At a virtual event on January 20, the National Book Critics Circle announced 30 finalists in six categories for its annual awards honoring the best books of the previous publishing year.
In addition, finalists for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book were announced. Other announcements included the winner of the annual prize for a working book critic, a lifetime achievement award, and the inaugural Toni Morrison Achievement award for an institution.
The awards for publishing year 2021 will be presented on March 17 via Wildbound Live at a virtual ceremony that is free and open to the public.
The announced finalists and winners are as follows:
Autobiography
- A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)
- Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin (Little, Brown)
- A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir by Rodrigo Garcia (HarperVia)
- A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Biblioasis)
- Concepcion: An Immigrant Family's Fortunes by Albert Samaha (Riverhead)
Biography
- Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser by Susan Bernofsky (Yale University Press)
- Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain (Beacon Press)
- All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner (Little, Brown)
- Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris (Penguin Press)
- Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York by Alexander Nemerov (Penguin Press)
Criticism
- Girlhood by Melissa Febos (Bloomsbury)
- Why Didn't You Do What You Were Told? by Jenny Diski (Bloomsbury)
- Who Will Pay Reparations On My Soul? by Jesse McCarthy (Liveright)
- Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon by Mark McGurl (Verso)
- The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan (FSG)
Fiction
- The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (NYRB)
- Second Place by Rachel Cusk (FSG)
- Burntcoat by Sarah Hall (Custom House)
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Nonfiction
- Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)
- The Family Roe: An American Story by Joshua Prager (Norton)
- The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth by Sam Quinones (Bloomsbury)
- How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith (Little, Brown)
- Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)
Poetry
- Ceive by B.K. Fischer (BOA)
- The Renunciations by Donika Kelly (Graywolf)
- Cutlish by Rajiv Mohabir (Four Way)
- The Rhinehart Frames by Cheswayo Mphanza (Univ. of Nebraska)
- frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss (Graywolf)
John Leonard Prize
- Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford (Flatiron Books)
- My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Henry Holt)
- Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (One World)
- Pop Song by Larissa Pham (Catapult)
- Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So (Ecco)
- Philomath by Devon Walker-Figueroa (Milkweed Editions)
2021 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
- Merve Emre
Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award
- Percival Everett
The recipient of the inaugural Toni Morrison Achievement Award
- Cave Canem Foundation
