The winners of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on March 12, 2015 at the New School in New York.

Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle Awards are given annually to honor outstanding writing and to foster a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. The awards are open to any book published in the United States in English (including translations). The National Book Critics Circle comprises nearly 700 critics and editors from leading newspapers and magazines providing coverage of books.

For more information about the National Book Critics Circle and the National Book Critics Circle Awards, go to http://bookcritics.org/.
 

2014 Winners

Fiction
LILA by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

General Nonfiction
THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION by David Brion Davis (Alfred A. Knopf)

Autobiography
CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury)

Biography
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Criticism
THE ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS by Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz (University of Minnesota Press)

Poetry
CITIZEN: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)

John Leonard Prize (established this year to recognize outstanding first books in any genre)
Phil Klay for REDEPLOYMENT (Penguin Press)

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
Alexandra Schwartz

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award
Toni Morrison

2014 Finalists

Fiction

• AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN by Rabih Alameddine (Grove Press)
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS by Marlon James (Riverhead Books)
• EUPHORIA by Lily King (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• ON SUCH A FULL SEA by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books)
• LILA by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

General Nonfiction

• THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION by David Brion Davis (Alfred A. Knopf)
• THE ZHIVAGO AFFAIR: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book, by Peter Finn and Petra Couvee (Pantheon)
• THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry Holt & Co.)
• CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  by Thomas Piketty, translated from the French by Arthur Goldhammer (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press)
• DEEP DOWN DARK: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free, by Hector Tobar (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Autobiography

• THE SPLENDID THINGS WE PLANNED: A Family Portrait, by Blake Bailey (W.W. Norton & Co.)
• CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury)
• THE OTHER SIDE by Lacy M. Johnson (Tin House)
• LITTLE FAILURE by Gary Shteyngart (Random House)
• THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT by Meline Toumani (Metropolitan Books)

Biography

• WILLIAM WELLS BROWN: An African American Life, by Ezra Greenspan (W.W. Norton & Co.)
• REBEL YELL: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, by S.C. Gwynne (Scribner)
• TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr (W.W. Norton & Co.)
• “LITERCHOOR IS MY BEAT”: A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, by Ian S. MacNiven (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ: A Biography, by Miriam Pawel (Bloomsbury)

Criticism

• ON IMMUNITY: An Innoculation, by Eula Biss (Graywolf Press)
• GEEK SUBLIME: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty, by Vikram Chandra (Graywolf Press)
• CITIZEN: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
• WHAT WOULD LYNNE TILLMAN? by Lynne Tillman (Red Lemonade)
• THE ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS by Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz (University of Minnesota Press)

Poetry

• PRELUDE TO BRUISE by Saeed Jones (Coffee House Press)
• THE ESSENTIAL HITS OF SHORTY BON BON by Willie Perdomo (Penguin Books)
• CITIZEN: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
• ONCE IN THE WEST by Christian Wiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• ABIDE by Jake Adam York (Southern Illinois University Press)

John Leonard Prize (established this year to recognize outstanding first books in any genre)

• Phil Klay for REDEPLOYMENT (Penguin Press)

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Alexandra Schwartz

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Toni Morrison