On January 31, in a virtual event produced by Wildbound Live, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced 30 finalists in six categories—autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, general nonfiction, and poetry—for the best books of 2022. In addition, finalists were announced for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, nominated by the organization’s regular members, and winners were announced for several annual prizes.

Jennifer Wilson is recipient of the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, given to a working critic. The recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award is Joy Harjo, a three-term United States Poet Laureate who “stands not only as a literary envoy for Indigenous peoples everywhere but also as the unrivaled ambassador of American poetry,” said prize committee chair Jacob M. Appel. The recipient of the second annual Toni Morrison Achievement Award, which honors institutions that have made lasting and meaningful contributions to book culture, is the San Francisco–based bookstore and independent publisher, City Lights, “[whose] impact… on American literature has been revolutionary,” said Appel.

NBCC President Megan Labrise also introduced two new awards. Named after a late NBCC board member, the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize highlights the artistic merit of literature in translation in any genre while also celebrating the hard work of translators in bringing these works to English speakers. Finalists for the prize were announced at the event. Also announced: the NBCC Service Award, “honoring extraordinary and longstanding service to the organization,” said Labrise. The inaugural recipient is Barbara Hoffert, editor of Library Journal’s Prepub Alert, who served for three years as NBCC president as well as three years as treasurer and six years as awards chair.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book review editors. The awards for publishing year 2022 will be presented on March 23, 2023, at the New School in New York City, in a ceremony that will be free and open to the public. Finalists for Publishing Year 2022 are listed below.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Jazmina Barrera, Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes, trans. by Christina McSweeney (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 Press)
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, Louis 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 University Press)
Peter Brooks, Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative (New York Review Books)
Margo Jefferson, Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir (Pantheon)
Alia Trabucco Zerán, When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold, trans. Sophie Hughes (Coffee House Press)

FICTION

Percival Everett, Dr. No (Graywolf Press)
Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII, trans. by Damion Searls (Transit Books)
Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night, trans. by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Europa Editions)
Ling Ma, Bliss Montage: Stories (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Namwali Serpell, The Furrows (Hogarth)

NONFICTION

Isaac Butler, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act (Bloomsbury)
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands (W.W. Norton)
Joseph Osmundson, Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between (W.W. Norton)
Annie Proulx, Fen, Bog, & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis (Scribner)
Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Random House)

POETRY

Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights)
Cynthia Cruz, Hotel Oblivion (Four Way Books)
David Hernandez, Hello I Must Be Going (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Paul Hlava Ceballos, banana [ ] (University of Pittsburgh Press)
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

Jessamine Chan, The School for Good Mothers (S&S/Mary Sue Rucci Books)
Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch (Knopf)
Zain Khalid, Brother Alive (Grove Atlantic)
Maud Newton, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation (Random House)
Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez (Tin House)
Vauhini Vara, The Immortal King Rao (Norton)