The Story Circle Network has announced shortlists for the Sarton Awards and the Gilda Prize. Winners will be announced in in April. Check out the complete shortlists here.
Presented in four categories (memoir, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, nonfiction), the Sarton Awards commemorate author and poet May Sarton, "whose books are distinguished by the compelling ways they honor the lives of women." The Gilda Prize is named in honor of comedian Gilda Radner, whose memoirs "are distinguished by their fresh voices, their honesty, and their authenticity. They make us laugh (even when we want to cry)."
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The finalists in six categories for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards and the John Leonard Prize for First Book have been announced and can be seen here. In addition, the Feminist Press at the City University of New York is receiving the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award and Jo Livingstone has won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
The NBCC said that "for 50 years, the Feminist Press has been at the forefront of activism for women's equality. It started by publishing influential works that had been out of print, including, crucially, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper, now widely considered a classic of American literature. Over the years, they've published books by Anita Hill, Grace Paley, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Pussy Riot. They also publish Women's Studies Quarterly, the influential journal that was established by the press in 1972. They remain on the vanguard of the feminist movement and continue to publish essential works of American and international literature, including recent critically acclaimed books by Emily Hashimoto and Juliana Delgado Lopera, an unearthed classic by Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West, and one of this year's finalists in the NBCC's criticism category, Grieving by Cristina Rivera Garza." In yesterday's announcements, committee chair Michael Schaub added that the Feminist Press's "mission statement reads, 'Celebrating our legacy, we lift up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future,' and that's exactly what they've done. Their literature over the past five decades has made the world a better place for everyone."
Jo Livingstone is culture staff writer at the New Republic and primarily contributes book criticism in addition to film and music coverage. Livingstone's writing has also recently appeared in the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and Bookforum.
Winners of the awards will be announced and celebrated during a virtual ceremony on Thursday, March 25, at 7 p.m. Eastern.