Current and historical winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards, with links to further information at BookBrowse.

National Book Critics Circle Awards Award Winners

National Book Critics Circle Awards

Each March, the NBCC presents awards for the finest books and reviews published in English in the USA during the previous year. Unlike many awards, the NBCC awards are dated for the previous year (e.g. the winners announced in March 2023 were the 2022 award winners).

Current and Previous Award Winners:

2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002

2023

NBCC Award for Fiction:
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore

NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian

NBCC Award for Biography:
Winnie and Nelson by Jonny Steinberg

NBCC Award for Autobiography:
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

NBCC Award for Book in Translation:
Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü

NBCC Award for Criticism:
Deadpan by Tina Post

NBCC Award for Poetry:
Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon

NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Izgil
2022

NBCC Award for Fiction:
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
The Method by Isaac Butler

NBCC Award for Biography:
G-Man by Beverly Gage

NBCC Award for Autobiography:
Stay True by Hua Hsu

NBCC Award for Book in Translation:
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov

NBCC Award for Criticism:
Free Indirect by Timothy Bewes

NBCC Award for Poetry:
Hotel Oblivion by Cynthia Cruz

NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
2021

NBCC Award for Fiction:
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fannone Jeffers

NBCC Award for Nonfiction:
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

NBCC Award for Biography:
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner

NBCC Award for Autobiography:
Gay Bar by Jeremy Atherton Lin

NBCC Award for Criticism:
Girlhood by Melissa Febos

NBCC Award for Poetry:
frank by Diane Seuss

NBCC John Leonard Prize: Best First Book in Any Genre:
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
2020

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
2019

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