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
2004 Winners & Finalists
Fiction Winner
- Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fiction Finalists
- Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker (Knopf)
- Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty (Bloomsbury)
- David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (Random House)
- Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin)
General Nonfiction Winner
- Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History (Viking)
General Nonfiction Finalists
- Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age (Henry Holt)
- Edward Conlon, Blue Blood (Riverhead Books)
- David Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America (Knopf)
- Timothy Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story (Crown)
Biography Winner
- Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan, De Kooning: An American Master (Knopf)
Biography Finalists
- Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (Penguin Press)
- Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Vol. 1 (Simon & Schuster)
- Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (W.W. Norton)
- John Guy, Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart (Houghton Mifflin)
Poetry Winner
- Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004 (W.W. Norton)
Poetry Finalists
- Brigit Pegeen Kelly, The Orchard (BOA Editions)
- D.A. Powell, Cocktails (Graywolf)
- James Richardson, Interglacial (Ausable Press)
- Gary Snyder, Danger on Peaks (Shoemaker & Hoard)
Criticism Winner
- Patrick Neate, Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet (Riverhead Books)
Criticism Finalists
- Richard Howard, Paper Trail: Selected Prose, 1965-2003 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
- Graham Robb, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the 19th Century (W.W. Norton)
- Craig Seligman, Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me (Counterpoint)
- James Wood, The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Winner
- David Orr
Ivan R. Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
- Louis Rubin Jr.