Awards

It's that time of year again: time to talk about the John Leonard Prize, our annual award based on member nominations and chosen by a panel of member volunteers. Named

                  Coming up in September, the National Book Critics Circle's latest Bookend Event for the Brooklyn Book Festival. September 14 201, 6:30

Carlin Romano, criticism committee chair, presented the award to Carina Chocano for You Play the Girl, with this citation by Walton Muyumba.   You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies,

Nonfiction committee chair Mary Ann Gwinn presented the award to Frances FitzGerald for The Evangelicals.   How Donald Trump, a three-times-married libertine, won the presidency with the support of evangelical

NBCC biography committee chair Elizabeth Taylor, presented this citation to Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires.  In her extraordinary Prairie Fires,Caroline Fraser has brilliantly recast our understanding of Laura Ingalls

Poetry committee chair Tess Taylor presented the citation to winner Layli Long Soldier for Whereas. In her audacious, unapologetic debut Whereas, Lakota poet and artist Layli Long Soldier writes about “dual citizenship”—as a

Laurie Hertzel, chair of the autobiography committee, presented the award for Nine Continents, by Xiaolu Guo, to her Grove editor, Amy Hundley  Xiaolu Guo was born in Communist China to

Tom Beer, chair of the fiction committee, presented this citation to award winner Joan Silber, for her novel Improvement. Some writers wow us with verbal pyrotechnics and wildly outrageous scenarios.

John McPhee is a journalist, essayist, author, and longtime journalism professor at Princeton University. He is the author of more than 30 books, beginning with “A Sense of Where You