A poem collection published by Northwestern University Press has been named a finalist for a 2012 National Book Critics Circle award, according to a University news release.

The collection, titled “Olives” and written by A.E. Stallings, is a finalist in the poetry category.  Northwestern University Press published it under their TriQuarterly Imprint.

The NBCC awards recognize the best literature in the country in six categories: fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, biography, autobiography and criticism. According to the release, winners of the awards, the only national literary prizes to be chosen by book critics, will be announced in late February.

“With the National Book Award and the Pulitzers, the National Book Critics Circle awards are the ‘big three’ prizes in literature,” said Jane Bunker, Northwestern University Press director, in the release.

Stallings has previously garnered awards for past works. Her first book of poetry, “Archaic Smile,” won the Richard Wilbur Prize, and her second, “Hapax,” also published by Northwestern University Press, was awarded the 2008 Poets’ Prize. She also received the MacArthur fellowship in 2001, the Pushcart Prize, the James Dickey Prize, the 2004 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, according to the release.

Stallings’ work has been featured in several publications, including TriQuarterly, The Atlantic magazine, Poetry magazine and “The Best American Poetry” anthologies of 1994 and 2000.

— Jillian Sandler