The winners of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on March 21st 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/.
 

2023 Winners

Autobiography

• HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair (Simon & Schuster)

Biography

• WINNIE AND NELSON: Portrait of a Marriage, by Jonny Steinberg (Knopf)

Criticism

• DEADPAN: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression, by Tina Post (NYU Press)

Fiction

• I AM HOMELESS IF THIS IS NOT MY HOME by Lorrie Moore (Knopf)

Nonfiction

• WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Poetry

• PHANTOM PAIN WINGS written by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (New Directions)

Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize

• Don Mee Choi’s translation of PHANTOM PAIN WINGS by Kim Hyesoon (New Directions)

John Leonard Prize

• WAITING TO BE ARRESTED AT NIGHT: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, written by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Press)

NBCC Service Award

• Marion Winik

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Becca Rothfeld

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• American Library Association

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Judy Blume
   

2023 Finalists

Autobiography

• I WOULD MEET YOU ANYWHERE: A Memoir, by Susan Kiyo Ito (The Ohio State University Press)
• SECRET HARVESTS: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm, by David Mas Masumoto, with artwork by Patricia Wakida (Red Hen Press)
• ROTTEN EVIDENCE: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison, written by Ahmed Naji, translated by Katharine Halls (McSweeney’s)
• HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair (Simon & Schuster)
• STORY OF A POEM: A Memoir, by Matthew Zapruder (Unnamed Press)

Biography

• KING: A Life, by Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANNAH CRAFTS: The True Story of the Bondwoman's Narrative, by Gregg Hecimovich (Ecco)
• DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang (Liveright)
• BETTY FRIEDAN: Magnificent Disruptor, by Rachel Shteir (Yale University Press)
• WINNIE AND NELSON: Portrait of a Marriage, by Jonny Steinberg (Knopf)

Criticism

• THE CHAPTER: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century, by Nicholas Dames (Princeton University Press)
• CREEP: Accusations and Confessions, by Myriam Gurba (Avid Reader Press)
• DOPPELGANGER: A Trip into the Mirror World, by Naomi Klein (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• PLEASURE AND EFFICACY: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques, by Grace E. Lavery (Princeton University Press)
• DEADPAN: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression, by Tina Post (NYU Press)

Fiction

• TREMOR by Teju Cole (Random House)
• NORTH WOODS by Daniel Mason (Random House)
• I AM HOMELESS IF THIS IS NOT MY HOME by Lorrie Moore (Knopf)
• VENGEANCE IS MINE written by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump (Knopf)
• BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Nonfiction

• WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• BOTTOMS UP AND THE DEVIL LAUGHS by Kerry Howley (Knopf)
• ORDINARY NOTES by Christina Sharpe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE UNDERTOW: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, by Jeff Sharlet (W. W. Norton)
• WHO GETS BELIEVED?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough, by Dina Nayeri (Catapult Books)

Poetry

• ALL SOULS by Saskia Hamilton (Graywolf Press)
• PHANTOM PAIN WINGS written by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (New Directions)
• THE GATHERING OF BASTARDS by Romeo Oriogun (University of Nebraska Press)
• INFORMATION DESK by Robyn Schiff (Penguin Books)
• TRACE EVIDENCE by Charif Shanahan (Tin House)

Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize

• Kareem Abdulrahman’s translation of THE LAST POMEGRANATE TREE by Bachtyar Ali (Archipelago Books)
• Natascha Bruce’s translation of OWLISH by Dorothy Tse (Graywolf Press)
• Don Mee Choi’s translation of PHANTOM PAIN WINGS by Kim Hyesoon (New Directions)
• Todd Fredson’s translation of ZAKWATO & LOGLÊDOU’S PERIL by Azo Vauguy (Action Books)
• Maureen Freely’s translation of COLD NIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD by Tezer Özlü (Transit Books)
• Tiffany Tsao’s translation of HAPPY STORIES, MOSTLY by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Feminist Press)

John Leonard Prize

• BLACK PASTORAL by Ariana Benson (University of Georgia Press)
• A NIMBLE ARC: James Van Der Zee and Photography, by Emilie Boone (Duke University Press)
• THE LOVE OF SINGULAR MEN written by Victor Heringer, translated by James Young (New Directions)
• WAITING TO BE ARRESTED AT NIGHT: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, written by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Press)
• WHEN CRACK WAS KING by Donovan X. Ramsey (One World)
• JUDGMENT AND MERCY: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs, by Martin J. Siegel (Cornell University Press)

NBCC Service Award

• Marion Winik

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing

• Becca Rothfeld

Finalists

• Rhoda Feng
• Christoph Irmscher
• Sophie Pinkham
• Audrey Wollen

Toni Morrison Achievement Award

• American Library Association

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

• Judy Blume