The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced the finalists for its 2016 awards. Canadian author and 1961 Woodrow Wilson Fellow Margaret Atwood will receive the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. The NBCC said of Ms. Atwood: “Her lifetime contribution to letters and book culture includes groundbreaking fiction, environmental and feminist activism, and service to community as a cofounder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Her books have received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, and her native Canada, and she has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice.”

Two WW Fellows were among the 30 finalists for best books published in 2016. Mark Greif MN ’00 is a finalist in criticism for his essay collection, Against Everything, and Robert Pinsky WF ’62 is a finalist in poetry for his latest work At the Foundling Hospital.

The NBCC Awards, initiated in 1975, are the only prizes given by a jury of working critics and book-review editors. The 2016 awards will be presented on March 16, 2017 at a free public event at the New School in New York City.