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.
The National Book Critics Circle Award
1987 Winners & Finalists
Fiction Winner
- Philip Roth, The Counterlife (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fiction Finalists
- Jane Smiley, The Age of Grief (Knopf)
- Toni Morrison, Beloved (Knopf)
- Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety (Random House)
General Nonfiction Winner
- Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon & Schuster)
General Nonfiction Finalists
- Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (St. Martin’s)
- James Miller, Democracy Is in the Streets, (Simon & Schuster)
- Charles Mee, The Genius of the People (Harper & Row)
- Stephen Jay Gould, Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle (Harvard University)
Biography/Autobiography Winner
- Donald Howard, Chaucer: His Life, His Work, His World (Dutton)
Biography/Autobiography Finalists
- Annie Dillard, An American Childhood (Harper & Row)
- Prudence Crowther, ed., Don’t Tread on Me: The Selected Letters of S.J. Perelman (Viking)
- Paul Taylor, Private Domain (Knopf)
- Arthur Miller, Timebends: A Life (Grove Press)
Poetry Winner
- C.K. Williams, Flesh and Blood (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Poetry Finalists
- John Ashbery, April Galleons (Viking)
- Alan Shapiro, Happy Hour (University of Chicago)
- May Swenson, In Other Words (Knopf)
- Donald Justice, The Sunset Maker (Atheneum)
Criticism Winner
- Edwin Denby, Dance Writings (Knopf)
Criticism Finalists
- Robert Lowell, Collected Prose (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Guy Davenport, Every Force Evolves a Form (North Point Press)
- Arlene Croce, Sight Lines (Knopf)
- Joseph Horowitz, Understanding Toscanini (Knopf)
Ivan Sandrof/NBCC Board Award Winner
- Robert Giroux
Reviewer’s Citation Winner
- Josh Rubins
Reviewer’s Citation Finalists
- Mindy Aloff
- William Logan
- Jack Miles
- Jonathan Penner
- George Scialabba