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The National Book Award for Fiction is one of four annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but they are awards "by writers to writers".^[1] The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".^[2]

General fiction was one of four categories when the awards were re-established in 1950. For several years beginning 1980, prior to the Foundation, there were multiple fiction categories: hardcover, paperback, first novel or first work of fiction; from 1981 to 1983 hardcover and paperback children's fiction; and only in 1980 five awards to mystery fiction, science fiction, and western fiction.^[3] When the Foundation celebrated the 60th postwar awards in 2009, all but three of the 77 previous winners in fiction categories were in print.^[4] The 77 included all eight 1980 winners but excluded the 1981 to 1983 children's fiction winners.^[5]

The award recognizes one book written by a U.S. citizen and published in the U.S. from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.^[6]

Authors who have won the award more than once include such noted figures as William Faulkner, John Updike, William Gaddis, and Philip Roth, each having won the award on two occasions along with numerous other nominations.

National Book Awards for Fiction

From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery" or "Most Original Book" was sometimes a novel. From 1980 to 1985 there were six annual awards to first novels or first works of fiction. In 1980 there were five awards to mystery, western, or science fiction. There have been many awards to fiction in the Children's or Young People's categories.^[3]

Finalists, general fiction

This list covers only the post-war awards (pre-war awards follow) to general fiction for adult readers: one annual winner from 1950 except two undifferentiated winners 1973 to 1975, dual hardcover and paperback winners 1980 to 1983.

For each award, the winner is listed first followed by the finalists. Unless otherwise noted, the year represents the year the award was given for books published in the prior year. Thus, the award year 1950 is for books published in 1949.

1950 to 1959

1950: Nelson Algren — The Man with the Golden Arm^[7]

No runners up were recognized. There were five honorable mentions in the non-fiction category only.^[8][9]

1951: William Faulkner — Collected Stories of William Faulkner^[10]

No runners up were recognized.^[11]

1952: James Jones — From Here to Eternity^[12]

• 
  James Agee — The Morning Watch
  


• 
  Truman Capote — The Grass Harp
  


• 
  William Faulkner — Requiem for a Nun
  


• 
  Caroline Gordon — The Strange Children
  


• 
  Thomas Mann — The Holy Sinner
  


• 
  John P. Marquand — Melville Goodwin USA
  


• 
  J.D. Salinger — The Catcher in the Rye
  


• 
  William Styron — Lie Down in Darkness
  


• 
  Jessamyn West — The Witch Diggers
  


• 
  Herman Wouk — The Caine Mutiny
  

1953: Ralph Ellison — Invisible Man^[13]

• 
  Isabel Bolton — Many Mansions
  


• 
  H.L. Davis — Winds of Morning
  


• 
  Thomas Gallagher — The Gathering Darkness
  


• 
  Ernest Hemingway — The Old Man and the Sea
  


• 
  Carl Jonas — Jefferson Selleck
  


• 
  Peter Martin — The Landsman
  


• 
  May Sarton — A Shower of Summer Days
  


• 
  Jean Stafford — The Catherine Wheel
  


• 
  John Steinbeck — East of Eden
  


• 
  William Carlos Williams — The Build-Up
  

1954: Saul Bellow — The Adventures of Augie March^[14]

No runners up were recognized.^[15]

1955: William Faulkner — A Fable^[16]

• 
  Harriette Arnow — The Dollmaker
  


• 
  Hamilton Basso — The View from Pompey's Head
  


• 
  Davis Grubb — The Night of the Hunter
  


• 
  Randall Jarrell — Pictures from an Institution
  


• 
  Milton Lott — The Last Hunt
  


• 
  Frederick Manfred — Lord Grizzly
  


• 
  William March — The Bad Seed
  


• 
  Wright Morris — The Huge Season
  


• 
  Frank Rooney — The Courts of Memory
  


• 
  John Steinbeck — Sweet Thursday
  

1956: John O'Hara — Ten North Frederick^[17]

• 
  Paul Bowles — The Spider's House
  


• 
  Shirley Ann Grau — The Black Prince, and Other Stories
  


• 
  MacKinlay Kantor — Andersonville
  


• 
  Flannery O'Connor — A Good Man is Hard to Find
  


• 
  May Sarton — Faithful Are the Wounds
  


• 
  Robert Penn Warren — Band of Angels
  


• 
  Eudora Welty — The Bride of the Innisfallen
  


• 
  Herman Wouk — Marjorie Morningstar
  

1957: Wright Morris — The Field of Vision^[18]

• 
  Nelson Algren — A Walk on the Wild Side
  


• 
  James Baldwin — Giovanni's Room
  


• 
  Saul Bellow — Seize the Day
  


• 
  B.J. Chute — Greenwillow
  


• 
  A.B. Guthrie — These Thousand Hills
  


• 
  John Hersey — A Single Pebble
  


• 
  John Hunt — Generations of Men
  


• 
  Edwin O'Connor — The Last Hurrah
  


• 
  J.F. Powers — The Presence of Grace
  


• 
  Elizabeth Spencer — The Voice at the Back Door
  


• 
  James Thurber — Further Fables for Our Time
  

1958: John Cheever — The Wapshot Chronicle^[19]

• 
  James Agee — A Death in the Family
  


• 
  James Gould Cozzens — By Love Possessed
  


• 
  Mark Harris — Something About a Soldier
  


• 
  Andrew Lytle — The Velvet Horn
  


• 
  Bernard Malamud — The Assistant
  


• 
  Wright Morris — Love Among the Cannibals
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Pnin
  


• 
  Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged
  


• 
  Nancy Wilson Ross — The Return of Lady Brace
  


• 
  May Sarton — The Birth of a Grandfather
  

1959: Bernard Malamud — The Magic Barrel^[20]

• 
  J.P. Donleavy — The Ginger Man
  


• 
  William Humphrey — Home from the Hill
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Lolita
  


• 
  John O'Hara — From the Terrace
  


• 
  J.R. Salamanca — The Lost Country
  


• 
  Anya Seton — The Winthrop Woman
  


• 
  Robert Traver — Anatomy of a Murder
  

1960 to 1969

1960: Philip Roth — Goodbye, Columbus^[21][22]

• 
  Louis Auchincloss — Pursuit of the Prodigal
  


• 
  Hamilton Basso — The Light Infantry Ball
  


• 
  Saul Bellow — Henderson the Rain King
  


• 
  Evan S. Connell, Jr. — Mrs. Bridge
  


• 
  William Faulkner — The Mansion
  


• 
  Mark Harris — Wake Up, Stupid
  


• 
  John Hersey — The War Lover
  


• 
  H.L. Humes — Men Die
  


• 
  Shirley Jackson — The Haunting of Hill House
  


• 
  Elizabeth Janeway — The Third Choice
  


• 
  James Jones — The Pistol
  


• 
  Warren Miller — The Cool World
  


• 
  James Purdy — Malcolm
  


• 
  Leo Rosten — The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (2nd of two short story collections; see 1937)


• 
  John Updike — The Poorhouse Fair
  


• 
  Robert Penn Warren — The Cave
  


• 
  Morris West — The Devil's Advocate
  

1961: Conrad Richter — The Waters of Kronos^[23]

• 
  Louis Auchincloss — The House of Five Talents
  


• 
  Kay Boyle — Generation Without Farewell
  


• 
  John Hersey — The Child Buyer
  


• 
  John Knowles — A Separate Peace
  


• 
  Harper Lee — To Kill a Mockingbird
  


• 
  Wright Morris — Ceremony in Lone Tree
  


• 
  Flannery O'Connor — The Violent Bear It Away
  


• 
  Elizabeth Spencer — The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales
  


• 
  Francis Steegmuller — The Christening Party
  


• 
  John Updike — Rabbit, Run
  


• 
  Mildred Walker — The Body of a Young Man
  

1962: Walker Percy — The Moviegoer^[24]

• 
  Hortense Calisher — False Entry
  


• 
  George P. Elliott — Among the Dangs
  


• 
  Joseph Heller — Catch-22
  


• 
  Bernard Malamud — A New Life
  


• 
  William Maxwell — The Chateau
  


• 
  J.D. Salinger — Franny and Zooey
  


• 
  Isaac Bashevis Singer — The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories
  


• 
  Edward Lewis Wallant — The Pawnbroker
  


• 
  Joan Williams — The Morning and the Evening
  


• 
  Richard Yates — Revolutionary Road
  

1963: J. F. Powers — Morte d'Urban^[25]

• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Pale Fire
  


• 
  Katherine Anne Porter — Ship of Fools
  


• 
  Dawn Powell — The Golden Spur
  


• 
  Clancy Sigal — Going Away
  


• 
  John Updike — Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories
  

1964: John Updike — The Centaur^[26]

• 
  Bernard Malamud — Idiots First
  


• 
  Mary McCarthy — The Group
  


• 
  Thomas Pynchon — V.
  


• 
  Harvey Swados — The Will
  

1965: Saul Bellow — Herzog^[27]

• 
  Louis Auchincloss — The Rector of Justin
  


• 
  John Hawkes — Second Skin
  


• 
  Richard E. Kim — The Martyred
  


• 
  Wallace Markfield — To an Early Grave
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — The Defense
  


• 
  Isaac Bashevis Singer — Short Friday
  

1966: Katherine Anne Porter — The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter^[28]

• 
  Jesse Hill Ford — The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones
  


• 
  Peter Matthiessen — At Play in the Fields of the Lord
  


• 
  James Merrill — The (Diblos) Notebook
  


• 
  Flannery O'Connor — Everything That Rises Must Converge
  


• 
  Harry Mark Petrakis — Pericles on 31st Street
  

1967: Bernard Malamud — The Fixer^[29]

• 
  Louis Auchincloss — The Embezzler
  


• 
  Edwin O'Connor — All in the Family
  


• 
  Walker Percy — The Last Gentleman
  


• 
  Harry Mark Petrakis — A Dream of Kings
  


• 
  Wilfrid Sheed — Office Politics
  

1968: Thornton Wilder — The Eighth Day^[30]

• 
  Norman Mailer — Why Are We in Vietnam?
  


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates — A Garden of Earthly Delights
  


• 
  Chaim Potok — The Chosen
  


• 
  William Styron — Confessions of Nat Turner
  

1969: Jerzy Kosiński — Steps^[31]

• 
  John Barth — Lost in the Funhouse
  


• 
  Frederick Exley — A Fan's Notes
  


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates — Expensive People
  


• 
  Thomas Rogers — The Pursuit of Happiness
  

1970 to 1979

1970: Joyce Carol Oates — them^[32]

• 
  Leonard Gardner — Fat City
  


• 
  Leonard Michaels — Going Places
  


• 
  Jean Stafford — The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
  


• 
  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. — Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade
  

1971: Saul Bellow — Mr. Sammler's Planet^[33]

• 
  James Dickey — Deliverance
  


• 
  Shirley Hazzard — The Bay of Noon
  


• 
  John Updike — Bech: A Book
  


• 
  Eudora Welty — Losing Battles
  

1972: Flannery O'Connor — The Complete Stories^[34]

The Complete Stories was named the "Best of the National Book Awards"^[35] as part of the Fiction Award's 60th anniversary celebration in 2009, by internet visitors voting on a ballot of the best six award winners selected by writers associated with the Foundation.^[4]

• 
  Frederick Buechner — Lion Country
  


• 
  E.L. Doctorow — The Book of Daniel
  


• 
  Stanley Elkin — The Dick Gibson Show
  


• 
  Tom McHale — Farragan's Retreat
  


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates — Wonderland
  


• 
  Cynthia Ozick — The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
  


• 
  Walker Percy — Love in the Ruins
  


• 
  Earl Thompson — A Garden of Sand
  


• 
  John Updike — Rabbit Redux
  

1973: John Barth — Chimera^{[36][37][38][a]}

1973: John Edward Williams — Augustus^{[39][38][37][a]}

• 
  Brock Brower — The Late Great Creature
  


• 
  Alan H. Friedman — Hermaphrodeity
  


• 
  Barry Hannah — Geronimo Rex
  


• 
  George V. Higgins — The Friends of Eddie Coyle
  


• 
  R.M. Koster — The Prince
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Transparent Things
  


• 
  Ishmael Reed — Mumbo Jumbo
  


• 
  Thomas Rogers — The Confessions of a Child of the Century
  


• 
  Isaac Bashevis Singer — Enemies, A Love Story
  


• 
  Eudora Welty — The Optimist's Daughter
  

1974: Thomas Pynchon — Gravity's Rainbow^[40][41][a]

1974: Isaac Bashevis Singer — A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories^{[41][42][43][44][a]}

• 
  Doris Betts — Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories
  


• 
  John Cheever — The World of Apples
  


• 
  Ellen Douglas — Apostles of Light
  


• 
  Stanley Elkin — Searches and Seizures
  


• 
  John Gardner — Nickel Mountain
  


• 
  John Leonard — Black Conceit
  


• 
  Thomas McGuane — Ninety-Two in the Shade
  


• 
  Wilfrid Sheed — People Will Always Be Kind
  


• 
  Gore Vidal — Burr
  


• 
  Joy Williams — State of Grace
  

1975: Robert Stone — Dog Soldiers^[45][46][a]

1975: Thomas Williams — The Hair of Harold Roux^{[46][47][48][a]}

• 
  Donald Barthelme — Guilty Pleasures
  


• 
  Gail Godwin — The Odd Woman
  


• 
  Joseph Heller — Something Happened
  


• 
  Toni Morrison — Sula
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Look at the Harlequins!
  


• 
  Grace Paley — Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
  


• 
  Philip Roth — My Life As a Man
  


• 
  Mark Smith — The Death of a Detective
  

1976: William Gaddis — J R^[49]

• 
  Saul Bellow — Humboldt's Gift
  


• 
  Hortense Calisher — The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher
  


• 
  Johanna Kaplan — Other People's Lives
  


• 
  Vladimir Nabokov — Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories
  


• 
  Larry Woiwode — Beyond the Bedroom Wall
  

1977: Wallace Stegner — The Spectator Bird^[50]

• 
  Raymond Carver — Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
  


• 
  MacDonald Harris — The Balloonist
  


• 
  Ursula K. Le Guin — Orsinian Tales
  


• 
  Cynthia Propper Seton — A Fine Romance
  

1978: Mary Lee Settle — Blood Tie^[51]

• 
  Robert Coover — The Public Burning
  


• 
  Peter De Vries — Madder Music
  


• 
  James Alan McPherson — Elbow Room
  


• 
  John Sayles — Union Dues
  

1979: Tim O'Brien — Going After Cacciato^[52]

• 
  John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever
  


• 
  John Irving — The World According to Garp
  


• 
  Diane Johnson — Lying Low
  


• 
  David Plante — The Family
  

1980 to 1989

For 1980 to 1983 this list covers the paired "Fiction (hardcover)" and "Fiction (paperback)" awards in that order. Hard and paper editions were distinguished only in these four years; none of the paperback winners were original; in their first editions all had been losing finalists in 1979 or 1981.

From 1980 to 1985 there was also one award for first novel or first work of fiction and in 1980 there were five more awards for mystery, western, and science fiction.^[3]
None of those are covered here.

1980 hardcover: William Styron — Sophie's Choice ^[53][54]

• 
  James Baldwin — Just Above My Head
  


• 
  Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song
  


• 
  Philip Roth — The Ghost Writer
  


• 
  Scott Spencer — Endless Love
  

1980 paperback: John Irving — The World According to Garp^[55][54]

• 
  Paul Bowles — Collected Stories
  


• 
  Gail Godwin — Violet Clay
  


• 
  John Updike — Too Far to Go
  


• 
  Marguerite Young — Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Volumes 1 and 2

1981 hardcover: Wright Morris — Plains Song: For Female Voices ^[56][57]

• 
  Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus
  


• 
  William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow
  


• 
  Walker Percy — The Second Coming
  


• 
  Eudora Welty — The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
  

1981 paperback: John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever^[58][57]

• 
  Thomas Flanagan — The Year of the French
  


• 
  Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song
  


• 
  Scott Spencer — Endless Love
  


• 
  Herman Wouk — War and Remembrance
  

1982 hardcover: John Updike — Rabbit is Rich^[59][60]

• 
  Mark Helprin — Ellis Island and Other Stories
  


• 
  John Irving — The Hotel New Hampshire
  


• 
  Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise
  


• 
  William Wharton — Dad
  

1982 paperback: William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow^[61][60]

• 
  E.L. Doctorow — Loon Lake
  


• 
  Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus
  


• 
  Walker Percy — The Second Coming
  


• 
  Anne Tyler — Morgan's Passing
  

1983 hardcover: Alice Walker — The Color Purple^[62][63]

• 
  Gail Godwin — A Mother and Two Daughters
  


• 
  Bobbie Ann Mason — Shiloh and Other Stories
  


• 
  Paul Theroux — The Mosquito Coast
  


• 
  Anne Tyler — Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
  

1983 paperback: Eudora Welty — The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty^[64][63]

• 
  David Bradley — The Chaneysville Incident
  


• 
  Mary Gordon — The Company of Women
  


• 
  Marilynne Robinson — Housekeeping
  


• 
  Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise
  

1983 entries were published during 1982; winners in 27 categories were announced April 13 and privately celebrated April 28, 1983.^[65]

1984 entries for the "revamped" awards in three categories were published November 1983 to October 1984; eleven finalists were announced October 17.^[66] Winners were announced and celebrated November 15, 1984.^[67]

1984: Ellen Gilchrist — Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories^[68]

• 
  Alison Lurie — Foreign Affairs
  


• 
  Philip Roth — The Anatomy Lesson
  

1985: Don DeLillo — White Noise^[69]

• 
  Ursula K. Le Guin — Always Coming Home
  


• 
  Hugh Nissenson — The Tree of Life
  

1986: E.L. Doctorow — World's Fair^[70]

• 
  Norman Rush — Whites
  


• 
  Peter Taylor — A Summons to Memphis
  

1987: Larry Heinemann — Paco's Story^[71]

• 
  Alice McDermott — That Night
  


• 
  Toni Morrison — Beloved
  


• 
  Howard Norman — The Northern Lights
  


• 
  Philip Roth — The Counterlife
  

1988: Pete Dexter — Paris Trout^[72]

• 
  Don DeLillo — Libra
  


• 
  Mary McGarry Morris — Vanished
  


• 
  J. F. Powers — Wheat That Springeth Green
  


• 
  Anne Tyler — Breathing Lessons
  

1989: John Casey — Spartina^[73]

• 
  E.L. Doctorow — Billy Bathgate
  


• 
  Katherine Dunn — Geek Love
  


• 
  Oscar Hijuelos — Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
  


• 
  Amy Tan — The Joy Luck Club
  

1990 to 1999

1990: Charles Johnson — Middle Passage^[74]

• 
  Felipe Alfau — Chromos
  


• 
  Elena Castedo — Paradise
  


• 
  Jessica Hagedorn — Dogeaters
  


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates — Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
  

1991: Norman Rush — Mating^[75]

• 
  Louis Begley — Wartime Lies
  


• 
  Stephen Dixon — Frog
  


• 
  Stanley Elkin — The MacGuffin
  


• 
  Sandra Scofield — Beyond Deserving
  

1992: Cormac McCarthy — All the Pretty Horses^[76]

• 
  Dorothy Allison — Bastard Out of Carolina
  


• 
  Cristina García — Dreaming in Cuban
  


• 
  Edward P. Jones — Lost in the City
  


• 
  Robert Stone — Outerbridge Reach
  

1993: E. Annie Proulx — The Shipping News^[77]

• 
  Amy Bloom — Come to Me: Stories
  


• 
  Thom Jones — The Pugilist at Rest
  


• 
  Richard Powers — Operation Wandering Soul
  


• 
  Bob Shacochis — Swimming in the Volcano
  

1994: William Gaddis — A Frolic of His Own^[78]

• 
  Ellen Currie — Moses Supposes
  


• 
  Richard Dooling — White Man's Grave
  


• 
  Howard Norman — The Bird Artist
  


• 
  Grace Paley — The Collected Stories
  

1995: Philip Roth — Sabbath's Theater^[79]

• 
  Madison Smartt Bell — All Souls' Rising
  


• 
  Edwidge Danticat — Krik? Krak!
  


• 
  Stephen Dixon — Interstate
  


• 
  Rosario Ferré — The House on the Lagoon
  

1996: Andrea Barrett — Ship Fever and Other Stories^[80]

• 
  Ron Hansen — Atticus
  


• 
  Elizabeth McCracken — The Giant's House
  


• 
  Steven Millhauser — Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
  


• 
  Janet Peery — The River Beyond the World
  

1997: Charles Frazier — Cold Mountain^[81]

• 
  Don DeLillo — Underworld
  


• 
  Diane Johnson — Le Divorce
  


• 
  Ward Just — Echo House
  


• 
  Cynthia Ozick — The Puttermesser Papers
  

1998: Alice McDermott — Charming Billy^[82]

• 
  Allegra Goodman — Kaaterskill Falls
  


• 
  Gayl Jones — The Healing
  


• 
  Robert Stone — Damascus Gate
  


• 
  Tom Wolfe — A Man in Full
  

1999: Ha Jin — Waiting^[83]

• 
  Andre Dubus III — House of Sand and Fog
  


• 
  Kent Haruf — Plainsong
  


• 
  Patricia Henley — Hummingbird House
  


• 
  Jean Thompson — Who Do You Love
  

2000 to 2009

2000: Susan Sontag — In America^[84]

• 
  Charles Baxter — The Feast of Love
  


• 
  Alan Lightman — The Diagnosis
  


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates — Blonde
  


• 
  Francine Prose — Blue Angel
  

2001: Jonathan Franzen — The Corrections^[85]

• 
  Dan Chaon — Among the Missing
  


• 
  Jennifer Egan — Look at Me
  


• 
  Louise Erdrich — The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
  


• 
  Susan Straight — Highwire Moon
  

2002: Julia Glass — Three Junes^[86]

• Mark Costello — Big If
  


• 
  Adam Haslett — You Are Not a Stranger Here
  


• 
  Martha McPhee — Gorgeous Lies
  


• 
  Brad Watson — The Heaven of Mercury
  

2003: Shirley Hazzard — The Great Fire^[87]

• 
  T.C. Boyle — Drop City
  


• 
  Edward P. Jones — The Known World
  


• 
  Scott Spencer — A Ship Made of Paper
  


• 
  Marianne Wiggins — Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel
  

2004: Lily Tuck — The News from Paraguay^[88]

• 
  Sarah Shun-lien Bynum — Madeleine is Sleeping
  


• 
  Christine Schutt — Florida
  


• 
  Joan Silber — Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
  


• 
  Kate Walbert — Our Kind
  

2005: William Vollmann — Europe Central^[89]

• 
  E.L. Doctorow — The March
  


• 
  Mary Gaitskill — Veronica
  


• 
  Christopher Sorrentino — Trance
  


• 
  Rene Steinke — Holy Skirts
  

2006: Richard Powers — The Echo Maker^[90]

• 
  Mark Z. Danielewski — Only Revolutions
  


• 
  Ken Kalfus — A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
  


• 
  Dana Spiotta — Eat the Document
  


• 
  Jess Walter — The Zero
  

2007: Denis Johnson — Tree of Smoke^[91]

• 
  Mischa Berlinski — Fieldwork
  


• 
  Lydia Davis — Varieties of Disturbance
  


• 
  Joshua Ferris — Then We Came to the End
  


• 
  Jim Shepard — Like You'd Understand, Anyway
  

2008: Peter Matthiessen — Shadow Country^[92]

• 
  Aleksandar Hemon — The Lazarus Project
  


• 
  Rachel Kushner — Telex from Cuba
  


• 
  Marilynne Robinson — Home
  


• 
  Salvatore Scibona — The End
  

2009: Colum McCann — Let the Great World Spin^[93]

• 
  Bonnie Jo Campbell — American Salvage
  


• 
  Daniyal Mueenuddin — In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
  


• 
  Jayne Anne Phillips — Lark and Termite
  


• 
  Marcel Theroux — Far North
  

2010 to date

2010: Jaimy Gordon — Lord of Misrule^[94]

• 
  Peter Carey — Parrot and Olivier in America
  


• 
  Nicole Krauss — Great House
  


• 
  Lionel Shriver — So Much for That
  


• 
  Karen Tei Yamashita — I Hotel
  

2011: Jesmyn Ward — Salvage the Bones^[95]

• 
  Andrew Krivak — The Sojourn
  


• 
  Téa Obreht — The Tiger's Wife
  


• 
  Julie Otsuka — The Buddha in the Attic
  


• 
  Edith Pearlman — Binocular Vision
  

2012: Louise Erdrich — The Round House^{[96][97][98][99]}

• 
  Junot Díaz — This Is How You Lose Her
  


• 
  Dave Eggers — A Hologram for the King
  


• 
  Ben Fountain — Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
  


• 
  Kevin Powers — The Yellow Birds
  

2013: James McBride — The Good Lord Bird^[100][101]

• 
  Rachel Kushner — The Flamethrowers
  


• 
  Jhumpa Lahiri — The Lowland
  


• 
  Thomas Pynchon — Bleeding Edge
  


• 
  George Saunders — Tenth of December: Stories
  

2014: Phil Klay — Redeployment^{[102][103][104]}

• 
  Rabih Alameddine — An Unnecessary Woman
  


• 
  Anthony Doerr — All the Light We Cannot See
  


• 
  Emily St. John Mandel — Station Eleven
  


• 
  Marilynne Robinson — Lila
  

2015: Adam Johnson — Fortune Smiles^[105]

• 
  Karen Bender — Refund: Stories
  


• 
  Lauren Groff — Fates and Furies
  


• 
  Angela Flournoy — The Turner House
  


• 
  Hanya Yanagihara — A Little Life
  

2016: Colson Whitehead — The Underground Railroad^[106]

• 
  Chris Bachelder — The Throwback Special
  


• 
  Paulette Jiles — News of the World
  


• 
  Karan Mahajan — The Association of Small Bombs
  


• 
  Jacqueline Woodson — Another Brooklyn
  

2017: Jesmyn Ward — Sing, Unburied, Sing^[107]

• 
  Elliot Ackerman — Dark at the Crossing
  


• 
  Lisa Ko — The Leavers
  


• 
  Min Jin Lee — Pachinko
  


• 
  Carmen Maria Machado — Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
  

2018: Sigrid Nunez, The Friend^[108][109]

• 
  Jamel Brinkley — A Lucky Man
  


• 
  Lauren Groff — Florida
  


• 
  Brandon Hobson — Where the Dead Sit Talking
  


• 
  Rebecca Makkai — The Great Believers
  

Early awards for fiction

The National Book Awards for 1935 to 1940 annually recognized the "Most Distinguished Novel" (1935-1936) or "Favorite Fiction" (1937-1940). Furthermore, works of fiction were eligible for the "Bookseller Discovery" and "Most Original Book" awards; fiction winners are listed here.

There was only one National Book Award for 1941, the Bookseller Discovery, which recognized the novel Hold Autumn In Your Hand by George Perry;^[110] then none until the 1950 revival in three categories including Fiction.

Most Distinguished Novel (1935-1936)

1935: Rachel Field, Time Out of Mind^[111]

1936: Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind^[112]

Favorite Fiction (1937-1940)

1937: A. J. Cronin, The Citadel^[113]

• 
  Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass^[b]
  


• 
  Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage^[b]
  


• Leonard Q. Ross (Leo Rosten), The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (short stories)^[b]
  

1938: Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca^[114]

1939: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath^[115]

• 
  Sholom Asch, The Nazarene
  

1940: Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley^[116]

Bookseller Discovery (1936 to 1941)

1936: Norah Lofts, I Met a Gypsy (short stories)^[112]

1937: Lawrence Watkin, On Borrowed Time (novel)^[114]

• see 1937 Fiction^[b]
  

1938: see nonfiction

1939: Elgin Groseclose, Ararat (novel)^[115]

• 
  Chard Powers Smith, Artillery of Time, I
  

1940: see nonfiction

1941: George Sessions Perry, Hold Autumn in Your Hand (novel)^[110]

Most Original Book (1935 to 1939)

1935: Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao (novel)^[112]

1936: see nonfiction

1937: see nonfiction

• see 1937 Fiction^[b]
  

1938: see nonfiction

1939: Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun (novel)^[115]

• 
  Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male
  

Repeat winners

See Winners of multiple U.S. National Book Awards

Notes

References

External links

• 
  The Contenders: 61 Years of National Book Award Fiction Finalists, special exhibit, June 2012. "Down Memory Lane With the National Book Awards (and Not Just the Winners), New York Times, June 22, 2012.