National Book Award for Fiction

The National Book Award for Fiction has been given since 1950, as part of the National Book Awards, which are given annually by the National Book Foundation. Of all the awards given, the Fiction award is the only one that has been given consistently for the entire history of the Award.^[1] For some years, such as 1980-84, two books were chosen, as the paperback and hardcover winners of those years.

The National Book Foundation has announces the finalists each year in mid-October. On the day of the final ceremony, which is held in November, one winner is chosen among the finalists. This winner is given $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; finalists receive $1,000, a medal, and a citation from the panel jury.^[2]

Contents 1 Winners 1.1 1950s 1.2 1960s 1.3 1970s 1.4 1980s 1.5 1990s 1.6 2000s 1.7 2010s 2 References

Winners

The winners of each year are bolded, and the finalists appear beneath the winners for their respective years.

1950s

• 1950: Nelson Algren — The Man with the Golden Arm
• 1951: William Faulkner — The Collected Stories of William Faulkner
• 1952: James Jones — From Here to Eternity
  • 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
  • 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
• 1955: William Faulkner — A Fable
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 Years
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

1960s

• 1960: Philip Roth — Goodbye, Columbus
  • 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
  • John Updike — The Poorhouse Fair
  • Robert Penn Warren — The Cave
  • Morris West — The Devil's Advocate
• 1961: Conrad Richter — The Waters of Kronos
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Bernard Malamud — Idiots First
  • Mary McCarthy — The Group
  • Thomas Pynchon — V.
  • Harvey Swados — The Will
• 1965: Saul Bellow — Herzog
  • 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
  • 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 Petrakis — Pericles on 31st Street
• 1967: Bernard Malamud — The Fixer
  • Louis Auchincloss — The Embezzler
  • Edwin O'Connor — All in the Family
  • Walker Percy — The Last Gentleman
  • Harry Petrakis — A Dream of Kings
  • Wilfrid Sheed — Office Politics
• 1968: Thornton Wilder — The Eighth Day
  • 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 Kosinski — Steps
  • John Barth — Lost in the Funhouse
  • Frederick Exley — A Fan's Notes
  • Joyce Carol Oates — Expensive People
  • Thomas Rogers — The Pursuit of Happiness

1970s

• 1970: Joyce Carol Oates — them
  • 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
  • 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 of Flannery O'Connor
• 1973: John Barth — Chimera & John Edward Williams — Augustus
  • 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 & Isaac Bashevis Singer — A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories
  • Doris Betts — Beasts of the World 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 & Thomas Williams — The Hair of Harold Roux
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever
  • John Irving — The World According to Garp
  • Diane Johnson — Lying Low
  • David Plante — The Family

1980s

• 1980: William Styron — Sophie's Choice & John Irving — The World According to Garp
  • Paul Bowles — Collected Stories
  • Gail Godwin — Violet Clay
  • John Updike — Too Far to Go
  • James Baldwin — Just Above My Head
  • Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song
  • Philip Roth — The Ghost Writer
  • Scott Spencer — Endless Love
• 1981: Wright Morris — Plains Song & John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever
  • Thomas Flanagan — The Year of the French
  • Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song
  • Scott Spencer — Endless Love
  • Herman Wouk — War and Remembrance
  • Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus
  • William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow
  • Walker Percy — The Second Coming
  • Eudora Welty — The Collected Stories
• 1982: John Updike — Rabbit is Rich & William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow
  • Mark Helprin — Ellis Island and Other Stories
  • John Irving — The Hotel New Hampshire
  • Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise
  • William Wharton – Dad
  • E.L. Doctorow — Loon Lake
  • Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus
  • Walker Percy — The Second Coming
  • Anne Tyler — Morgan's Passing
• 1983: Alice Walker — The Color Purple & Eudora Welty — Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
  • 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
  • David Bradley — The Chaneysville Incident
  • Mary Gordon — The Company of Women
  • Marilynne Robinson — Housekeeping
  • Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise
• 1984: Ellen Gilchrist — Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories
  • Alison Lurie — Foreign Affairs
  • Philip Roth — The Anatomy Lesson
• 1985: Don DeLillo — White Noise
  • Ursula K. Le Guin — Always Coming Home
  • Hugh Nissenson — The Tree of Life
• 1986: E.L. Doctorow — World's Fair
  • Norman Rush — Whites
  • Peter Taylor — A Summons to Memphis
• 1987: Larry Heinemann — Paco's Story
  • Alice McDermott — That Night
  • Toni Morrison — Beloved
  • Howard Norman — The Northern Lights
  • Philip Roth — The Counterlife
• 1988: Pete Dexter — Paris Trout
  • Don DeLillo — Libra
  • Mary McGarry Morris — Vanished
  • J. F. Powers — Wheat That Springeth Green
  • Anne Tyler — Breathing Lessons
• 1989: John Casey — Spartina
  • E.L. Doctorow — Billy Bathgate
  • Katherine Dunn — Geek Love
  • Oscar Hijuelos — Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
  • Amy Tan — The Joy Luck Club

1990s

• 1990: Charles Johnson — Middle Passage
  • 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
  • Louis Begley — Wartime Lies
  • Stephen Dixon — Frog
  • Stanley Elkin — The MacGuffin
  • Sandra Scofield — Beyond Deserving
• 1992: Cormac McCarthy — All the Pretty Horses
  • Dorothy Allison — Bastard Out of Carolina
  • Cristina Garcia — Dreaming in Cuban
  • Edward P. Jones — Lost in the City
  • Robert Stone — Outerbridge Reach
• 1993: E. Annie Proulx — The Shipping News
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Don DeLillo — Underworld
  • Diane Johnson — Le Divorce
  • Ward Just — Echo House
  • Cynthia Ozick — The Puttermesser Papers
• 1998: Alice McDermott — Charming Billy
  • Allegra Goodman — Kaaterskill Falls
  • Gayl Jones — The Healing
  • Robert Stone — Damascus Gate
  • Tom Wolfe — A Man in Full
• 1999: Ha Jin — Waiting
  • Ha Jin — Waiting
  • Andre Dubus III — House of Sand and Fog
  • Kent Haruf — Plainsong
  • Patricia Henley — Hummingbird House
  • Jean Thompson — Who Do You Love

2000s

• 2000: Susan Sontag — In America
  • Charles Baxter — The Feast of Love
  • Alan Lightman — The Diagnosis
  • Joyce Carol Oates — Blonde
  • Francine Prose — Blue Angel
• 2001: Jonathan Franzen — The Corrections
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • E.L. Doctorow — The March
  • Mary Gaitskill — Veronica
  • Christopher Sorrentino — Trance
  • Rene Steinke — Holy Skirts
• 2006: Richard Powers — The Echo Maker
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Bonnie Jo Campbell — American Salvage
  • Daniyal Mueenuddin — In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
  • Jayne Anne Phillips — Lark and Termite
  • Marcel Theroux — Far North

2010s

• 2010: Jaimy Gordon — Lord of Misrule
  • 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
  • Andrew Krivak — The Sojourn
  • Téa Obreht — The Tiger’s Wife
  • Julie Otsuka — The Buddha in the Attic
  • Edith Pearlman — Binocular Vision

References