When I arrived a few minutes early to Housing Works for the National Book Critics Circle's annual bash to announce their award finalists, I figured - like most parties - there would be a few stragglers and the food & drink stations wouldn't even be fully set up yet. Guess again. Already packed, within ten minutes the bookstore was fully SRO, and it was impossible to move a square inch without bumping into one notable critic after another. Amy Bloom (left, pictured with independent publicist Kimberly Burns and PW's Charlotte Abbott) was on hand to announce the fiction finalists, which was met with the usual mix of positive responses and grumbling undertone. Francine Duplessis Gray, in announcing the memoir/autobiography category, remarked that this category honored those with a penchant for self-indulgence, while Eliot Weinberger cracked that the criticism category was "the most prestigious for the most contentious." The greatest round of applause was reserved for Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME, one of two books (the other Michael Pollan's AN OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA) voted onto the shortlist by the membership.

Among the many, many literati making the scene were Lizzie Skurnick (who's recently been hired on by New York Magazine), the Complete Review's Michael Orthofer, Viking publisher Paul Slovak, Soft Skull's Richard Nash, Eat the Press's Rachel Sklar, Emily Gordon, Poets & Writers' Doug Diesenhaus, and former Balakian winner Scott McLemee, on hand to announce Steven G. Kellman as the category's newest honoree.