National Book Critics Circle Award

Each March, the NBCC present awards for the finest books and reviews published in English (in the USA) the previous year in six categories: Fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, criticism and poetry.

Current and Previous Award Winners:

• 2021
• 2020
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002

• 2021

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Hamnet  by  Maggie O'Farrell
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Island on Fire  by  Tom Zoellner
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Stranger in the Shogun's City  by  Amy Stanley
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Minor Feelings  by  Cathy Park Hong
  
  NBCC Award for Criticism:
  Marking Time  by  Nicole R. Fleetwood
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Here is the Sweet Hand  by  francine j. harris
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  Luster  by  Raven Leilani

• 2020

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Everything Inside  by  Edwidge Danticat
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Say Nothing  by  Patrick Radden Keefe
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  The Queen  by  Josh Levin
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Know My Name  by  Chanel Miller
  
  NBCC Award for Criticism:
  Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments  by  Saidiya Hartman
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Magical Negro  by  Morgan Parker
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  The Yellow House  by  Sarah M. Broom

• 2018

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Milkman  by  Anna Burns
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Directorate S  by  Steve Coll
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Flash  by  Christopher Bonanos
  
  NBCC Award for Criticism:
  Feel Free  by  Zadie Smith
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  The Carrying  by  Ada Limón
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  There There  by  Tommy Orange

• 2017

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Improvement  by  Joan Silber
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Evangelicals  by  Frances FitzGerald
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Prairie Fires  by  Caroline Fraser
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Nine Continents  by  Xiaolu Guo
  
  NBCC Award for Criticism:
  You Play the Girl  by  Carina Chocano
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  WHEREAS  by  Layli Long Soldier
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  Her Body and Other Parties  by  Carmen Maria Machado

• 2016

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  LaRose  by  Louise Erdrich
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Evicted  by  Matthew Desmond
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Shirley Jackson  by  Ruth Franklin
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Lab Girl  by  Hope Jahren
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  House of Lords and Commons  by  Ishion Hutchinson
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  Homegoing  by  Yaa Gyasi

• 2015

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  The Sellout  by  Paul Beatty
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Dreamland  by  Sam Quinones
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Negroland  by  Margo Jefferson
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Romantic Outlaws  by  Charlotte Gordon
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude  by  Ross Gay
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  Night at the Fiestas  by  Kirstin Valdez Quade

• 2014

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Lila  by  Marilynne Robinson
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation  by  David Brion Davis
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Tennessee Williams  by  John Lahr
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?  by  Roz Chast
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Citizen  by  Claudia Rankine
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  Redeployment  by  Phil Klay

• 2013

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Americanah  by  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Five Days at Memorial  by  Sheri Fink
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Farewell, Fred Voodoo  by  Amy Wilentz
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Metaphysical Dog  by  Frank Bidart
  
  NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
  A Constellation of Vital Phenomena  by  Anthony Marra

• 2012

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Binocular Vision  by  Edith Pearlman
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Liberty's Exiles  by  Maya Jasanoff
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  George F. Kennan  by  John Lewis Gaddis
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  The Memory Palace  by  Mira Bartok

• 2011

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  A Visit from the Goon Squad  by  Jennifer Egan
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Warmth of Other Suns  by  Isabel Wilkerson
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  How to Live  by  Sarah Bakewell
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Half a Life  by  Darin Strauss
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  One With Others  by  C.D. Wright

• 2010

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Wolf Hall  by  Hilary Mantel
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Age of Wonder  by  Richard Holmes
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Cheever  by  Blake Bailey
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Somewhere Towards the End  by  Diana Athill
  
  NBCC Award for Poetry:
  Versed  by  Rae Armantrout

• 2009

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  2666  by  Roberto Bolano
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Forever War  by  Dexter Filkins
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  The World Is What It Is  by  Patrick French
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  My Father's Paradise  by  Ariel Sabar

• 2007

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  by  Junot Diaz
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Medical Apartheid  by  Harriet A. Washington
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Stanley  by  Tim Jeal
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Brother, I'm Dying  by  Edwidge Danticat

• 2006

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  The Inheritance of Loss  by  Kiran Desai
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Rough Crossings  by  Simon Schama
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  James Tiptree, Jr.  by  Julie Phillips
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  The Lost  by  Daniel Mendelsohn

• 2005

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  The March  by  E.L. Doctorow
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Voices from Chernobyl  by  Svetlana Alexievich
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  American Prometheus  by  Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
  
  NBCC Award for Autobiography:
  Them  by  Francine du Plessix Gray

• 2004

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Gilead  by  Marilynne Robinson
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  The Reformation  by  Diarmaid MacCulloch
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  De Kooning  by  Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan

• 2003

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  The Known World  by  Edward Jones
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  Sons of Mississippi  by  Paul Hendrickson
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Khrushchev  by  William Taubman

• 2002

  
  NBCC Award for Fiction:
  Atonement  by  Ian McEwan
  
  NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
  A Problem from Hell  by  Samantha Power
  
  NBCC Award for Biography:
  Charles Darwin  by  Janet Browne