The National Book Critics Circle Awards went to:
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Fiction)
The Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes (General Nonfiction)
Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey (Biography)
[all of the above correspond to directly to our compilation Best of the Best of 2009 list]
Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill (Autobiography)
Versed, by Rae Armantrout (Poetry)
Notes from No Man’s Land, Eula Biss (Criticism)
In other awards news, the NY Public Library named the finalists for their annual Young Lions Award for a fiction writer 35 or under:
Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection
Katie Kitamura, The Longshot
Philipp Meyer, American Rust
C.E. Morgan, All the Living
Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
The regional winners of the Commonwealth Prize were also named, with the overall winners to be selected on April 12:
Best First Book
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubeni, I Do Not Come to You by Chance (Nigeria)
Shandi Mitchell, Under This Unbroken Sky (Canada)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Pakistan)
Glenda Guest, Siddon Rock (Australia)
Best Book
Marie Heese, The Double Crown (South Africa)
Michael Crummey, Galore (Canada)
Rana Dasgupta, Solo (UK)
Albert Wendt, The Adventures of Vela (Samoa)