First posted 6/16/2020.

National Book Award for Fiction: 1950-2019

The award was established in 1950 as awards to be given by writers to writers with “general fiction” as one of the categories. In the 1980s, there were several awards in the fiction category including hardcover, paperback, first novel or first work of fiction, hardcover children’s fiction, and paperback children’s fiction. 2019: Susan Choi Trust Exercise 2018: Sigrid Nunez The Friend 2017: Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing 2016: Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad 2015: Adam Johnson Fortune Smiles 2014: Phil Klay Redeployment 2013: James McBride The Good Lord Bird 2012: Louis Erdrich The Round House 2011: Jesmyn Ward Salvage the Bones 2010: Jamiy Gordon Lord of Misrule 2009: Colum McCann Let the Great World Spin 2008: Peter Matthiessen Shadow Country 2007: Denis Johnson Tree of Smoke 2006: Richard Powers The Echo Maker 2005: William T. Vollmann Europe Central 2004: Lily Tuck The News from Paraguay 2003: Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire 2002: Julia Glass Three Junes 2001: Jonathan Franzen The Corrections 2000: Susan Sontag In America 1999: Ha Jin Waiting 1998: Alice McDermott Charming Billy 1997: Charles Frazier Cold Mountain 1996: Andrea Barrett Ship Fever and Other Stories 1995: Philip Roth Sabbath’s Theater 1994: William Gaddis A Frolic of His Own 1993: E. Annie Proulx The Shipping News 1992: Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses 1991: Norman Rush Mating 1990: Charles Johnson Middle Passage 1989: John Casey Spartina 1988: Pete Dexter Paris Trout 1987: Larry Heinemann Paco’s Story 1986: E.L. Doctorow World’s Fair 1985: Don DeLillo White Noise 1984: Ellen Gilchrist Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories 1983: Alice Walker The Color Purple (hardcover) 1983: Eudora Welty The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (paperback) 1982: John Updike Rabbit Is Rich (hardcover) 1982: William Maxwell So Long, See You Tomorrow (paperback) 1981: Wright Morris Plains Song: For Female Voices (hardcover) 1981: John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever (paperback) 1980: William Styron Sophie’s Choice (hardcover) 1980: John Irving The World According to Garp (paperback) 1979: Tim O’Brien Going After Cacciato 1978: Mary Lee Settle Blood Tie 1977: Wallace Stegner The Spectator Bird 1976: William Gaddis J.R. 1975: Robert Stone Dog Soldiers 1975: Thomas Williams The Hair of Harold Roux 1974: Thomas Pynchon Gravity’s Rainbow 1974: Isaac Bashevis Singer A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories 1973: John Edward Williams Augustus 1973: John Barth Chimera 1972: Flannery O’Connor The Complete Stories 1971: Saul Bellow Mr. Sammler’s Planet 1970: Joyce Carol Oates Them 1969: Jerzy Kosiński Steps 1968: Thornton Wilder The Eighth Day 1967: Bernard Malamud The Fixer 1966: Katherine Anne Porter The Collected Stories 1965: Saul Bellow Herzog 1964: John Updike The Centaur 1963: J.F. Powers Morte d’Urban 1962: Walker Percy The Moviegoer 1961: Conrad RIchter The Waters of Kronos 1960: Philip Roth Goodbye, Columbus 1959: Bernard Malamud The Magic Barrel 1958: John Cheever The Wapshot Chronicle 1957: Wright Morris The Field of Vision 1956: John O’Hara Ten North Frederick 1955: William Faulker A Fable 1954: Saul Bellow The Adventures of Augie March 1953: Ralph Ellison Invisible Man 1952: James Jones From Here to Eternity 1951: William Faulkner Collected Stories of William Faulkner 1950: Nelson Algren The Man with the Golden Arm 1941: George Sessions Perry Hold Autumn in Your Hand (Bookseller Discovery: Novel) 1940: Richard Llewellyn How Green Was My Valley (Favorite Fiction) 1939: Dalton Trumbo Johnny Got His Gun (Most Original Book: Novel) 1939: Elgin Groseclose Ararat (Bookseller Discovery: Novel) 1939: John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (Favorite Fiction) 1938: Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca (Favorite Fiction) 1937: Lawrence Watkin On Borrowed Time (Bookseller Discovery: Novel) 1937: A.J. Cronin The Citadel (Favorite Fiction) 1936: Norah Lofts I Met a Gypsy (Bookseller Discovery: Short Stories) 1936: Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind (Most Distinguished Novel) 1935: Rachel Field Time Out of Mind (Most Distinguished Novel) 1935: Charles G. Finney The Circus of Dr. Lao (Most Original Book: Novel) Resources and Related Links: National Book Foundation: “National Book Awards” Wikipedia.org: “National Book Award for Fiction”

First posted 6/16/2020.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: 1918-2020

Pulitzer.org explains that the prize is given “for distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.” It is one of seven Pulitzer prizes given annually. The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, now for Fiction, was one of the inaugural awards when established in 1917. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2020: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) 2019: The Overstory by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton) 2018: Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Lee Boudreaux Books/Little, Brown and Company) 2017: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) 2016: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press) 2015: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner) 2014: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown) 2013: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (Random House) 2012: no award given 2011: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A.. Knopf) 2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press) 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House) 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books) 2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf) 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar) 2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins) 2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar) 2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf) 2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House) 2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin) 1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) 1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin) 1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown) 1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf) 1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking) 1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt) 1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf) 1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf) 1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar) 1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf) 1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf) 1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf) 1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster) 1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House) 1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking) 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace) 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf) 1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Louisiana State U. Press) 1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little) 1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf) 1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press) 1977: no award given 1976: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking) 1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay) 1974: no award given 1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random) 1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday) 1971: no award given 1970: Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar) 1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper) 1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random) 1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar) 1966: Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt) 1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random) 1964: no award given 1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random) 1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little) 1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott) 1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday) 1959: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday) 1958: A Death in the Family by James Agee (McDowell, Obolensky) 1957: no award given 1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World) 1955: A Fable by William Faulkner (Random) 1954: no award given 1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner) 1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday) 1951: The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf) 1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane) 1949: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt) 1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan) Pulitzer Prize for the Novel 1947: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt) 1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Knopf) 1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (Harper) 1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (Viking) 1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt) 1941: no award given 1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking) 1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner) 1938: The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (Little) 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan) 1936: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (Harper) 1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Simon & Schuster) 1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller (Harper) 1933: The Store by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday) 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (John Day) 1931: Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Houghton) 1930: Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton) 1929: Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (Bobbs) 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Boni) 1927: Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (Stokes) 1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt) 1925: So Big by Edna Ferber (Doubleday) 1924: The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (Harper) 1923: One of Ours by Willa Cather (Knopf) 1922: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday) 1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton) 1920: no award given 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday) 1918: His Family by Ernest Poole (Macmillan) Resources and Related Links: The Pulitzer Prizes: “Fiction” (1948-present) The Pulitzer Prizes: “Novel” (1918-1947) Wikipedia: “Pulitzer Prize for Fiction”