National Book Critics Circle Announces 2025 Awards Longlist In Six Categories Charlotte PhillippDecember 19, 2025 at 3:44 AM 0 Penguin Random House; Mariner Books; Bloomsbury Publishing Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Michael Koresky The National Book Critics Circle Awards longlists have arrived The organization announced its longlists in the categories of autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for books published in 2025, as the titled named for ...
- - National Book Critics Circle Announces 2025 Awards Longlist In Six Categories
Charlotte PhillippDecember 19, 2025 at 3:44 AM
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Penguin Random House; Mariner Books; Bloomsbury Publishing
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Michael Koresky -
The National Book Critics Circle Awards longlists have arrived
The organization announced its longlists in the categories of autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for books published in 2025, as the titled named for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize
"In this challenging moment for creative expression, these brilliant writers and translators give us hope for what's to come in our next half-century," NBCC President Adam Dalva said
The National Book Critics Circle Awards longlist has arrived — and the organization has announced its six major categories.
On Thursday, Dec. 18, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced its longlists in the categories of autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry for books published in 2025, as well as the titled named for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
"The NBCC is thrilled to release our longlists, which reflect a year of careful reading and passionate discussion among our board," NBCC President Adam Dalva said in a press release.
"These irresistible books help us to better see the world. They ask sharp questions and deliver unexpected answers," Dalva added on Thursday. "Most of all, we celebrate every longlisted book as a work of art."
Penguin Random House
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
The autobiography longlist includes:
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, by Margaret Atwood
The Broken King, by Michael Thomas
I'll Tell You When I'm Home, by Hala Alyan
Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks
Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy
Paper Girl, by Beth Macy
Shattered, by Hanif Kureishi
Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li
A Truce That Is Not Peace, by Miriam Toews
Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography, by Hester Kaplan
Pantheon
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore by Ashley D. Farmer
The biography longlist includes:
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, by Sam Tanenhaus
Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography, by Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys
Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, by Mayukh Sen
A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled, by Alex Green
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution, by Amanda Vaill
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, by Ashley D. Farmer
Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Claire Hoffman
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford, by Carla Kaplan
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, by Sue Prideaux
William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love, by Philip Hoare
"Last year, the National Book Critics Circle celebrated its 50th anniversary," Dalva added. "In this challenging moment for creative expression, these brilliant writers and translators give us hope for what's to come in our next half-century."
Penguin Random House
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
The criticism longlist includes:
Algorithm of the Night: Film Writing, 2019-2025, by A.S. Hamrah
Authority: Essays, by Andrea Long Chu
Dismantling the Master's Clock: On Race, Space, and Time, by Rasheedah Phillips
Erik Satie Three Piece Suite, by Ian Penman
Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue, by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
Greyhound, by Joanna Pocock
Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, by Quinn Slobodian
Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat, by Hito Steyerl
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad
To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The NBCC Awards are awarded to authors by a jury of working critics and book review editors and the organization doesn't require publishers (of which there are 42 featured in this year's longlists) to submit their works — or pay a fee.
Mickalene Thomas
The fiction longlist includes:
The Antidote, by Karen Russell
Audition, by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)
The Book of Records, by Madeleine Thien
Heart the Lover, by Lily King
Long Distance, by Ayşegül Savaş
On the Calculation of Volume (Book III), by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
Sea, Poison, by Caren Beilin
The South, by Tash Aw
We Do Not Part, by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
The Wilderness, by Angela Flournoy
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The nonfiction longlist includes:
America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, by Barbara Demick
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI, by Karen Hao
The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story, by Brandy Schillace
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation, by Scott Anderson
Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris
A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile, Aatish Taseer
Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness, by Michael Koresky
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America, by Michael Luo
Last year marked the first time the organization has ever released its longlists ahead of its award ceremony, and Dec. 16, 2024 marked the day that the first longlist was announced, for the genre of criticism.
"Revealing them allows us to honor more writers, translators and books than we ever have in a single year. The best books of 2024 were narratives of resilience, interrogation and imagination. They asked us to question power, art and genre," NBCC President Heather Scott Partington said at the time.
Copper Canyon Press
Stay Dead by Natalie Shapero
The poetry longlist includes:
After You Were, I Am, by Camille Ralphs
Chronicle of Drifting, by Yuki Tanaka
Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis
Into the Hush, by Arthur Sze
Night Watch, by Kevin Young
The Other Love, by Henri Cole
Salvage, by Hedgie Choi
small lives, by Gary Jackson
Stay Dead, by Natalie Shapero
Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba
Hogarth
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
The books nominated for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize are:
Bodies Found in Various Places, by Elvira Hernández, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky and Alec Schumacher (Poetry)
Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue, by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (Nonfiction)
Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, by Nasser Rabah, translated from the Arabic by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal and Khaled Al-Hilli (Poetry)
Heart Lamp, by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi (Fiction)
Near Distance, by Hanna Stoltenberg, translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen (Fiction)
Sad Tiger, by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer (Nonfiction)
The Frog in the Throat, by Markus Werner, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (Fiction)
The Ruins, by Ye Hui, translated from the Chinese by Dong Li (Poetry)
The Wax Child, by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken (Fiction)
Ugliness, by Moshtari Hilal, translated from the German by Elisabeth Lauffer (Nonfiction)
We Do Not Part, by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Fiction)
Wickerwork, by Christian Lehnert, translated from the German by Richard Sieburth (Poetry)
Added Partington, "At a time when the freedom to read is under attack, we're thrilled to shout these authors' names from the rooftops. We celebrate their fearlessness and artistic vision. These are vital words."
The NBCC "honors outstanding writing and fosters conversation about reading, criticism and literature," according to its website. Critics choose the winners of each of the awards — the only book awards in the country to do so.
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The finalists for the 2025 publishing year will be announced Jan. 20, 2026, and awards will be presented March 26.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: December 19, 2025 at 12:36AM on Source: ANDY MAG
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