The winners of the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award were announced last night in New York. As always with the NBCC, there were a few surprises. Those wacky book critics. (Hey, don’t look at me – I’m a book reviewer.) But unpredictability is what makes the NBCC worth watching. How much fun would it be if they just anointed the same books as everyone else?
Congratulations to Donna Seaman, by the way. Even though she’s not on the board of directors this year, her critical acumen proved prescient: she reviewed (and starred) two of six winners. Follow the links below to find out which ones.
Fiction
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai (Atlantic Monthly)
General Nonfiction
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, by Simon Schama (Ecco)
Biography
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, by Julie Phillips (St. Martin’s)
Autobiography
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn (HarperCollins)
Criticism
Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences, by Lawrence Weschler (McSweeney’s)
Poetry
Tom Thompson in Purgatory, by Troy Jollimore (Margie/Intuit House)
Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
Steven G. Kellman
Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award
John Leonard
At least Maggie and I don’t have to prepare any taunts regarding the unworthiness of each other’s favorites. I’m sure we can agree that it’s nice to see a woman writer at the top of the list.
(Although, frankly, Eggers’ book was good enough to win, too.)
March 9th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Noooooooo! Oh, the humanity!
March 10th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Thanks, Keir, for noting my starred reviews of 2 NBCC winners. Let’s also send out a good reviewing kudo to Booklist freelancer Carl Hays for starring the James Tiptree, Jr. biography.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
[…] I just posted Donna Seaman’s first-person report on the NBCC Awards on Booklist Online (”Both a Literary Marathon and a Talent Show: A Report from the National Book Critics Circle Awards“). You can tell she’s a book critic because, after dropping this tantalizing tidbit, she neglects to tell us what Dave Eggers was actually wearing: In another arresting appearance, a noticeably nervous Dave Eggers took the stage with a poised and delighted Valentino Achak Deng, the subject (and, some might argue, coauthor) of Eggers’ novel What is the What. Eggers seemed particularly chagrined by the fact that he and Deng had inadvertently dressed exactly alike. […]
March 19th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
[…] Noteworthy nominees include Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, which won the NBCC;Â Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves, which won the Costa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, which was a finalist for the NBCC; Jane Smiley’s Ten Days in the Hills, which was written by Jane Smiley; and Anne Tyler’s Digging to America. […]
April 17th, 2007 at 11:20 am
[…] I haven’t consulted Ladbrokes, but I wouldn’t bet against Kiran Desai. […]