
Tommy Orange. Photo by Elena Seibert.
Two books published by Minneapolis' Graywolf Press, one by Milkweed Editions and one by the University of Wisconsin Press are among the finalists for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Awards. For the second year in a row, a memoir told as a graphic novel is among the finalists. And poet Terrance Hayes has two books among the finalists -- one in poetry and one in criticism.
NBCC board members deliberated most of Saturday before choosing the finalists.The finalists were announced today, as were winners in three special categories. The winner of the John Leonard Prize for first book will go to Tommy Orange for "There There." Winner of the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing is Maureen Corrigan. And the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Arte Público Press.
Here are the finalists--five each in fiction, nonfiction, biography, poetry and criticism, and six in autobiography.
Autobiography
Beard, Richard, "The Day That Went Missing" (Little, Brown)
Chung, Nicole "All You Can Ever Know" (Catapult)
Gonzalez, Rigoberto "What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth" (University of Wisconsin Press)