National Book Critics Circle Award Winners Fiction

Awards List

2021

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (Winner)
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

Aug-2021
/ Women's Fiction

Second Place (Finalist)
Rachel Cusk

May-2021
/ Literary

The Netanyahus (Finalist)
Joshua Cohen

Jun-2021
/ Literary

Harlem Shuffle (Finalist)
Colson Whitehead

Sep-2021
/ Literary

Burntcoat (Finalist)
Sarah Hall

Nov-2021
/ Literary

2020

Hamnet (Winner)
Maggie O'Farrell

Jul-2020
/ Literary

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories (Finalist)
Souvankham Thammavongsa

Apr-2020
/ General Fiction

If I Had Two Wings (Finalist)
Randall Kenan

Aug-2020
/ General Fiction

Inside Story (Finalist)
Martin Amis

Sep-2020
/ General Fiction

Memorial (Finalist)
Bryan Washington

Nov-2020
/ General Fiction

2019

Everything Inside: Stories (Winner)
Edwidge Danticat

Sep-2019
/ General Fiction

Lost Children Archive (Finalist)
Valeria Luiselli

Feb-2019
/ Literary

Feast Your Eyes (Finalist)
Myla Goldberg

Apr-2019
/ Literary

The Nickel Boys (Finalist)
Colson Whitehead

Jul-2019
/ Historical

The Topeka School (Finalist)
Ben Lerner

Oct-2019
/ Literary

2018

Milkman (Winner)
Anna Burns

May-2018
/ General Fiction

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (Finalist)
Denis Johnson

Jan-2018
/ General Fiction

The House of Broken Angels (Finalist)
Luis Alberto Urrea

Mar-2018
/ General Fiction

The Mars Room (Finalist)
Rachel Kushner

May-2018
/ Suspense

Slave Old Man (Finalist)
Patrick Chamoiseau

May-2018
/ Literary

2017

Improvement (Winner)
Joan Silber

Nov-2017
/ Literary

Exit West (Finalist)
Mohsin Hamid

Mar-2017
/ General Fiction

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Finalist)
Arundhati Roy

Jun-2017
/ Literary

The Ninth Hour (Finalist)
Alice McDermott

Sep-2017
/ Literary

Sing, Unburied, Sing (Finalist)
Jesmyn Ward

Sep-2017
/ Fantasy

2016

Larose (Winner)
Louise Erdrich

May-2016
/ Literary

Imagine Me Gone (Finalist)
Adam Haslett

May-2016
/ Literary

Commonwealth (Finalist)
Ann Patchett

Sep-2016
/ General Fiction

Moonglow (Finalist)
Michael Chabon

Nov-2016
/ Literary

Swing Time (Finalist)
Zadie Smith

Nov-2016
/ Literary

2015

The Sellout (Finalist)
Paul Beatty

Mar-2015
/ Literary

Eileen (Finalist)
Ottessa Moshfegh

Aug-2015
/ General Fiction

Fates and Furies (Finalist)
Lauren Groff

Sep-2015
/ Literary

The Story of My Teeth (Finalist)
Valeria Luiselli

Sep-2015
/ Literary

The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories (Finalist)
Anthony Marra

Oct-2015
/ General Fiction

2014

On Such a Full Sea (Finalist)
Chang-Rae Lee

Jan-2014
/ General Fiction

An Unnecessary Woman (Finalist)
Rabih Alameddine

Feb-2014
/ Literary

Euphoria (Finalist)
Lily King

Jun-2014
/ Historical

A Brief History of Seven Killings (Finalist)
Marlon James

Oct-2014
/ Historical

Lila (Finalist)
Marilynne Robinson

Oct-2014
/ Historical

2013

Americanah (Winner)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

May-2013
/ Literary

A Tale for the Time Being (Finalist)
Ruth L. Ozeki

Mar-2013
/ Literary

Someone (Finalist)
Alice McDermott

Sep-2013
/ Literary

The Goldfinch (Finalist)
Donna Tartt

Oct-2013
/ Literary

2012

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Winner)
Ben Fountain

May-2012
/ General Fiction

The Orphan Master's Son (Finalist)
Adam Johnson

Jan-2012
/ Thriller

NW (Finalist)
Zadie Smith

Sep-2012
/ General Fiction

Magnificence (Finalist)
Lydia Millet

Nov-2012
/ Literary

2011

Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories (Winner)
Edith Pearlman

Jan-2011
/ General Fiction

The Marriage Plot (Finalist)
Jeffrey Eugenides

Oct-2011
/ Literary

2010

A Visit from the Goon Squad (Winner)
Jennifer Egan

Jun-2010
/ Literary

Comedy in a Minor Key (Finalist)
Hans Keilson

Jul-2010
/ Literary

Freedom (Finalist)
Jonathan Franzen

Sep-2010
/ Literary

2009

Wolf Hall (Winner)
Hilary Mantel

Oct-2009
/ Historical

Lark and Termite (Finalist)
Jayne Anne Phillips

Jan-2009
/ Literary

The Book of Night Women (Finalist)
Marlon James

Feb-2009
/ Literary

American Salvage (Finalist)
Bonnie Jo Campbell

Apr-2009
/ General Fiction

2008

Olive Kitteridge (Finalist)
Elizabeth Strout

Apr-2008
/ General Fiction

Home (Finalist)
Marilynne Robinson

Sep-2008
/ General Fiction

2007

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Winner)
Junot Diaz

Sep-2007
/ General Fiction

Sacred Games (Finalist)
Vikram Chandra

Jan-2007
/ Suspense

The Gravedigger's Daughter (Finalist)
Joyce Carol Oates

Jun-2007
/ Historical

2006

The Inheritance of Loss (Winner)
Kiran Desai

Mar-2006
/ General Fiction

The Road (Finalist)
Cormac McCarthy

Oct-2006
/ Literary

2005

Small Island (Nominee)
Andrea Levy

Feb-2004
/ Historical

Europe Central (Nominee)
William Vollmann

Apr-2005
/ General Fiction

Never Let Me Go (Nominee)
Kazuo Ishiguro

Apr-2005
/ General Fiction

Veronica (Nominee)
Mary Gaitskill

Oct-2005
/ General Fiction

2004

Cloud Atlas (Nominee)
David Mitchell

Aug-2004
/ Fantasy

2003

The Known World (Winner)
Edward P. Jones

Sep-2003
/ General Fiction

The Time of Our Singing (Nominee)
Richard Powers

Feb-2003
/ General Fiction

Brick Lane (Nominee)
Monica Ali

Jun-2003
/ General Fiction

A Distant Shore (Nominee)
Caryl Phillips

Oct-2003
/ Literary

Old School (Nominee)
Tobias Wolff

Nov-2003
/ Literary

2002

Atonement (Winner)
Ian McEwan

Mar-2002
/ Historical

Roscoe (Nominee)
William Kennedy

Jan-2002
/ Historical

The Darts of Cupid: And Other Stories (Nominee)
Edith Templeton

Feb-2002
/ General Fiction

Middlesex (Nominee)
Jeffrey Eugenides

Sep-2002
/ General Fiction

Nowhere Man (Nominee)
Aleksandar Hemon

Jan-2004
/ General Fiction

2001

Bel Canto (Nominee)
Ann Patchett

Jun-2001
/ Literary

2000

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Nominee)
Michael Chabon

Sep-2000
/ Literary

1999

Midnight Champagne (Nominee)
A. Manette Ansay

Jun-1999
/ General Fiction

The Wonders of the Invisible World (Nominee)
David Gates

Jun-1999
/ General Fiction

Disgrace (Nominee)
J.M. Coetzee

Nov-1999
/ Literary

The Night Inspector (Nominee)
Frederick Busch

Nov-1999
/ Historical

1998

No Lease on Life (Nominee)
Lynne Tillman

Jan-1998
/ General Fiction

Preston Falls (Nominee)
David Gates

Feb-1998
/ General Fiction

The Hours (Nominee)
Michael Cunningham

Aug-1998
/ Literary

Birds of America (Nominee)
Lorrie Moore

Sep-1998
/ General Fiction

1997

Cold Mountain (Nominee)
Charles Frazier

Sep-1997
/ Historical

1996

Women in Their Beds (Winner)
Gina Berriault

1996
/ Literary

Dancing After Hours (Nominee)
Andre Dubus

Feb-1996
/ General Fiction

From Bondage (Nominee)
Henry Roth

Jun-1996
/ General Fiction

About Schmidt (Nominee)
Louis Begley

Sep-1996
/ General Fiction

The Autobiography of My Mother (Nominee)
Jamaica Kincaid

Jan-1997
/ General Fiction

1995

Galatea 2.2 (Nominee)
Richard Powers

Jun-1995
/ Suspense

Independence Day (Nominee)
Richard Ford

Jun-1995
/ Literary

Tent of Orange Mist (Nominee)
Paul West

Sep-1995
/ General Fiction

1993

Lesson Before Dying (Winner)
Ernest J. Gaines

1993
/ General Fiction

1992

All the Pretty Horses (Winner)
Cormac McCarthy

May-1992
/ Historical

1990

Rabbit At Rest (Winner)
John Updike

Dec-1990
/ General Fiction

1987

The Counterlife (Winner)
Philip Roth

Jan-1987
/ General Fiction

1983

Ironweed (Winner)
William Kennedy

Feb-1984
/ Historical

1981

Rabbit Is Rich (Winner)
John Updike

Sep-1981
/ General Fiction

1980

The Transit of Venus (Winner)
Shirley Hazzard

Mar-1980
/ Contemporary Romance

1979

The Year of the French (Winner)
Thomas Flanagan

May-1979
/ Historical Romance

1978

The Stories of John Cheever (Winner)
John Cheever

1978
/ Suspense

1977

Song of Solomon (Winner)
Toni Morrison

Aug-1977
/ Magical Realism

1976

October Light (Winner)
John E. Gardner

Nov-1976
/ General Fiction

1975

Ragtime (Winner)
E.L. Doctorow

Jun-1975
/ Literary

Award Categories

Biography/Autobiography

Criticism

Fiction

First Book

National Book Critics Circle Award

Award Years