FICTION  Mohsin Hamid, EXIT WEST  (Riverhead) Arundhati Roy, THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS  (Knopf)   NONFICTION Masha Gessen, THE FUTURE IS HISTORY: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead)     BIOGRAPHY Howard Markel, THE KELLOGGS: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek (Pantheon) Kenneth Whyte, HOOVER: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (Knopf)   AUTOBIOGRAPHY Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, THE GIRL FROM THE METROPOL HOTEL: Growin Up in Communist Russia (Penguin)       View the complete list of NBCC finalists here. Winners of the NBCC awards will be announced on Thursday, March 15 in NYC at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium.  A finalists’ reading will be held on March 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the same location. Both events are free and open to the public. The National Book Critics Circle was founded in 1974 at New York’s Algonquin Hotel by a group of the most influential critics of the day, and awarded its first set of honors in 1975.  The NBCC now comprises more than 1,000 working critics and book-review editors throughout the country.  The NBCC annually bestows its awards in six categories, honoring the best books published in the past year in the United States.

  WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead) WHAT WE LOSE by Zinzi Clemmons (Viking) MY ABSOLUTE DARLING by Gabriel Tallent (Riverhead) This year’s Leonard Prize winner will be selected by an NBCC judging panel and announced in January with the finalists in the other 2017 NBCC Award categories, and presented at the NBCC Awards Ceremony at The New School in Manhattan on March 15, 2018. View the complete list of 2017 John Leonard Prize nominees here.

The General Nonfiction prize went to Mr. Desmond for EVICTED, a brilliantly reported account of tenants and landlords in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Earlier this year, he won the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction; the 2017 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction; and the 2016 Discover Great New Writers Nonfiction Award for his book. The Autobiography prize went to Ms. Jahren for LAB GIRL, a witty memoir of her life as a geobiologist as well as an eloquent meditation on botany. Two Penguin Random House authors received special NBCC awards. As previously reported on Igloo in our NBCC finalists feature in January, Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, HOMEGOING (Alfred A. Knopf) was the recipient of the fourth annual John Leonard Prize, established to recognize outstanding first books in any genre and named in honor of founding NBCC member John Leonard. Talese/Doubleday and McClelland & Stewart author Margaret Atwood was presented with the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, for her lifetime contribution to letters and book culture, including groundbreaking fiction, environmental and feminist activism, and service to community as a cofounder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada. [caption id="attachment_4679" align="alignright" width="300"] Yaa Gyasi and Margaret Atwood[/caption] 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 National Book Critics Circle comprises more than 700 critics and editors from leading newspapers, magazines and online publications who vote on the finalists and winners. Congratulations to Mr. Desmond, Ms. Jahren, Ms. Gyasi and Ms. Atwood, and to our NBCC Finalists, as well as their editors, publishers and everyone involved with their extraordinary works. View a complete list of the 2016 NBCC award winners here.

outstanding first books in any genre and named in honor of founding NBCC member John Leonard. [caption id="attachment_4679" align="alignright" width="300"] Yaa Gyasi and Margaret Atwood[/caption] Penguin Random House author Margaret Atwood is the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, for her lifetime contribution to letters and book culture, which includes groundbreaking fiction, environmental and feminist activism, and service to community as a cofounder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Penguin Random House imprints publish six finalists for the NBCC Awards in the following categories: FICTION Zadie Smith’s SWING TIME (Penguin Press) GENERAL NONFICTION Matthew Desmond’s EVICTED: Poverty and Profit in the American City(Crown) Jane Mayer’s DARK MONEY: The Hidden History of The Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (Doubleday) AUTOBIOGRAPHY Hope Jahren’s LAB GIRL (Alfred A. Knopf) Hisham Matar’s THE RETURN: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between (Random House) CRITICISM Mark Greif’s AGAINST EVERYTHING: Essays (Pantheon) Congratulations to Ms. Gyasi and Ms. Atwood as well as all of our nominees, their editors and publishers. View a complete list of the NBCC finalists here. Winners of the NBCC awards will be announced on Thursday, March 16 in NYC at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium. The National Book Critics Circle was founded in 1974 at New York’s Algonquin Hotel by a group of the most influential critics of the day, and awarded its first set of honors in 1975.  The NBCC now comprises more than 1,000 working critics and book-review editors throughout the country.  The NBCC annually bestows its awards in six categories, honoring the best books published in the past year in the United States.