Roman

• 1975: E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime
• 1976: John Gardner, October Light
• 1977: Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
• 1978: John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever
• 1979: Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the French
• 1980: Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus
• 1981: John Updike, Rabbit Is Rich
• 1982: Stanley Elkin, George Mills
• 1983: William Kennedy, Ironweed
• 1984: Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
• 1985: Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist
• 1986: Reynolds Price, Kate Vaiden
• 1987: Philip Roth, The Counterlife
• 1988: Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories
• 1989: E. L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate
• 1990: John Updike, Rabbit at Rest
• 1991: Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
• 1992: Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
• 1993: Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
• 1994: Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
• 1995: Stanley Elkin, Mrs. Ted Bliss
• 1996: Gina Berriault, Women in Their Beds
• 1997: Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
• 1998: Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman
• 1999: Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn
• 2000: Jim Crace, Being Dead
• 2001: W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz
• 2002: Ian McEwan, Atonement
• 2003: Edward P. Jones, The Known World
• 2004: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
• 2005: E. L. Doctorow, The March
• 2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
• 2007: Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• 2008: Roberto Bolaño, 2666
• 2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• 2010: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
• 2011: Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision
• 2012: Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
• 2013: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
• 2014: Marilynne Robinson, Lila
• 2015: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
• 2016: Louise Erdrich, LaRose
• 2017: Joan Silber, Improvement
• 2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
• 2019: Edwidge Danticat, Everything Inside
• 2020: Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

Sachbuch

• 1975: R. W. B. Lewis, Edith Wharton: A Biography
• 1976: Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
• 1977: W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson
• 1978: Maureen Howard, Facts of Life und Garry Willis, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
• 1979: Telford Taylor, Munich: The Price of Peace
• 1980: Ronald Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century
• 1981: Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man
• 1982: Robert A. Caro, The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• 1983: Seymour M. Hersh, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House
• 1984: Freeman Dyson, Weapons and Hope
• 1985: J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
• 1986: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
• 1987: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
• 1988: Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63
• 1989: Michael Dorris, The Broken Cord
• 1990: Shelby Steele, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America
• 1991: Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
• 1992: Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire
• 1993: Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began
• 1994: Lynn Nicholas, The Rape of Europa
• 1995: Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action
• 1996: Jonathan Raban, Bad Land
• 1997: Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
• 1998: Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
• 1999: Jonathan Weiner, Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
• 2000: Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
• 2001: Nicholson Baker, Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper
• 2002: Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
• 2003: Paul Hendrickson, Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy
• 2004: Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History
• 2005: Swetlana Alexandrowna Alexijewitsch, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
• 2006: Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution
• 2007: Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
• 2008: Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
• 2009: Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
• 2010: Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
• 2011: Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
• 2012: Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
• 2013: Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
• 2014: David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
• 2015: Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Story of America’s Opiate Epidemic
• 2016: Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
• 2017: Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America
• 2018: Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan, 2001–2016
• 2019: Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: The True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
• 2020: Tom Zoellner, Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire

Lyrik

• 1975: John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
• 1976: Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III
• 1977: Robert Lowell, Day by Day
• 1978: L. E. Sissman, Hello, Darkness
• 1979: Philip Levine, Ashes und 7 Years from Somewhere
• 1980: Frederick Seidel, Sunrise
• 1981: A. R. Ammons, A Coast of Trees
• 1982: Katha Pollitt, Antarctic Traveller
• 1983: James Merrill, The Changing Light at Sandover
• 1984: Sharon Olds, The Dead and the Living
• 1985: Louise Glück, The Triumph of Achilles
• 1986: Edward Hirsch, Wild Gratitude
• 1987: C. K. Williams, Flesh and Blood
• 1988: Donald Hall, That One Day
• 1989: Rodney Jones, Transparent Gestures
• 1990: Amy Gerstler, Bitter Angel
• 1991: Albert Goldbarth, Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology
• 1992: Hayden Carruth, Collected Shorter Poems 1946–1991
• 1993: Mark Doty, My Alexandria
• 1994: Mark Rudman, Rider
• 1995: William Matthews, Time & Money
• 1996: Robert Hass, Sun Under Wood
• 1997: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
• 1998: Marie Ponsot, The Bird Catcher
• 1999: Ruth Stone, Ordinary Words
• 2000: Judy Jordan, Carolina Ghost Woods
• 2001: Albert Goldbarth, Saving Lives
• 2002: B. H. Fairchild, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
• 2003: Susan Stewart, Columbarium
• 2004: Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins
• 2005: Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven
• 2006: Troy Jollimore, Tom Thomson in Purgatory
• 2007: Mary Jo Bang, Elegy
• 2008: Juan Felipe Herrera, Half the World in Light und August Kleinzahler, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City
• 2009: Rae Armantrout, Versed
• 2010: C. D. Wright, One with Others
• 2011: Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains
• 2012: D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys
• 2013: Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog
• 2014: Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
• 2015: Ross Gay, Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude
• 2016: Ishion Hutchinson, House of Lords and Commons
• 2017: Layli Long Soldier, Whereas
• 2018: Ada Limón, The Carrying
• 2019: Morgan Parker, Magical Negro
• 2020: Francine J. Harris, Here Is the Sweet Hand

Biografie/Autobiografie

• 1983: Joyce Johnson, Minor Characters
• 1984: Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850–59
• 1985: Leon Edel, Henry James: A Life
• 1986: Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I: 1902–1941
• 1987: Donald Howard, Chaucer: His Life, His Work, His World
• 1988: Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde
• 1989: Geoffrey C. Ward, A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt
• 1990: Robert A. Caro, Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• 1991: Philip Roth, Patrimony: A True Story
• 1992: Carol Brightman, Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World
• 1993: Edmund White, Genet
• 1994: Mikal Gilmore, Shot in the Heart
• 1995: Robert Polito, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
• 1996: Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes
• 1997: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War
• 1998: Sylvia Nassar, A Beautiful Mind
• 1999: Henry Wiencek, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White
• 2000: Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
• 2001: Adam Sisman, Boswell’s Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson
• 2002: Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
• 2003: William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
• 2004: Mark Stevens und Annalyn Swan, De Kooning: An American Master

Autobiografie

• 2005: Francine du Plessix Gray, Them: A Memoir of Parents
• 2006: Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
• 2007: Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying
• 2008: Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq
• 2009: Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End
• 2010: Darin Strauss, Half a Life
• 2011: Mira Bartók, The Memory Palace: A Memoir
• 2012: Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies
• 2013: Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti
• 2014: Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
• 2015: Margo Jefferson, Negroland
• 2016: Hope Jahren, Lab Girl
• 2017: Xioulu Guo, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China
• 2018: Nora Krug, Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home
• 2019: Chanel Miller, Know My Name: A Memoir
• 2020: Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Biografie

• 2005: Kai Bird und Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
• 2006: Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
• 2007: Tim Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life Of Africa’s Greatest Explorer
• 2008: Patrick French, The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
• 2009: Blake Bailey, Cheever: A Life
• 2010: Sarah Bakewell, How To Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
• 2011: John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life
• 2012: Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• 2013: Leo Damrosch, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
• 2014: John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
• 2015: Charlotte Gordon, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
• 2016: Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
• 2017: Caroline Fraser, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
• 2018: Christopher Bonanos, Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous
• 2019: Josh Levin, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth
• 2020: Amy Stanley, Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World

Kritik

• 1975: Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory
• 1976: Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
• 1977: Susan Sontag, On Photography
• 1978: Meyer Schapior, Modern Art: 19th & 20th Centuries, Selected Papers
• 1979: Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
• 1980: Helen Vendler, Part of Nature: Modern American Poets
• 1981: Virgil Thomson, A Virgil Thomson Reader
• 1982: Gore Vidal, The Second American Revolution and Other Essays
• 1983: John Updike, Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism
• 1984: Robert Hass, Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry
• 1985: William Gass, Habitations of the World
• 1986: Joseph Brodsky, Less Than One: Selected Essays
• 1987: Edwin Denby, Dance Writings
• 1988: Clifford Geertz, Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author
• 1989: John Clive, Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History
• 1990: Arthur Danto, Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present
• 1991: Lawrence L. Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory
• 1992: Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remand America
• 1993: John Dizikes, Opera in America: A Cultural History
• 1994: Gerald Early, The Culture of Bruising
• 1995: Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolution France
• 1996: William Gass, Finding a Form
• 1997: Mario Vargas Llosa, Making Waves
• 1998: Gary Giddins, Visions of Jazz: The First Century
• 1999: Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions
• 2000: Cynthia Ozick, Quarrel & Quandary
• 2001: Martin Amis, The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews, 1971–2000
• 2002: William Gass, Tests of Time
• 2003: Rebecca Solnit, River of Shadows
• 2004: Patrick Neate, Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet
• 2005: William Logan, The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin
• 2006: Lawrence Weschler, Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences
• 2007: Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
• 2008: Seth Lerer, Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History
• 2009: Eula Biss, Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays
• 2010: Clare Cavanagh, Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West
• 2011: Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews
• 2012: Marina Warner, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
• 2013: Franco Moretti, Distant Reading
• 2014: Ellen Willis, The Essential Ellen Willis
• 2015: Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts
• 2016: Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
• 2017: Carina Chocano, You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages
• 2018: Zadie Smith, Feel Free: Essays
• 2019: Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Stories of Social Upheaval
• 2020: Nicole R. Fleetwood, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award

Auszeichnung für das Lebenswerk, benannt nach dem ersten Präsidenten des National Book Critics Circle

• 1982: Leslie A. Marchand
• 1984: Library of America
• 1987: Robert Giroux
• 1989: James Laughlin
• 1990: Donald Keene
• 1992: Gregory Rabassa
• 1994: William Maxwell
• 1995: Alfred Kazin, Elizabeth Hardwick
• 1996: Albert Murray
• 1997: Leslie Fiedler
• 1999: Pauline Kael, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• 2000: Barney Rosset
• 2001: Jason Epstein
• 2002: Richard Howard
• 2003: Studs Terkel
• 2004: Louis Rubin Jr.
• 2005: Bill Henderson
• 2006: John Leonard
• 2007: Emilie Buchwald
• 2008: P.E.N. American Center
• 2009: Joyce Carol Oates
• 2010: Dalkey Archive Press
• 2011: Robert B. Silvers
• 2012: Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar
• 2013: Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
• 2014: Toni Morrison
• 2015: Wendell Berry
• 2016: Margaret Atwood
• 2017: John McPhee
• 2018: Arte Público Press
• 2019: Naomi Shihab Nye
• 2020: “The Feminist Press at the City University of New York”
• 2021: Percival Everett

John Leonard Prize

Auszeichnung für ein Erstlingswerk, erstmals vergeben 2013, benannt nach dem Kritiker John Leonard

• 2013: Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
• 2014: Phil Klay, Redeployment
• 2015: Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas
• 2016: Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing
• 2017: Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties
• 2018: Tommy Orange, There There
• 2019: Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
• 2020: Raven Leilani, Luster