The winners of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on March 14, 2019 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 NBCC comprises more than 750 critics and editors from leading newspapers, magazines and online publications.

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

2018 Winners

Autobiography
BELONGING: A German Reckons With History and Home, by Nora Krug (Scribner)

Biography
FLASH: The Making of Weegee the Famous, by Christopher Bonanos (Henry Holt & Company)

Criticism
FEEL FREE: Essays, by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)

Fiction
MILKMAN by Anna Burns (Graywolf Press)

Nonfiction
DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Steve Coll (Penguin Press)

Poetry
THE CARRYING by Ada Limón (Milkweed)

John Leonard Prize
THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
Maureen Corrigan

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award
Arte Público Press

2018 Finalists

Autobiography

• THE DAY THAT WENT MISSING: A Family’s Story, by Richard Beard (Little, Brown)
• ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW: A Memoir, by Nicole Chung (Catapult)
• WHAT DROWNS THE FLOWERS IN YOUR MOUTH: A Memoir of Brotherhood, by Rigoberto Gonzalez (University of Wisconsin Press)
• BELONGING: A German Reckons With History and Home, by Nora Krug (Scribner)
• OLD IN ART SCHOOL: A Memoir of Starting Over, by Nell Painter (Counterpoint)
• EDUCATED: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (Random House)

Biography

• FLASH: The Making of Weegee the Famous, by Christopher Bonanos (Henry Holt & Company)
• NINETY-NINE GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET by Craig Brown (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• INSEPARABLE: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang (Liveright)
• THE MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century, by Mark Lamster (Little, Brown)
• THE BIG FELLA: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy (Harper)

Criticism

• IS IT STILL GOOD TO YA?: Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017 by Robert Christgau (Duke University Press)
• TYRANT: Shakespeare on Politics, by Stephen Greenblatt (W. W. Norton)
• TO FLOAT IN THE SPACE BETWEEN: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight, by Terrance Hayes (Wave)
• THE RECKONINGS: Essays, by Lacy M. Johnson (Scribner)
• FEEL FREE: Essays, by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)

Fiction

• MILKMAN by Anna Burns (Graywolf Press)
• SLAVE OLD MAN by Patrick Chamoiseau, translated by Linda Coverdale (The New Press)
• THE LARGESSE OF THE SEA MAIDEN: Stories, by Denis Johnson (Random House)
• THE MARS ROOM by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)
• THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS by Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown)

Nonfiction

• THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead Books)
• DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Steve Coll (Penguin Press)
• THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Press)
• WE THE CORPORATIONS: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, by Adam Winkler (Liveright)
• GOD SAVE TEXAS: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf)

Poetry

• AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books)
• THE CARRYING by Ada Limón (Milkweed)
• HOLY MOLY CARRY ME by Erika Meitner (Boa)
• STILL LIFE WITH TWO DEAD PEACOCKS AND A GIRL by Diane Seuss (Graywolf Press)
• ASYMMETRY by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

John Leonard Prize

• THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Maureen Corrigan

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Arte Público Press