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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Biography

2025 LONGLIST BIOGRAPHY
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House)
Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography, by Gregory Jusdanis and Peter Jeffreys (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, by Mayukh Sen (W.W Norton)
A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled, by Alex Green (Bellevue Literary Press)
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution, by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon)
Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Claire Hoffman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford, by Carla Kaplan (Harper)
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, by Sue Prideaux (W. W. Norton)
William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love, by Philip Hoare (Pegasus Books)

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

We are so thrilled to share our 2025 NBCC Fiction Longlist! Congratulations to these authors, and thank you for your work!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

Ilana Masad @ilanaslightly.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Incredibly grateful for this wonderful review of BEINGS by @hspartington.bsky.social at @altajournal.bsky.social. Such a joy and privilege to be read so lovingly <3. www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

altaonline.com

Out of the Archives

In her sophomore novel, Beings, Ilana Masad weaves three compelling narratives about trust and belief.

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Come see us at the @bookcritics.bsky.social booth at #AWP25! We have 50th anniversary stickers!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

NBCC President @hspartington.bsky.social: “Never has there been a more urgent need for criticism, for free speech, for writing that questions, talks back to, and interprets other writing.” #NBCCAwards

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

NBCC President @hspartington.bsky.social: “The National Book Critics Circle affirms the right of every person to see themselves reflected in books. As the NBCC moves into our next chapter, we stand with the organizations fighting to protect our rights to write and read.” #NBCCAwards

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Livestream the NBCC Awards tonight at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT, or join us in person at the New School, 66 w 12th st, New York! Free tickets still available!

youtube.com

National Book Critics Circle Awards Ceremony for Books Published in 2024

YouTube video by National Book Critics Circle

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

NYC friends, we'd love to see you at the ceremony in person this evening! We have tickets available, so feel free to drop by The New School Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street—the ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. Eastern!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Tickets are still available for the NBCC Finalists' Reading (3/19, 6:30 PM ET), NBCC Awards (3/20, 6:30 PM ET), and NBCC Awards Reception (3/20, 8:30 PM ET). All events are at the New School in New York. wildboundlive.com/events/nbcc2025

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Tickets for the NBCC Awards are still available, but the reception will sell out soon. Reserve yours now!

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

The @bookcritics.bsky.social Emerging Critics Fellowship gave me a community when I was a new critic. It put me in the room with some of literature's most brilliant minds and it gave me the confidence I needed to write with authority. Please apply! nbcc.submittable.com.

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Statement on the Trump Administration’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Americans:

On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both.

Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices.

If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund.

Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically.

This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history.

Sincerely, the undersigned,

American Booksellers Association
American Booksellers for Free Expression
Andrews McMeel
Annie's Foundation
Audio Publishers Association
Authors Against Book Bans
Berry Powell Press
Cardinal Rule Press
Charlesbridge Publishing
Chestnut Publishing House
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz
Developmental Texts
Empowering Latino Futures
EveryLibrary
Firewater Media Group
Florida Freedom to Read Project
Foreword Reviews
Freedom to Read Project
Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC
Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)
IngramSpark
Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore
Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship
Lambda Literary
Latino 247 Media Group
Lee Wind, author
Levine Querido
Library Futures
Livingston Parish Library Alliance
Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
The National Book Critics Circle
National Coalition Against Censorship
NorthSouth Books
Nosy Crow
Patagonia
Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County
PEN America
PFLAG Fresno
PubWest
Rattling Good Yarns Press
Read Freely Alabama
Red Comet Press LLC
Rutherford County Library Alliance
Sara Paretsky, Writer
SCBWI
SEAT
SparkPoint Studio
St Tammany Library Alliance
Stone Bridge Press
Texas Freedom to Read Project
Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing
We Need Diverse Books

Logos of the organizations that have signed the statement.

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We hope you’ll join us at our finalists reading on March 19 and awards ceremony on March 20!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We want to extend our deepest thanks to our friends who have made all of this possible: Wildbound PR, The New School, Purslane, Curious Elixirs, Brooklyn Brewery, Foley Family Wines and Spirits, Morgenstern Books, and Arader Galleries.

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Congratulations to all of our finalists and winners! www.bookcritics.org/2025/01/23/n...

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We’re excited to announce that in honor of our 50th anniversary, we’ll be joined at the NBCC Awards ceremony by Maxine Hong Kingston!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Congratulations to Sandra Cisneros, the winner of the 2024 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Congratulations to @thirdworldpress.bsky.social, the winner of the 2024 Toni Morrison Achievement Award!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Congratulations to Lauren Michele Jackson, the winner of the 2024 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Congratulations to Lori Lynn Turner, the winner of the 2024 NBCC Service Award!

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 John Leonard Prize, given to an outstanding first book in any genre, are By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle (Harper), Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham (Hogarth), Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen (St. Martin’s), Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok (Yale University), and When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize are The Children of the Ghetto: Star of the Sea by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies (Archipelago), Fiction, Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions), Fiction, A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translated from the Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper (Penguin Classics), Nonfiction, Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden (Open Letter), Fiction, O by Judith Kiros, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson (World Poetry), Poetry, and Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger (Transit), Nonfiction.

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Nonfiction! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Nonfiction are The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll (Penguin Press), Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader), The Freaks Came Out To Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano (PublicAffairs), Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson (St. Martin’s), and We’re Alone by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Fiction! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Fiction are Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Godwin by Joseph O'Neill (Pantheon), James by Percival Everett (Doubleday), My Friends by Hisham Matar (Random House), and Us Fools by Nora Lange (Two Dollar Radio).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Criticism! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Criticism are Black Meme: A History of the Images that Make Us by Legacy Russell (Verso), The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War by Jesse McCarthy (University of Chicago), Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today by Claire Bishop (Verso), Intervals by Marianne Brooker (Fitzcarraldo), and There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Biography! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Biography are Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below by Jane Kamensky (W. W. Norton), Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers by Jean Strouse (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles (Penguin Press), and The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker by Amy Reading (Mariner).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Autobiography! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Autobiography are The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History by Manjula Martin (Pantheon), Little Seed by Wei Tchou (Deep Vellum), The Minotaur at Calle Lanza by Zito Madu (Belt), Mother Archive: A Dominican Family Memoir by Erika Morillo (University of Iowa), and Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny, translated from the Russian by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel (Knopf).

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Reposted by Heather Scott Partington

National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

And that's a wrap for our longlists! Stay tuned for our shortlist reveal on Jan. 23. Thanks so much for reading!

The 50th anniversary of the National Book Critics Circle.

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

And the grand finale of our @bookcritics.bsky.social longlists, the Barrios Book in Translation Prize. Congrats to these authors and translators. Well done to VP/Barrios @recycledgiraffe.bsky.social and to the Barrios committee!

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Congratulations to all of these amazing poets! Great job to chair @davidwoo.bsky.social and the Poetry committee.

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Congrats to these phenomenal writers! Great work @jolivingstone.bsky.social and the Nonfiction committee!

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May-lee Chai (she/her) @mayleechai.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

As chair of the NBCC Autobiography Award Committee, I’m thrilled to announce our longlist. It’s been a great year in autobiography, and every one of these books tells a vital and interesting personal story in a unique and innovative manner. 👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥

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Rebecca Morgan Frank @poetmorgan.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Hello fiction longlist! Our second list dropping today from @bookcritics.bsky.social!

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Another great list! Check out the NBCC Biography Longlist. Congratulations to these authors! Well done to Elizabeth Taylor and the Bio committee!

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Congratulations to these phenomenal writers! Well done to Autobiography’s awesome chair @mayleechai.bsky.social! It was a pleasure to serve on this committee.

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Let's announce some more longlists! Up today from @bookcritics.bsky.social: Autobiography Longlist at 10:00 AM Eastern & Biography Longlist at 2:00 PM Eastern

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Miss the first two NBCC Longlists? Read about Criticism here: people.com/national-boo...

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Congratulations to this amazing list of fiction writers. Well done to our fiction committee and excellent Fiction chair David Varno.

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Heather Scott Partington @hspartington.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

The National Book Critics Circle is thrilled to announce our longlists for the first time ever! Up first: Criticism!

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