Carly Tagen-Dye is the Books editorial assistant at PEOPLE, where she writes for both print and digital platforms.
The National Book Critics Circle Awards Biography longlist is now available.
On Dec. 17, the organization shared their first-ever longlist for the genre. From Dec. 16 to Dec. 19, the organization will share six longlists for fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry and criticism published in the United States, in honor of the NBCC's 50th anniversary.
The NBCC longlist for Biography includes:
The NBCC Award, which is the nation's only literary prize chosen directly by book critics, "honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature," per the organization's mission statement. The organization also annually awards the John Lenoard Prize, for the best debut book across any genre and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
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"The NBCC is proud to release our longlists for the first time in our 50-year history," said NBCC President Heather Scott Partington in a Dec. 16 announcement. "Revealing them allows us to honor more writers, translators and books than we ever have in a single year. The best books of 2024 were narratives of resilience, interrogation and imagination. They asked us to question power, art and genre."
"At a time when the freedom to read is under attack, we're thrilled to shout these authors' names from the rooftops," Partington added. "We celebrate their fearlessness and artistic vision. These are vital words."