The National Book Critics Circle has announced finalists for this year's John Leonard Prize for a first book in any genre. A panel of member-volunteers will read the finalists and select a winner, to be announced in January. The prize will be presented March 14 at the NBCC Awards Ceremony in New York City. The 2018 finalists are:
Friday Black by Nana Kwami Adjei-Brenyah (Mariner)
A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley (Graywolf Press)
The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead)
Asymmetry: A Novel by Lisa Halliday (S&S)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (Riverhead)
There There by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Random House)
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Winners of this year's Independent Publishers of New England Book Awards were announced at the IPNE Fall Conference in Portsmouth, N.H.:
Book of the year: I Know It In My Heart: Walking through Grief with a Child by Mary E. Plouffe (She Writes Press)
Informational nonfiction: Saving Our Lives, Volume Two: Essays to Release the Writer in YOU by D. Margaret Hoffman (Davanti & Vine Press)
Narrative nonfiction: Out in Blue Fields: A Year at Hokum Rock Blueberry Farm by Janice Riley and Stephen Spear (Schiffer Publishing)
Literary fiction: Villa Del Sol by Martha Reynolds
Genre fiction: Moonlight Helmsman: Robert Small's Amazing Escape by Richard Maule
YA: Soul Sister by Mariellen Christine Langworthy (Stillwater River Publications)
Children's: Tabitha Fink and the Patchwork Pirates by Rick Felty (Dreamschooner Press)
Coffee table & art books: Stars & Lights: Darkest of Dark Nights by David Zapatka
Design: The Legend of Dragon Lake by Maung Nyeu (Our Golden Hour)