The finalists have been released in six categories for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, along with shortlists for the John Leonard Prize for First Book and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. Winners will be named on March 21 during a ceremony at the New School in New York City. Check out the complete list of finalists here.
In addition, Judy Blume is receiving the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Becca Rothfeld has won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and the winner of the Toni Morrison Achievement Award, recognizing "institutions that have made lasting and meaningful contributions to book culture," is the American Library Association.
"It's a thrilling privilege for the NBCC to continue the work envisioned by John Leonard, Nona Balakian, and Ivan Sandrof in 1974: to honor outstanding writing and foster a national conversation about literature," said NBCC president Heather Scott Partington. "This year's remarkable and uncompromising finalists delve into subjects as diverse as adoption, authorial identity, cultural disruption, mythmaking, and the banal. Many tell stories that have previously been silenced or ignored. Our Sandrof Life Achievement Award and Morrison Achievement Award winners Judy Blume and the ALA exemplify how literacy and literary access lead to liberation. What a beautiful year for books."
Mandana Chaffa, v-p of the Barrios Book in Translation Prize noted, "We're immensely proud of our rich multi-genre shortlist which celebrates the work of both translators and authors from diverse cultures and languages, and also underscores the importance of independent and small press publishers in our literary conversation."
Sandrof award chair Jacob M. Appel said Blume, "whose widely acclaimed works include such modern classics as Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, has inspired generations of young readers by tackling the emotional turbulence of girlhood and adolescence with authenticity, candor and courage. As her works generated controversy, she earned a national reputation as a relentless opponent of censorship and an iconic champion of literary freedom. At 85, this grand doyenne of American letters now owns and operates a non-profit bookstore, Books & Books in Key West, Fla."
Balakian committee chair Colette Bancroft said, "The two reviews that Rothfeld submitted, of Benjamin Labatut's historical novel The MANIAC and Sen. Josh Hawley's self-help book Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, brilliantly embody her insight, range and depth of knowledge in lively and persuasive prose."
Regarding the Toni Morrison Achievement Award winner, Appel commented: "We honor the ALA for its longstanding commitment to equity, including its twentieth century campaigns against library segregation and for LGBT+ literature, and its perennial stance as a bulwark against those regressive and illiberal supporters of book bans. At a time when our nation's libraries remain under relentless assault from both political and economic forces, the ALA towers over the literary landscape as a beacon for our most vulnerable voices."