National Book Award (U.S.) fiction winners and nominees 1950-2008

Submitted by burneyfan on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 11:05
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  • 2008
  • Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (Winner)
  • The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
  • Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
  • Home by Marilynne Robinson
  • The End by Salvatore Scibona
  • 2007
  • Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Winner)
  • Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
  • Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis
  • Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
  • Like You'd Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard
  • 2006
  • The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (Winner)
  • Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski
  • A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus
  • Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta
  • The Zero by Jess Walter
  • 2005
  • Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (Winner)
  • The March by E.L. Doctorow
  • Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
  • Trance by Christopher Sorrentino
  • Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke
  • 2004
  • The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (Winner)
  • Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
  • Florida by Christine Schutt
  • Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by Joan Silber
  • Our Kind by Kate Walbert
  • 2003
  • The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (Winner)
  • Drop City by T.C. Boyle
  • The Known World by Edward P. Jones
  • A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer
  • Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
  • 2002
  • Three Junes by Julia Glass (Winner)
  • Big If by Mark Costello
  • You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
  • Gorgeous Lies by Martha McPhee
  • The Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson
  • 2001
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Winner)
  • Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  • Look at Me by Jennifer Egan
  • The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
  • Highwire Moon by Susan Straight
  • 2000
  • In America by Susan Sontag (Winner)
  • The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  • The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman
  • Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
  • Blue Angel by Francine Prose
  • 1999
  • Waiting by Ha Jin (Winner)
  • House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
  • Plainsong by Kent Haruf
  • Hummingbird House by Patricia Henley
  • Who Do You Love by Jean Thompson
  • 1998
  • Charming Billy by Alice McDermott (Winner)
  • Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
  • The Healing by Gayl Jones
  • Damascus Gate by Robert Stone
  • A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
  • 1997
  • Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Winner)
  • Underworld by Don DeLillo
  • Le Divorce by Diane Johnson
  • Echo House by Ward Just
  • The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
  • 1996
  • Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett (Winner
  • Atticus by Ron Hansen
  • The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken
  • Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
  • The River Beyond the World by Janet Peery
  • 1995
  • Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth (Winner)
  • All Souls' Rising by Madison Smartt Bell
  • Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
  • Interstate by Stephen Dixon
  • The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  • 1994
  • A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis (Winner)
  • Moses Supposes by Ellen Currie
  • White Man's Grave by Richard Dooling
  • The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
  • The Collected Stories by Grace Paley
  • 1993
  • The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Winner)
  • Come to Me by Amy Bloom
  • The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones
  • Operation Wandering Soul by Richard Powers
  • Swimming in the Volcano by Bob Shacochis
  • 1992
  • All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (Winner)
  • Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
  • Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
  • Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones
  • Outerbridge Reach by Robert Stone
  • 1991
  • Mating by Norman Rush (Winner)
  • Wartime Lies by Louis Begley
  • Frog by Stephen Dixon
  • The MacGuffin by Stanley Elkin
  • Beyond Deserving by Sandra Scofield
  • 1990
  • Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (Winner)
  • Chromos by Felipe Alfau
  • Paradise by Elena Castedo
  • Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn
  • Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates
  • 1989
  • Spartina by John Casey (Winner)
  • Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
  • Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
  • Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
  • The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  • 1988
  • Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (Winner)
  • Libra by Don DeLillo
  • Vanished by Mary McGarry Morris
  • Wheat That Springeth Green by James F. Powers
  • Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
  • 1987
  • Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann (Winner)
  • That Night by Alice McDermott
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • The Northern Lights by Howard Norman
  • The Counterlife by Philip Roth
  • 1986
  • World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow (Winner)
  • Whites by Norman Rush
  • A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
  • 1985
  • Fiction
  • White Noise by Don DeLillo (Winner)
  • Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • The Tree of Life by Hugh Nissenson
  • First Work of Fiction
  • Easy in the Islands by Bob Shacochis (Winner)
  • Slow Dancing by Elizabeth Benedict
  • Face by Cecile Pineda
  • 1984
  • Fiction
  • Victory over Japan: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist (Winner)
  • Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
  • The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth
  • First Work of Fiction
  • Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
  • Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn
  • Edisto by Padgett Powell
  • 1983
  • Hardcover
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Winner)
  • A Mother and Two Daughters by Gail Godwin
  • Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason
  • The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
  • Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
  • Paperback
  • Collected Stories by Eudora Welty (Winner)
  • The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
  • The Company of Women by Mary Gordon
  • Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
  • A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
  • First Novel
  • The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor (Winner)
  • Matters of Chance by Gail Albert
  • The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio
  • My Old Sweetheart by Susanna Moore
  • Almost Famous by David Small
  • 1982
  • Hardcover
  • Rabbit is Rich by John Updike (Winner)
  • Ellis Island and Other Stories by Mark Helprin
  • The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
  • A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
  • Dad by William Wharton
  • Paperback
  • So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (Winner)
  • The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
  • Loon Lake by E.L. Doctorow
  • The Second Coming by Walker Percy
  • Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler
  • First Novel
  • Dale Loves Sophie to Death by Robb Forman Dew (Winner)
  • Saving Grace by Celia Gittelson
  • Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord
  • The Men's Club by Leonard Michaels
  • Easy Travel to Other Planets by Ted Mooney
  • 1981
  • Hardcover
  • Plains Song by Wright Morris (Winner)
  • The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
  • So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
  • The Second Coming by Walker Percy
  • The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
  • Paperback
  • The Stories by John Cheever (Winner)
  • The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan
  • The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
  • Endless Love by Scott Spencer
  • War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
  • First Novel
  • Sister Wolf by Ann Arensberg (Winner)
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
  • Horn of Africa by Philip Caputo
  • O My America by Johanna Kaplan
  • Rough Strife by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
  • _1980
  • Hardcover
  • Sophie's Choice by William Styron (Winner)
  • Just Above My Head by James Baldwin
  • The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
  • The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
  • Endless Love by Scott Spencer
  • Paperback
  • The World According to Garp by John Irving (Winner)
  • Collected Stories by Paul Bowles
  • Violet Clay by Gail Godwin
  • Too Far to Go by John Updike
  • First Novel
  • Birdy by William Wharton (Winner)
  • Vision Quest by Terry Davis
  • When the Tree Sings by Stratis Haviaras
  • Stealing Home by Philip F. O'Connor
  • Mom Kills Kids and Self by Alan Saperstein
  • 1979
  • Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
  • 1978
  • Blood Ties by Mary Lee Settle
  • 1977
  • The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
  • 1976
  • Jr by William Gaddis
  • 1975
  • Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
  • The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
  • 1974
  • Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
  • A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • 1973
  • Chimera by John Barth
  • Augustus by John Williams
  • 1972
  • The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (Actually, I haven't read them all...just a lot of them.)
  • 1971
  • Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (Winner)
  • Deliverance by James Dickey
  • The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard
  • Bech: A Book by John Updike
  • Losing Battles by Eudora Welty
  • 1970
  • Them by Joyce Carol Oates (Winner)
  • Fat City by Leonard Gardner
  • Going Places by Leonard Michaels
  • The Collected Stories by Jean Stafford
  • Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut
  • 1969
  • Steps by Jerzy Kosinski (Winner)
  • Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth
  • A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
  • Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Pursuit of Happiness by Thomas Rogers
  • 1968
  • The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder (Winner)
  • Why Are We in Vietnam? by Norman Mailer
  • A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Chosen by Chaim Potok
  • Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
  • 1967
  • The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Winner)
  • The Embezzler by Louis Auchincloss
  • All in the Family by Edwin O'Connor
  • The Last Gentleman by Walker Percy
  • A Dream of Kings by Harry Petrakis
  • Office Politics by Wilfred Sheed
  • 1966
  • The Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Winner)
  • The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones by Jesse Hill Ford
  • At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen
  • The (Diblos) Notebook by James Merrill
  • Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
  • Pericles on 31st Street by Harry Petrakis
  • 1965
  • Herzog by Saul Bellow (Winner)
  • The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss
  • Second Skin by John Hawkes
  • The Martyred by Richard Kim
  • To an Early Grave by Wallace Markfield
  • The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Short Friday by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • 1964
  • The Centaur by John Updike (Winner)
  • Idiots First by Bernard Malamud
  • The Group by Mary McCarthy
  • V by Thomas Pynchon
  • The Will by Harvey Swados
  • 1963
  • Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers (Winner)
  • Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
  • The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell
  • Going Away by Clancy Sigal
  • Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories by John Updike
  • 1962
  • The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (Winner)
  • False Entry by Hortense Calisher
  • Among the Dangs by George P. Elliott
  • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  • A New Life by Bernard Malamud
  • The Chateau by William Maxwell
  • Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
  • The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • The Pawnbroker by Edward Lewis Wallant
  • The Morning and the Evening by Joan Williams
  • Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
  • 1961
  • The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter (Winner)
  • The House of Five Talents by Louis Auchincloss
  • Generation Without Farewell by Kay Boyle
  • The Child Buyer by John Hersey
  • A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • Ceremony in a Lone Tree by Wright Morris
  • The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
  • The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales by Elizabeth Spencer
  • The Christening Party by Francis Steegmuller
  • Rabbit, Run By John Updike
  • The Body of a Young Man by Mildred Walker
  • 1960
  • Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (Winner)
  • Pursuit of the Prodigal by Louis Auchincloss
  • The Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  • Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
  • Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, Jr.
  • The Mansion by William Faulkner
  • Wake Up, Stupid by Mark Harris
  • The War Lover by John Hersey
  • Men Die by H.L. Humes
  • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  • The Third Choice by Elizabeth Janeway
  • The Pistol by James Jones
  • The Cool World by Warren Miller
  • Malcolm by James Purdy
  • The Return of H*Y*M*A*N*K*A*P*L*A*N* by Leo Rosten
  • The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike
  • The Cave by Robert Penn Warren
  • The Devil's Advocate by Morris West
  • 1959
  • The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (Winner)
  • The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy
  • Home from the Hill by William Humphrey
  • Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  • From the Terrace by John O'Hara
  • The Lost Country by J.R. Salamanca
  • The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton
  • Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Travers
  • 1958
  • The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (Winner)
  • A Death in the Family by James Agee
  • By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
  • Something About a Soldier by Mark Harris
  • The Velvet Horn by Andrew Lytle
  • The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
  • Love Among the Cannibals by Wright Morris
  • Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
  • The Return of Lady Brace by Nancy Wilson Ross
  • The Birth of a Grandfather by May Sarton
  • 1957
  • The Field of Vision by Wright Morris (Winner)
  • Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren
  • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
  • Greenwillow by B.J. Chute
  • These Thousand Years by A.B. Guthrie
  • A Single Pebble by John Hersey
  • The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor
  • The Presence of Grace by J.F. Powers
  • The Voice at the Back Door by Elizabeth Spencer
  • Further Fables for Our Time by James Thurber
  • 1956
  • Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (Winner)
  • The Spider's House by Paul Bowles
  • The Black Prince by Shirley Ann Grau
  • Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
  • A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
  • Faithful are the Wounds by May Sarton
  • Band of Angels by Robert Penn Warren
  • The Bride of the Innisfallen by Eudora Welty
  • Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
  • 1955
  • A Fable by William Faulkner (Winner)
  • The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnow
  • The View from Pompey's Head by Hamilton Basso
  • The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb
  • Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
  • The Last Hunt by Milton Lott
  • Lord Grizzly by Frederick Manfred
  • The Bad Seed by William March
  • The Huge Season by Wright Morris
  • The Courts of Memory by Frank Rooney
  • Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
  • 1954
  • The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
  • 1953
  • Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Winner)
  • Many Mansions by Isabel Bolton
  • Winds of Morning by H.L. Davis
  • The Gathering Darkness by Thomas Gallagher
  • The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • Jefferson Selleck by Carl Jones
  • The Landsman by Peter Martin
  • A Shower of Summer Days by May Sarton
  • The Gathering Wheel by Jean Stafford
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  • The Build-Up by William Carlos Williams
  • 1952
  • From Here to Eternity by James Jones (Winner)
  • The Morning Watch by James Agee
  • The Grass Harp by Truman Capote
  • Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner
  • The Strange Children by Caroline Gordon
  • The Holy Sinner by Thomas Mann
  • Melville Goodwin USA by John P. Marquand
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron
  • The Witch Diggers by Jessamyn West
  • The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
  • 1951
  • The Collected Stories by William Faulkner
  • 1950
  • The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Author Comments: 

2/5/09: Updated to include 2008

The categories of the National Book Award have varied over the years, but I have included the non-genre fiction categories here. (In a handful of years, there were categories for best mystery, best sci-fi novel, best western....I didn't include these.)

I've read very few of these; I'm always fascinated how popular authors go out of vogue. How many people read John Hersey (not counting Hiroshima) or Louis Auchincloss novels these days? I know a few, but not too many these days...