The US National Book Critics Circle has announced its 2025 award longlists. The lists were revealed from December 15 to 19, 2025.
Since 1974, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has honored the best books published in English in the United States across six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. Finalists are nominated and selected by a 24-member jury comprised of critics and editors from the nation’s leading print and online publications. Previous winners include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013), Nicole R. Fleetwood, francine j. harris, Raven Leilani (2020), Safiya Sinclair, and Jonny Steinberg (2023). Hisham Matar and Hanif Abdurraqib won in their categories in 2024.
The 2025 longlists were announced by the organisation starting on Monday, December 15 with the following writers of African descent making the cut in their categories;
- The Wilderness, Angela Flournoy, Mariner Books / HarperCollins Publishers
- Dismantling the Master’s Clock: On Race, Space, and Time, by Rasheedah Phillips (AK Press)
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
- Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
- Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf)
- Night Watch, by Kevin Young (Knopf)
- small lives, by Gary Jackson (University of New Mexico)
- Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)
- Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon)
The finalists will be announced on March 25 before the winners are revealed in a ceremony on March 26, 2026.
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