The National Book Critics Circle presents annual awards for books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. The NBCC Awards started in 1975.
I confess I bear a grudge against the NBCC fiction Award for inflicting some of my least favorite novels on me, including Being Dead, All the Pretty Horses, and Song of Solomon. On the other hand, I only read Americanah and Motherless Brooklyn because they are on list and I love both of them.
I decided to not keep updating the winners after 2021. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I may focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.
This is the list of the NBCC fiction Award winners through 2021, with notes about whether I've finished the book or not. So far, I've read 33 of the winners. I've also noted it a book is on my TBR shelf or available as an audiobook from my library. Those notes help me keep track.
2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers ON OVERDRIVE
This is the list of the NBCC fiction Award winners through 2021, with notes about whether I've finished the book or not. So far, I've read 33 of the winners. I've also noted it a book is on my TBR shelf or available as an audiobook from my library. Those notes help me keep track.
2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers ON OVERDRIVE
2020 Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell FINISHED
2019 Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat ON OVERDRIVE
2018 Milkman by Anna Burns FINISHED
2017 Improvement by Joan Silber ON OVERDRIVE
2016 LaRose by Louise Erdrich FINISHED
2015 The Sellout by Paul Beatty FINISHED
2014 Lila by Marilynne Robinson FINISHED
2013 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie FINISHED
2012 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain FINISHED
2011 Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman
2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan FINISHED
2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here) FINISHED
2008 2666 by Robert Bolano TBR SHELF
2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz FINISHED
2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai FINISHED
2005 The March by E.L. Doctorow ON OVERDRIVE
2004 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (reviewed here) FINISHED
2003 The Known World by Edward P. Jones FINISHED
2002 Atonement by Ian McEwan FINISHED
2001 Austerlitz by Winfried Georg Sebald FINISHED
2000 Being Dead by Jim Crace FINISHED
1999 Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem FINISHED
1998 The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro TBR SHELF
1997 The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED
1996 Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault TBR SHELF
1995 Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin FINISHED
1994 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields FINISHED
1993 A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines TBR SHELF
1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reviewed here) FINISHED
1991 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley FINISHED
1990 Rabbit at Rest by John Updike FINISHED
1989 Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED
1988 The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee TBR SHELF
1987 The Counterlife by Philip Roth FINISHED
1986 Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price FINISHED
1985 The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler FINISHED
1984 Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich TBR SHELF
1983 Ironweed by William Kennedy FINISHED
1982 George Mills by Stanley Elkin TBR SHELF
1981 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike FINISHED
1980 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard TBR SHELF
1979 The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan FINISHED
1978 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (reviewed here) FINISHED
1977 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison FINISHED
1976 October Light by John C Gardner TBR SHELF
2019 Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat ON OVERDRIVE
2018 Milkman by Anna Burns FINISHED
2017 Improvement by Joan Silber ON OVERDRIVE
2016 LaRose by Louise Erdrich FINISHED
2015 The Sellout by Paul Beatty FINISHED
2014 Lila by Marilynne Robinson FINISHED
2013 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie FINISHED
2012 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain FINISHED
2011 Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman
2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan FINISHED
2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here) FINISHED
2008 2666 by Robert Bolano TBR SHELF
2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz FINISHED
2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai FINISHED
2005 The March by E.L. Doctorow ON OVERDRIVE
2004 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (reviewed here) FINISHED
2003 The Known World by Edward P. Jones FINISHED
2002 Atonement by Ian McEwan FINISHED
2001 Austerlitz by Winfried Georg Sebald FINISHED
2000 Being Dead by Jim Crace FINISHED
1999 Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem FINISHED
1998 The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro TBR SHELF
1997 The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED
1996 Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault TBR SHELF
1995 Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin FINISHED
1994 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields FINISHED
1993 A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines TBR SHELF
1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reviewed here) FINISHED
1991 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley FINISHED
1990 Rabbit at Rest by John Updike FINISHED
1989 Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED
1988 The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee TBR SHELF
1987 The Counterlife by Philip Roth FINISHED
1986 Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price FINISHED
1985 The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler FINISHED
1984 Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich TBR SHELF
1983 Ironweed by William Kennedy FINISHED
1982 George Mills by Stanley Elkin TBR SHELF
1981 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike FINISHED
1980 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard TBR SHELF
1979 The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan FINISHED
1978 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (reviewed here) FINISHED
1977 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison FINISHED
1976 October Light by John C Gardner TBR SHELF
1975 Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED
NOTES
Updated March 20, 2024. This is a refresh of the list I first posted in 2012.
NOTES
Updated March 20, 2024. This is a refresh of the list I first posted in 2012.