A Little Background on the National Book Critic’s Circle

Written by Madalyn Campbell

Last week, Publishers Weekly wrote about the finalists that were announced by the National Book Critic’s Circle (NBCC). The list includes thirty names for its 2017 awards and three additional recipients of other prizes. So, what is the NBCC?

The National Book Critic’s Circle is the professional association of American literary critics. The NBCC was formed in 1974, at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. The hotel previously housed the Algonquin Round Table, an infamous group of writers, critics, and actors who dubbed themselves the “Vicious Circle.” The NBCC was founded with the intent of creating a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature. Their awards were first created in 1976, and they consist of six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. For a book to qualify, it must have been published in the previous calendar year, in English. Reprints and new editions are not considered; translations, however, are. The twenty-four judges are members of the NBCC who serve three-year terms on the voting board.

The winners will be announced on March 15th at a ceremony at the New School in New York.

Nonfiction:

• Jack Davis, Gulf: The Making of An American Sea (Liveright/Norton)
• Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (Scribner)
• Masha Gessen, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead)
• Kapka Kassabova, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (Graywolf)
• Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes (The Experiment)

Biography:

• Caroline Fraser, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Metropolitan)
• Edmund Gordon, The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography (Oxford)
• Howard Markel, The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek (Pantheon)
• William Taubman, Gorbachev: His Life and Times (Norton)
• Kenneth Whyte, Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (Knopf)

Autobiography:

• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir (Abrams)
• Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Harper)
• Henry Marsh, Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon (St. Martins)
• Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, The Girl From the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia (Penguin)
• Xioulu Guo, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China (Grove)

Poetry:

• Nuar Alsadir, Fourth Person Singular (Oxford University Press)
• James Longenbach, Earthling (Norton)
• Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (Graywolf)
• Frank Ormsby, The Darkness of Snow (Wake Forest University Press)
• Ana Ristović, Directions for Use (Zephyr Press)

Criticism:

• Carina Chocano, You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages (Mariner)
• Edwidge Danticat, The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story (Graywolf)
• Camille Dungy, Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History (W.W. Norton)
• Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions (Coffee House)
• Kevin Young, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News (Graywolf)

Fiction:

• Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (Riverhead)
• Alice McDermott, The Ninth Hour (FSG)
• Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Knopf)
• Joan Silber, Improvement (Counterpoint)
• Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing (Scribner)