National Book Critics Circle Award – Autobiography / Memoir

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), founded in 1974, consists of nearly 600 active book critics, authors, literary bloggers, book publishing personnel, and student members. The NBCC Awards honour the best literature published in the United States in a number of categories.

Prior to 2005, there existed a single award for Biography / Autobiography. In 2005 it was replaced by two awards: the Autobiography / Memoir Award and the Biography Award.

See the other National Book Critics Circle Awards category winners and all the other literary prize winners we list.

2023

• How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Safiya Sinclair Winner
• I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir Susan Kiyo Ito
• Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm David Mas Masumoto, with artwork by Patricia Wakida
• Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison Ahmed Naji, translation by Katharine Halls
• Story of a Poem: A Memoir Matthew Zapruder

 

2022

• Stay True: A Memoir Hua Hsu Winner
• Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes Jazmine Barrera, trans. by Christina MacSweeney
• A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast Dorthe Nors, trans. by Caroline Waight
• Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan Darryl Pinckney
• The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir Ingrid Rojas Contreras

2021

• Gay Bar: Why We Went Out Jeremy Atherton Lin Winner
• A Little Devil in America: Notes In Praise Of Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib
• A Farewell To Gabo And Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir Rodrigo Garcia
• A Ghost In the Throat Doireann Ní Ghríofa
• Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes Albert Samaha

2020

• Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning Cathy Park Hong Winner
• This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope Shayla Lawson
• Golem Girl Riva Lehrer
• The Dragons, The Giant, The Women Wayétu Moore
• Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco Alia Volz

2019 

• Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller Winner
• Five Days Gone: The Mystery of My Mother’s Disappearance as a Child by Laura Cumming
• Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
• Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

2018 

• Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home Nora Krug
• The Day That Went Missing: A Family’s Story Richard Beard
• All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir Nicole Chung
• What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood Rigoberto Gonzalez
• Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over Nell Painter
• Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover

2017

• Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China (UK title Once Upon A Time in the East) Xiaolu Guo Winner
• The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir Thi Bui
• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Roxane Gay
• Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon Henry Marsh
• The Girl From the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia, translated by Anna Summers Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

2016

• Lab girl Hope Jahren Winner
• The Iceberg Marion Coutts
• In Gratitude Jenny Diski
• The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between Hisham Matar
• The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father Kao Kalia Yang

2015

• Negroland Margo Jefferson Winner
• The Light of the World Elizabeth Alexander
• The Odd Woman and the City Vivian Gornick
• Bettyville George Hodgman
• H Is for Hawk Helen Macdonald

2014

• Can't we talk about something more pleasant? Roz Chast Winner
• The splendid things we planned: a family portrait Blake Bailey
• The other side Lacy M. Johnson
• Little failure Gary Shteyngart
• There was and there was not Meline Toumani

2013

• Farewell, Fred Voodoo: a letter from Haiti Amy Wilentz Winner
• Wave Sonali Deraniyagala
• The book of my lives Aleksandar Hemon
• The faraway nearby Rebecca Solnit
• Men we reaped Jesmyn Ward

2012

• Swimming studies Leanne Shapton Winner
• The distance between us Reyna Grande
• My poets Maureen N. McLane
• House of stone: a memoir of home, family, and a lost Middle East Anthony Shadid
• In the house of the interpreter Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

2011

• The Memory Palace Mira Bartók

2010

• Half a life Darin Strauss

2009

• Somewhere towards the end Diana Athill

2008

• My father’s paradise: a son’s search for his Jewish past in Kurdish Iraq Ariel Sabar

2007

• Brother, I'm dying Edwidge Danticat

2006

• The lost: a search for six of six million Daniel Mendelsohn

2005

• Them: a memoir of parents Francine du Plessix Gray

Before 2005, there was a single award for Biography / Autobiography.

2004

• De Kooning: an American master Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan

2003

• Khrushchev: the man and his era William Taubman

2002

• Charles Darwin: the power of place vol. 2 Janet Browne

2001

• Boswell's presumptuous task: the making of the life of Dr. Johnson Adam Sisman

2000

• Hirohito and the making of modern Japan Herbert P. Bix

1999

• The Hairstons: an American family in black and white Henry Wiencek

1998

• A beautiful mind: a biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, 1994 Sylvia Nasar

1997

• Ernie Pyle's war: America's eyewitness to World War II James Tobin

1996

• Angela's ashes Frank McCourt

1995

• Savage art: a biography of Jim Thompson Robert Polito

1994

• Shot in the heart Mikal Gilmore

1993

• Genet Edmund White

1992

• Writing dangerously: Mary McCarthy and her world Carol Brightman

1991

• Patrimony: a true story Philip Roth

1990

• Means of ascent: the years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. II Robert A. Caro