Living Canon

National Book Critics Circle Award 2016: Complete list of winners

The 2016 National Book Critics Circle Awards showcased a year of remarkable diversity in American letters, with winners spanning genres from sweeping fiction to urgent social analysis. The National Book Critics Circle Award, one of the most prestigious honors given by professional book reviewers and editors, recognized work that challenged readers intellectually while speaking to the pressing concerns of our moment. Louise Erdrich’s LaRose, a multi-generational novel of Ojibwe life and grief, claimed the Fiction prize, while Matthew Desmond’s Evicted won Nonfiction for its harrowing investigation into the mechanics of poverty and displacement in American cities. These victories reflected a clear appetite among critics for narrative-driven work with serious social stakes.

The year’s selections also revealed how the circle balances literary ambition across disciplines. Ruth Franklin’s Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life took Biography with a deeply researched reassessment of the beloved author, while Carol Anderson’s White Rage won Criticism for articulating the racial anxieties underlying American political history. Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl, the Autobiography winner, brought scientific rigor and unexpected warmth to the personal essay form. Poet Ishion Hutchinson’s House of Lords and Commons completed the honors, demonstrating the year’s commitment to recognizing voices working across the full spectrum of contemporary literature. The breadth of these selections affirmed the National Book Critics Circle’s role as a bellwether for what serious readers and critics value most.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award winners across all categories.

Autobiography

Biography

Criticism

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry