National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction

The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, established in 1976, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English."

Books previously published in English are not eligible, such as re-issues and paperback editions. They do consider "translations, short story and essay collections, self published books, and any titles that fall under the general categories."

The judges are the volunteer directors of the NBCC who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members, namely "professional book review editors and book reviewers." Winners of the awards are announced each year at the NBCC awards ceremony in conjunction with the yearly membership meeting, which takes place in March.

Recipients

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction winners and finalists
Year Author Title Result Ref.
1975

E. L. Doctorow

Ragtime

Winner

1976

John Gardner

October Light

Winner

Cynthia Ozick Bloodshed and Three Novellas Finalist
Vladimir Nabokov Details of a Sunset and Other Stories
Renata Adler Speedboat
Richard Yates The Easter Parade
1977

Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon

Winner

Joan Didion A Book of Common Prayer Finalist
John Cheever Falconer
Philip Roth The Professor of Desire
John Sayles Union Dues
1978

John Cheever

The Stories of John Cheever

Winner

Mary Gordon Final Payments Finalist
John Updike The Coup
John Irving The World According to Garp
Charles Simmons Wrinkles
1979

Thomas Flanagan

The Year of the French

Winner

Leslie Epstein King of the Jews: A Novel of the Holocaust Finalist
Elizabeth Hardwick Sleepless Nights
William Styron Sophie's Choice
Norman Mailer The Executioner's Song: A True Life Novel
Philip Roth The Ghost Writer
1980

Shirley Hazzard

The Transit of Venus

Winner

E. L. Doctorow Loon Lake Finalist
Anne Tyler Morgan's Passing
William Maxwell So Long, See You Tomorrow
Walker Percy The Second Coming
1981

John Updike

Rabbit Is Rich

Winner

Robert Stone A Flag for Sunrise Finalist
Russell Hoban Riddley Walker
Donald Barthelme Sixty Stories
Leonard Michaels The Men's Club
1982

Stanley Elkin

George Mills

Winner

Anne Tyler Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Finalist
Cynthia Ozick Levitation: Five Fictions
Bobbie Ann Mason Shiloh and Other Stories
Alice Walker The Color Purple
1983

William Kennedy

Ironweed

Winner

Raymond Carver Cathedral Finalist
Joan Chase During the Reign of the Queen of Persia
Ron Loewinsohn Magnetic Field (s)
Philip Roth The Anatomy Lesson
1984

Louise Erdrich

Love Medicine

Winner

David Leavitt Family Dancing Finalist
Alison Lurie Foreign Affairs
Jayne Anne Phillips Machine Dreams
Harriet Doerr Stones for Ibarra
1985

Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist

Winner

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove Finalist
Peter Taylor The Old Forest and Other Stories
Richard Powers Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance
Don DeLillo White Noise
1986

Reynolds Price

Kate Vaiden

Winner

Peter Taylor A Summons to Memphis Finalist
John Updike Roger's Version
Louise Erdrich The Beet Queen
Thomas Williams The Moon Pinnacle
1987

Philip Roth

The Counterlife

Winner

Toni Morrison Beloved Finalist
Wallace Stegner Crossing to Safety
Jane Smiley The Age of Grief
Tom Wolfe The Bonfire of the Vanities
1988

Bharati Mukherjee

The Middleman and Other Stories

Winner

Don DeLillo Libra Finalist
Pete Dexter Paris Trout
J. F. Powers Wheat That Springeth Green
Raymond Carver Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories
1989

E. L. Doctorow

Billy Bathgate

Winner

Jane Smiley Ordinary Love & Good Will Finalist
John Casey Spartina
Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club
Oscar Hijuelos The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
1990

John Updike

Rabbit at Rest

Winner

Wallace Stegner Collected Stories Finalist
Sue Miller Family Pictures
Charles Johnson Middle Passage
Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried
1991

Jane Smiley

A Thousand Acres

Winner

Norman Rush Mating Finalist
Richard Powers The Gold Bug Variations
Gish Jen Typical American
Louis Begley Wartime Lies
1992

Cormac McCarthy

All the Pretty Horses

Winner

Joyce Carol Oates Black Water Finalist
Richard Price Clockers
Randall Kenan Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
Robert Stone Outerbridge Reach
1993

Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying

Winner

Bobbie Ann Mason Feather Crowns Finalist
Rikki Ducornet The Jade Cabinet
E. Annie Proulx The Shipping News
Frances Sherwood Vindication
1994

Carol Shields

The Stone Diaries

Winner

William Gaddis A Frolic of His Own Finalist
Julius Lester And All Our Wounds Forgiven
Julia Alvarez In the Time of the Butterflies
Alan Isler The Prince of West End Avenue
1995

Stanley Elkin

Mrs. Ted Bliss

Winner

Richard Powers Galatea 2.2 Finalist
Richard Ford Independence Day
Jane Smiley Moo
Paul West The Tent of Orange Mist
1996

Gina Berriault

Women in Their Beds

Winner

Louis Begley About Schmidt Finalist
Andre Dubus Dancing After Hours
Henry Roth From Bondage
Jamaica Kincaid The Autobiography of My Mother
1997

Penelope Fitzgerald

The Blue Flower

Winner

Philip Roth American Pastoral Finalist
Charles Frazier Cold Mountain
Andrei Makine Dreams of My Russian Summers
Don DeLillo Underworld
1998

Alice Munro

The Love of a Good Woman

Winner

Lorrie Moore Birds of America Finalist
Lynne Tillman No Lease on Life
David Gates Preston Falls
Michael Cunningham The Hours
1999

Jonathan Lethem

Motherless Brooklyn

Winner

J. M. Coetzee Disgrace Finalist
A. Manette Ansay Midnight Champagne
Frederick Busch The Night Inspector
David Gates The Wonders of the Invisible World
2000

Jim Crace

Being Dead

Winner

Amy Bloom A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You Finalist
David Means Assorted Fire Events
Michael Chabon The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Zadie Smith White Teeth
2001

W.G. Sebald with Anthea Bell (trans.)

Austerlitz

Winner

2002

Ian McEwan

Atonement

Winner

2003

Edward P. Jones

The Known World

Winner

2004

Marilynne Robinson

Gilead

Winner

2005

E. L. Doctorow

The March

Winner

2006

Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss

Winner

2007

Junot Diaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Winner

Hisham Matar

In the Country of Men

Finalist

Joyce Carol Oates

The Gravedigger's Daughter

Marianne Wiggins

The Shadow Catcher

Vikram Chandra

Sacred Games

2008

Roberto Bolaño with Natasha Wimmer (trans.)

2666

Winner

Aleksandar Hemon

The Lazarus Project

Finalist

Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge

M. Glenn Taylor

The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart

Marilynne Robinson

Home

2009

Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

Winner

Bonnie Jo Campbell

American Salvage

Finalist

Jayne Anne Phillips

Lark and Termite

Marlon James

The Book of Night Women

Michelle Huneven

Blame

2010

Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Winner

David Grossman

To The End of the Land

Finalist

Hans Keilson

Comedy in a Minor Key

Jonathan Franzen

Freedom

Paul Murray

Skippy Dies

2011

Edith Pearlman

Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories

Winner

Alan Hollinghurst

The Stranger's Child

Finalist

Dana Spiotta

Stone Arabia

Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot

Teju Cole

Open City

2012

Ben Fountain

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Winner

Adam Johnson

The Orphan Master's Son

Finalist

Laurent Binet with Sam Taylor (trans.)

HHhH

Lydia Millet

Magnificence

Zadie Smith

NW

2013

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah

Winner

Alice McDermott

Someone

Finalist

Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch

Javier Marías with Margaret Jull Costa (trans.)

The Infatuations

Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being

2014

Marilynne Robinson

Lila

Winner

Chang-rae Lee

On Such a Full Sea

Finalist

Lily King

Euphoria

Marlon James

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Rabih Alameddine

An Unnecessary Woman

2015

Paul Beatty

The Sellout

Winner

Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno

Finalist

Lauren Groff

Fates and Furies

Ottessa Moshfegh

Eileen

Valeria Luiselli

The Story of My Teeth

2016

Louise Erdrich

LaRose

Winner

Adam Haslett

Imagine Me Gone

Finalist

Ann Patchett

Commonwealth

Michael Chabon

Moonglow: A Novel

Zadie Smith

Swing Time

2017

Joan Silber

Improvement

Winner

Alice McDermott

The Ninth Hour

Finalist

Arundhati Roy

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Jesmyn Ward

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Mohsin Hamid

Exit West

2018

Anna Burns

Milkman

Winner

Denis Johnson

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden

Finalist

Luis Alberto Urrea

The House of Broken Angels

Patrick Chamoiseau with Linda Coverdale (trans.)

Slave Old Man

Rachel Kushner

The Mars Room

2019

Edwidge Danticat

Everything Inside

Winner

Ben Lerner

The Topeka School

Finalist

Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys

Myla Goldberg

Feast Your Eyes

Valeria Luiselli

Lost Children Archive

2020

Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet

Winner

Bryan Washington

Memorial

Finalist

Martin Amis

Inside Story

Randall Kenan

If I Had Two Wings

Souvankham Thammavongsa

How to Pronounce Knife

2021

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Winner

Colson Whitehead

Harlem Shuffle

Finalist

Joshua Cohen

The Netanyahus

Rachel Cusk

Second Place

Sarah Hall

Burntcoat

2022 Ling Ma Bliss Montage Winner
Percival Everett Dr. No Finalist
Jon Fosse with Damion Searls (trans.) A New Name
Mieko Kawakami with Sam Bett and David Boyd (trans.) All the Lovers in the Night
Namwali Serpell The Furrows