National Book Awards

First awarded in 1950, the National Book Awards recognize the best of American literature. The Awards are announced in November.

Current and Previous Award Winners:

• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002

• 2021

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Hell of a Book  by  Jason Mott
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  All That She Carried  by  Tiya Miles
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Floaters  by  Martín Espada
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Last Night at the Telegraph Club  by  Malinda Lo
  
  National Book Award for Translated Literature:
  Winter in Sokcho  by  Elisa Dusapin

• 2020

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Interior Chinatown  by  Charles Yu
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Dead Are Arising  by  Les Payne
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  DMZ Colony  by  Don Mee Choi
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  King and the Dragonflies  by  Kacen Callender
  
  National Book Award for Translated Literature:
  Tokyo Ueno Station  by  Yu Miri

• 2019

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Trust Exercise  by  Susan Choi
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Yellow House  by  Sarah M. Broom
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Sight Lines  by  Arthur Sze
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  1919 The Year That Changed America  by  Martin W. Sandler
  
  National Book Award for Translated Literature:
  Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming  by  László Krasznahorkai (author), Ottilie Mulzet (translator)

• 2018

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Friend  by  Sigrid Nunez
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The New Negro  by  Jeffrey C. Stewart
  
  National Book Award for Autobiography:
  Belonging  by  Nora Krug
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Indecency  by  Justin Phillip Reed
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Poet X  by  Elizabeth Acevedo
  
  National Book Award for Translated Literature:
  The Emissary  by  Yoko Tawada (author), Margaret Mitsutani (Translator)

• 2017

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Sing, Unburied, Sing  by  Jesmyn Ward
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Future Is History  by  Masha Gessen
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Half-light  by  Frank Bidart
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Far from the Tree  by  Robin Benway

• 2016

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Underground Railroad  by  Colson Whitehead
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Stamped from the Beginning  by  Ibram X. Kendi
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  The Performance of Becoming Human  by  Daniel Borzutzky
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  March  by  John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

• 2015

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Fortune Smiles  by  Adam Johnson
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Between the World and Me  by  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Voyage of the Sable Venus  by  Robin Coste Lewis
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Challenger Deep  by  Neal Shusterman

• 2014

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Redeployment  by  Phil Klay
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Age of Ambition  by  Evan Osnos
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Faithful and Virtuous Night  by  Louise Glück
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Brown Girl Dreaming  by  Jacqueline Woodson

• 2013

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Good Lord Bird  by  James McBride
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Unwinding  by  George Packer
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Incarnadine  by  Mary Szybist
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Thing About Luck  by  Cynthia Kadohata

• 2012

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Round House  by  Louise Erdrich
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Behind the Beautiful Forevers  by  Katherine Boo
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Bewilderment  by  David Ferry
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Goblin Secrets  by  William Alexander

• 2011

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Salvage the Bones  by  Jesmyn Ward
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Swerve  by  Stephen Greenblatt
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Head Off & Split  by  Nikky Finney
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Inside Out and Back Again  by  Thanhha Lai

• 2010

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Lord of Misrule  by  Jaimy Gordon
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Just Kids  by  Patti Smith
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Lighthead  by  Terrance Hayes
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Mockingbird  by  Kathryn Erskine

• 2009

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Let the Great World Spin  by  Colum McCann
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The First Tycoon  by  T.J. Stiles
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Transcendental Studies  by  Keith Waldrop
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Claudette Colvin  by  Phillip M Hoose

• 2008

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Shadow Country (Modern Library)  by  Peter Matthiessen
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Hemingses of Monticello  by  Annette Gordon-Reed
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Fire to Fire  by  Mark Doty
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  What I Saw And How I Lied  by  Judy Blundell

• 2007

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Tree of Smoke  by  Denis Johnson
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Legacy of Ashes  by  Tim Weiner
  
  National Book Award for Poetry:
  Time and Materials  by  Robert Hass
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian  by  Sherman Alexie

• 2006

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Echo Maker  by  Richard Powers
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Worst Hard Time  by  Timothy Egan
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation  by  M. T. Anderson

• 2005

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Europe Central  by  William Vollman
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  The Year of Magical Thinking  by  Joan Didion
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Penderwicks  by  Jeanne Birdsall

• 2004

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The News from Paraguay  by  Lily Tuck
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Arc of Justice  by  Kevin Boyle
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  Godless  by  Pete Hautman

• 2003

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  The Great Fire  by  Shirley Hazzard
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Waiting for Snow in Havana  by  Carlos Eire
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The Canning Season  by  Polly Horvath

• 2002

  
  National Book Award for Fiction:
  Three Junes  by  Julia Glass
  
  National Book Award for Nonfiction:
  Master of the Senate  by  Robert Caro
  
  National Book Award for Young People's Literature:
  The House of The Scorpion  by  Nancy Farmer