NBCC Awards Submission Process and Contact List for 2012 Books
Each year the National Book Critics Circle selects awards in six categories: Fiction, General Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. The members of the NBCC Board of Directors are directly responsible for nominating books to be considered for each category. Any title that is championed by a particular board member is placed on a master list for consideration by other board members. Based on those recommendations, the NBCC will request copies of those books to be sent by publishers to the entire board for group discussion.
From time to time, an NBCC board members may contact you to request a single copy of a book for consideration and evaluation. Please respond to such requests quickly, as it will give the board member time to evaluate the book and possibly advocate on its behalf.
Books published in English (including translations) in the United States with pub dates within 2012 will be considered. It is essential that the board receive the books as early in the year as possible to allow time to consider all titles. If you have been contacted to submit a title to the NBCC, please expedite the request as soon as possible so they can be part of the board's active, ongoing discussion. The absolute deadline for the 2012 awards is December 1, 2012. But please send requested titles as soon as you have stock available. Finalists will be announced in January 2013.
Publishers are welcome to bring books to the board's attention. If you feel there are books on your list that the NBCC board shouldn't miss, you should notify board members at your earliest convenience. A list of e-mails of directors can be found by clicking “Board” on the website menu above.
Board Members
Eric Banks, NBCC President
Freelance Writer/Critic
57 Grand Street
Apt. 4
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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A Brooklyn-based writer and critic, Eric Banks is the former editor of Bookforum and senior editor of Artforum. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2014.
Mark Athitakis, NBCC VP/Online
Freelance critic
6317 Jason St.
Cheverly, MD 20785
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Mark Athitakis’ reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, Kirkus Reviews, and numerous other publications. He is a contributor to The Salon.com Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors (2000), a co-writer of The Dumbest Moments in Business History: Useless Products, Ruinous Deals, Clueless Bosses, and Other Signs of Unintelligent Life in the Workplace (2004), and has spoken at events hosted by American Independent Writers, the Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Book Critics Circle. Since 2008 he has operated the literary blog American Fiction Notes (http://www.markathitakis.com), where he writes regularly on books, criticism, and publishing. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
David Biespiel, NBCC VP/Newswire
Director, Attic Institute
4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Portland, Oregon 97215
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David Biespiel is the author of a half dozen books, most recently The Book of Men and Women and Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces. He is a contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Parnassus, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, and The New Republic, and he is the former editor of Poetry Northwest. He has been honored with a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, a Lannan Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature. In 1999, in Portland, Oregon, he founded the literary studio The Attic: A Haven for Writers. In 2003, he became the poetry columnist for The Oregonian. His column is the longest running newspaper column on poetry in the United States. Since 2008, he has been a regular contributor to Politico. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
Rigoberto González, NBCC VP/Treasurer
El Paso Times
104-60 Queens Blvd #8-R
Forest Hills, NY 11375
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Rigoberto González, author of eight books and recipient of both Guggenheim and NEA grants, reviews for the El Paso Times twice a month and is currently teaching at the MFA writing program of Rutgers—Newark, the State University of New Jersey. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2012.
Barbara Hoffert, NBCC VP/Awards and Media Contact
Library Journal
Library Journal
160 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
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Barbara Hoffert is Editor of Library Journal’s book review, which publishes 6000 reviews annually. She assigns fiction and poetry reviews for the magazine and is also responsible for the magazine’s popular Prepub Alert column, which previews major releases four months in advance of publication. She was president of the National Book Critics Circle for three years, having been the board member for six years, and was chair of the Materials Selection Committee of the RUSA (Reference and User Services Assn.) division of the American Library Association. IN 2006, She won ALA-RUSA’s Louis Shores’ Greenwood Publishing Group award for excellence in reviewing. Her current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
Steven G. Kellman, NBCC VP/Membership
Freelance Critic
302 Fawn Drive
San Antonio, TX
78231-1519
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Steven G. Kellman was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing in 2007. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including the Texas Observer, Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffingtonpost.com, Chicago Tribune, Review of Contemporary Fiction, the Believer, Bookforum, and Georgia Review. His books include Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth (Norton, 2005), The Translingual Imagination (Nebraska, 2000), Loving Reading: Erotics of the Text (Archon, 1985), and The Self-Begetting Novel (Columbia, 1980). Kellman is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He served two previous terms on the board of the NBCC, from 1996-2002. His current term runs until 2012.
Carolyn Kellogg, NBCC VP/Technology
LA Times
730 1/2 East Edgeware Rd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
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Carolyn Kellogg is staff writer at the L.A. Times where she writes reviews, features, covers the publishing industry and maintains the award-winning book blog, Jacket Copy. Her reviews have appeared in other publications, including Bookforum and the Columbia Journalism Review. She can be found on Twitter @paperhaus. Her current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
Karen Long, NBCC VP/Secretary
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
3114 Berkshire Rd.
Cleveland Heights, OH
44118
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Karen R. Long has served as the book editor at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland since February 2005. She is responsible for directing the paper’s book coverage, writing stories and weekly reviews. She has covered science, religion and medicine for The Plain Dealer, and worked as one of its investigative reporters. In 2002, the Associated Press named her the best feature writer in Ohio, and in 2006 she won the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism award for best magazine profile. She is the mother of three children. Her NBCC term expires in 2012.
Alex Abramovich
6016 Hillegass Avenue
Oakland CA 94618
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Alex Abramovich has worked and/or written for The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, Bookforum, The New York Times and other publications. He lives in Oakland, California and Astoria, Queens.
Colette Bancroft
St. Petersburg Times
490 First Ave. S
St. Petersburg FL 33701
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Colette Bancroft’s current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
Gregg Barrios
Freelance Writer/Critic
304 E Courtland Pl
San Antonio, TX 78212
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Gregg Barrios is a book critic, journalist and playwright. His reviews and features have appeared in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Texas Observer, LA Weekly, NPR and the Huffington Post. He is a former book editor of the San Antonio Express-News. He is the author of four books of poetry and is a published playwright. He is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant, a Sandra Cisneros - Macondo Foundation Grant, several NEH fellowships, and a CTG-Mark Taper Theater Fellowship. His term on the board ends in 2013.
Stephen Burt
Harvard University
Dept of English
Barker Center
12 Quincy St
Cambridge MA 02138
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Stephen Burt’s current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
David Haglund
Slate
Slate.com
95 Morton Street
4th Floor
New York, NY 10014
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David Haglund is the editor of Brow Beat, Slate’s culture blog. He is also the poetry editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. He was formerly managing editor of PEN America, the literary magazine published by PEN American Center, and has taught literature and writing at Harvard, Oxford, and Hunter College. He contributes regularly to Bookforum and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The London Review of Books, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Observer, The Believer, and other publications. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2013.
Michael Miller
Bookforum
Bookforum
350 Seventh Avenue, 19th Fl
NY NY 10001
New York, NY 10001
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Michael Miller has held positions at the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Spin Magazine, and Time Out New York, where he was the literary editor and lead book critic from 2005 until 2010. He is currently an editor at Bookforum, where he commissions essays and reviews about fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism. He also co-edits the magazine’s website. His writing has appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Bookforum, the Believer, the Texas Observer, and Post Road. His term on the board ends in 2015.
Benjamin Moser
Postbus 366
3500 AJ Utrecht,
Netherlands
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Benjamin Moser is a Contributing Editor to Harper’s Magazine and a regular contributor to publications in the United States, Brazil, and the Netherlands. He has published translations from the Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese and is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a 2010 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2014.
Laurie Muchnick
Bloomberg News
731 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
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Laurie Muchnick is book editor at Bloomberg News. She’s also been the book editor of Newsday and an editor at the Village Voice Literary Supplement. Her current term on the NBCC board ends in 2012.
Megan OGrady
Vogue Magazine
Not currently available.
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Megan O’Grady is a Contributing Editor at Vogue Magazine, where she writes about books. She was the 2012 Arts and Culture Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Her term on the board ends in 2015.
John Reed
The Brooklyn Rail
John Reed c/o
P.O. Box 1526
Radio City Station
NY NY 10101-1526
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Published in Open City, Popmatters, Brooklyn Rail, Artnet, Artforum, Paper Magazine, New York Press, Time Out New York, BOMB Magazine, Art in America, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy and many other venues; author of the novels, A STILL SMALL VOICE (Delacorte), THE WHOLE (MTV Books), the 2004 bestseller, SNOWBALL’S CHANCE (Roof), the play ALL THE WORLD’S A GRAVE: A NEW PLAY BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Plume), and the recently released TALES OF WOE (MTV Press); MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University; faculty in Creative Writing at New School University and Columbia University. His term on the board ends in 2015.
Susan Shapiro
60 East 8th Street #5K
New York, NY 10003
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Susan Shapiro is the author of 8 books, including the memoirs “Lighting Up,” “Five Men Who Broke My Heart” and “Only As Good as Your Word.” Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Salon and Daily Beast. She’s won distinguished teaching awards at NYU and the New School, where she currently teaches journalism. Her current term on the NBCC board ends in 2014.
Elizabeth Taylor
Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
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Elizabeth Taylor is the books editor of the Chicago Tribune. Her current term on the NBCC board ends in 2014.
David L. Ulin
LA Times
1089 South Genesee Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90019
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David L. Ulin is book critic, and former book editor, of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author, most recently, of “The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time.” His current term on the NBCC board ends in 2014.
Marcela Valdes
Publishers Weekly
922 Jackson Street
Annapolis MD 21403
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Marcela Valdes received the Roger Shattuck Award for Criticism from the Center for Fiction in 2010. She is the book editor of The Washington Examiner and a contributing editor for Publishers Weekly. Her work also appears regularly in The Nation and The Washington Post, among other publications. In 2009-2010 she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Her website is: http://www.marcelavaldes.com Her current term on the board ends in 2014.
Oscar Villalon
3643 25th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110.
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Oscar Villalon is the managing editor at ZYZZYVA. The former book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, his reviews and essays have appeared in VQR, Black Clock, the Believer, NPR.org, the Los Angeles Times, and the Rumpus.net, among other places. He and his family live in San Francisco. His current term on the board ends in 2014.
Eric Miles Williamson
3913 Martin Avenue
McAllen, TX 78504
Eric Miles Williamson is author of three novels, three books of criticism, and a short story collection. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The Houston Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many other venues. The French magazine, Transfuge, recently cited Williamson as one of the “Twelve Great Authors of the World.” He currently teaches at the University of Texas, Pan-American, a dozen miles north of the Rio Grande. His current term on the board ends in 2014.