago

    • Garth Greenwell

      Small Rain Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Nonfiction

    • Lawrence Ingrassia

      A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery Holt

    • Brian VanDeMark

      Kent State: An American Tragedy W. W. Norton

    • Zoë Schlanger

      The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth Harper

    • John Edgar Wideman

      Slaveroad Scribner

    • Hanif Abdurraqib

      There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension Random House

  • Biography

    • David Greenberg

      John Lewis: A Life Simon and Schuster

    • Jackie Wullschläger

      Monet: The Restless Vision Knopf

    • Max Boot

      Reagan: His Life and Legend Liveright

    • Adam Shatz

      The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • James Traub

      True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America Basic Books

  • Autobiography

    • Tessa Hulls

      Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Jakuta Alikavazovic, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker

      Like a Sky Inside Fern

    • Komail Aijazuddin

      Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake Abrams Press

    • Sarah Moss

      My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Patricia Coral

      Women Surrounded by Water: A Memoir Mad Creek

  • Poetry

    • Kenzie Allen

      Cloud Missives Tin House

    • V. Penelope Pelizzon

      A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye University of Pittsburgh

    • Armen Davoudian

      The Palace of Forty Pillars Tin House

    • Kwame Dawes

      Sturge Town W. W. Norton

    • Janice N. Harrington

      Yard Show BOA

  • Criticism

    • Vanessa Angélica Villarreal

      Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders Tiny Reparations

    • Sofia Samatar

      Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life Soft Skull

    • Isabella Hammad

      Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative Black Cat

    • John Ganz

      When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    • Ronnie A. Grinberg

      Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals Princeton University

  • Gregg Barrios Book in Translation

    • Maria Stepanova, translated from the Russian by Sasha Dugdale

      Holy Winter 20/21 New Directions

    • Jakuta Alikavazovic, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker

      Like a Sky Inside Fern

    • Xi Xi, translated from the Chinese by Jennifer Feeley

      Mourning a Breast New York Review Books

    • by Dubravka Ugrešić, translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias- Bursać

      A Muzzle for Witches Open Letter

    • Yoko Tawada, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

      Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel New Directions

    • Emmanuel Carrère, translated from the French by John Lambert

      V13: Chronicle of a Trial Farrar, Straus and Giroux