National Book Critics Circle

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Honoring outstanding writing and fostering a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature since 1974. bookcritics.org

national book critics circle 2025 LONGLIST NONFICTION America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin (Penguin Press) Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, by Barbara Demick (Random House) Empire of Al: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAl, by Karen Hao (Penguin Press) The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story, by Brandy Schillace (W.W. Norton) King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation, by Scott Anderson (Doubleday) Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper) No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris (Random House) A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile, by Aatish Taser (Catapult) Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness, by Michael Koresky (Bloomsbury) Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America, by Michael Luo (Doubleday)
national book critics circle 2025 LONGLIST POETRY After You Were, I Am, by Camille Ralphs (McSweeney's) Chronicle of Drifting, by Yuki Tanaka (Copper Canyon) Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf) Into the Hush, by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon) Night Watch, by Kevin Young (Knopf) The Other Love, by Henri Cole (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Salvage, by Hedgie Choi (University of Wisconsin) small lives, by Gary Jackson (University of New Mexico) Stay Dead, by Natalie Shapero (Copper Canyon) Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)
2025 LONGLIST BIOGRAPHY Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House) Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography, by Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, by Mayukh Sen (W.W Norton) A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled, by Alex Green (Bellevue Literary Press) Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution, by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon) Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Claire Hoffman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford, by Carla Kaplan (Harper) Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, by Sue Prideaux (W. W. Norton) William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love, by Philip Hoare (Pegasus Books)
national book critics circle 2025 LONGLIST AUTOBIOGRAPHY Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday) The Broken King, by Michael Thomas (Grove) I'II Tell You When I'm Home, by Hala Alyan (Avid Reader Press) Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy (Scribner) Paper Girl, by Beth Macy (Penguin) Shattered, by Hanif Kureishi (Ecco) Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) A Truce That Is Not Peace, by Miriam Toews (Bloomsbury) Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography, by Hester Kaplan (Catapult)
NBCC Awards sponsors The New School Creative Writing, Wildbound, Washington Square Hotel, Arader Galleries, Quarles, Morgenstern Books, Purslane, Foley Family Wines and Spirits, Curious Elixirs, and Brooklyn Brewery.
“My Friends” by Hisham Matar
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr
Patriot: A Memoir, written by Alexei Navalny and translated from the Russian by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
Third World Press
Sandra Cisneros
Lauren Michele Jackson
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
Lori Lynn Turner
Gwendolyn Harper’s translation from the Spanish of “A Last Supper of Queer Apostles” by Pedro Lemebel
Maxine Hong Kingston
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Blue curtain background with NBCC 50th Anniversary logo and text: NBCC AWARDS & FINALISTS READING LIVESTREAM tinyurl.com/nbccawards2024
On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both. Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices.
The finalists for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre, are By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle (Harper), Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham (Hogarth), Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen (St. Martin’s), Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok (Yale University), and When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
The finalists for the 2024 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize are The Children of the Ghetto: Star of the Sea by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies (Archipelago), Fiction, Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions), Fiction, A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translated from the Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper (Penguin Classics), Nonfiction, Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden (Open Letter), Fiction, O by Judith Kiros, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson (World Poetry), Poetry, and Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger (Transit), Nonfiction.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).