The NBCC awards the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing each year to recognize outstanding work by a member of the NBCC. Since 2012, the Balakian carries with it a $1,000 cash prize, thanks to a generous donation by former NBCC board member Gregg Barrios. Past winners include last year's winner, Michelle Dean (at left), Ron Charles, Parul Sehgal, Carlos Lozada, Kathryn Schulz, Katherine A. Powers and William Deresiewicz.
The NBCC awards the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing each year to recognize outstanding work by a member of the NBCC. The citation is awarded in honor of Nona Balakian, a founding member of the National Book Critics Circle, where she served as the board’s first secretary. The eminent critic and longtime editor at the New York Times Book Review also served on the Pulitzer Prize committee, the Board of Directors of PEN, and the Authors Guild board, was the author of Critical Encounters: Essays (1978), and co-author (with Charles Simmons) of The Creative Present (1969).
2017 Submission Guidelines
You must be a member of the NBCC to be considered. If you are not a member, you can join online before December 17, 2017 in order to be eligible for the award. All submitted reviews must have been published in 2017.
2017 Submission Procedures
Submissions must be made by email. Emails must be time stamped no later than midnight (PST) Sunday, December 17, 2017. All submissions must be transmitted electronically by email.
What to submit via email: Send up to five book reviews (all published in 2017) of no more than 5,000 words collectively. The total word count for the submissions must not exceed 5,000, or the entire submission is disqualified from consideration for the award. In your email, include a note listing the venue; title and word count of each piece submitted.
Please attach PDFs or screenshots of your book reviews as they appeared online or in print. Also, provide a link if available online. A link alone is not sufficient as some venues have paywalls. Please make a print backup of your submission. In other words, make sure you have one print copy of each book review, preferably the published version. If there is a problem with your electronic online submission, you may be asked to submit a print version.
For questions about the award and submission process, e-mail the Balakian Committee chair, Katherine A. Powers. Email: kapow3@gmail.com
Further guidelines and procedures for submissions, plus a list of committee members' emails for submissions and all previous winners are here.