• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register
Publishers Lunch logo Publishers Lunch logo
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help
Login Sign Up
  • Personnel
  • AI
  • Compensation
  • Unions
  • Book Bans
  • New Releases
  • Earnings
  • The Trial
  • Archives
Publishers Lunch logo
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help
  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

January 20, 2026By Erin Somers

NBCC Shortlists

January 20, 2026By Erin Somers

The National Book Critics Circle announced its shortlists, with the winners to be named on March 26. Frances FitzGerald will receive the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award; Rhoda Feng will receive the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing; and Elizabeth Taylor will receive the NBCC Service Award.

Autobiography
Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy (Scribner)
Paper Girl, by Beth Macy (Penguin Press)
Shattered, by Hanif Kureishi (Ecco)
A Truce That Is Not Peace, by Miriam Toews (Bloomsbury)

Biography
Love, Queenie, by Mayukh Sen (Norton)
A Perfect Turmoil, by Alex Green (Bellevue Literary Press)
Pride and Pleasure, by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Queen Mother, by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon)
Troublemaker, by Carla Kaplan (Harper)

Criticism
Exophony, by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions)
Greyhound, by Joanna Pocock (Soft Skull Press)
Hayek’s Bastards, by Quinn Slobodian (Zone Books)
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
To Save and to Destroy, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Harvard University Press)

Fiction
The Antidote, by Karen Russell (Knopf)
Audition, by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)
On the Calculation of Volume (Book III), by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions)
We Do Not Part, by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)
The Wilderness, by Angela Flournoy (Mariner)

Nonfiction
America, América, by Greg Grandin (Penguin Press)
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove, by Barbara Demick (Random House)
Empire of AI, by Karen Hao (Penguin Press)
King of Kings, by Scott Anderson (Doubleday)
No More Tears, by Gardiner Harris (Random House)

Poetry
Chronicle of Drifting, by Yuki Tanaka (Copper Canyon)
Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf)
Night Watch, by Kevin Young (Knopf)
The Other Love, by Henri Cole (FSG)
Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)

Barrios Book In Translation Prize
Exophony, by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions)
Heart Lamp, by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories)
Near Distance, by Hanna Stoltenberg, translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen (Biblioasis)
Sad Tiger, by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer (Seven Stories)
The Frog in the Throat, by Markus Werner, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (NYRB Classics)
The Wax Child, by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken (New Directions)

John Leonard Prize
Baldwin, by Nicholas Boggs (FSG)
Crown, by Evanthia Bromiley (Grove)
Hunchback, by Saou Ichikawa, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton (Hogarth)
Mood Machine, by Liz Pelly (Atria/One Signal)
Salvage, by Hedgie Choi (University of Wisconsin Press)
The Slip, by Lucas Schaefer (Simon & Schuster)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login

Forgot Password Quick Pass User Login
Get Full Access
The Publishing Industry’s Essential Daily Read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • 'Murder Bimbo' Galleys Landed Close To Charlie Kirk's Death. Here's how S&S responded. February 11, 2026 NYT
  • Women's Prize Announces Nonfiction Longlist February 11, 2026 Award Website
  • How Transit Books Weathered The Turbulent Landscape of the Past Few Years February 10, 2026 Washington Post
  • Walter Dean Myers Award Winners February 10, 2026 Award Site
  • Becca Rothfeld on the Death of Wapo's Book World February 10, 2026 The New Yorker
  • James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize Longlist February 9, 2026 Bookshop
  • The UK's Nonfiction Sales Crisis February 9, 2026 The Times
  • "AI Evangelist" Coral Hart Used Chatbots to Create "Dozens of Novels" February 9, 2026 NYT
  • Zando Announces Residency at New York's Salmagundi Club February 6, 2026 Press Release
  • Publishers Respond to Google's Opposition in Class Action Infringement Suit February 6, 2026 AAP
Publishers Marketplace logo

Contact Us

News

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Report News
  • Discuss
  • Classifieds
  • Rights Offerings

Deals

  • Report A Deal

Books

  • Buzz Books

Jobs

  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy Terms of Use