National Book Award Winners: 1950-Present
In search of reading recommendations? Look no further! Here is a list of National Book Award-winning books from 1950 through today. It includes the best in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People's Literature.
Not each year included every category. However, this list will include the most recent winners for each category to its first inclusion.
what is the national book awards?
Established in 1950, the National Book Awards celebrate the best writing in the United States each year. The National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization, oversees this effort. Its goal is to keep literature important in U.S. culture.
The awards ceremony happens every fall. A panel of judges picks a winner from five finalists in each category. Each finalist gets $1,000, a medal, and a Judges' citation. However, only one contestant wins the top prize of $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.
fiction winners
2025: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
2024: James by Percival Everett
2023: Blackouts by Justin Torres
2022: The Rabbit Hutch: A Novel by Tess Gunty
2021: Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
2020: Interior Chinatown: A Novel by Charles Yu
2019: Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
2018: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
2017: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
2016: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2015: Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson
2014: Redeployment by Phil Klay
2013: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
2012: The Round House by Louise Erdrich
2011: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
2010: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
2009: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
2008: Shadow Country: A New Rendering of the Watson Legend by Peter Matthiessen
2007: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
2006: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
2005: Europe Central by William T Vollmann
2004: The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
2003: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
2002: Three Junes by Julia Glass
2001: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2000: In America by Susan Sontag
1999: Waiting by Ha Jin
1998: Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
1997: Cold Mountain: 20th Anniversary Edition by Charles Frazier
1996: Ship Fever: Stories by Andrea Barrett
1995: Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth
1994: Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
1993: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
1992: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
1991: Mating: A Novel by Norman Rush
1990: Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
1989: Spartina by John Casey
1988: Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
1987: Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann
1986: World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow
1985: White Noise by Don Delillo
1984: Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1983: The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1982: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
1981: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1981: Plains Song: For Female Voices by Wright Morris - Charles Baxter
1980: Sophie's Choice by William Styron
1980: The World According to Garp by John Irving
1979: Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
1978: Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle
1977: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
1976: J R by William Gaddis - Joy Williams
1975: Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
1974: A Crown of Feathers by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1973: Augustus by John Williams - Daniel Mendelsohn
1972: The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor - Robert Giroux
1971: Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow - Stanley Crouch
1970: Slaughterhouse-Five: Or the Children's Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut
1969: Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
1968: The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud - Jonathan Safran Foer
1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter: A Collection by Katherine Anne Porter
1965: Herzog by Saul Bellow - Philip Roth
1964: The Centaur by John Updike
1963: Morte D'Urban by J.F. Powers - Elizabeth Hardwick
1962: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy - Paul Elie
1961: The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter
1960: Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Short Stories by Philip Roth
1959: The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
1958: The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
1957: The Field of Vision by Wright Morris
1956: Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara - Jonathan Dee
1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
1954: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
1953: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
1952: From Here to Eternity by James Jones
1951: Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner
1950: The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
nonfiction winners
2025: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
2024: Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason de León
2023: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
2022: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
2021: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
2020: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne - Tamara Payne
2019: The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M Broom
2018: The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C Stewart
2017: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
2016: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X Kendi
2015: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2014: Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
2013: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
2012: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
2011: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2010: Just Kids: An Autobiography by Patti Smith
2009: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
2008: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
2007: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner
2006: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
2005: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
2004: Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle
2003: Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
2002: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III by Robert A Caro
2001: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
2000: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
1999: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W Dower
1998: Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
1997: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J Ellis
1996: An American Requiem by James Carroll
1995: The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
1994: How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter by Sherwin B Nuland
1993: United States: Essays 1952-1992 by Gore Vidal
1992: Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story by Paul Monette
1991: Freedom: Volume I: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture by Orlando Patterson
1990: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow
1989: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L Friedman
1988: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
1987: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
1986: Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
1985: Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J Anthony Lukas
1984: Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845 by Robert Vincent Remini
1983: National Defense by James Fallows
1983: China: Alive in the Bitter Sea by Fox Butterfield
1982: Naming Names by Victor S Navasky
1982: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
1981: China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
1981: The Last Cowboy by Jane Kramer
1980: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
1980: The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - Pico Iyer
1963: Henry James, Vol. II: The Conquest of London, Henry James, Vol. III: The Middle Years by Leon Edel
1962: The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford
1961: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L Shirer - Ron Rosenbaum
1960: James Joyce by Richard Ellmann
1959: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël by J Christopher Herold
1958: The Lion and the Throne: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) by Catherine Drinker Bowen
1957: Russia Leaves the War. Vol. 1 of Soviet-American Relations by George Frost Kennan
1956: An American in Italy by Herbert Kubly
1955: The Measure of Man: On Freedom, Human Values, Survival and the Modern Temper by Joseph W. Krutch
1954: A Stillness at Appomattox: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy by Bruce Catton
1953: The Course of Empire by Bernard Devoto
1952: The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
1951: Herman Melville by Newton Arvin
1950: The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph L. Rusk
poetry winners
2024: The Intentions of Thunder by Patricia Smith
2024: Something about Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
2023: From Unincorporated Territory [Åmot] by Craig Santos Perez
2022: Punks by John Keene
2021: Floaters: Poems by Martín Espada
2020: DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi
2019: Sight Lines by Arthur Sze
2018: Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
2017: Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart
2016: The Performance of Becoming Human by Daniel Borzutzky
2015: Voyage of the Sable Venus: And Other Poems by Robin Coste Lewis
2014: Faithful and Virtuous Night: Poems by Louise Glück
2013: Incarnadine by Mary Szybist
2012: Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry
2011: Head Off & Split: Poems by Nikky Finney
2010: Lighthead: Poems by Terrance Hayes
2009: Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop
2008: Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems by Mark Doty
2007: Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 by Robert Hass
2006: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey
2005: Migration: New & Selected Poems by W S Merwin
2004: Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 by Jean Valentine
2003: The Singing: Poems by C.K. Williams
2002: In the Next Galaxy by Ruth Stone
2001: Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry by Alan Dugan - Carl Phillips
2000: Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 by Lucille Clifton
1999: Vice: New and Selected Poems by Ai
1998: This Time: New and Selected Poems by Gerald Stern
1997: Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems by William Meredith
1996: Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 by Hayden Carruth
1995: Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected by Stanley Kunitz
1994: Worshipful Company of Fletchers by James Tate
1993: Garbage by A.R. Ammons
1992: New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
1991: What Work Is: Poems by Philip Levine
1983: Country Music: Selected Early Poems by Charles Wright - David St John
1982: Life Supports: New and Collected Poems by William Bronk - Eugene G Canade
1981: The Need to Hold Still: Poems by Lisel Mueller
1980: Ashes: Poems New & Old by Levine Philip Levine Philip
1979: Mirabell: Books of Number by James Merrill
1978: Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov by Howard Nemerov
1977: Collected Poems 1930-76 by Richard Eberhart
1976: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror: Poems by John Ashbery
1975: Presentation Piece by Marilyn Hacker
1974: Diving Into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 by Adrienne Rich
1973: Collected Poems, 1951-1971: On Metaphor and Mortality by A.R. Ammons
1972: The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara by Frank O'Hara - Donald Allen - John Ashbery
1971: To See, To Take: Poems by Mona Van Duyn
1970: The Complete Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
1969: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest by John Berryman
1968: The Light Around the Body by Robert W Bly
1967: Nights and Days by James Merrill
1966: Buckdancer's Choice: Poems by James Dickey
1965: The Far Field by Theodore Roethke - Roethke Roethke
1964: Sel Poems by John Crowe Ransom
1963: Traveling Through the Dark by William Stafford
1962: Poems by Alan Dugan - Dudley Fitts
1961: The Woman at the Washington Zoo by Randall Jarrell
1960: Life Studies and for the Union Dead by Robert Lowell
1959: Words for the Wind by Theodore Roethke
1958: Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 by Robert Penn Warren
1957: Things of This World by Richard Wilbur
1956: The Shield of Achilles by W.H. Auden - Alan Jacobs
1955: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens: The Corrected Edition by Wallace Stevens - John N Serio - Chris Beyers
1954: Collected Poems by Conrad Aiken
1953: Collected Poems by Archibald MacLeish - MacLeish MacLeish - Richard B McAdoo
1952: New Collected Poems by Marianne Moore - Heather Cass White
1951: The Auroras of Autumn by Wallace Stevens
1950: Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams - Charles Tomlinson
translated literature winners
2025: We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Robin Myers
2024: Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-Zi Yang
2023: The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel - Bruna Dantas Lobato
2022: Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin - Megan McDowell
2021: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin - Aneesa Abbas Higgins
2020: Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri - Morgan Giles
2019: Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
2018: The Emissary by Yoko Tawada - Margaret Mitsutani
young people's literature
2025: The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri
2024: Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
2023: A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
2022: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
2021: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
2020: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
2019: 1919 the Year That Changed America by Martin W Sandler
2018: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
2017: Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
2016: March: Book Three by John Lewis - Andrew Aydin - Nate Powell
2015: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman - Brendan Shusterman
2014: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
2013: The Thing about Luck by Cynthia Kadohata - Julia Kuo
2012: Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
2011: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
2010: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
2009: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
2008: What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
2007: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2006: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
2005: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
2004: Godless by Pete Hautman
2003: The Canning Season by Polly Horvath
2002: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
2001: True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
2000: Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
1999: When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
1998: Holes by Louis Sachar
1997: Dancing on the Edge by Han Nolan
1996: Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by Victor Martinez - Steve Scott
read on
The National Book Foundation continues to honor titles of exceptional quality to this day, all to keep reading an important part of American culture. So, no matter which category you prefer dive into these winners with confidence and read on.