The winners of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on March 23rd during a ceremony at the New School in New York City.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book review editors.

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

2022 Winners

Autobiography

• STAY TRUE: A Memoir, by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

Biography

• G-MAN: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage (Viking)

Criticism

• FREE INDIRECT: The Novel in a Postfictional Age, by Timothy Bewes (Columbia University Press)

Fiction

• BLISS MONTAGE: Stories, by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Nonfiction

• THE METHOD: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury)

Poetry

• HOTEL OBLIVION by Cynthia Cruz (Four Way)

John Leonard Prize

• NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ by Morgan Talty (Tin House)

Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize

• Boris Dralyuk’s translation of GREY BEES by Andrey Kurkov (Deep Vellum)

NBCC Service Award

• Barbara Hoffert

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Jennifer Wilson

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• City Lights

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Joy Harjo
   

2022 Finalists

Autobiography

• LINEA NIGRA: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes, written by Jazmina Barrera, translated by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)
• STAY TRUE: A Memoir, by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)
• A LINE IN THE WORLD: A Year on the North Sea Coast, written by Dorthe Nors, translated by Caroline Waight (Graywolf)
• COME BACK IN SEPTEMBER: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan, by Darryl Pinckney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE MAN WHO COULD MOVE CLOUDS: A Memoir, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Doubleday)

Biography

• G-MAN: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage (Viking)
• THE GRIMKES: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family, by Kerri K. Greenidge (Liveright)
• MR. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century, by Jennifer Homans (Random House)
• METAPHYSICAL ANIMALS: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life, by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman (Doubleday)
• UP FROM THE DEPTHS: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times, by Aaron Sachs (Princeton University Press)

Criticism

• STRANGERS TO OURSELVES: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, by Rachel Aviv (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• FREE INDIRECT: The Novel in a Postfictional Age, by Timothy Bewes (Columbia University Press)
• SEDUCED BY STORY: The Use and Abuse of Narrative, by Peter Brooks (NYRB)
• CONSTRUCTING A NERVOUS SYSTEM: A Memoir, by Margo Jefferson (Pantheon)
• WHEN WOMEN KILL: Four Crimes Retold, written by Alia Trabucco Zerán, translated by Sophie Hughes (Coffee House Press)

Fiction

• DR. NO by Percival Everett (Graywolf)
• A NEW NAME written by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls (Transit Books)
• ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT written by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Europa Editions)
• BLISS MONTAGE: Stories, by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell (Hogarth)

Nonfiction

• THE METHOD: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury)
• BAD MEXICANS: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, by Kelly Lytle Hernández (Norton)
• VIROLOGY: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between, by Joseph Osmundson (Norton)
• FEN, BOG, & SWAMP: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, by Annie Proulx (Scribner)
• AN IMMENSE WORLD: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, by Ed Yong (Random House)

Poetry

• THINGS YOU MAY FIND HIDDEN IN MY EAR by Mosab Abu Toha (City Lights)
• HOTEL OBLIVION by Cynthia Cruz (Four Way)
• HELLO I MUST BE GOING by David Hernandez (Pitt)
• BANANA [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos (Pitt)
• MILKWEED SMITHEREENS by Bernadette Mayer (New Directions)

John Leonard Prize

• THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS by Jessamine Chan (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books)
• IF I SURVIVE YOU by Jonathan Escoffery (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE RABBIT HUTCH by Tess Gunty (Knopf)
• BROTHER ALIVE by Zain Khalid (Grove)
• ANCESTOR TROUBLE by Maud Newton (Random House)
• NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ by Morgan Talty (Tin House)
• THE IMMORTAL KING RAO by Vauhini Vara (Norton)

Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize

• Boris Dralyuk’s translation of GREY BEES by Andrey Kurkov (Deep Vellum)
• Jennifer Croft’s translation of THE BOOKS OF JACOB by Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books)
• Fady Joudah’s translation of YOU CAN BE THE LAST LEAF by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat (Milkweed Editions)
• Mara Faye Lethem’s translation of WHEN I SING, MOUNTAINS DANCE by Irene Solà (Graywolf Press)
• Christina MacSweeney’s translation of LINEA NIGRA by Jazmina Barrera (Two Lines Press)
• Mark Polizzotti’s translation of KIBOGO by Scholastique Mukasonga (Archipelago)

NBCC Service Award

• Barbara Hoffert

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Jennifer Wilson

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• City Lights

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Joy Harjo