award season

The National Book Critics Circle has announced its 31 finalists in six categories — autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry — for the outstanding books of 2018. The finalists in poetry are:

• Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Books)
• Ada Limón, The Carrying (Milkweed)
• Erika Meitner, Holy Moly Carry Me (BOA Editions)
• Diane Seuss, Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (Graywolf Press)
• Adam Zagajewski, Asymmetry. Translated by Clare Cavanagh (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Terrance Hayes was also listed as a finalist in the Criticism category, for To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight (Wave).

The National Book Critics Circle Awards, begun in 1974 and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book-review editors. The awards will be presented on March 14, 2019 at a free public event held at the New School in New York City. See the complete list of finalists in all categories here.