Arts & Culture

National Book Awards

American literary award
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National Book Awards, annual awards given to books of the highest quality written by Americans and published by American publishers. The awards were founded in 1950 by the American Book Publishers Council, American Booksellers Association, and Book Manufacturers Institute. From 1976 to 1979 they were administered by the National Book Committee. In 1980 they were renamed the American Book Awards and were conferred by the American Booksellers Association. Seven years later the awards were again called the National Book Awards, and they were thereafter granted by the National Book Foundation.

The process begins when publishers submit selected books to compete in several categories, chiefly fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Winners are chosen by five-member panels selected for each genre; they receive a $10,000 cash award and a crystal sculpture. Awards are also intermittently given for children’s literature, autobiography, first novel, and other categories. Past winners include William Carlos Williams, Bruce Catton, Theodore Roethke, Katherine Anne Porter, Edward Seidensticker, Flannery O’Connor, Lewis Thomas, and Madeleine L’Engle.

Winners of the National Book Award for fiction

Winners of the National Book Award for fiction are listed in the table.

National Book Awards—Fiction1
year title author
1Unless otherwise indicated, the category in which the award was presented is "fiction."
2Award presented for translation.
3In 1980 the National Book Awards became the American Book Awards.
4From 1987 the awards were again known as the National Book Awards.
1950 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren
1951 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner William Faulkner
1952 From Here to Eternity James Jones
1953 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
1954 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow
1955 A Fable William Faulkner
1956 Ten North Frederick John O'Hara
1957 The Field of Vision Wright Morris
1958 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever
1959 The Magic Barrel Bernard Malamud
1960 Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth
1961 The Waters of Kronos Conrad Richter
1962 The Moviegoer Walker Percy
1963 Morte d'Urban J.F. Powers
1964 The Centaur John Updike
1965 Herzog Saul Bellow
1966 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter
1967 The Fixer Bernard Malamud
Hopscotch (translation of Rayuela by Julio Cortázar)2 Gregory Rabassa (translator)
1968 The Eighth Day Thornton Wilder
1969 Steps Jerzy Kosinski
Cosmicomics (translation of Cosmicomiche by Italo Calvino)2 William Weaver (translator)
1970 them Joyce Carol Oates
Castle to Castle (translation of D'un château l'autre by Louis-Ferdinand Céline)2 Ralph Manheim (translator)
1971 Mr. Sammler's Planet Saul Bellow
The Sound of the Mountain (translation of Yama no oto by Kawabata Yasunari)2 Edward G. Seidensticker (translator)
1972 The Complete Stories Flannery O'Connor
1973 Chimera John Barth
Augustus John Williams
1974 A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories Isaac Bashevis Singer
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
Monsieur Teste (translation of synonymous novel by Paul Veléry)2 Jackson Matthews (translator)
1975 Dog Soldiers: A Novel Robert Stone
The Hair of Harold Roux Thomas Williams
1976 JR William Gaddis
1977 The Spectator Bird Wallace Stegner
1978 Blood Tie Mary Lee Settle
1979 Going After Cacciato Tim O'Brien
19803 Sophie's Choice (hardcover fiction) William Styron
The World According to Garp (paperback fiction) John Irving
Birdy (first novel) William Wharton
The Green Ripper (hardcover mystery) John D. MacDonald
Stained Glass (paperback mystery) William F. Buckley, Jr.
Jem (hardcover science fiction) Frederick Pohl
The Book of the Dun Cow (paperback science fiction) Walter Wangerin, Jr.
1981 Plains Song: For Female Voices (hardcover fiction) Wright Morris
The Stories of John Cheever (paperback fiction) John Cheever
Sister Wolf (first novel) Ann Arensberg
Evening Edged in Gold (translation of Abend mit Goldrand by Arno Schmidt)2 John E. Woods (translator)
1982 Rabbit Is Rich (hardcover fiction) John Updike
So Long, See You Tomorrow (paperback fiction) William Maxwell
Dale Loves Sophie to Death (first novel) Robb Forman Dew
1983 The Color Purple (hardcover fiction) Alice Walker
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (paperback fiction) Eudora Welty
The Women of Brewster Place (first novel) Gloria Naylor
1984 Victory over Japan: A Book of Stories Ellen Gilchrist
Stones for Ibarra (first work of fiction) Harriet Doer
1985 White Noise Don DeLillo
Easy in the Islands: Stories (first work of fiction) Bob Shacochis
1986 World's Fair E.L. Doctorow
19874 Paco's Story Larry Heinemann
1988 Paris Trout Pete Dexter
1989 Spartina John Casey
1990 Middle Passage Charles Johnson
1991 Mating Norman Rush
1992 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
1993 The Shipping News E. Annie Proulx
1994 A Frolic of His Own William Gaddis
1995 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth
1996 Ship Fever and Other Stories Andrea Barrett
1997 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
1998 Charming Billy Alice McDermott
1999 Waiting Ha Jin
2000 In America Susan Sontag
2001 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen
2002 Three Junes Julia Glass
2003 The Great Fire Shirley Hazzard
2004 The News from Paraguay Lily Tuck
2005 Europe Central William T. Vollmann
2006 The Echo Maker Richard Powers
2007 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson
2008 Shadow Country Peter Matthiessen
2009 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann
2010 Lord of Misrule Jaimy Gordon
2011 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward
2012 The Round House Louise Erdrich
2013 The Good Lord Bird James McBride
2014 Redeployment Phil Klay
2015 Fortune Smiles: Stories Adam Johnson
2016 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead
2017 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward
2018 The Friend Sigrid Nunez
2019 Trust Exercise Susan Choi
2020 Interior Chinatown Charles Yu
2021 Hell of a Book Jason Mott
2022 The Rabbit Hutch Tess Gunty
2023 Blackouts Justin Torres

Winners of the National Book Award for nonfiction

Winners of the National Book Award for nonfiction are listed in the table.

National Book Awards—Nonfiction
year title author
*In 1980 the National Book Awards became the American Book Awards.
**From 1987 the awards were again known as the National Book Awards.
1950 The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph L. Rusk
1951 Herman Melville Newton Arvin
1952 The Sea Around Us Rachel Carson
1953 The Course of Empire Bernard A. De Voto
1954 A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton
1955 The Measure of Man: On Freedom, Human Values, Survival, and the Modern Temper Joseph Wood Krutch
1956 American in Italy Herbert Kubly
1957 Russia Leaves the War George F. Kennan
1958 The Lion and the Throne: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) Catherine Drinker Bowen
1959 Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël J. Christopher Herold
1960 James Joyce Richard Ellmann
1961 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany William L. Shirer
1962 The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects Lewis Mumford
1963 Henry James, Vol. II: The Conquest of London (1870–1881); Vol. III: The Middle Years (1882–1895) Leon Edel
1964 The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (history and biography) William H. McNeill
John Keats: The Making of a Poet (arts and letters) Aileen Ward
Man-made America: Chaos or control?: An Inquiry into Selected Problems of Design in the Urbanized Landscape (science, philosophy, and religion) Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev
1965 The Life of Lenin (history and biography) Louis Fischer
Oysters of Locmariaquer (arts and letters) Eleanor Clark
God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion Norbert Wiener
1966 A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (history and biography) Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Paris Journal, 1944–1965 (arts and letters) Janet Flanner
1967 The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, Vol. I: The Rise of Modern Paganism (history and biography) Peter Gay
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography (arts and letters) Justin Kaplan
La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty (science, philosophy, and religion) Oscar Lewis
History of My Life (translation of Mémoires by Giacomo Casanova) Willard Trask (translator)
1968 Memoirs: 1925–1950 (history and biography) George F. Kennan
Selected Essays (arts and letters) William Troy
Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (science, philosophy, and religion) Jonathan Kozol
Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers (translation of manuscripts) Howard and Edna Hong (translators)
1969 White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (history and biography) Winthrop D. Jordan
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History (arts and letters) Norman Mailer
Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (the sciences) Robert J. Lifton
1970 Huey Long (history and biography) T. Harry Williams
An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (arts and letters) Lillian Hellman
Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (philosophy and religion) Erik H. Erikson
1971 Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (history and biography) James MacGregor Burns
Cocteau: A Biography (arts and letters) Francis Steegmuller
Science in the British Colonies of America (the sciences) Raymond Phineas Sterns
1972 Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers (biography) Joseph P. Lash
Ordeal of the Union, Vol. VII: The Organized War, 1863–1864 and Vol. VIII: The Organized War to Victory, 1864–1865 (history) Allan Nevins
The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (arts and letters) Charles Rosen
The Last Whole Earth Catalogue: Access to Tools (contemporary affairs) Stewart Brand (editor)
Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America (philosophy and religion) Martin E. Marty
The Blue Whale (the sciences) George L. Small
Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (translated from Hasard et la nécessité by Jacques Monod) Austryn Wainhouse (translator)
1973 George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793–1799 (biography) James Thomas Flexner
The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War (history) Robert Manson Myers
Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation (history) Isaiah Trunk
Diderot (arts and letters) Arthur M. Wilson
Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (contemporary affairs) Frances FitzGerald
A Religious History of the American People (philosophy and religion) S.E. Ahlstrom
The Serengeti Lion: A Study in Predator-Prey Relations (the sciences) George B. Schaller
1974 Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian (biography/history) John Clive
Malcolm Lowry: A Biography (biography) Douglas Day
Deeper into the Movies (arts and letters) Pauline Kael
The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York v. Lumumba Shakur et al. (contemporary affairs) Murray Kempton
Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks (philosophy and religion) Maurice Natanson
Life: The Unfinished Experiment (the sciences) S.E. Luria
The Confessions of Lady Nijō (translated from Towazu-gatari by Lady Nijō) Karen Brazell (translator)
1975 The Life of Emily Dickinson (biography) Richard B. Sewall
The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (history) Bernard Bailyn
Marcel Proust (arts and letters) Roger Shattuck
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (arts and letters/the sciences) Lewis Thomas
All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (contemporary affairs) Theodore Rosengarten
Anarchy, State, and Utopia (philosophy and religion) Robert Nozick
Interpretation of Schizophrenia (the sciences) Silvano Arieti
The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith (translation of Agonía del cristianismo by Miguel de Unamuno) Anthony Kerrigan (translator)
1976 The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 (history and biography) David Brion Davis
The Great War and Modern Memory (arts and letters) Paul Fussell
Passage to Ararat (contemporary affairs) Michael J. Arlen
1977 Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist (biography and autobiography) W.A. Swanberg
World of Our Fathers (history) Irving Howe
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (contemporary thought) Bruno Bettelheim
1978 Samuel Johnson (biography and autobiography) W. Jackson Bate
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (history) David McCullough
Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from a Long War (contemporary thought) Gloria Emerson
In the Deserts of This Earth (translation of In den Wüsten dieser Erde by Uwe George) Howard Nemerov (translator)
1979 Robert Kennedy and His Times (biography and autobiography) Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585–1763 (history) Richard Beale Davis
The Snow Leopard (contemporary thought) Peter Matthiessen
1980* Lauren Bacall, By Myself (hardcover autobiography) Lauren Bacall
And I Worked at the Writer's Trade: Chapters of Literary History, 1918–1978 (paperback autobiography) Malcolm Cowley
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (hardcover biography) Edmund Morris
Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (paperback biography) A. Scott Berg
Julia Child and More Company (hardcover current interest) Julia Child
The Culture of Narcissism (paperback current interest) Christopher Lasch
The Right Stuff (hardcover general nonfiction) Tom Wolfe
The Snow Leopard (paperback general nonfiction) Peter Matthiessen
The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946–Present(paperback general reference) Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh
The White House Years (hardcover history) Henry A. Kissinger
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (paperback history) Barbara W. Tuchman
The Gnostic Gospels (hardcover religious/inspiration) Elaine Pagels
A Severe Mercy (paperback religion/inspiration) Sheldon Vanauken
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (hardcover science) Douglas Hofstadter
The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (paperback science) Gary Zukav
Osip E. Mandelstam's Complete Critical Prose and Letters (translation of manuscripts by Osip E. Mandelstam) Jane Gary Harris and Constance Link (translators)
1981 Walt Whitman, A Life (hardcover biography) Justin Kaplan
Samuel Beckett (paperback biography) Deirdre Blair
China Men (hardcover general nonfiction) Maxine Hong Kingston
The Last Cowboy (paperback general nonfiction) Jane Kramer
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (hardcover history) John Boswell
Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery (paperback history) Leon F. Litwak
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (hardcover science) Stephen Jay Gould
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (paperback science) Lewis Thomas
The Letters of Gustave Flaubert (translation of manuscripts by Gustave Flaubert) Francis Steegmuller (translator)
1982 Mornings on Horseback (hardcover biography) David McCullough
Walter Lippmann and the American Century (paperback biography) Ronald Steel
The Soul of a New Machine (hardcover general nonfiction) Tracy Kidder
Naming Names (paperback general nonfiction) Victor S. Navasky
People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies,1830–1879 (hardcover history) Peter John Powell
The Generation of 1914 (paperback history) Robert Wohl
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (hardcover science) Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey
Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists (paperback science) Fred Alan Wolf
In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyō, a Woman of Letters in Meiji Japan (translation of Higuchi Ichiyō) Robert Lyons Danly (translator)
1983 Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller (hardcover biography) Judith Thurman
Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times (paperback biography) James R. Mellow
China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (hardcover general nonfiction) Fox Butterfield
National Defense (paperback general nonfiction) James Fallows
Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (hardcover history) Alan Brinkley
Utopian Thought in the Western World (paperback history) Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel
"Subtle Is the Lord...": The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (hardcover science) Abraham Pais
The Mathematical Experience (paperback science) Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh
1984 Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845 Robert V. Remini
1985 Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families J. Anthony Lukas
1986 Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape Barry Lopez
1987** The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes
1988 A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam Neil Sheehan
1989 From Beirut to Jerusalem Thomas L. Friedman
1990 The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Ron Chernow
1991 Freedom, Vol. I: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture Orlando Patterson
1992 Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story Paul Monette
1993 United States: Essays, 1952–1992 Gore Vidal
1994 How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter Sherwin B. Nuland
1995 The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism Tina Rosenberg
1996 An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us James Carroll
1997 American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson Joseph J. Ellis
1998 Slaves in the Family Edward Ball
1999 Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II John W. Dower
2000 In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Nathaniel Philbrick
2001 The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression Andrew Solomon
2002 Master of the Senate, Vol. III: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Robert A. Caro
2003 Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy Carlos Eire
2004 Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age Kevin Boyle
2005 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion
2006 The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Timothy Egan
2007 Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA Tim Weiner
2008 The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Annette Gordon-Reed
2009 The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt T.J. Stiles
2010 Just Kids Patti Smith
2011 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern Stephen Greenblatt
2012 Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Katherine Boo
2013 The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America George Packer
2014 Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China Evan Osnos
2015 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates
2016 Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi
2017 The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Masha Gessen
2018 The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke Jeffrey C. Stewart
2019 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom
2020 The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Les Payne, Tamara Payne
2021 All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake Tiya Miles
2022 South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Imani Perry
2023 The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History Ned Blackhawk

Winners of the National Book Award for poetry

Winners of the National Book Award for poetry are listed in the table.

National Book Awards—Poetry
year title author
*Award presented for translation.
**In 1980 the National Book Awards became the American Book Awards.
***From 1987 the awards were again known as the National Book Awards.
1950 Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems William Carlos Williams
1951 The Auroras of Autumn Wallace Stevens
1952 Collected Poems Marianne Moore
1953 Collected Poems, 1917–1952 Archibald MacLeish
1954 Collected Poems Conrad Aiken
1955 The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens
1956 The Shield of Achilles W.H. Auden
1957 Things of This World Richard Wilbur
1958 Promises: Poems, 1954–1956 Robert Penn Warren
1959 Words for the Wind: The Collected Verse of Theodore Roethke Theodore Roethke
1960 Life Studies Robert Lowell
1961 The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations Randall Jarrell
1962 Poems Alan Dugan
1963 Traveling Through the Dark William Stafford
1964 Selected Poems John Crowe Ransom
1965 The Far Field Theodore Roethke
1966 Buckdancer's Choice: Poems by James Dickey James Dickey
1967 Nights and Days James Merrill
1968 The Light Around the Body Robert Bly
1969 His Toy, His Dream, His Rest: 308 Dream Songs John Berryman
1970 The Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop
1971 To See, To Take Mona Van Duyn
1972 The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara Frank O'Hara
Selected Poems Howard Moss
1973 Collected Poems, 1951–1971 A.R. Ammons
The Aeneid of Virgil (translation of the Aeneid by Virgil)* Allen Mandelbaum (translator)
1974 Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971–1972 Adrienne Rich
The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965–1971 Allen Ginsberg
Alternating Current (translation of Corriente alterna by Octavio Paz)* Helen R. Lane
1975 Presentation Piece Marilyn Hacker
1976 Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror John Ashbery
1977 Collected Poems, 1930–1976: Including 43 New Poems Richard Eberhart
1978 The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov
1979 Mirabell: Books of Number James Merrill
César Vallejo: The Complete Posthumous Poetry (translation of César Vallejo's poems)* Clayton Eshleman and José Rubin Barcia (translators)
1980** Ashes: Poems New & Old Philip Levine
Hard Labor (translation of Lavorare stanca by Cesare Pavese)* William Arrowsmith (translator)
1981 The Need to Hold Still Lisel Mueller
1982 Life Supports: New and Collected Poems William Bronk
The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man'yōshū, Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry* Ian Hideo Levy
1983 Selected Poems Galway Kinnell
Country Music: Selected Early Poems Charles Wright
Les Fleurs du Mal (translation of the collection by Charles Baudelaire)* Richard Howard (translator)
1984–1990*** not awarded
1991 What Work Is Philip Levine
1992 New and Selected Poems Mary Oliver
1993 Garbage A.R. Ammons
1994 Worshipful Company of Fletchers James Tate
1995 Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected Stanley Kunitz
1996 Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991–1995 Hayden Carruth
1997 Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems William Meredith
1998 This Time: New and Selected Poems Gerald Stern
1999 Vice: New and Selected Poems Ai
2000 Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988–2000 Lucille Clifton
2001 Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry Alan Dugan
2002 In the Next Galaxy Ruth Stone
2003 The Singing C.K. Williams
2004 Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003 Jean Valentine
2005 Migration: New and Selected Poems W.S. Merwin
2006 Splay Anthem Nathaniel Mackey
2007 Time and Materials: Poems, 1997–2005 Robert Hass
2008 Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems Mark Doty
2009 Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy Keith Waldrop
2010 Lighthead Terrance Hayes
2011 Head Off & Split Nikky Finney
2012 Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations David Ferry
2013 Incarnadine Mary Szybist
2014 Faithful and Virtuous Night Louise Glück
2015 Voyage of the Sable Venus Robin Coste Lewis
2016 The Performance of Becoming Human Daniel Borzutzky
2017 Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 Frank Bidart
2018 Indeceny Justin Phillip Reed
2019 Sight Lines Arthur Sze
2020 DMZ Colony Don Mee Choi
2021 Floaters Martín Espada
2022 Punks: New and Selected Poems John Keene
2023 from unincorporated territory [åmot] Craig Santos Perez

Winners of the National Book Award for young people’s literature

Winners of the National Book Award for young people’s literature are listed in the table.

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National Book Awards—Young People's Literature
year title author
1Award presented in children's book category.
2Award presented in children's literature category.
3In 1980 the National Book Awards became the American Book Awards.
4From 1987 the awards were again known as the National Book Awards.
1969 Journey from Peppermint Street 1 Meindert De Jong
1970 A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw 1 Isaac Bashevis Singer
1971 The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian 1 Lloyd Alexander
1972 The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine; or, The Hithering Thithering Djinn 1 Donald Barthelme
1973 The Farthest Shore 1 Ursula Le Guin
1974 The Court of the Stone Children 1 Eleanor Cameron
1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great 1 Virginia Hamilton
1976 Bert Breen's Barn 2 Walter D. Edmonds
1977 The Master Puppeteer 2 Katherine Paterson
1978 The View from the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures 2 Judith and Herbert Kohl
1979 The Great Gilly Hopkins 2 Katherine Paterson
19803 A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830–32 (hardcover children's book) Joan W. Blos
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (paperback children's book) Madeleine L'Engle
1981 The Night Swimmers (hardcover children's book, fiction) Betsy Byars
Ramona and Her Mother (paperback children's book, fiction) Beverly Cleary
Oh, Boy! Babies (hardcover children's book, nonfiction) Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali
1982 Westmark (hardcover children's book, fiction) Lloyd Alexander
Words by Heart (paperback children's book, fiction) Ouida Sebestyen
Outside Over There (hardcover children's picture book) Maurice Sendak
Noah's Ark (paperback children's book) Peter Spier
A Penguin Year (children's book, nonfiction) Susan Bonners
1983 Homesick: My Own Story (hardcover children's fiction) Jean Fritz
A Place Apart (paperback children's book, fiction) Paula Fox
Marked by Fire (paperback children's book, fiction) Joyce Carol Thomas
Miss Rumphius (hardcover children's picture book) Barbara Cooney
Doctor De Soto (hardcover children's picture book) William Steig
Chimney Sweeps: Yesterday and Today (children's book, nonfiction) James Cross Giblin
1984–19954 not awarded
1996 Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida Victor Martinez
1997 Dancing on the Edge Han Nolan
1998 Holes Louis Sachar
1999 When Zachary Beaver Came to Town Kimberly Willis Holt
2000 Homeless Bird Gloria Whelan
2001 True Believer Virginia Euwer Wolff
2002 The House of the Scorpion Nancy Farmer
2003 The Canning Season Polly Horvath
2004 Godless Pete Hautman
2005 The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy Jeanne Birdsall
2006 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party M.T. Anderson
2007 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
2008 What I Saw and How I Lied Judy Blundell
2009 Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice Phillip Hoose
2010 Mockingbird Kathryn Erskine
2011 Inside Out & Back Again Thanhha Lai
2012 Goblin Secrets William Alexander
2013 The Thing About Luck Cynthia Kadohata
2014 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson
2015 Challenger Deep Neal Shusterman
2016 March: Book Three John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (artist)
2017 Far from the Tree Robin Benway
2018 The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo
2019 1919 The Year That Changed America Martin W. Sandler
2020 King and the Dragonflies Kacen Callender
2021 Last Night at the Telegraph Club Malinda Lo
2022 All My Rage Sabaa Tahir
2023 A First Time for Everything Dan Santat
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.