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 the John Leonard Prize for the best first book in any genre, voted on by NBCC membership; 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. Beginning in 2023, we’ll award the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, for the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United States.

NBCC Awards Submission Process and Contact List for 2022 Books

The board divides itself into committees for each category, which are responsible for nominating books to be considered in each category. Any title that is championed by a particular board member is placed on a master list for consideration by other board members. Based on those recommendations, the committee chairs will request copies of those books to be sent by publishers to the entire committee for group discussion.  If you have books in many categories and it would be easier to send the books to all the board members, feel free to do so.

Publishers: for online submissions, please choose the category that you think is the best fit. You can also find a mailing list for board members on our submission form.)

From time to time, an NBCC board member may contact you to request a single copy of a book for consideration and evaluation. Please respond to such requests quickly, as it will give the board member time to evaluate the book and possibly advocate on its behalf.

Any book is eligible if it is published in English (including translations) in the United States. Our awards year is the calendar year – books published from January 1 to December 31. It is essential that the board receive the books as early in the year as possible to allow time to consider all titles. If you have been contacted to submit a title to the NBCC, please expedite the request as soon as possible so they can be part of the board’s active, ongoing discussion. Please send requested titles as soon as you have stock available. We do need to receive books by December 1, even if they have a later publication date, just so that we have time to discuss them.

Publishers are welcome to bring books to the board’s attention, even absent a request from us. If you feel there are books on your list that the NBCC board shouldn’t miss, you should notify board members at your earliest convenience. You can find the email addresses for all board members by clicking “Board” on the website menu above.

Finalists for the preceding calendar year are announced in January; awards are presented in March.