National Book Critics Circle Award

The National Book Critics Circle Award is a group of literary prizes. Awards are given every year for six kinds of books: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
The National Book Critics Circle was started in 1974. The purpose of the group is to praise very good writing and to make "a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature."
The members of the National Book Critics Circle are all professional book critics, people who read, think, and write about books for a living. They choose the winning books each year in the month of March. They also award an outstanding member of the group each year. Achievement awards are given "to individuals and literary institutions" for very good long-term work.