Arundhati Roy Wins the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography

Arundhati Roy has been awarded the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award for Autobiography, a recognition that underscores both the literary power and political resonance of her work. Long celebrated for her fiction and essays, Roy turns inward in this memoir, crafting a narrative that is as intimate as it is expansive, interweaving personal memory with broader questions of nationhood, dissent, and belonging.

Mother Mary Comes to Me captures not just the story of an individual life, but the making of a writer shaped by history, activism, and a relentless engagement with the world around her. Themes of identity, resistance, and the body—both personal and political—run through the narrative, giving it a layered and urgent texture.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards, among the most respected literary honours in the United States, are decided by critics and reviewers, making them a significant marker of critical acclaim. Roy’s win places her alongside a distinguished list of global writers. It reaffirms her position as one of the most vital literary voices of her generation—one who continues to challenge, provoke, and redefine the possibilities of narrative.

List of Winners in Other Categories

1, Biography: A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America’s Disabled by Alex Green

2. Criticism: Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right by Quinn Slobodian (Zone Books)

3. Fiction: We Do Not Part by Han Kang (translated from Korean by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris)

4. Nonfiction: Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao

5. Poetry: Night Watch by Kevin Young (Knopf)

6. Barrios Book in Translation Prize: Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno (translated from French by Natasha Lehrer)

7. John Leonard Prize: Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) (Nonfiction)

8. NBCC Service Award: Elizabeth Taylor

9. Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing: Rhoda Feng

10. Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award: Frances FitzGerald

11. Toni Morrison Achievement Award: PBS and NPR