Writing alums Karen Russell '06 and Henri Cole '82 have earned the distinction of finalists for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards. Russell was honored in the Fiction category for her novel The Antidote, published by Knopf. The new American epic follows Nebraskan homesteaders during the Dust Bowl. Cole will compete for the Poetry title with his book The Other Love, an elegy for complicated, hopeful love in an aging body published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Forty two books were shortlisted in six categories and two named prizes, including Poetry and Fiction but also the Barrios Book in Translation Prize and the John Leonard Prize for a debut.
"Each of these books is an artistic achievement. They interrogate the lives we lead, broaden our creative and social horizons, move us, and continually surprise us. Especially in this difficult time, every one of these writers and translators deserves to be celebrated—and to be widely read," said National Book Critics Circle President Adam Dalva.
The Fiction list "comprises exquisite ontological works of memory, interdependence, trauma, and power that ask us to contemplate what we inherit and what we owe," said critic Heather Scott Partington.
Associate Professor and Head of the Fiction Concentration Victor LaValle '98 reviewed The Antidote for The New York Times. "Who gets to enjoy the bounty of America? It’s an old question, but one that proves evergreen in our history," he wrote. "Russell’s ambitious and exciting novel, like all good historical fiction, makes a powerful case for never forgetting. Erasure is a form of combat, but so is remembering."
The poetry finalists "represent the summit of contemporary achievement in the genre," said poet David Woo.
"The collection reveals a new edge to Cole’s voice—composed, taut with nerves, but tempered with wisdom—that confers the poems an added layer of authority," said Publishers Weekly in its review of The Other Love, "'Since we don’t know if we live beyond this life,/ let’s give ourselves to loving.' These are exemplary lyrics of witness."
The winners will be named on March 26 at 6:30 PM in a ceremony open to the public at the New School Auditorium and on livestream. The finalists, including alums Russell and Cole, will read selections from their work on March 25 at 6:30 PM, also at the New School Auditorium and on livestream. Celebrate the achievements of our alums and follow our coverage of awards season.
