[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for this post.] The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced its award finalists for books published in 2017. The finalists include Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat for The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story (Graywolf) in the category of Criticism, and Roxane Gay (also of Haitian descent) for Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Harper) in the category of Autobiography.

Meanwhile, Carmen Maria Machado (of Cuban heritage) will be the recipient of the NBCC’s fourth annual John Leonard Prize, established to recognize outstanding first books in any genre, for her debut story collection Her Body and Other Parties (Graywolf).

Winners of the National Book Critics Circle awards will be announced on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 6:30pm at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, New York, NY. A finalists’ reading will be held on March 14 at 6:30 pm in the same location. Both events are free and open to the public.

For the full announcement of finalists, go to http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-finalists-for-2017-awards.