National Book Critics Circle Award 1975: Complete list of winners

The National Book Critics Circle Award has long served as one of the literary world’s most respected honors, celebrating excellence across multiple genres and recognizing works that resonate with the most discerning readers and critics. The 1975 National Book Critics Circle Award winners represent a particularly strong year, with selections that would go on to define their respective categories and influence American letters for decades to come. From John Ashbery’s obtuse and bracingly original Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror to E. L. Doctorow’s inventive Ragtime, these choices showcase the award’s commitment to rewarding both innovation and literary substance.

This was a vintage year across all categories. Paul Fussell’s groundbreaking The Great War and Modern Memory claimed the criticism prize with its ambitious exploration of how World War I reshaped cultural consciousness, while R. W. B. Lewis’s monumental Edith Wharton: A Biography earned recognition in nonfiction for its meticulous scholarship and sympathetic portrayal of the novelist. What makes the 1975 National Book Critics Circle Award selections particularly noteworthy is how they demonstrate the organization’s expansive view of what constitutes serious literature—whether that’s Ashbery’s challenging verses, Doctorow’s genre-blending narrative, or the intimate cultural history that Fussell and Lewis brought to their respective fields. Each winner offered something essential to American readers in that moment.

Below, discover the complete list of 1975 NBCC Award winners and finalists across all categories:

Criticism

• The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell

Fiction

• Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

Nonfiction

• Edith Wharton: A Biography by R. W. B. Lewis

Poetry

• Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery