Minnesotans take finalist spots in Critics Circle book awards
The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle awards were announced Tuesday morning, and multiple Minnesotans are among the honorees.
Louise Erdrich is a fiction finalist for her novel, "LaRose," and Michael Tisserand is a nonfiction finalist for his book, "Krazy," about cartoonist George Herriman. In the autobiography category, both Kao Kalia Yang and Hope Jahren are in the running.
Erdrich and Yang both live in Minnesota, where Erdrich owns the Minneapolis bookstore Birchbark Books. Jahren and Tisserand were both raised in the state, though Jahren is now a professor at the University of Hawaii and Tisserand lives in New Orleans.
Minneapolis-based publisher Graywolf Press also made the NBCC finalist list, with Monica Youn's poetry collection, "Blackacre."
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony March 16.
Autobiography
• "The Iceberg" by Marion Coutts
• "In Gratitude" by Jenny Diski
• "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren
• "The Return" by Hisham Matar
• "The Song Poet" by Kao Kalia Yang
Biography
• "Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story" by Nigel Cliff
• "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life" by Ruth Franklin
• "Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary" by Joe Jackson
• "Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White" by Michael Tisserand
• "Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey" by Frances Wilson
Criticism
• "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide" by Carol Anderson
• "Against Everything" by Mark Greif
• "Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic" by Alice Kaplan
• "The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone" by Olivia Laing
• "Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live" by Peter Orner
Fiction
• "Moonglow" by Michael Chabon
• "LaRose" by Louise Erdrich
• "Imagine Me Gone" by Adam Haslett
• "Commonwealth" by Ann Patchett
• "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith
General Nonfiction
• "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond
• "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America" by Ibram X. Kendi
• "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" by Jane Mayer
• "Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War" by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• "Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File" by John Edgar Wideman
Poetry
• "House of Lords and Commons" by Ishion Hutchinson
• "Olio" by Tyehimba Jess
• "Works and Days" by Bernadette Mayer
• "At the Foundling Hospital" by Robert Pinsky
• "Blackacre" by Monica Youn