The winners of the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on March 17th during an online ceremony.

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 https://bookcritics.org/.
 

2021 Winners

Autobiography

• GAY BAR: Why We Went Out, by Jeremy Atherton Lin (Little, Brown and Company)

Biography

• ALL THE FREQUENT TROUBLES OF OUR DAYS: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler, by Rebecca Donner (Little, Brown and Company)

Criticism

• GIRLHOOD by Melissa Febos (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Fiction

• THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)

Nonfiction

• HOW THE WORD IS PASSED by Clint Smith (Little, Brown and Company)

Poetry

• FRANK: Sonnets, by Diane Seuss (Graywolf Press)

The John Leonard Award for Best First Book

• AFTERPARTIES by Anthony Veasna So (Ecco)

The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Merve Emre

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• Cave Canem Foundation

The Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement

• Percival Everett
   

2021 Finalists

Autobiography

• A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA: Notes In Praise of Black Performance, by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)
• GAY BAR: Why We Went Out, by Jeremy Atherton Lin (Little, Brown and Company)
• A FAREWELL TO GABO AND MERCEDES: A Son’s Memoir, by Rodrigo Garcia (HarperVia)
• A GHOST IN THE THROAT by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Biblioasis)
• CONCEPCION: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes, by Albert Samaha (Riverhead Books)

Biography

• CLAIRVOYANT OF THE SMALL: The Life of Robert Walser, by Susan Bernofsky (Yale University Press)
• UNTIL I AM FREE: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America, by Keisha N. Blain (Beacon Press)
• ALL THE FREQUENT TROUBLES OF OUR DAYS: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler, by Rebecca Donner (Little, Brown and Company)
• MIKE NICHOLS: A Life, by Mark Harris (Penguin Press)
• FIERCE POISE: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York, by Alexander Nemerov (Penguin Press)

Criticism

• GIRLHOOD by Melissa Febos (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• WHY DIDN'T YOU DO WHAT YOU WERE TOLD? by Jenny Diski (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• WHO WILL PAY REPARATIONS ON MY SOUL? by Jesse McCarthy (Liveright)
• EVERYTHING AND LESS: The Novel in the Age of Amazon, by Mark McGurl (Verso)
• THE RIGHT TO SEX by Amia Srinivasan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fiction

• THE NETANYAHUS by Joshua Cohen (New York Review Books)
• SECOND PLACE by Rachel Cusk (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• BURNTCOAT by Sarah Hall (Custom House)
• THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
• HARLEM SHUFFLE by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Nonfiction

• EMPIRE OF PAIN: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)
• THE FAMILY ROE: An American Story, by Joshua Prager (W. W. Norton and Company)
• THE LEAST OF US: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, by Sam Quinones (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• HOW THE WORD IS PASSED by Clint Smith (Little, Brown and Company)
• ORWELL'S ROSES by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)

Poetry

• CEIVE by B.K. Fischer (BOA Editions Ltd.)
• THE RENUNCIATIONS by Donika Kelly (Graywolf Press)
• CUTLISH by Rajiv Mohabir (Four Way Books)
• THE RHINEHART FRAMES by Cheswayo Mphanza (University of Nebraska Press)
• FRANK: Sonnets, by Diane Seuss (Graywolf Press)

The John Leonard Award for Best First Book

• SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER by Ashley C. Ford (Flatiron Books)
• MY MONTICELLO by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Henry Holt and Co.)
• DETRANSITION, BABY by Torrey Peters (One World)
• POP SONG by Larissa Pham (Catapult)
• AFTERPARTIES by Anthony Veasna So (Ecco)
• PHILOMATH by Devon Walker-Figueroa (Milkweed Editions)

The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Merve Emre

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• Cave Canem Foundation

The Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement

• Percival Everett