What To Read

Each year, the National Book Critics Circle Awards honor outstanding works of literature published in English in the United States. As stewards of one of the most prestigious prizes in the literary world, the NBCC committee members nominate authors In the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, criticism, and more.

The winners will be announced in March. Until then, check out some of the high praise we've seen for this year's nominees in fiction and nonfiction, as well as a complete list of the finalists.

Fiction

Dr. No by Percival Everett

Among many other accolades, this book made WIRED's 12 Best Books of 2022 list. Senior writer Kate Knibbs called Everett "an heir to Kurt Vonnegut" and praises the way the author "infuses his work with a contagious sense of playfulness, one that makes the act of reading hundreds of pages about nothing into a treat rather than a chore."

A New Name by Jon Fosse, trans. by Damion Searls

Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize, this is the final installment in Fosse's Septology series of books. As her selection for Bookforum's favorite books of 2022 series, author and critic Merve Emre said: "To describe what Septology is about—or even to claim that it is about something that can be fixed in words—is already to defile it. Perhaps it would be simpler to say that reading it is the closest I have come to feeling the presence of God here on earth."

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami, trans. by Sam Bett and David Boyd

"Kawakami’s novel is uncompromisingly candid in its appraisal of the harm women inflict on one another, while never losing sight of the overarching structures that lead them to do so in the first place," wrote author and critic Jo Hamya in her review for The New York Times. This "compact and supple" book, she declares, is "a strikingly intelligent feat."

Bliss Montage: Stories by Ling Ma

This is another book that popped up on several best-of-the-year lists. The Cut's Bindu Bansinath called author Ling Ma "a pandemic prophet... crafting speculative premises out of her most anxiety-laced dreams," while writer and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato praised the way "Ma masterfully captures her characters’ double consciousness, always seeing themselves through the white gaze, in stunning and bold new ways."

The Furrows by Namwali Serpell

None other than President Obama is a fan of this book, which made his shortlist of recommended reads in December. Writing for the LA Times, novelist Lynn Steger Strong praises the way The Furrows provides "a stunningly acute depiction of how the endless layers of both grief and absence, the impossibly slippery act of trying to be a person, feel."

Nonfiction

The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler

Journalist and author Nicholas Schmidle named this book as one of his top non-fiction books of the year, tweeting: "An entertaining, unexpected primer on the ascendancy of modern Hollywood/Superpower USA, disguised as a book about acting techniques." He cited the book's "superb writing, sharp insights, [and] exhaustive research" as key reasons for the selection.

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández

This was one of Smithsonian's 10 Best History Books of 2022, as well as a longlister for both the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award. Critic Michael Schaub called author Lytle Hernández "a natural storyteller... of immense intelligence and remarkable talent" and the book "an exemplary work of history, shining a light on a group of people whose courage and determination transformed a continent."

Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson

Culture writer Sarah Neilson is full of praise for this book, calling it "some of the most beautiful writing I’ve read in a long time." In addition, she says, "The way Osmundson draws meaning from a queer experience of viruses is incredibly moving, ultimately resulting in a rage-filled call to action."

Fen, Bog, & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx

The latest book from Pulitzer and National Book Award winner Annie Proulx "draws our attention to the largely unloved wetlands that are being destroyed around the world," wrote entrepreneur and environmental wonk Rohan Silva in The Guardian. "Proulx wants us to see... and to appreciate the beauty in these swampy and often stinking places. Boy, does she succeed."

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

The Atlantic's science journalist Ed Yong was just awarded the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for this book, but we've been hearing effusive praise for it since the book's publication last June, including this from anthropologist Barbara J. King: "Yong writes in a perfect balance of scientific rigor and personal awe as he invites readers to grasp something of how other animals experience the world... It's a magnificent achievement."

Additional Finalists

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Jazmina Barrera, Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes, trans. by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)

Hua Hsu, Stay True: A Memoir (Doubleday)

Dorthe Nors, A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast, trans. by Caroline Waight (Graywolf)

Darryl Pinckney, Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir (Doubleday)

BIOGRAPHY

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

Kerri K. Greenidge, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Liveright)

Jennifer Homans, Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century (Random House)

Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life (Doubleday)

Aaron Sachs, Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times (Princeton University Press)

CRITICISM

Rachel Aviv, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect: The Novel in a Postfictional Age (Columbia)

Peter Brooks, Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative (NYRB)

Margo Jefferson, Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir (Pantheon)

Alia Trabucco Zerán, When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold, trans. by Sophie Hughes (Coffee House Press)

POETRY 

Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights)

Cynthia Cruz, Hotel Oblivion (Four Way)

David Hernandez, Hello I Must be Going (Pitt)

Paul Hlava Ceballos, banana [ ] (Pitt)

Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens (New Directions)

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)

JOHN LEONARD PRIZE (best first book)

Jessamine Chan, The School for Good Mothers (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books)

Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch (Knopf)

Zain Khalid, Brother Alive (Grove)

Maud Newton, Ancestor Trouble (Random House)

Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez (Tin House)

Vauhini Vara, The Immortal King Rao (Norton)

NBCC SERVICE AWARD

Barbara Hoffert

NONA BALAKIAN CITATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN REVIEWING

Jennifer Wilson

TONI MORRISON ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

IVAN SANDROF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Joy Harjo