Tonight the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) handed out their annual literary awards at a ceremony in New York City. GalleyCat was there, live-tweeting the ceremony along with a crack team of literary Twitter writers.
The fiction award went to Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall (Holt).
The nonfiction award went to Richard Holmes for The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (Pantheon).
The autobiography award went to Diana Athill for Somewhere Towards the End (Norton).
The biography award went to Blake Bailey for Cheever: A Life (Knopf).
The criticism award went to Eula Biss for Notes From No Man’s Land: American Essays (Graywolf Press).
The poetry award went to Rae Armantrout for Versed (Wesleyan).
In addition, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award went to Joyce Carol Oates. The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing went to Joan Accocela.