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
2000 Winners & Finalists
Fiction Winner
- Jim Crace, Being Dead (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fiction Finalists
- Amy Bloom, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (Random House)
- Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Random House)
- David Means, Assorted Fire Events: Stories (Context Books)
- Zadie Smith, White Teeth (Random House)
General Nonfiction Winner
- Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (Random House)
General Nonfiction Finalists
- Fred Anderson, Crucible of War (Knopf)
- Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War (Simon & Schuster)
- Laurie Garrett, Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health (Hyperion)
- Alice Kaplan, The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach (Univ. of Chicago)
Biography/Autobiography Winner
- Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (HarperCollins)
Biography/Autobiography Finalists
- Robin Marantz Henig, The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics (Houghton Mifflin)
- Victor Kemplerer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945 (Random House)
- David Nasaw, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Houghton Mifflin)
- Jean-Yves Tadie, Marcel Proust: A Life (Viking)
Poetry Winner
- Judy Jordan, Carolina Ghost Woods (LSU)
Poetry Finalists
- Michael Collier, The Ledge (Houghton Mifflin)
- Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours (Knopf)
- Yusef Komunyakaa, Talking Dirty to the Gods (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Davis McCombs, Ultima Thule (Yale)
Criticism Winner
- Cynthia Ozick, Quarrel & Quandary (Knopf)
Criticism Finalists
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to Present (HarperCollins)
- Claudia Roth Pierpont, Passionate Minds (Knopf)
- Charles Rosen, Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New (Harvard Univ. Press)
- Sherod Santos, A Poetry of Two Minds (University of Georgia Press)
Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Winner
- Daniel Mendelsohn
Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
- Barney Rosset