Matthew Desmond took the nonfiction prize for his book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," published by Crown, and Louise Erdrich won the fiction award for her novel "LaRose," published by Harper, at the National Book Critics Circle Awards in New York on Thursday night.
The National Book Critics Circle presents awards in six categories _ fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, autobiography and criticism. It's one of the few book awards that includes the genre of criticism with the more standard categories.
This year's criticism award went to Carol Anderson for "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide," published by Bloomsbury.
The prize for poetry was awarded to Ishion Hutchinson for "House of Lords and Commons," published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The prize for autobiography went to Hope Jahren for her memoir "Lab Girl," published by Knopf.
The prize for biography went to Ruth Franklin for "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life," published by Liveright.
The books are selected by the 24-member board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, which is made up of more than 500 member critics nationwide.
