On March 20, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) hosted their annual award ceremony at The New School in New York City where they announced this year's recipients. This year marked the 50th year the NBCC Awards have been presented.
At a time when the arts are in peril, the evening was focused not only on the celebration of great writing, but the need to band together, to speak the truth, and to continue the good and important work writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and critics do. That tone was set by NBCC President Heather Scott Partington's opening remarks as she highlighted the importance of their organization for the last half-century.
"We stand at the watch. Newspapers shutter their book sections, budgets dry up, and charlatans undermine the tradition of a free press. Yet, the NBCC endures. We are a community of dedicated readers, embracing our rights to read and interpret freely. Embracing the radical act of independent thought," said Partington. "Never has there been a more urgent need for criticism, for free speech, for writing that questions, talks back to, and interprets other writing. The NBCC affirms the right of every person to see themselves reflected in books. As the NBCC moves into our next chapter, we stand with the organizations fighting to protect our rights to write and read."
That message was clear in the selection of winners and honorees, which included a posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; the first biography of transgender icon Candy Darling; a first novel about Chinese history and inherited trauma; the translation of an essay collection by late Chilean literary activist and queer icon Pedro Lemebel; and an achievement award for Third World Press, founded in 1967 by Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti.
The evening's distinguished speaker, Maxine Hong Kingston, won the 1976 award in nonfiction for The Woman Warrior and was there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NBCC Awards. Her speech highlighted how things have changed since she won her NBCC but one thing that hasn't changed was the importance of her 'ohana both when she won and now, "We people from Hawaii and we people from Asia, we are not individuals. It's not like 'oh I won a big prize' it is "we won a big prize." Kingston went on to share that she is writing a book with her grandson, bringing stories and traditions from Hawai'i to a new generation of readers.
Hanif Abdurraqib, this year's NBCC award winner in the criticism category, echoed the importance of family in his work and encouraged everyone in the audience to find something that gives their work greater meaning.
"We are not carried by our ancestors, we carry them. That charges me with a real responsibility, it charges me with a real care for my work, it charges me with something greater than decoration, greater than anything other than the fact I am carrying my mother along with me, therefore my work must honor that carrying," said Abdurraqib. "I encourage everyone to find something worth carrying - a person, a place - anything that charges you with the real responsibility to do work at a level that is greater than yourself. Reach for something infinite in the name of that carrying."
All of the honorees, including those for achievement, service, and excellence in reviewing, highlighted the importance of diversity in voices, allyship, community, and engagement in their speeches, focusing on the importance of art and of joining together in this pursuit to get through the darkest, most troubling times.
The full list of recipients of the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards:
AUTOBIOGRAPHY - Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny, translated from the Russian by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel (Knopf)
BIOGRAPHY - Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
CRITICISM - There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)
FICTION - My Friends by Hisham Matar (Random House)
NONFICTION - Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader)
POETRY - Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions)
GREGG BARRIOS BOOK IN TRANSLATION PRIZE - A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translated from the Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper (Penguin Classics)
JOHN LEONARD PRIZE - Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
NBCC SERVICE AWARD - Lori Lynn Turner, Associate Director of The New School Creative Writing Program
NONA BALAKIAN CITATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN REVIEWING - Lauren Michele Jackson
TONI MORRISON ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Third World Press
IVAN SANDROF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Sandra Cisneros
Below is a recording of the ceremony.
Replay of NBCC Awards which took place at The New School in NYC on March 20, 2025