Skip to content
BookAwardsDB
Browse Awards
Browse by Year
Authors
All Awards
/
National Book Critics Circle Award
Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
51 years tracked (1975–2025), 226 entries total.
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
2025
We Do Not Part
Han Kang with e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (trans.)
Winner
Audition
Katie Kitamura
Nominee
On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)
Solvej Balle with Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (trans.)
Nominee
The Antidote
Karen Russell
Nominee
The Wilderness (Flournoy novel)
Angela Flournoy
Nominee
2024
My Friends (Matar novel)
Hisham Matar
Winner
Beautyland
Marie-Helene Bertino
Nominee
Godwin
Joseph O'Neill
Nominee
James (novel)
Percival Everett
Nominee
Us Fools
Nora Lange
Nominee
2023
I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home
Lorrie Moore
Winner
Blackouts (Torres novel)
Justin Torres
Nominee
North Woods (novel)
Daniel Mason
Nominee
Tremor (Cole novel)
Teju Cole
Nominee
Vengeance Is Mine
Marie NDiaye with Jordan Stump (trans.)
Nominee
2022
Bliss Montage
Ling Ma
Winner
A New Name
Jon Fosse with Damion Searls (trans.)
Nominee
All the Lovers in the Night
Mieko Kawakami with Sam Bett and David Boyd (trans.)
Nominee
Dr. No
Percival Everett
Nominee
The Furrows
Namwali Serpell
Nominee
2021
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Winner
Burntcoat
Sarah Hall
Nominee
Harlem Shuffle (novel)
Colson Whitehead
Nominee
Second Place (novel)
Rachel Cusk
Nominee
The Netanyahus
Joshua Cohen
Nominee
2020
Hamnet (novel)
Maggie O'Farrell
Winner
How To Pronounce Knife
Souvankham Thammavongsa
Nominee
If I Had Two Wings
Randall Kenan
Nominee
Inside Story (novel)
Martin Amis
Nominee
Memorial (novel)
Bryan Washington
Nominee
2019
Know My Name
Chanel Miller · Autobiography
Nominee
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead · Fiction
Nominee
2018
Milkman
Anna Burns · Fiction
Winner
There There
Tommy Orange · John Leonard Prize
Winner
Educated
Tara Westover · Autobiography
Nominee
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
Denis Johnson · Fiction
Nominee
2017
Her Body and Other Parties
Carmen Maria Machado · John Leonard Prize
Winner
Exit West
Mohsin Hamid · Fiction
Nominee
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward · Fiction
Nominee
The Best We Could Do
Thi Bui · Autobiography
Nominee
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Arundhati Roy · Fiction
Nominee
2016
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi · John Leonard Prize
Winner
Lab Girl
Hope Jahren · Autobiography
Nominee
Olio
Tyehimba Jess · Poetry
Nominee
Swing Time
Zadie Smith · Fiction
Nominee
2015
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates · Criticism
Nominee
Fates and Furies
Lauren Groff · Fiction
Nominee
H is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald · Autobiography
Nominee
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Anthony Marra · Fiction
Nominee
2014
Lila
Marilynne Robinson · Fiction
Winner
Redeployment
Phil Klay · John Leonard Prize
Winner
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James · Fiction
Nominee
An Unnecessary Woman
Rabih Alameddine · Fiction
Nominee
Euphoria
Lily King · Fiction
Nominee
2013
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Anthony Marra · John Leonard Prize
Winner
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · Fiction
Winner
A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth L. Ozeki · Fiction
Nominee
Los enamoramientos
Javier Marías · Fiction
Nominee
Men We Reaped
Jesmyn Ward · Autobiography
Nominee
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt · Fiction
Nominee
2012
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Ben Fountain · Fiction
Winner
The Orphan Master's Son
Adam Johnson · Fiction
Nominee
2011
Open City
Teju Cole · Fiction
Nominee
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides · Fiction
Nominee
The Stranger's Child
Alan Hollinghurst · Fiction
Nominee
2010
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan · Fiction
Winner
Just Kids
Patti Smith · Autobiography
Nominee
Skippy Dies
Paul Murray · Fiction
Nominee
2009
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes · General Nonfiction
Winner
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel · Fiction
Winner
Lit
Mary Karr · Autobiography
Nominee
The Book of Night Women
Marlon James · Fiction
Nominee
2008
2666
Roberto Bolaño · Fiction
Winner
The Forever War
Dexter Filkins · General Nonfiction
Winner
Home
Marilynne Robinson · Fiction
Nominee
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout · Fiction
Nominee
2007
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz · Fiction
Winner
In the Country of Men
Hisham Matar · Fiction
Nominee
Sacred Games
Vikram Chandra · Fiction
Nominee
Sleeping and Waking
Michael O'Brien · Poetry
Nominee
The Gravedigger's Daughter
Joyce Carol Oates · Fiction
Nominee
The World Without Us
Alan Weisman · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Writing In An Age Of Silence
Sara Paretsky · Autobiography
Nominee
2006
The Inheritance of Loss
Kiran Desai · Fiction
Winner
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · Fiction
Nominee
Strange Piece of Paradise
Terri Jentz · Autobiography
Nominee
Stuart: A Life Backwards
ALEXANDER MASTERS · Autobiography
Nominee
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · Fiction
Nominee
What Is the What
Dave Eggers · Fiction
Nominee
2005
Crush
Richard Siken · Poetry
Nominee
Europe Central
William T. Vollmann · Fiction
Nominee
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro · Fiction
Nominee
Small Island
Andrea Levy · Fiction
Nominee
2004
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson · Fiction
Winner
Alexander Hamilton
Ron Chernow · Biography
Nominee
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell · Fiction
Nominee
The Line of Beauty
Alan Hollinghurst · Fiction
Nominee
The Plot Against America
Philip Roth · Fiction
Nominee
2003
The Known World
Edward P. Jones · Fiction
Winner
Brick Lane
Monica Ali · Fiction
Nominee
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
Ross King · Criticism
Nominee
Old School
Tobias Wolff
Nominee
Regarding the Pain of Others
Susan Sontag · Criticism
Nominee
The Time of Our Singing
Richard Powers
Nominee
2002
Atonement
Ian McEwan · Fiction
Winner
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides · Fiction
Nominee
The Last American Man
Elizabeth Gilbert · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Chris Hedges · General Nonfiction
Nominee
2001
Austerlitz
W. G. Sebald · Fiction
Winner
Bel Canto
Ann Patchett · Fiction
Nominee
Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Laura Hillenbrand · General Nonfiction
Nominee
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen · Fiction
Nominee
2000
Being Dead
Jim Crace · Fiction
Winner
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
Herbert P. Bix · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon · Fiction
Nominee
White Teeth
Zadie Smith · Fiction
Nominee
1999
Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem · Fiction
Winner
Selected Non-Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges · Criticism
Winner
Disgrace
J. M. Coetzee · Fiction
Nominee
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
John W. Dower · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Midnight Champagne
A. Manette Ansay · Fiction
Nominee
1998
A Beautiful Mind
Sylvia Nasar · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
Philip Gourevitch · General Nonfiction
Winner
Autobiography of Red
Anne Carson · Poetry
Nominee
Birds of America
Lorrie Moore · Fiction
Nominee
King Leopold's Ghost
Adam Hochschild · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Rocket Boys
Homer H. Hickam · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
The Hours
Michael Cunningham · Fiction
Nominee
1997
American Pastoral
Philip Roth · Fiction
Nominee
Cold Mountain
Charles Frazier · Fiction
Nominee
Dreams of My Russian Summers
Andreï Makine · Fiction
Nominee
How the Mind Works
Steven Pinker · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Underworld
Don DeLillo · Fiction
Nominee
1996
Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
Dancing After Hours
André Dubus · Fiction
Nominee
1995
A Civil Action
Jonathan Harr · General Nonfiction
Winner
Galatea 2.2
Richard Powers · Fiction
Nominee
Independence Day
Richard Ford · Fiction
Nominee
Moo
Jane Smiley · Fiction
Nominee
The Liars' Club
Mary Karr · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
1994
The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields · Fiction
Winner
A Frolic of His Own
William Gaddis · Fiction
Nominee
In the Time of the Butterflies
Julia Alvarez · Fiction
Nominee
1993
A Lesson Before Dying
Ernest J. Gaines · Fiction
Winner
Passion of Michel Foucault
Jim Miller · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
The Shipping News
Annie Proulx · Fiction
Nominee
1992
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy · Fiction
Winner
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
Garry Wills · Criticism
Winner
Clockers
Richard Price · Fiction
Nominee
Truman
David McCullough · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
1991
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley · Fiction
Winner
Patrimony
Philip Roth · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
Mating
Norman Rush · Fiction
Nominee
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
Jonathan Kozol · General Nonfiction
Nominee
The Gold Bug Variations
Richard Powers · Fiction
Nominee
Typical American
Gish Jen · Fiction
Nominee
1990
Means of Ascent
Robert A. Caro · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
Rabbit at Rest
John Updike · Fiction
Winner
Family Pictures
Sue Miller · Fiction
Nominee
Middle Passage
Charles Richard Johnson · Fiction
Nominee
The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien · Fiction
Nominee
1989
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan · Fiction
Nominee
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Oscar Hijuelos · Fiction
Nominee
This Boy's Life
Tobias Wolff · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
Un amor cualquiera
Jane Smiley · Fiction
Nominee
1988
Oscar Wilde
Richard Ellmann · Biography/Autobiography
Winner
Ox-Cart Man
Donald Hall
Winner
Battle Cry of Freedom
James M. McPherson · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Libra
Don DeLillo · Fiction
Nominee
Wheat that Springeth Green
J. F. Powers · Fiction
Nominee
1987
The Counterlife
Philip Roth · Fiction
Winner
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Richard Rhodes · General Nonfiction
Winner
An American Childhood
Annie Dillard · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
Beloved
Toni Morrison · Fiction
Nominee
Crossing to Safety
Wallace Stegner · Fiction
Nominee
The Age of Grief
Jane Smiley · Fiction
Nominee
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe · Fiction
Nominee
1986
Arctic Dreams
Barry Lopez · General Nonfiction
Nominee
The Beet Queen
Louise Erdrich · Fiction
Nominee
1985
The Accidental Tourist
Anne Tyler · Fiction
Winner
House
Tracy Kidder · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry · Fiction
Nominee
White Noise
Don DeLillo · Fiction
Nominee
1984
Love Medicine
Louise Erdrich · Fiction
Winner
The Dead and the Living
Sharon Olds · Poetry
Winner
Foreign Affairs
Alison Lurie · Fiction
Nominee
One Writer's Beginnings
Eudora Welty · Biography/Autobiography
Nominee
Stones for Ibarra
Harriet Doerr · Fiction
Nominee
1983
Ironweed
William Kennedy · Fiction
Winner
Cathedral
Raymond Carver · Fiction
Nominee
The Anatomy Lesson
Philip Roth · Fiction
Nominee
1982
The Path to Power
Robert A. Caro · General Nonfiction
Winner
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Anne Tyler · Fiction
Nominee
The Color Purple
Alice Walker · Fiction
Nominee
The Fate of the Earth
Jonathan Schell · General Nonfiction
Nominee
1981
Rabbit Is Rich
John Updike · Fiction
Winner
The Mismeasure of Man
Stephen Jay Gould · General Nonfiction
Winner
A Flag for Sunrise
Robert Stone · Fiction
Nominee
Riddley Walker
Russell Hoban · Fiction
Nominee
Sixty Stories
Donald Barthelme · Fiction
Nominee
1980
The Transit of Venus
Shirley Hazzard · Fiction
Winner
China Men
Maxine Hong Kingston · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Morgan's Passing
Anne Tyler · Fiction
Nominee
So Long, See You Tomorrow
William Maxwell · Fiction
Nominee
The Second Coming
Walker Percy · Fiction
Nominee
1979
Sophie's Choice
William Styron · Fiction
Nominee
The Executioner's Song
Norman Mailer · Fiction
Nominee
The Ghost Writer
Philip Roth · Fiction
Nominee
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe · General Nonfiction
Nominee
The White Album
Joan Didion · General Nonfiction
Nominee
1978
The Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever · Fiction
Winner
Orientalism
Edward W. Said · Criticism
Nominee
The Coup
John Updike · Fiction
Nominee
The Snow Leopard
Peter Matthiessen · General Nonfiction
Nominee
The World According to Garp
John Irving · Fiction
Nominee
1977
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison · Fiction
Winner
Coming Into the Country
John McPhee · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Dispatches
Michael Herr · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Falconer
John Cheever · Fiction
Nominee
The Professor of Desire
Philip Roth · Fiction
Nominee
1976
October Light
John Gardner · Fiction
Winner
The Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston · General Nonfiction
Winner
Letters of E.B. White
E. B. White · Criticism
Nominee
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley · General Nonfiction
Nominee
Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality
Richard Kluger · General Nonfiction
Nominee
1975
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
John Ashbery · Poetry
Winner
