Living Canon

National Book Critics Circle Award 1979: Complete list of winners

The 1979 National Book Critics Circle Awards proved to be a landmark year for the prestigious honor, celebrating an unusually diverse range of literary achievement across multiple genres. Elaine Pagels’ groundbreaking The Gnostic Gospels took the Criticism prize, establishing itself as an essential work that would reshape how readers understood early Christian history. Thomas Flanagan’s sweeping historical novel The Year of the French claimed Fiction honors, while Telford Taylor’s Munich: The Price of Peace secured the Nonfiction award, reflecting the year’s apparent appetite for ambitious historical narratives. Poet Philip Levine received recognition for Ashes: Poems New and Old and 7 Years From Somewhere, continuing the circle’s tradition of honoring verse that speaks to contemporary experience with unflinching honesty.

What made this particular year’s selections especially compelling was how they demonstrated the breadth of the National Book Critics Circle Award’s vision—an annual recognition that has long served as a powerful indicator of literary merit beyond the more commercial appeal of other major book awards. These winners collectively illustrated how 1979’s most significant voices were grappling with history, spirituality, and language itself, each bringing scholarly rigor or imaginative power to bear on their respective disciplines. The selection showcased critics’ commitment to rewarding serious, substantive work that endured beyond mere moment-to-moment relevance.

Below you’ll find the complete list of 1979 National Book Critics Circle Award winners across all categories.

Criticism

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

  • Ashes: Poems New and Old and 7 Years From Somewhere by Philip Levine