National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

2018 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Feel Free: Essays Zadie Smith

Feel Free: Essays

Zadie Smith

2017 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Trainwrecks, & Other Mixed Messages Carina Chocano

You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Trainwrecks, & Other Mixed Messages

Carina Chocano

2016 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide Carol Anderson

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

Carol Anderson

2015 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Argonauts Maggie Nelson

The Argonauts

Maggie Nelson

2014 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz Ellen Willis

The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz

Ellen Willis

2013 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Distant Reading Franco Moretti

Distant Reading

Franco Moretti

2012 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights Marina Warner

Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights

Marina Warner

2011 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews Geoff Dyer

Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews

Geoff Dyer

2010 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West Clare Cavanagh

Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West

Clare Cavanagh

2009 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Notes From No Man’s Land: American Essays Eula Biss

Notes From No Man’s Land: American Essays

Eula Biss

2008 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History: Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter Seth Lerer

Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History: Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter

Seth Lerer

2007 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century Alex Ross

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Alex Ross

2006 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences Lawrence Weschler

Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences

Lawrence Weschler

2005 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin William Logan

The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin

William Logan

2004 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet Patrick Neate

Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet

Patrick Neate

2003 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

River of Shadows Rebecca Solnit

River of Shadows

Rebecca Solnit

2002 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Tests of Time William H. Gass

Tests of Time

William H. Gass

2001 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000 Martin Amis

The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000

Martin Amis

2000 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Quarrel & Quandary Cynthia Ozick

Quarrel & Quandary

Cynthia Ozick

1999 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Selected Non-Fictions Jorge Louis Borges

Selected Non-Fictions

Jorge Louis Borges

1998 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Visions of Jazz: The First Century Gary Giddins

Visions of Jazz: The First Century

Gary Giddins

1997 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Making Waves Mario Vargas Llosa

Making Waves

Mario Vargas Llosa

1996 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Finding a Form William Gass

Finding a Form

William Gass

1995 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolution France Robert Darnton

The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolution France

Robert Darnton

1994 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Culture of Bruising Gerald Early

The Culture of Bruising

Gerald Early

1993 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Opera in America: A Cultural History John Dizikes

Opera in America: A Cultural History

John Dizikes

1992 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America Garry Wills

Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America

Garry Wills

1991 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory Lawrence L. Langer

Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory

Lawrence L. Langer

1990 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present Arthur Danto

Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present

Arthur Danto

1989 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History John Clive

Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History

John Clive

1988 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author Clifford Geertz

Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author

Clifford Geertz

1987 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Dance Writings Edwin Denby

Dance Writings

Edwin Denby

1986 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Less Than One: Selected Essays Joseph Brodsky

Less Than One: Selected Essays

Joseph Brodsky

1985 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Habitations of the Word William Gass

Habitations of the Word

William Gass

1984 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry Robert Hass

Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry

Robert Hass

1983 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism John Updike

Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism

John Updike

1982 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Second American Revolution and Other Essays, 1976-82 Gore Vidal

The Second American Revolution and Other Essays, 1976-82

Gore Vidal

1981 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

A Virgil Thomson Reader Virgil Thomson

A Virgil Thomson Reader

Virgil Thomson

1980 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Part of Nature: Modern American Poets Helen Vendler

Part of Nature: Modern American Poets

Helen Vendler

1979 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels

The Gnostic Gospels

Elaine Pagels

1978 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

Modern Art: 19th & 20th Centuries, Selected Papers Meyer Schapiro

Modern Art: 19th & 20th Centuries, Selected Papers

Meyer Schapiro

1977 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

On Photography Susan Sontag

On Photography

Susan Sontag

1976 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales Bruno Bettelheim

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

Bruno Bettelheim

1975 National Book Critics Circle Award – Criticism

The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell

The Great War and Modern Memory

Paul Fussell