National Book Critics Circle Awards

Every year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English. 2002

Since its founding in 1974, the purpose of NBCC has been to encourage and raise the quality of book criticism in all media, and to provide for an exchange of information between fellow professionals.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards were established in 1981 to honor the best book in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography - autobiography, poetry, and criticism. In addition, each year the NBCC awards the Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters and salutes one member of the Circle with the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards winners are chosen by more than 700 book reviewers. Regular voting membership is open to professional book review editors and book reviewers. How to join

Past winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards

2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 | 1990 | 1989 | 1988 | 1987 | 1986 | 1985 | 1984 | 1983 | 1982 | 1981

National Book Critics Circle Awards nominees for 2001. The winners are announced in March.

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2001 Awards, Announced 2002

Fiction: Winfried Georg Sebald for Austerlitz | Hardcover | Paperback | e-book Microsoft | e-book Adobe

Non-Fiction: Nicholson Baker for Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper | Hardcover | Paperback

Biography: Adam Sisman for Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson | Hardcover | Paperback

Poetry: Albert Goldbarth for Saving Lives: Poems | Hardcover | Paperback

Criticism: Martin Amis for The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000 | Hardcover | Paperback

Lifetime Achievement: Jason Epstein

Citation for Excellence in Reviewing: Michael Gorra

2000

Nonfiction: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover | Hardcover | Paperback | Audiobook

Poetry: Carolina Ghost Woods by Judy Jordan | Hardcover | Paperback

Criticism: Quarrel & Quandary by Cynthia Ozick | Hardcover | Paperback

Biography: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix | Hardcover | Paperback

1999

Fiction: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette

Nonfiction: Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner | Hardcover | Paperback 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction for The Beak of the Finch | Hardcover | Paperback

Poetry: Ordinary Words by Ruth Stone | Hardcover | Paperback

Criticism: Selected Non-Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges | Hardcover | Paperback

Biography: The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White by Henry Wiencek | Hardcover | Paperback

1998

Fiction: The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro | Hardcover | Paperback

Nonfiction: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch | Hardcover | Paperback | Adobe e-book | Microsoft e-book. Guardian First Book Award

Poetry: The Bird Catcher by Marie Ponsot | Hardcover | Paperback

1997

Fiction : The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald | Paperback | Audio Cassette | Audio CD

Nonfiction: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman | Hardcover | Paperback | Microsoft e-book | Adobe e-book

Biography and Autobiography: Ernie Pyle's War by James E Tobin | Hardcover | Paperback | Microsoft e-book | Adobe e-book

Poetry: Black Zodiac by Charles Wright | Hardcover | Paperback

1996

Fiction: Women in their Beds by Gina Berriault | Hardcover | Paperback 1997 PEN/Faulkner

General Nonfiction: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette

Poetry: Sun Under Wood by Robert Hass | Hardcover | Paperback

Criticism: Finding a Form, Essays by William Gass | Hardcover | Paperback

1995

Fiction: Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin | Hardcover | Paperback see 1982

Nonfiction: A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr | DVD | VHS | Paperback | Audio Cassette

Biography and Autobiography: Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson by Robert Polito | Hardcover | Paperback

Poetry: Time & Money: New Poems by William Matthews | Paperback

Criticism: The Forbidden Best-sellers of Pre-revolutionary France by Robert Darnton | Hardcover | Paperback

1994

Fiction: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields | Hardcover | Paperback 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

General Non-Fiction: The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas | Hardcover | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography: Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette | Audio Book

Poetry: Rider by Mark Rudman | Paperback

1993

General Non-Fiction: The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax | Paperback Book with CD

Biography/Autobiography: Genet by Edmund White | Hardcover | Paperback

Poetry: My Alexandria by Mark Doty | Hardcover | Paperback

1992

Biography/Autobiography: Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World by Carol Brightman | Paperback

Poetry: Collected Shorter Poems 1946-1991 by Hayden Carruth | Paperback

1991

General Non-Fiction: Backlash: The Undeclared War Against America Women by Susan Faludi | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography: Patrimony: A True Story by Philip Roth | Paperback see also 1987

Poetry: Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology by Albert Goldbarth | Hardcover | Paperback

1990

Fiction: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette see also 1981

General Non-Fiction: The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America by Shelby Steele | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography: Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. II by Robert A. Caro | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: Bitter Angel by Amy Gerstler | Paperback

1989

General Non-Fiction: The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography: A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt by Geoffrey C. Ward | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: Transparent Gestures by Rodney Jones | Paperback

1988

Fiction: The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee | Paperback

General Non-Fiction: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954 - 63 by Taylor Branch | Paperback | Hardcover | Audio Cassette

Biography/Autobiography: Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman | Paperback 1989 Pulitzer Prizewinner

Poetry: That One Day by Donald Hall | Out of Print Find it Here

1987

Fiction: The Counterlife by Philip Roth | Paperback 1998 Pulitzer Prizewinner for American Pastoral | Paperback | Audio Cassette | Audiobook see also 1991

General Non-Fiction: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World by Donald R. Howard | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: Flesh and Blood by C. K. Williams | Out of Print Find it Here

1986

Fiction: Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price | Paperback

General Non-Fiction: War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John W. Dower | Hardcover | Paperback

Biography/Autobiography: Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter by Theodore Rosengarten | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: Wild Gratitude by Edward Hirsch | Out of Print Find it Here

1985

General Non-Fiction: Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J. Anthony Lukas | Paperback 1986 Pulitzer Prizewinner

Biography/Autobiography: Henry James by Leon Edel | Out of Print Find it Here 1963 Pulitzer Prizewinner

Poetry: The Triumph of Achilles by Louise Gluck | Hardcover | Paperback. 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck | Hardcover | Paperback

1984

General Non-Fiction: Weapons and Hope by Freeman Dyson | Out of Print Find it Here

Biography/Autobiography: Dostoevsky - The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859 by Joseph Frank | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds | Paperback

1983

General Non-Fiction: The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House by Seymour M. Hersch | Out of Print Find it Here

Biography/Autobiography: Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson | Paperback

Poetry: The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill | Paperback

1982

Fiction: George Mills by Stanley Elkin | Hardcover see 1995

General Non-Fiction: The Path of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette

Poetry: Antarctic Traveler by Katha Pollitt | Out of Print Find it Here

1981

Fiction: Rabbit is Rich by John Updike | Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette see also 1990

General Non-Fiction: The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould | Out of Print Find it Here

Poetry: A Coast of Trees by A. R. Ammons | Paperback