National Book Critics Circle Award

National Book Critics Circle Award
Awarded for "the finest books and reviews published in English"
Date March, annual
Country United States
Presented by National Book Critics Circle
First awarded 1975 publications (1976)
Official website http://bookcritics.org

The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".[1] The first NBCC awards were announced and presented January 16, 1976.[2]

There are six awards to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year, in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Autobiography, Biography, and Criticism. Four of them span the entire NBCC award history; Memoir/Autobiography and Biography were recognized by one "Autobiography/Biography" award for publication years 1983 to 2004, then replaced by two awards. Beginning in 2014, the NBCC also presents a special "first book" award across all 6 categories, named the John Leonard Award in honor of literary critic and NBCC founding member John Leonard, who died in 2008.[3]

Books previously published in English are not eligible, such as re-issues and paperback editions. Nor does the NBC Circle consider "cookbooks, self help books (including inspirational literature), reference books, picture books or children's books". They do consider "translations, short story and essay collections, self published books, and any titles that fall under the general categories".[4]

The judges are the volunteer directors of the NBCC who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members,[5] namely "professional book review editors and book reviewers".[6]

Winners of the awards are announced each year at the NBCC awards ceremony in conjunction with the yearly membership meeting, which takes place in March.[7]

Winners

Fiction

Published
2015 Paul Beatty The Sellout
2014 Marilynne Robinson Lila
2013 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah
2012 Ben Fountain Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
2011 Edith Pearlman Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories
2010 Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad
2009 Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall
2008 Roberto Bolaño 2666
2007 Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2006 Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss
2005 E.L. Doctorow The March
2004 Marilynne Robinson Gilead
2003 Edward P. Jones The Known World
2002 Ian McEwan Atonement
2001 W.G. Sebald Austerlitz
2000 Jim Crace Being Dead
1999 Jonathan Lethem Motherless Brooklyn
1998 Alice Munro The Love of a Good Woman
1997 Penelope Fitzgerald The Blue Flower
1996 Gina Berriault Women in Their Beds
1995 Stanley Elkin Mrs. Ted Bliss
1994 Carol Shields The Stone Diaries
1993 Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying
1992 Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses
1991 Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres
1990 John Updike Rabbit at Rest
1989 E.L. Doctorow Billy Bathgate
1988 Bharati Mukherjee The Middleman and Other Stories
1987 Philip Roth The Counterlife
1986 Reynolds Price Kate Vaiden
1985 Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist
1984 Louise Erdrich Love Medicine
1983 William Kennedy Ironweed
1982 Stanley Elkin George Mills
1981 John Updike Rabbit Is Rich
1980 Shirley Hazzard The Transit of Venus
1979 Thomas Flanagan The Year of the French
1978 John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever
1977 Toni Morrison Song of Solomon
1976 John Gardner October Light
1975 E.L. Doctorow Ragtime

General nonfiction

Published
2015 Sam Quinones Dreamland: The True Story of America’s Opiate Epidemic
2014 David Brion Davis The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
2013 Sheri Fink Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
2012 Andrew Solomon Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
2011 Maya Jasanoff Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
2010 Isabel Wilkerson The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
2009 Richard Holmes The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
2008 Dexter Filkins The Forever War
2007 Harriet A. Washington Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present
2006 Simon Schama Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution
2005 Svetlana Alexievich Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
2004 Diarmaid MacCulloch The Reformation: A History
2003 Paul Hendrickson Sons of Mississippi
2002 Samantha Power A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
2001 Nicholson Baker Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper
2000 Ted Conover Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
1999 Jonathan Weiner Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
1998 Philip Gourevitch We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
1997 Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
1996 Jonathan Raban Bad Land: An American Romance
1995 Jonathan Harr A Civil Action
1994 Lynn H. Nicholas The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
1993 Alan Lomax The Land Where the Blues Began
1992 Norman Maclean Young Men and Fire
1991 Susan Faludi Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
1990 Shelby Steele The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America
1989 Michael Dorris The Broken Cord
1988 Taylor Branch Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63
1987 Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb
1986 John W. Dower War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
1985 J. Anthony Lukas Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
1984 Freeman Dyson Weapons and Hope
1983 Seymour M. Hersh The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House
1982 Robert Caro The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
1981 Stephen Jay Gould The Mismeasure of Man
1980 Ronald Steel Walter Lippmann and the American Century
1979 Telford Taylor Munich: The Price of Peace
1978 Maureen Howard Facts of Life
1977 Walter Jackson Bate Samuel Johnson
1976 Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts
1975 R. W. B. Lewis Edith Wharton: A Biography

Memoir/Autobiography

Published
2015 Margo Jefferson Negroland
2014 Roz Chast Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
2013 Amy Wilentz Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti
2012 Leanne Shapton Swimming Studies
2011 Mira Bartók The Memory Palace
2010 Darin Strauss Half a Life
2009 Diana Athill Somewhere Towards the End
2008 Ariel Sabar My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq
2007 Edwidge Danticat Brother, I'm Dying
2006 Daniel Mendelsohn The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
2005 Francine du Plessix Gray Them: A Memoir of Parents

Biography

Published
2015 Charlotte Gordon Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
2014 John Lahr Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
2013 Leo Damrosch Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
2012 Robert A. Caro The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
2011 John Lewis Gaddis George F. Kennan: An American Life
2010 Sarah Bakewell How To Live, Or A Life Of Montaigne
2009 Blake Bailey Cheever: A Life
2008 Patrick French The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
2007 Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer
2006 Julie Phillips James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
2005 Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Biography/Autobiography (discontinued)

Published
2004 Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan De Kooning: An American Master
2003 William Taubman Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
2002 Janet Browne Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, Vol. II
2001 Adam Sisman Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr.Johnson
2000 Herbert P. Bix Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
1999 Henry Wiencek The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White
1998 Sylvia Nasar A Beautiful Mind
1997 James Tobin Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II
1996 Frank McCourt Angela's Ashes
1995 Robert Polito Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
1994 Mikal Gilmore Shot in the Heart
1993 Edmund White Genet
1992 Carol Brightman Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World
1991 Philip Roth Patrimony: A True Story
1990 Robert A. Caro Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. II
1989 Geoffrey C. Ward A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt
1988 Richard Ellmann Oscar Wilde
1987 Donald R. Howard Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World
1986 Theodore Rosengarten Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter
1985 Leon Edel Henry James: A Life
1984 Joseph Frank Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850–1859
1983 Joyce Johnson Minor Characters

Poetry

Published
2015 Ross Gay Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude
2014 Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric
2013 Frank Bidart Metaphysical Dog
2012 D. A. Powell Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys
2011 Laura Kasischke Space, In Chains
2010 C.D. Wright One With Others
2009 Rae Armantrout Versed
2008 Juan Felipe Herrera Half the World in Light[lower-alpha 1]
2008 August Kleinzahler Sleeping it Off in Rapid City[lower-alpha 1]
2007 Mary Jo Bang Elegy
2006 Troy Jollimore Tom Thomson in Purgatory
2005 Jack Gilbert Refusing Heaven
2004 Adrienne Rich The School Among the Ruins
2003 Susan Stewart Columbarium
2002 B.H. Fairchild Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
2001 Albert Goldbarth Saving Lives
2000 Judy Jordan Carolina Ghost Woods
1999 Ruth Stone Ordinary Words
1998 Marie Ponsot The Bird Catcher
1997 Charles Wright Black Zodiac
1996 Robert Hass Sun Under Wood
1995 William Matthews Time and Money
1994 Mark Rudman Rider
1993 Mark Doty My Alexandria
1992 Hayden Carruth Collected Shorter Poems 1946–1991
1991 Albert Goldbarth Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology
1990 Amy Gerstler Bitter Angel
1989 Rodney Jones Transparent Gestures
1988 Donald Hall That One Day
1987 C.K. Williams Flesh and Blood
1986 Edward Hirsch Wild Gratitude
1985 Louise Glück The Triumph of Achilles
1984 Sharon Olds The Dead and the Living
1983 James Merrill The Changing Light at Sandover
1982 Katha Pollitt Antarctic Traveler
1981 A.R. Ammons A Coast of Trees
1980 Frederick Seidel Sunrise
1979 Philip Levine Ashes: Poems New and Old and 7 Years From Somewhere
1978 L. E. Sissman Hello, Darkness: The Collected Poems of L. E. Sissman
1977 Robert Lowell Day by Day
1976 Elizabeth Bishop Geography III
1975 John Ashbery Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror

Criticism

Published
2015 Maggie Nelson The Argonauts
2014 Ellen Willis The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz
2013 Franco Moretti Distant Reading
2012 Marina Warner Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
2011 Geoff Dyer Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews
2010 Clare Cavanagh Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West
2009 Eula Biss Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays
2008 Seth Lerer Children’s Literature: A Readers’ History: Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter
2007 Alex Ross The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
2006 Lawrence Weschler Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences
2005 William Logan The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin
2004 Patrick Neate Where You're At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet
2003 Rebecca Solnit River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
2002 William H. Gass Tests of Time
2001 Martin Amis The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews, 1971–2000
2000 Cynthia Ozick Quarrel & Quandary
1999 Jorge Luis Borges Selected Non-Fictions
1998 Gary Giddins Visions of Jazz: The First Century
1997 Mario Vargas Llosa Making Waves
1996 William H. Gass Finding a Form
1995 Robert Darnton The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
1994 Gerald Early The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture
1993 John Dizikes Opera in America: A Cultural History
1992 Garry Wills Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
1991 Lawrence L. Langer Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory
1990 Arthur C. Danto Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present
1989 John Clive Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History
1988 Clifford Geertz Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author
1987 Edwin Denby Dance Writings
1986 Joseph Brodsky Less Than One: Selected Essays
1985 William H. Gass Habitations of the Word: Essays
1984 Robert Hass Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry
1983 John Updike Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism
1982 Gore Vidal The Second American Revolution and Other Essays
1981 Virgil Thomson A Virgil Thomson Reader
1980 Helen Vendler Part of Nature, Part of Us: Modern American Poets
1979 Elaine Pagels The Gnostic Gospels
1978 Meyer Schapiro Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries (Selected Papers, Volume 2)
1977 Susan Sontag On Photography
1976 Bruno Bettelheim The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance and Importance of Fairy Tales
1975 Paul Fussell The Great War and Modern Memory

John Leonard Award

Award for a best first book in any genre.

Published
2015 Kirstin Valdez Quade Night at the Fiestas
2014 Phil Klay Redeployment, short story collection
2013 Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, novel

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Ivan Sandrof was one founder of the National Book Critics Circle[1] and its first President.[8]

The Sandrof Award has also been presented as the "Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing" and the "Ivan Sandrof Award, Contribution to American Arts & Letters".

Published
2015 Wendell Berry
2014 Toni Morrison
2013 Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
2012 Sandra Gilbert
Susan Gubar
2011 Robert Silvers editor of New York Review of Books
2010 Dalkey Archive Press
2009 Joyce Carol Oates
2008 PEN American Center[9]
2007 Emilie Buchwald co-founder of the Milkweed Editions publishing house
2006 John Leonard
2005 Bill Henderson founder of Pushcart Press
2004 Louis D. Rubin, Jr. founder of Algonquin Press, author and editor of more than 50 books
2003 Studs Terkel
2002 Richard Howard
2001 Jason Epstein
2000 Barney Rosset
1999 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Pauline Kael
1998
1997 Leslie Fiedler
1996 Albert Murray
1995 Alfred Kazin
Elizabeth Hardwick
1994 William Maxwell
1993
1992
1991
1990 Donald Keene
1989 James Laughlin
1988
1987 Robert Giroux
1986
1985
1984 The Library of America
1983
1982 Leslie A. Marchand
1981

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

The Balakian Citation is annual. It honors Nona Balakian, who was one of three NBCC founders.[1][10] For 43 years, Balakian was an editor on the staff of the New York Times Book Review.[11] Five finalists are announced each year, one of whom is selected as the winner of the citation. The award has been called "the most prestigious award for book criticism in the country".[12]

Published
2015 Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post
2014 Alexandra Schwartz of The New Yorker
2013 Katherine A. Powers contributor to many national book review sections, including the Boston Globe and Washington Post. For the second time in the Balakian Citation history it includes a $1,000 cash prize.
2012 William Deresiewicz a contributing writer at The Nation and The American Scholar
2011 Kathryn Schulz book critic at New York magazine
2010 Parul Sehgal of Publishers Weekly
2009 Joan Acocella of The New Yorker
2008 Ron Charles of The Washington Post
2007 Sam Anderson of New York magazine
2006 Steven G. Kellman
2005 Wyatt Mason a contributor to Harper's, The New Yorker, The New Republic
2004 David Orr a contributor to The New York Times Book Review and Poetry Magazine
2003 Scott McLemee
2002 Maureen N. McLane
2001 Michael Gorra
2000 Daniel Mendelsohn
1999 Benjamin Schwarz
1998 Albert Mobilio
1997 Thomas Mallon
1996 Dennis Drabelle
1995 Laurie Stone
1994 JoAnn C. Gutin
1993 Brigitte Frase
1992 Elizabeth Ward
1991 George Scialabba

Finalists

Award year is for the book publication year, currently January 1 to December 31.

2015

The finalists were announced on January 18, 2016.[13] The winners (Blue ribbon) were announced March 17, 2016 at the New School in New York.[14]

Fiction

Nonfiction

Autobiography

Biography

Criticism

Poetry

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

John Leonard Prize

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

2014

The finalists were announced on January 19, 2015.[15] The winners (Blue ribbon) were announced March 12, 2015.[16]

Fiction

General Nonfiction

Poetry

Autobiography

Biography

Criticism

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

John Leonard Prize

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

2013

The finalists were announced on January 14, 2014.[17][18] The winners (Blue ribbon) were announced on March 13, 2014.[19]

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

Autobiography

Biography

Criticism

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

John Leonard Prize

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

2012

The finalists were announced January 14, 2012.[20] The winners (Blue ribbon) were announced on Feb. 28, 2012.[21]

Fiction

Nonfiction

Criticism

Poetry

Autobiography

Biography

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

2011

The awards (Blue ribbon) were presented March 8, 2012, at the New School in New York City.[22]

Fiction

Nonfiction

Criticism

Poetry

Autobiography

Biography

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

2010

The 2010 winners (Blue ribbon) were announced March 10, 2011.[23]

Fiction

Nonfiction

Criticism

Biography

Autobiography

Poetry

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

2009

The 2009 winners (Blue ribbon) were announced March 11, 2010.

Fiction

General nonfiction

Criticism

Biography

Autobiography

Poetry

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

2008

The 2008 winners (Blue ribbon) were announced March 12, 2009.[24]

Fiction

General nonfiction

Autobiography

Biography

Poetry

Criticism

The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

2007

The 2007 award winners (Blue ribbon) were announced on March 6, 2008.[25][26]

Fiction

General nonfiction

Autobiography

Biography

Poetry

Criticism

The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 (Books by) Juan Felipe Herrera and August Kleinzahler shared the award for 2008 Poetry, the only split award through the 2011/2012 cycle.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Thirty-five Years of Quality Writing and Criticism", NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  2. ↑ The National Book Critics Circle Journal 2:1, Spring 1976, NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  3. ↑ "NBCC to Add John Leonard Award to Honor First Books; Named After Founding Member". May 2013. National Book Critics Circle.
  4. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions" (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  5. ↑ "Board of Directors" (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  6. ↑ "Membership" (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  7. ↑ "National Book Critics Circle: FAQs". bookcritics.org. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  8. ↑ The National Book Critics Circle Journal 1:1, March 1, 1975, NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  9. 1 2 "National Book Critics Circle". bookcritics.org.
  10. ↑ "Balakian Award" (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
  11. ↑ Glueck, Grace (April 8, 1991). "Nona Balakian, 72, Retired Book Critic And Editor for Times". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ "Congratulations to 'New York' Book Critic Sam Anderson!". New York Magazine. January 14, 2008.
  13. ↑ Lorne Manly (January 18, 2016). "National Book Critics Circle Announces Award Nominees". New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  14. ↑ Alexandra Alter (March 17, 2016). "‘The Sellout’ Wins National Book Critics Circle’s Fiction Award". New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  15. ↑ "National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for Publishing Year 2014". National Book Critics Circle. January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  16. ↑ Alexandra Alter (March 12, 2015). "‘Lila’ Honored as Top Fiction by National Book Critics Circle". New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  17. ↑ Kirsten Reach (January 14, 2014). "NBCC finalists announced". Melville House Publishing. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Announcing the National Book Critics Awards Finalists for Publishing Year 2013". National Book Critics Circle. January 14, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  19. ↑ "National Book Critics Circle Announces Award Winners for Publishing Year 2013". National Book Critics Circle. March 13, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  20. ↑ John Williams (January 14, 2012). "National Book Critics Circle Names 2012 Award Finalists". New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  21. ↑ John Williams (March 1, 2013). "Robert A. Caro, Ben Fountain Among National Book Critics Circle Winners". New York Times. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  22. ↑ "NBCC Award Winners for Publishing Year 2011" (press release March 8, 2012). Barbara Hoffert. NBCC. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
  23. ↑ "Jennifer Egan and Isabel Wilkerson Win National Book Critics Circle Awards", By JULIE BOSMAN, NY Times, March 10, 2011
  24. ↑ Roberto Bolano's `2666' wins book critics prize, AP, March 13, 2009
  25. ↑ "The National Book Critics Circle Award" (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  26. ↑ "The 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists". Critical Mass: The Blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors. January 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-07.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Book Critics Circle Awards.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Book Critics Circle Award winners.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.