Check Out The 2025 National Book Critics Circle Finalists
The finalists for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced today. The 30 finalists are spread across six categories — which include autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, general nonfiction, and poetry — and were published in 2024.
In addition to the above categories, the National Book Critics Circle also announced the finalists for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, which is awarded by the organization’s membership. The organization also announced finalists for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation.
The National Book Critics Circle is a nonprofit that serves a wide range of those involved in literary criticism. This includes professional reviewers, bloggers, publishing professionals, and more. It was founded in April 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel with the intent of taking the Algonquin round table discussions to a national level.
Check out the finalists in each of the six categories, plus the finalists for Best First Novel and Book in Translation awards below.
Fiction
- Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
- Godwin by Joseph O’Neill
- James by Percival Everett
- My Friends by Hisham Matar
- Us Fools by Nora Lange
Nonfiction
- The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll
- Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
- The Freaks Came Out To Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano
- Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson
- We’re Alone by Edwidge Danticat
Biography
- Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below by Jane Kamensky
- Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr
- Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers by Jean Strouse
- Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles
- The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker by Amy Reading
Autobiography
- The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History by Manjula Martin
- Little Seed by Wei Tchou
- The Minotaur at Calle Lanza by Zito Madu
- Mother Archive: A Dominican Family Memoir by Erika Morillo
- Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny, translation by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel
Poetry
- An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang
- Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf
- Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin
- Scattered Snows, To The North by Carl Phillips
- Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
Criticism
- Black Meme: A History of the Images that Make Us by Legacy Russell
- The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War by Jesse McCarthy
- Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today by Claire Bishop
- Intervals by Marianne Brooker
- There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
The John Leonard Prize for Best First Book
- By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle
- Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
- Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham
- Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen
- Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok
- When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz
Gregg Barrios Book in Translation
- The Children of the Ghetto: Star of the Sea by Elias Khoury, translation by Humphrey Davies
- Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, translation by Ottilie Mulzet
- A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translation by Gwendolyn Harper
- Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán, translation by Will Vanderhyden
- O by Judith Kiros, translation by Kira Josefsson
- Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translation by Robin Moger
Winners will be announced at the March 20, 2025, ceremony. You can register to attend in person or virtually at the National Book Critics Circle website.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
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