The National Book Critics Circle revealed the finalists for its annual awards, with Justin Torres, Safiya Sinclair, and Naomi Klein among the authors in the running for the literary prizes.
Torres made the fiction shortlist for Blackouts, which won last year’s National Book Award. Also named finalists were Tremor by Teju Cole; North Woods by Daniel Mason; I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore; and Vengeance Is Mine, written by Marie NDiaye and translated by Jordan Stump.
Sinclair’s How To Say Babylon, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, was named a finalist in the autobiography category, alongside I Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito; Secret Harvests, written by David Mas Masumoto with artwork by Patricia Wakida; Rotten Evidence, written by Ahmed Naji and translated by Katharine Halls; and Story of a Poem by Matthew Zapruder.
Klein made the criticism shortlist for Doppelganger, as did Nicholas Dames forThe Chapter, Myriam Gurba for Creep, Grace E. Lavery for Pleasure and Efficacy, and Tina Post for Deadpan.
The nonfiction finalists were Roxanna Asgarian for We Were Once a Family, Kerry Howley for Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs, Christina Sharpe for Ordinary Notes, Jeff Sharlet for The Undertow, and Dina Nayeri for Who Gets Believed?
The National Book Critics Circle also announced the winners of some special awards, including Judy Blume, who won the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Library Association, named winner of the Toni Morrison Achievement Award.
The winners of the prizes will be announced at a ceremony in New York on March 21; the event will also be livestreamed on YouTube. A full list of finalists is available at the organization’s website.
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.
