PHILADELPHIA - University of Pennsylvania English professors Paul Hendrickson and Susan Stewart have each won the prestigious National Book Critics Circle award.  

Hendrickson's "Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and its Legacy" won the prize for best nonfiction book of 2003 and Stewart's "Columbarium" won for best book of poetry of the year.   

The announcement came at the National Book Critics Circle's 30th anniversary awards ceremony in New York March 4.

Hendrickson, a prize-winning feature writer for the Washington Post for more than 20 years, teaches nonfiction writing at Penn.  "Sons of Mississippi" tells the story of seven white Mississippi sheriffs, offering a revealing view of racism in 1962 America and ultimately how the legacy of that racism affected the sheriff's children and grandchildren.

Stewart, a poet, critic and MacArthur fellow, teaches the history of lyric poetry, aesthetics and the philosophy of literature and cultural studies at Penn.

Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in five categories: fiction, non-fiction, biography/autobiography, poetry and criticism.

The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a not-for-profit organization of about 750 book editors and critics.