NEW YORK ā Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein and the Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Honorary prizes are going to Judy Blume and to a longtime ally of Blume's in the fight against book bans, the American Library Association.
On Thursday, the critics circle announced nominees in seven competitive categories, ranging from fiction to debut book to best translation. Winners will be announced March 12.
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Moore is a finalist for fiction, cited for āI Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home,ā one of the few novels from an author best known for short stories. The other fiction nominees are Justin Torres' āBlackouts,ā winner of the National Book Award last fall; Teju Cole's āTremor,ā Daniel Mason's āNorth Woodsā; and Marie NDiaye's āVengeance Is Mine,ā translated from the French by Jordan Stump.
Klein's āDoppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World,ā her exploration of the Internet and the spread of misinformation, is a finalist for criticism. Also nominated were Grace E. Lavery's āPleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques,ā Tina Post's āDeadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression,ā Nicholas Dames' āThe Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Centuryā and Myriam Gurba's "Creep: Accusations and Confessions," essays by the author who became a prominent critic of the lack of diversity in publishing.
Naji, convicted in Egypt in 2016 for āviolating public modestyā in his novel āUsing Life,ā is a finalist in autobiography for āRotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison," translated by Katharine Halls. Naji's imprisonment led to international criticism and to his receiving the Freedom to Write Award from PEN America. His conviction was overturned the following year, and he left the country in 2019, eventually settling in the U.S. The other nominees are Safiya Sinclair's acclaimed memoir āHow to Say Babylon,ā Matthew Zapruder's āStory of a Poem,ā Susan Kiyo Ito's āI Would Meet You Anywhere," and David Mas Masumoto's āSecret Harvests,ā with artwork by Patricia Wakida.
In biography, the nominees were Jonathan Coe's Martin Luther King book, āKing"; Gregg Hecimovich, The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts"; Yunte Huang's āDaughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wongās Rendezvous with American Historyā; Rachel Shteir's āBetty Friedan,ā and Jonny Steinberg's āWinnie and Nelson,ā about the Mandelas.
The poetry finalists were Saskia Hamilton's āAll Souls,ā Kim Hyesoon's āPhantom Pain Wings,ā Romeo Oriogun's āThe Gathering of Bastards," Robyn Schiff's āInformation Deskā and Charif Shanahan's āTrace Evidence.ā
In translation, Kareem Abdulrahman was nominated for his translation from the Kurdish of Bachtyar Ali's āThe Last Pomegranate Tree, and Natascha Bruce for her translation from the Chinese of Dorothy Tse's āOwlish." The other finalists were Don Mee Choi's translation from the Korean of Kim Hyesoon's āPhantom Pain Wings,ā Todd Fredson's translation from the French/BĆ©tĆ© of Azo Vauguy's āZakwato & LoglĆŖdouās Peril,ā Maureen Freelyās translation from the Turkish of the late Tezer ĆzlĆ¼'s āCold Nights of Childhood" and Tiffany Tsaoās translation from the Indonesian Norman Erikson Pasaribu's āHappy Stories, Mostly."
Nominees for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, named for the late critic and co-founder of the critics circle, are Ariana Benson's āBlack Pastoral,ā Emilie Boone's āA Nimble Arc,ā Victor Heringer's āThe Love of Singular Men,ā Tahir Hamut Izgil's āWaiting to Be Arrested at Night," Donovan X. Ramsey's āWhen Crack Was Kingā and Martin J. Siegel's āJudgment and Mercy.ā
Besides Blume and the library association, honorary awards will be presented to Washington Post critic Becca Rothfield for excellence in reviewing and to Marion Winik of NPR's āAll Things Consideredā for service to the literary community.
The book critics circle, founded in 1974, consists of hundreds of reviewers and editors from around the country.