Kiran Desai Adds National Book Critics Circle Award To Accolades

Last October, Kiran Desai, a 1994 graduate of Hollins University’s master’s program in creative writing, became the youngest woman ever to win the Man Booker Prize, second only to the Nobel Prize as the world’s most esteemed and influential award in literature.

Now, Desai has received another prestigious literary honor: the National Book Critics Circle fiction award.

The Indian-born Desai was recognized for her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss. She joins such distinguished past winners of the fiction prize as E.L. Doctorow, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, and Philip Roth. Other nominees this year were McCarthy, Richard Ford, Dave Eggers, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle features nearly 700 active book reviewers. Each year, the organization presents awards for the best book in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism. The 2006 winners were announced on March 8 at the annual NBCC Awards Ceremony in New York City.