Living Canon

National Book Critics Circle Award 1978: Complete list of winners

The 1978 National Book Critics Circle Award recognized four standout works that demonstrated the breadth of American literary achievement that year. Meyer Schapiro’s Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries (Selected Papers, Volume 2) took the Criticism prize, cementing his position as one of the most influential art historians of the era. In Fiction, John Cheever’s The Stories of John Cheever claimed the award—a remarkable achievement that honored a writer who had spent decades perfecting the craft of short fiction in the pages of The New Yorker and beyond. The circle’s recognition of these works reflected their ongoing commitment to celebrating both the popular and the scholarly, the innovative and the refined.

What made 1978 particularly interesting was the diversity represented across all four categories. Maureen Howard won the Nonfiction award for Facts of Life, a deeply personal exploration of family and mortality that showcased the power of memoir-like narrative in nonfiction. Meanwhile, L. E. Sissman’s Hello, Darkness: The Collected Poems of L. E. Sissman captured the Poetry prize, bringing attention to a poet whose elegant, accessible verse had earned him a devoted if somewhat overlooked readership. The National Book Critics Circle Award, now in its mature years as one of America’s most prestigious literary honors, continued its tradition of highlighting excellence across genres while occasionally elevating voices that might otherwise have been overshadowed by blockbuster releases.

The complete list of 1978 National Book Critics Circle Award winners follows:

Criticism

  • Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries (Selected Papers, Volume 2) by Meyer Schapiro

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry