Living Canon

National Book Critics Circle Award 1985: Complete list of winners

The 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award winners reveal a literary landscape that valued both intimate character study and expansive social examination. Leon Edel’s monumental Henry James: A Life made a remarkable sweep of the ceremony, claiming both the autobiography and biography categories—a testament to its definitive treatment of America’s greatest expatriate novelist. Meanwhile, Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist captured the fiction prize with its characteristic blend of humor and domestic complexity, announcing Tyler as a major voice in contemporary American letters just as her reputation was gaining substantial momentum.

That same year saw the NBCC awards recognize ambitious nonfiction that grappled with America’s ongoing social upheavals. J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families won the nonfiction category by weaving together the interconnected stories of three families navigating busing and school desegregation in Boston—a sprawling, deeply reported work that exemplified the best of narrative nonfiction. Louise Glück’s The Triumph of Achilles claimed the poetry prize, showcasing the classical sophistication and emotional precision that would eventually help define her as one of the most significant poets of her generation. The critics circle also honored William H. Gass’s Habitations of the Word: Essays in the criticism category, underscoring the awards’ commitment to recognizing exceptional literary essays and critical thought.

Here are the complete 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award winners across all categories:

Autobiography

Biography

Criticism

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry