The Contenders: 61 Years of National Book Award Fiction Finalists
Brendan Gill
James Agee
Truman Capote
William Faulkner
Caroline Gordon
Thomas Mann
John P. Marquand
J. D. Salinger
William Styron
Jessamyn West
Herman Wouk
Isabel Bolton
H. L. Davis
Thomas Gallagher
Ernest Hemingway
Carl Jonas
Peter Martin
May Sarton
Jean Stafford
John Steinbeck
William Carlos Williams
Harriette Arnow
Hamilton Basso
Davis Grubb
Randall Jarrell
Milton Lott
Frederick Manfred
William March
Wright Morris
Frank Rooney
John Steinbeck
Paul Bowles
Shirley Ann Grau
MacKinlay Kantor
Flannery O'Connor
May Sarton
Robert Penn Warren
Eudora Welty
Herman Wouk
Nelson Algren
James Baldwin
Saul Bellow
B.J. Chute
John Hersey
Generations of Men
By John Hunt
Edwin O'Connor
J. F. Powers
Elizabeth Spencer
James Thurber
James Agee
James Gould Cozzens
Mark Harris
Andrew Lytle
Bernard Malamud
Wright Morris
Vladimir Nabokov
Ayn Rand
Nancy Wilson Ross
May Sarton
J. P. Donleavy
William Humphrey
Vladimir Nabokov
John O'Hara
J. R. Salamanca
Anya Seton
Robert Traver
Louis Auchincloss
Hamilton Basso
Saul Bellow
Evan S. Connell, Jr.
William Faulkner
Mark Harris
John Hersey
H.L. Humes
Shirley Jackson
Elizabeth Janeway
James Jones
Warren Miller
James Purdy
Leo Rosten
John Updike
Robert Penn Warren
Morris West
Louis Auchincloss
Kay Boyle
John Hersey
John Knowles
Harper Lee
Wright Morris
Flannery O'Connor
Elizabeth Spencer
Francis Steegmuller
John Updike
Mildred Walker
Hortense Calisher
George P. Elliott
Joseph Heller
Bernard Malamud
William Maxwell
J.D. Salinger
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Edward Lewis Wallant
Joan Williams
Richard Yates
Vladimir Nabokov
Katherine Anne Porter
Vladimir Nabokov
Dawn Powell
Clancy Sigal
John Updike
Bernard Malamud
Mary McCarthy
Thomas Pynchon
Harvey Swados
Louis Auchincloss
John Hawkes
Richard E. Kim
Wallace Markfield
Vladimir Nabokov
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Jesse Hill Ford
Peter Matthiessen
James Merrill
Flannery O'Connor
Harry Mark Petrakis
Louis Auchincloss
Edwin O'Connor
Walker Percy
Harry Mark Petrakis
Wilfrid Sheed
Norman Mailer
Joyce Carol Oates
Chaim Potok
William Styron
John Barth
Frederick Exley
Joyce Carol Oates
Thomas Rogers
Leonard Gardner
Leonard Michaels
Jean Stafford
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
James Dickey
Shirley Hazzard
John Updike
Eudora Welty
Frederick Buechner
E.L. Doctorow
Stanley Elkin
Tom McHale
Joyce Carol Oates
Cynthia Ozick
Walker Percy
Earl Thompson
John Updike
Brock Brower
Alan Friedman
Barry Hannah
George V. Higgins
R. M. Koster
Vladimir Nabokov
Ishmael Reed
Thomas Rogers
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Eudora Welty
Doris Betts
John Cheever
Ellen Douglas
Stanley Elkin
John Gardner
John Leonard
Thomas McGuane
Wilfrid Sheed
Gore Vidal
Joy Williams
Donald Barthelme
Gail Godwin
Joseph Heller
Toni Morrison
Vladimir Nabokov
Grace Paley
Philip Roth
Mark Smith
Saul Bellow
Hortense Calisher
Johanna Kaplan
Vladimir Nabokov
Larry Woiwode
Raymond Carver
MacDonald Harris
Ursula K. Le Guin
Cynthia Propper Seton
Robert Coover
Peter De Vries
James Alan McPherson
John Sayles
John Cheever
John Irving
Diane Johnson
David Plante
James Baldwin
Norman Mailer
Philip Roth
Scott Spencer
Paul Bowles
Gail Godwin
John Updike
Marguerite Young
Terry Davis
Stratis Haviaras
Philip F. O’Connor
Alan Saperstein
Lucille Kallen
William X. Kienzle
Arthur Maling
Lawrence Meyer
R. Wright Campbell
Sean Flannery
Tony Hillerman
Michael Kurland
John Crowley
Thomas M. Disch
Jerry Pournelle
Kate Wilhelm
Samuel R. Delany
Vonda N. McIntyre
Norman Spinrad
John Varley
Benjamin Capps
Loren D. Estleman
Brian Garfield
G. Clifton Wisler
Shirley Hazzard
William Maxwell
Walker Percy
Eudora Welty
Thomas Flanagan
Norman Mailer
Scott Spencer
Herman Wouk
Jean M. Auel
Philip Caputo
Johanna Kaplan
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Mark Helprin
John Irving
Robert Stone
William Wharton
E. L. Doctorow
Shirley Hazzard
Walker Percy
Anne Tyler
Celia Gittelson
Bette Bao Lord
Leonard Michaels
Ted Mooney
Gail Godwin
Bobbie Ann Mason
Paul Theroux
Anne Tyler
David Bradley
Mary Gordon
Marilynne Robinson
Robert Stone
Gail Albert
John M. Del Vecchio
Susanna Moore
David Small
Alison Lurie
Philip Roth
Kem Nunn
Padgett Powell
Ursula K. Le Guin
Hugh Nissenson
Elizabeth Benedict
Cecile Pineda
Norman Rush
Alice McDermott
Toni Morrison
Howard Norman
Philip Roth
Don DeLillo
Mary McGarry Morris
James F. Powers
Anne Tyler
E.L. Doctorow
Katherine Dunn
Oscar Hijuelos
Amy Tan
Felipe Alfau
Elena Castedo
Jessica Hagedorn
Joyce Carol Oates
Louis Begley
Stephen Dixon
Stanley Elkin
Sandra Scofield
Dorothy Allison
Cristina García
Edward P. Jones
Robert Stone
Amy Bloom
Thom Jones
Richard Powers
Bob Shacochis
Ellen Currie
Richard Dooling
Howard Norman
Grace Paley
Madison Smartt Bell
Edwidge Danticat
Stephen Dixon
Rosario Ferré
Ron Hansen
Elizabeth McCracken
Steven Millhauser
Janet Peery
Don DeLillo
Diane Johnson
Ward Just
Cynthia Ozick
Allegra Goodman
Gayl Jones
Robert Stone
Tom Wolfe
Andre Dubus III
Kent Haruf
Patricia Henley
Jean Thompson
Charles Baxter
Alan Lightman
Joyce Carol Oates
Francine Prose
Dan Chaon
Jennifer Egan
Louise Erdrich
Susan Straight
Mark Costello
Adam Haslett
Martha McPhee
Brad Watson
T. C. Boyle
Edward P. Jones
Scott Spencer
Marianne Wiggins
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Christine Schutt
Joan Silber
Kate Walbert
E.L. Doctorow
Mary Gaitskill
Christopher Sorrentino
René Steinke
Mark Z. Danielewski
Ken Kalfus
Dana Spiotta
Jess Walter
Mischa Berlinski
Lydia Davis
Joshua Ferris
Jim Shepard
Aleksandar Hemon
Rachel Kushner
Marilynne Robinson
Salvatore Scibona
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Daniyal Mueenuddin
Jayne Anne Phillips
Marcel Theroux
Peter Carey
Nicole Krauss
Lionel Shriver
Karen Tei Yamashita
Andrew Krivak
Téa Obreht
Julie Otsuka
Edith Pearlman
An Online Exhibition
Since the Award’s inception in 1950, a total of 80 books have won the National Book Award for Fiction. These range from the well known and well loved―Saul Bellow’s Herzog and Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories―to the lesser known―Walter Wangerin, Jr.’s The Book of the Dun Cow―and out of print―John O’Hara’s Ten North Frederick. But regardless of their present status, each of these books will forever be a National Book Award Winner, the best of the best American fiction that year.
But what about the books and authors that didn’t win, the hundreds of Fiction Finalists that only came close? You might guess that these are even less familiar than the unfamiliar Winners, but the list delivers many surprises. Hemingway, Nabokov, Vonnegut, Morrison, Paley―all were nominated, some more than once, but none ever won the National Book Award. The long list of Fiction Finalists offers other surprises, too. Did you know that Edwin O’Connor, a Finalist in 1957 for The Last Hurrah, coined the term “last hurrah”? Or that Lucille Kallen, nominated in 1980 for Introducing C.B. Greenfield, was the only woman on the team of comedy writers for Sid Caesar's ''Your Show of Shows,'' which was broadcast live on Saturday nights from 1950 to 1954?
We encourage you to get to know these 373 NBA-nominated works of fiction and their authors, and we invite you to share your comments at the bottom of each exhibition page. Also, since information on some of the Finalists is scarce, we welcome any additional materials (biographical information, photos, speeches, etc.) that you might be able to contribute to the exhibition. Please email us at nationalbook@nationalbook.org.
Special thanks to 5 Under 35 honorees Kirstin Allio, Matthew Eck, Amity Gaige, Asali Solomon, Josh Weil, Tiphanie Yanique, and Charles Yu for providing wonderful appreciations of the following Finalist books:
- 1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Josh Weil)
- 1956: A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor (Kirstin Allio and Matthew Eck)
- 1956: The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories by Eudora Welty (Kirstin Allio)
- 1958: Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (Amity Gaige)
- 1959: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Matthew Eck)
- 1961: Rabbit, Run by John Updike (Amity Gaige)
- 1962: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Matthew Eck)
- 1970: Going Places by Leonard Michaels (Matthew Eck)
- 1970: Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut (Charles Yu)
- 1972: The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories by Cynthia Ozick (Kirstin Allio)
- 1975: Guilty Pleasures by Donald Barthelme (Charles Yu)
- 1975: Sula by Toni Morrison (Asali Solomon and Tiphanie Yanique)
- 1975: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley (Kirstin Allio)
- 1976: Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories by Vladimir Nabokov (Kirstin Allio)
- 1980: Collected Stories by Paul Bowles (Amity Gaige)
- 1987: The Counterlife by Philip Roth (Charles Yu)
- 1988: Libra by Don DeLillo (Charles Yu)
- 1992: Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison (Tiphanie Yanique)
- 1992: Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García (Tiphanie Yanique)
- 1993: Operation Wandering Soul by Richard Powers (Charles Yu)
- 1994: The Collected Stories by Grace Paley (Matthew Eck)
- 2000: The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (Tiphanie Yanique)
- 2004: Florida by Christine Schutt (Josh Weil)
- 2007: Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (Josh Weil)
Please note: National Book Award Fiction Winners are not included in this exhibition. If you’d like to learn more about the Winners, please visit our NBA Fiction Blog.
Production Credits:
Exhibition design and layout by Meredith Andrews
Book and author information compiled by Amy Gall
Appreciations curated and edited by Rebecca Keith
Copywriting and editing by Katie McDonough
Development of this online exhibition was supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.