# National Book Award for Fiction

The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five 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." The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field."
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. When the Foundation celebrated the 60th postwar awards in 2009, all but three of the 77 previous winners in fiction categories were in print. The 77 included all eight 1980 winners but excluded the 1981 to 1983 children's fiction winners.
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 $1,000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.
Authors who have won the award more than once include William Faulkner, John Updike, William Gaddis, Jesmyn Ward, and Philip Roth, each having won on two occasions along with numerous other nominations. Saul Bellow won the award in three decades (1954, 1965, 1971) and is the only author to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times.

## 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 for mystery, western, or science fiction. There have been many awards to fiction in the Children's or Young People's categories.

## Honorees, 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.

### 1950s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1950-1959 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1950 | Nelson Algren | The Man with the Golden Arm | Winner |
| 1950 | No runners up were recognized. There were five honorable mentions in the non-fiction category only. | No runners up were recognized. There were five honorable mentions in the non-fiction category only. | No runners up were recognized. There were five honorable mentions in the non-fiction category only. |
| 1951 | William Faulkner | Collected Stories of William Faulkner | Winner |
| 1951 | No runners up were recognized. | No runners up were recognized. | No runners up were recognized. |
| 1952 | James Jones | From Here to Eternity | Winner |
| 1952 | James Agee | The Morning Watch | Finalist |
| 1952 | Truman Capote | The Grass Harp | Finalist |
| 1952 | William Faulkner | Requiem for a Nun | Finalist |
| 1952 | Caroline Gordon | The Strange Children | Finalist |
| 1952 | Thomas Mann | The Holy Sinner | Finalist |
| 1952 | John P. Marquand | Melville Goodwin USA | Finalist |
| 1952 | J. D. Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye | Finalist |
| 1952 | William Styron | Lie Down in Darkness | Finalist |
| 1952 | Jessamyn West | The Witch Diggers | Finalist |
| 1952 | Herman Wouk | The Caine Mutiny | Finalist |
| 1953 | Ralph Ellison | Invisible Man | Winner |
| 1953 | Isabel Bolton | Many Mansions | Finalist |
| 1953 | H. L. Davis | Winds of Morning | Finalist |
| 1953 | Thomas Gallagher | The Gathering Darkness | Finalist |
| 1953 | Ernest Hemingway | The Old Man and the Sea | Finalist |
| 1953 | Carl Jonas | Jefferson Selleck | Finalist |
| 1953 | Peter Martin | The Landsman | Finalist |
| 1953 | May Sarton | A Shower of Summer Days | Finalist |
| 1953 | Jean Stafford | The Catherine Wheel | Finalist |
| 1953 | John Steinbeck | East of Eden | Finalist |
| 1953 | William Carlos Williams | The Build-Up | Finalist |
| 1954 | Saul Bellow | The Adventures of Augie March | Winner |
| 1954 | No runners up were recognized. | No runners up were recognized. | No runners up were recognized. |
| 1955 | William Faulkner | A Fable | Winner |
| 1955 | Harriette Arnow | The Dollmaker | Finalist |
| 1955 | Hamilton Basso | The View from Pompey's Head | Finalist |
| 1955 | Davis Grubb | The Night of the Hunter | Finalist |
| 1955 | Randall Jarrell | Pictures from an Institution | Finalist |
| 1955 | Milton Lott | The Last Hunt | Finalist |
| 1955 | Frederick Manfred | Lord Grizzly | Finalist |
| 1955 | William March | The Bad Seed | Finalist |
| 1955 | Wright Morris | The Huge Season | Finalist |
| 1955 | Frank Rooney | The Courts of Memory | Finalist |
| 1955 | John Steinbeck | Sweet Thursday | Finalist |
| 1956 | John O'Hara | Ten North Frederick | Winner |
| 1956 | Paul Bowles | The Spider's House | Finalist |
| 1956 | Shirley Ann Grau | The Black Prince, and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1956 | MacKinlay Kantor | Andersonville | Finalist |
| 1956 | Flannery O'Connor | A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1956 | May Sarton | Faithful Are the Wounds | Finalist |
| 1956 | Robert Penn Warren | Band of Angels | Finalist |
| 1956 | Eudora Welty | The Bride of the Innisfallen | Finalist |
| 1956 | Herman Wouk | Marjorie Morningstar | Finalist |
| 1957 | Wright Morris | The Field of Vision | Winner |
| 1957 | Nelson Algren | A Walk on the Wild Side | Finalist |
| 1957 | James Baldwin | Giovanni's Room | Finalist |
| 1957 | Saul Bellow | Seize the Day | Finalist |
| 1957 | B. J. Chute | Greenwillow | Finalist |
| 1957 | A. B. Guthrie | These Thousand Hills | Finalist |
| 1957 | John Hersey | A Single Pebble | Finalist |
| 1957 | John Clinton Hunt | Generations of Men | Finalist |
| 1957 | Edwin O'Connor | The Last Hurrah | Finalist |
| 1957 | J. F. Powers | The Presence of Grace | Finalist |
| 1957 | Elizabeth Spencer | The Voice at the Back Door | Finalist |
| 1957 | James Thurber | Further Fables for Our Time | Finalist |
| 1958 | John Cheever | The Wapshot Chronicle | Winner |
| 1958 | James Agee | A Death in the Family | Finalist |
| 1958 | James Gould Cozzens | By Love Possessed | Finalist |
| 1958 | Mark Harris | Something About a Soldier | Finalist |
| 1958 | Andrew Nelson Lytle | The Velvet Horn | Finalist |
| 1958 | Bernard Malamud | The Assistant | Finalist |
| 1958 | Wright Morris | Love Among the Cannibals | Finalist |
| 1958 | Vladimir Nabokov | Pnin | Finalist |
| 1958 | Ayn Rand | Atlas Shrugged | Finalist |
| 1958 | Nancy Wilson Ross | The Return of Lady Brace | Finalist |
| 1958 | May Sarton | The Birth of a Grandfather | Finalist |
| 1959 | Bernard Malamud | The Magic Barrel | Winner |
| 1959 | J. P. Donleavy | The Ginger Man | Finalist |
| 1959 | William Humphrey | Home from the Hill | Finalist |
| 1959 | Vladimir Nabokov | Lolita | Finalist |
| 1959 | John O'Hara | From the Terrace | Finalist |
| 1959 | J. R. Salamanca | The Lost Country | Finalist |
| 1959 | Anya Seton | The Winthrop Woman | Finalist |
| 1959 | Robert Traver | Anatomy of a Murder | Finalist |

### 1960s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1960-1969 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1960 | Philip Roth | Goodbye, Columbus | Winner |
| 1960 | Louis Auchincloss | Pursuit of the Prodigal | Finalist |
| 1960 | Hamilton Basso | The Light Infantry Ball | Finalist |
| 1960 | Saul Bellow | Henderson the Rain King | Finalist |
| 1960 | Evan S. Connell, Jr. | Mrs. Bridge | Finalist |
| 1960 | William Faulkner | The Mansion | Finalist |
| 1960 | Mark Harris | Wake Up, Stupid | Finalist |
| 1960 | John Hersey | The War Lover | Finalist |
| 1960 | H. L. Humes | Men Die | Finalist |
| 1960 | Shirley Jackson | The Haunting of Hill House | Finalist |
| 1960 | Elizabeth Janeway | The Third Choice | Finalist |
| 1960 | James Jones | The Pistol | Finalist |
| 1960 | Warren Miller | The Cool World | Finalist |
| 1960 | James Purdy | Malcolm | Finalist |
| 1960 | Leo Rosten | The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N | Finalist |
| 1960 | John Updike | The Poorhouse Fair | Finalist |
| 1960 | Robert Penn Warren | The Cave | Finalist |
| 1960 | Morris West | The Devil's Advocate | Finalist |
| 1961 | Conrad Richter | The Waters of Kronos | Winner |
| 1961 | Louis Auchincloss | The House of Five Talents | Finalist |
| 1961 | Kay Boyle | Generation Without Farewell | Finalist |
| 1961 | John Hersey | The Child Buyer | Finalist |
| 1961 | John Knowles | A Separate Peace | Finalist |
| 1961 | Harper Lee | To Kill a Mockingbird | Finalist |
| 1961 | Wright Morris | Ceremony in Lone Tree | Finalist |
| 1961 | Flannery O'Connor | The Violent Bear It Away | Finalist |
| 1961 | Elizabeth Spencer | The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales | Finalist |
| 1961 | Francis Steegmuller | The Christening Party | Finalist |
| 1961 | John Updike | Rabbit, Run | Finalist |
| 1961 | Mildred Walker | The Body of a Young Man | Finalist |
| 1962 | Walker Percy | The Moviegoer | Winner |
| 1962 | Hortense Calisher | False Entry | Finalist |
| 1962 | George P. Elliott | Among the Dangs | Finalist |
| 1962 | Joseph Heller | Catch-22 | Finalist |
| 1962 | Bernard Malamud | A New Life | Finalist |
| 1962 | William Maxwell | The Chateau | Finalist |
| 1962 | J. D. Salinger | Franny and Zooey | Finalist |
| 1962 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1962 | Edward Lewis Wallant | The Pawnbroker | Finalist |
| 1962 | Joan Williams | The Morning and the Evening | Finalist |
| 1962 | Richard Yates | Revolutionary Road | Finalist |
| 1963 | J. F. Powers | Morte d'Urban | Winner |
| 1963 | Vladimir Nabokov | Pale Fire | Finalist |
| 1963 | Katherine Anne Porter | Ship of Fools | Finalist |
| 1963 | Dawn Powell | The Golden Spur | Finalist |
| 1963 | Clancy Sigal | Going Away | Finalist |
| 1963 | John Updike | Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1964 | John Updike | The Centaur | Winner |
| 1964 | Bernard Malamud | Idiots First | Finalist |
| 1964 | Mary McCarthy | The Group | Finalist |
| 1964 | Thomas Pynchon | V. | Finalist |
| 1964 | Harvey Swados | The Will | Finalist |
| 1965 | Saul Bellow | Herzog | Winner |
| 1965 | Louis Auchincloss | The Rector of Justin | Finalist |
| 1965 | John Hawkes | Second Skin | Finalist |
| 1965 | Richard E. Kim | The Martyred | Finalist |
| 1965 | Wallace Markfield | To an Early Grave | Finalist |
| 1965 | Vladimir Nabokov | The Defense | Finalist |
| 1965 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | Short Friday | Finalist |
| 1966 | Katherine Anne Porter | The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter | Winner |
| 1966 | Jesse Hill Ford | The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones | Finalist |
| 1966 | Peter Matthiessen | At Play in the Fields of the Lord | Finalist |
| 1966 | James Merrill | The (Diblos) Notebook | Finalist |
| 1966 | Flannery O'Connor | Everything That Rises Must Converge | Finalist |
| 1966 | Harry Mark Petrakis | Pericles on 31st Street | Finalist |
| 1967 | Bernard Malamud | The Fixer | Winner |
| 1967 | Louis Auchincloss | The Embezzler | Finalist |
| 1967 | Edwin O'Connor | All in the Family | Finalist |
| 1967 | Walker Percy | The Last Gentleman | Finalist |
| 1967 | Harry Mark Petrakis | A Dream of Kings | Finalist |
| 1967 | Wilfrid Sheed | Office Politics | Finalist |
| 1968 | Thornton Wilder | The Eighth Day | Winner |
| 1968 | Norman Mailer | Why Are We in Vietnam? | Finalist |
| 1968 | Joyce Carol Oates | A Garden of Earthly Delights | Finalist |
| 1968 | Chaim Potok | The Chosen | Finalist |
| 1968 | William Styron | The Confessions of Nat Turner | Finalist |
| 1969 | Jerzy Kosiński | Steps | Winner |
| 1969 | John Barth | Lost in the Funhouse | Finalist |
| 1969 | Frederick Exley | A Fan's Notes | Finalist |
| 1969 | Joyce Carol Oates | Expensive People | Finalist |
| 1969 | Thomas Rogers | The Pursuit of Happiness | Finalist |

### 1970s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1970-1979 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1970 | Joyce Carol Oates | them | Winner |
| 1970 | Leonard Gardner | Fat City | Finalist |
| 1970 | Leonard Michaels | Going Places | Finalist |
| 1970 | Jean Stafford | The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford | Finalist |
| 1970 | Kurt Vonnegut | Slaughterhouse-Five | Finalist |
| 1971 | Saul Bellow | Mr. Sammler's Planet | Winner |
| 1971 | James Dickey | Deliverance | Finalist |
| 1971 | Shirley Hazzard | The Bay of Noon | Finalist |
| 1971 | John Updike | Bech: A Book | Finalist |
| 1971 | Eudora Welty | Losing Battles | Finalist |
| 1972 | Flannery O'Connor | The Complete Stories | Winner |
| 1972 | Frederick Buechner | Lion Country | Finalist |
| 1972 | E. L. Doctorow | The Book of Daniel | Finalist |
| 1972 | Stanley Elkin | The Dick Gibson Show | Finalist |
| 1972 | Tom McHale | Farragan's Retreat | Finalist |
| 1972 | Joyce Carol Oates | Wonderland | Finalist |
| 1972 | Cynthia Ozick | The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1972 | Walker Percy | Love in the Ruins | Finalist |
| 1972 | Earl Thompson | A Garden of Sand | Finalist |
| 1972 | John Updike | Rabbit Redux | Finalist |
| 1973 | John Barth | Chimera | Winner |
| 1973 | John Williams | Augustus | Winner |
| 1973 | Brock Brower | The Late Great Creature | Finalist |
| 1973 | Alan H. Friedman | Hermaphrodeity | Finalist |
| 1973 | Barry Hannah | Geronimo Rex | Finalist |
| 1973 | George V. Higgins | The Friends of Eddie Coyle | Finalist |
| 1973 | R. M. Koster | The Prince | Finalist |
| 1973 | Vladimir Nabokov | Transparent Things | Finalist |
| 1973 | Ishmael Reed | Mumbo Jumbo | Finalist |
| 1973 | Thomas Rogers | The Confessions of a Child of the Century | Finalist |
| 1973 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | Enemies, A Love Story | Finalist |
| 1973 | Eudora Welty | The Optimist's Daughter | Finalist |
| 1974 | Thomas Pynchon | Gravity's Rainbow | Winner |
| 1974 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories | Winner |
| 1974 | Doris Betts | Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1974 | John Cheever | The World of Apples | Finalist |
| 1974 | Ellen Douglas | Apostles of Light | Finalist |
| 1974 | Stanley Elkin | Searches and Seizures | Finalist |
| 1974 | John Gardner | Nickel Mountain | Finalist |
| 1974 | John Leonard | Black Conceit | Finalist |
| 1974 | Thomas McGuane | Ninety-Two in the Shade | Finalist |
| 1974 | Wilfrid Sheed | People Will Always Be Kind | Finalist |
| 1974 | Gore Vidal | Burr | Finalist |
| 1974 | Joy Williams | State of Grace | Finalist |
| 1975 | Robert Stone | Dog Soldiers | Winner |
| 1975 | Thomas Williams | The Hair of Harold Roux | Winner |
| 1975 | Donald Barthelme | Guilty Pleasures | Finalist |
| 1975 | Gail Godwin | The Odd Woman | Finalist |
| 1975 | Joseph Heller | Something Happened | Finalist |
| 1975 | Toni Morrison | Sula | Finalist |
| 1975 | Vladimir Nabokov | Look at the Harlequins! | Finalist |
| 1975 | Grace Paley | Enormous Changes at the Last Minute | Finalist |
| 1975 | Philip Roth | My Life As a Man | Finalist |
| 1975 | Mark Smith | The Death of the Detective | Finalist |
| 1976 | William Gaddis | J R | Winner |
| 1976 | Saul Bellow | Humboldt's Gift | Finalist |
| 1976 | Hortense Calisher | The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher | Finalist |
| 1976 | Johanna Kaplan | Other People's Lives | Finalist |
| 1976 | Vladimir Nabokov | Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1976 | Larry Woiwode | Beyond the Bedroom Wall | Finalist |
| 1977 | Wallace Stegner | The Spectator Bird | Winner |
| 1977 | Raymond Carver | Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? | Finalist |
| 1977 | MacDonald Harris | The Balloonist | Finalist |
| 1977 | Ursula K. Le Guin | Orsinian Tales | Finalist |
| 1977 | Cynthia Propper Seton | A Fine Romance | Finalist |
| 1978 | Mary Lee Settle | Blood Tie | Winner |
| 1978 | Robert Coover | The Public Burning | Finalist |
| 1978 | Peter De Vries | Madder Music | Finalist |
| 1978 | James Alan McPherson | Elbow Room | Finalist |
| 1978 | John Sayles | Union Dues | Finalist |
| 1979 | Tim O'Brien | Going After Cacciato | Winner |
| 1979 | John Cheever | The Stories of John Cheever | Finalist |
| 1979 | John Irving | The World According to Garp | Finalist |
| 1979 | Diane Johnson | Lying Low | Finalist |
| 1979 | David Plante | The Family | Finalist |

### 1980s

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. None of those are covered here.

#### 1980-1983

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1980-1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title | Result |
| 1980 | Hardcover | William Styron | Sophie's Choice | Winner |
| 1980 | Hardcover | James Baldwin | Just Above My Head | Finalist |
| 1980 | Hardcover | Norman Mailer | The Executioner's Song | Finalist |
| 1980 | Hardcover | Philip Roth | The Ghost Writer | Finalist |
| 1980 | Hardcover | Scott Spencer | Endless Love | Finalist |
| 1980 | Paperback | John Irving | The World According to Garp | Winner |
| 1980 | Paperback | Paul Bowles | Collected Stories | Finalist |
| 1980 | Paperback | Gail Godwin | Violet Clay | Finalist |
| 1980 | Paperback | John Updike | Too Far to Go | Finalist |
| 1980 | Paperback | Marguerite Young | Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Volumes 1 and 2 | Finalist |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Wright Morris | Plains Song: For Female Voices | Winner |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Shirley Hazzard | The Transit of Venus | Finalist |
| 1981 | Hardcover | William Maxwell | So Long, See You Tomorrow | Finalist |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Walker Percy | The Second Coming | Finalist |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Eudora Welty | The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty | Finalist |
| 1981 | Paperback | John Cheever | The Stories of John Cheever | Winner |
| 1981 | Paperback | Thomas Flanagan | The Year of the French | Finalist |
| 1981 | Paperback | Norman Mailer | The Executioner's Song | Finalist |
| 1981 | Paperback | Scott Spencer | Endless Love | Finalist |
| 1981 | Paperback | Herman Wouk | War and Remembrance | Finalist |
| 1982 | Hardcover | John Updike | Rabbit is Rich | Winner |
| 1982 | Hardcover | Mark Helprin | Ellis Island and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1982 | Hardcover | John Irving | The Hotel New Hampshire | Finalist |
| 1982 | Hardcover | Robert Stone | A Flag for Sunrise | Finalist |
| 1982 | Hardcover | William Wharton | Dad | Finalist |
| 1982 | Paperback | William Maxwell | So Long, See You Tomorrow | Winner |
| 1982 | Paperback | E. L. Doctorow | Loon Lake | Finalist |
| 1982 | Paperback | Shirley Hazzard | The Transit of Venus | Finalist |
| 1982 | Paperback | Walker Percy | The Second Coming | Finalist |
| 1982 | Paperback | Anne Tyler | Morgan's Passing | Finalist |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Alice Walker | The Color Purple | Winner |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Gail Godwin | A Mother and Two Daughters | Finalist |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Bobbie Ann Mason | Shiloh and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Paul Theroux | The Mosquito Coast | Finalist |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Anne Tyler | Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant | Finalist |
| 1983 | Paperback | Eudora Welty | The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty | Winner |
| 1983 | Paperback | David Bradley | The Chaneysville Incident | Finalist |
| 1983 | Paperback | Mary Gordon | The Company of Women | Finalist |
| 1983 | Paperback | Marilynne Robinson | Housekeeping | Finalist |
| 1983 | Paperback | Robert Stone | A Flag for Sunrise | Finalist |
1983 entries were published during 1982; winners in 27 categories were announced April 13 and privately celebrated April 28, 1983.
1984 entries for the "revamped" awards in three categories were published November 1983 to October 1984; eleven finalists were announced October 17. Winners were announced and celebrated November 15, 1984.

#### 1984-1989

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1984-1989 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1984 | Ellen Gilchrist | Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories | Winner |
| 1984 | Alison Lurie | Foreign Affairs | Finalist |
| 1984 | Philip Roth | The Anatomy Lesson | Finalist |
| 1985 | Don DeLillo | White Noise | Winner |
| 1985 | Ursula K. Le Guin | Always Coming Home | Finalist |
| 1985 | Hugh Nissenson | The Tree of Life | Finalist |
| 1986 | E. L. Doctorow | World's Fair | Winner |
| 1986 | Norman Rush | Whites | Finalist |
| 1986 | Peter Taylor | A Summons to Memphis | Finalist |
| 1987 | Larry Heinemann | Paco's Story | Winner |
| 1987 | Alice McDermott | That Night | Finalist |
| 1987 | Toni Morrison | Beloved | Finalist |
| 1987 | Howard Norman | The Northern Lights | Finalist |
| 1987 | Philip Roth | The Counterlife | Finalist |
| 1988 | Pete Dexter | Paris Trout | Winner |
| 1988 | Don DeLillo | Libra | Finalist |
| 1988 | Mary McGarry Morris | Vanished | Finalist |
| 1988 | J. F. Powers | Wheat That Springeth Green | Finalist |
| 1988 | Anne Tyler | Breathing Lessons | Finalist |
| 1989 | John Casey | Spartina | Winner |
| 1989 | E. L. Doctorow | Billy Bathgate | Finalist |
| 1989 | Katherine Dunn | Geek Love | Finalist |
| 1989 | Oscar Hijuelos | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love | Finalist |
| 1989 | Amy Tan | The Joy Luck Club | Finalist |

### 1990s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 1990-1999 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1990 | Charles Johnson | Middle Passage | Winner |
| 1990 | Felipe Alfau | Chromos | Finalist |
| 1990 | Elena Castedo | Paradise | Finalist |
| 1990 | Jessica Hagedorn | Dogeaters | Finalist |
| 1990 | Joyce Carol Oates | Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart | Finalist |
| 1991 | Norman Rush | Mating | Winner |
| 1991 | Louis Begley | Wartime Lies | Finalist |
| 1991 | Stephen Dixon | Frog | Finalist |
| 1991 | Stanley Elkin | The MacGuffin | Finalist |
| 1991 | Sandra Scofield | Beyond Deserving | Finalist |
| 1992 | Cormac McCarthy | All the Pretty Horses | Winner |
| 1992 | Dorothy Allison | Bastard Out of Carolina | Finalist |
| 1992 | Cristina García | Dreaming in Cuban | Finalist |
| 1992 | Edward P. Jones | Lost in the City | Finalist |
| 1992 | Robert Stone | Outerbridge Reach | Finalist |
| 1993 | E. Annie Proulx | The Shipping News | Winner |
| 1993 | Amy Bloom | Come to Me: Stories | Finalist |
| 1993 | Thom Jones | The Pugilist at Rest | Finalist |
| 1993 | Richard Powers | Operation Wandering Soul | Finalist |
| 1993 | Bob Shacochis | Swimming in the Volcano | Finalist |
| 1994 | William Gaddis | A Frolic of His Own | Winner |
| 1994 | Ellen Currie | Moses Supposes | Finalist |
| 1994 | Richard Dooling | White Man's Grave | Finalist |
| 1994 | Howard Norman | The Bird Artist | Finalist |
| 1994 | Grace Paley | The Collected Stories | Finalist |
| 1995 | Philip Roth | Sabbath's Theater | Winner |
| 1995 | Madison Smartt Bell | All Souls' Rising | Finalist |
| 1995 | Edwidge Danticat | Krik? Krak! | Finalist |
| 1995 | Stephen Dixon | Interstate | Finalist |
| 1995 | Rosario Ferré | The House on the Lagoon | Finalist |
| 1996 | Andrea Barrett | Ship Fever and Other Stories | Winner |
| 1996 | Ron Hansen | Atticus | Finalist |
| 1996 | Elizabeth McCracken | The Giant's House | Finalist |
| 1996 | Steven Millhauser | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer | Finalist |
| 1996 | Janet Peery | The River Beyond the World | Finalist |
| 1997 | Charles Frazier | Cold Mountain | Winner |
| 1997 | Don DeLillo | Underworld | Finalist |
| 1997 | Diane Johnson | Le Divorce | Finalist |
| 1997 | Ward Just | Echo House | Finalist |
| 1997 | Cynthia Ozick | The Puttermesser Papers | Finalist |
| 1998 | Alice McDermott | Charming Billy | Winner |
| 1998 | Allegra Goodman | Kaaterskill Falls | Finalist |
| 1998 | Gayl Jones | The Healing | Finalist |
| 1998 | Robert Stone | Damascus Gate | Finalist |
| 1998 | Tom Wolfe | A Man in Full | Finalist |
| 1999 | Ha Jin | Waiting | Winner |
| 1999 | Andre Dubus III | House of Sand and Fog | Finalist |
| 1999 | Kent Haruf | Plainsong | Finalist |
| 1999 | Patricia Henley | Hummingbird House | Finalist |
| 1999 | Jean Thompson | Who Do You Love | Finalist |

### 2000s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 2000-2009 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2000 | Susan Sontag | In America | Winner |
| 2000 | Charles Baxter | The Feast of Love | Finalist |
| 2000 | Alan Lightman | The Diagnosis | Finalist |
| 2000 | Joyce Carol Oates | Blonde | Finalist |
| 2000 | Francine Prose | Blue Angel | Finalist |
| 2001 | Jonathan Franzen | The Corrections | Winner |
| 2001 | Dan Chaon | Among the Missing | Finalist |
| 2001 | Jennifer Egan | Look at Me | Finalist |
| 2001 | Louise Erdrich | The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse | Finalist |
| 2001 | Susan Straight | Highwire Moon | Finalist |
| 2002 | Julia Glass | Three Junes | Winner |
| 2002 | Mark Costello | Big If | Finalist |
| 2002 | Adam Haslett | You Are Not a Stranger Here | Finalist |
| 2002 | Martha McPhee | Gorgeous Lies | Finalist |
| 2002 | Brad Watson | The Heaven of Mercury | Finalist |
| 2003 | Shirley Hazzard | The Great Fire | Winner |
| 2003 | T. C. Boyle | Drop City | Finalist |
| 2003 | Edward P. Jones | The Known World | Finalist |
| 2003 | Scott Spencer | A Ship Made of Paper | Finalist |
| 2003 | Marianne Wiggins | Evidence of Things Unseen | Finalist |
| 2004 | Lily Tuck | The News from Paraguay | Winner |
| 2004 | Sarah Shun-lien Bynum | Madeleine is Sleeping | Finalist |
| 2004 | Christine Schutt | Florida | Finalist |
| 2004 | Joan Silber | Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories | Finalist |
| 2004 | Kate Walbert | Our Kind | Finalist |
| 2005 | William T. Vollmann | Europe Central | Winner |
| 2005 | E. L. Doctorow | The March | Finalist |
| 2005 | Mary Gaitskill | Veronica | Finalist |
| 2005 | Christopher Sorrentino | Trance | Finalist |
| 2005 | Rene Steinke | Holy Skirts | Finalist |
| 2006 | Richard Powers | The Echo Maker | Winner |
| 2006 | Mark Z. Danielewski | Only Revolutions | Finalist |
| 2006 | Ken Kalfus | A Disorder Peculiar to the Country | Finalist |
| 2006 | Dana Spiotta | Eat the Document | Finalist |
| 2006 | Jess Walter | The Zero | Finalist |
| 2007 | Denis Johnson | Tree of Smoke | Winner |
| 2007 | Mischa Berlinski | Fieldwork | Finalist |
| 2007 | Lydia Davis | Varieties of Disturbance | Finalist |
| 2007 | Joshua Ferris | Then We Came to the End | Finalist |
| 2007 | Jim Shepard | Like You'd Understand, Anyway | Finalist |
| 2008 | Peter Matthiessen | Shadow Country | Winner |
| 2008 | Aleksandar Hemon | The Lazarus Project | Finalist |
| 2008 | Rachel Kushner | Telex from Cuba | Finalist |
| 2008 | Marilynne Robinson | Home | Finalist |
| 2008 | Salvatore Scibona | The End | Finalist |
| 2009 | Colum McCann | Let the Great World Spin | Winner |
| 2009 | Bonnie Jo Campbell | American Salvage | Finalist |
| 2009 | Daniyal Mueenuddin | In Other Rooms, Other Wonders | Finalist |
| 2009 | Jayne Anne Phillips | Lark and Termite | Finalist |
| 2009 | Marcel Theroux | Far North | Finalist |

### 2010s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 2010-2019 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2010 | Jaimy Gordon | Lord of Misrule | Winner |
| 2010 | Peter Carey | Parrot and Olivier in America | Finalist |
| 2010 | Nicole Krauss | Great House | Finalist |
| 2010 | Lionel Shriver | So Much for That | Finalist |
| 2010 | Karen Tei Yamashita | I Hotel | Finalist |
| 2011 | Jesmyn Ward | Salvage the Bones | Winner |
| 2011 | Andrew Krivak | The Sojourn | Finalist |
| 2011 | Téa Obreht | The Tiger's Wife | Finalist |
| 2011 | Julie Otsuka | The Buddha in the Attic | Finalist |
| 2011 | Edith Pearlman | Binocular Vision | Finalist |
| 2012 | Louise Erdrich | The Round House | Winner |
| 2012 | Junot Díaz | This Is How You Lose Her | Finalist |
| 2012 | Dave Eggers | A Hologram for the King | Finalist |
| 2012 | Ben Fountain | Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk | Finalist |
| 2012 | Kevin Powers | The Yellow Birds | Finalist |
| 2013 | James McBride | The Good Lord Bird | Winner |
| 2013 | Rachel Kushner | The Flamethrowers | Finalist |
| 2013 | Jhumpa Lahiri | The Lowland | Finalist |
| 2013 | Thomas Pynchon | Bleeding Edge | Finalist |
| 2013 | George Saunders | Tenth of December: Stories | Finalist |
| 2014 | Phil Klay | Redeployment | Winner |
| 2014 | Rabih Alameddine | An Unnecessary Woman | Finalist |
| 2014 | Anthony Doerr | All the Light We Cannot See | Finalist |
| 2014 | Emily St. John Mandel | Station Eleven | Finalist |
| 2014 | Marilynne Robinson | Lila | Finalist |
| 2015 | Adam Johnson | Fortune Smiles | Winner |
| 2015 | Karen Bender | Refund | Finalist |
| 2015 | Angela Flournoy | The Turner House | Finalist |
| 2015 | Lauren Groff | Fates and Furies | Finalist |
| 2015 | Hanya Yanagihara | A Little Life | Finalist |
| 2016 | Colson Whitehead | The Underground Railroad | Winner |
| 2016 | Chris Bachelder | The Throwback Special | Finalist |
| 2016 | Paulette Jiles | News of the World | Finalist |
| 2016 | Karan Mahajan | The Association of Small Bombs | Finalist |
| 2016 | Jacqueline Woodson | Another Brooklyn | Finalist |
| 2017 | Jesmyn Ward | Sing, Unburied, Sing | Winner |
| 2017 | Elliot Ackerman | Dark at the Crossing | Finalist |
| 2017 | Lisa Ko | The Leavers | Finalist |
| 2017 | Min Jin Lee | Pachinko | Finalist |
| 2017 | Carmen Maria Machado | Her Body and Other Parties | Finalist |
| 2018 | Sigrid Nunez | The Friend | Winner |
| 2018 | Jamel Brinkley | A Lucky Man | Finalist |
| 2018 | Lauren Groff | Florida | Finalist |
| 2018 | Brandon Hobson | Where the Dead Sit Talking | Finalist |
| 2018 | Rebecca Makkai | The Great Believers | Finalist |
| 2019 | Susan Choi | Trust Exercise | Winner |
| 2019 | Kali Fajardo-Anstine | Sabrina & Corina | Finalist |
| 2019 | Marlon James | Black Leopard, Red Wolf | Finalist |
| 2019 | Laila Lalami | The Other Americans | Finalist |
| 2019 | Julia Phillips | Disappearing Earth | Finalist |

### 2020s

National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists, 2020–present :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2020 | Charles Yu | Interior Chinatown | Winner |
| 2020 | Rumaan Alam | Leave the World Behind | Finalist |
| 2020 | Lydia Millet | A Children's Bible | Finalist |
| 2020 | Deesha Philyaw | The Secret Lives of Church Ladies | Finalist |
| 2020 | Douglas Stuart | Shuggie Bain | Finalist |
| 2021 | Jason Mott | Hell of a Book | Winner |
| 2021 | Anthony Doerr | Cloud Cuckoo Land | Finalist |
| 2021 | Lauren Groff | Matrix | Finalist |
| 2021 | Laird Hunt | Zorrie | Finalist |
| 2021 | Robert Jones Jr. | The Prophets | Finalist |
| 2022 | Tess Gunty | The Rabbit Hutch | Winner |
| 2022 | Gayl Jones | The Birdcatcher | Finalist |
| 2022 | Jamil Jan Kochai | The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories | Finalist |
| 2022 | Sarah Thankam Mathews | All This Could Be Different | Finalist |
| 2022 | Alejandro Varela | The Town of Babylon | Finalist |
| 2023 | Justin Torres | Blackouts | Winner |
| 2023 | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Finalist |
| 2023 | Aaliyah Bilal | Temple Folk | Finalist |
| 2023 | Paul Harding | This Other Eden | Finalist |
| 2023 | Hanna Pylväinen | The End of Drum-Time | Finalist |
| 2024 | Percival Everett | James | Winner |
| 2024 | Pemi Aguda | Ghostroots | Finalist |
| 2024 | Kaveh Akbar | Martyr! | Finalist |
| 2024 | Miranda July | All Fours | Finalist |
| 2024 | Hisham Matar | My Friends | Finalist |

## 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; then none until the 1950 revival in three categories including Fiction.

### Most Distinguished Novel (1935–1936)

1935: Rachel Field, Time Out of Mind
1936: Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

### Favorite Fiction (1937–1940)

1937: A. J. Cronin, The Citadel
   * Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass
   * Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage
   * Leonard Q. Ross (Leo Rosten), The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (short stories)
1938: Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
1939: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
   * Sholom Asch, The Nazarene
1940: Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley

### Bookseller Discovery (1936–1941)

1936: Norah Lofts, I Met a Gypsy (short stories)
1937: Lawrence Watkin, On Borrowed Time (novel)
   * see 1937 Fiction
1938: see nonfiction
1939: Elgin Groseclose, Ararat (novel)
   * Chard Powers Smith, Artillery of Time, I
1940: see nonfiction
1941: George Sessions Perry, Hold Autumn in Your Hand (novel)

### Most Original Book (1935–1939)

1935: Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao (novel)
1936: see nonfiction
1937: see nonfiction
   * see 1937 Fiction
1938: see nonfiction
1939: Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun (novel)
   * Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male

## Repeat winners

    See Winners of multiple U.S. National Book Awards