List of winners of the National Book Award

These authors and books have won the annual U.S. National Book Awards, first awarded to four 1935 publications in May 1936. There are four award categories with no change since 1996 and the four winners are selected from hundreds of nominees—ranging in number from 148 in the Poetry category to 435 in the Nonfiction category, during the 2010 cycle for example. During the 2013 cycle, longlists of ten nominees in each of four categories were announced September 16 to 19. Lists of five finalists were announced October 16 and the awards were announced and presented at a benefit dinner on November 20 in New York City.

Contrary to historical fact, the National Book Foundation currently recognizes only a history of purely literary awards that begins in 1950. The pre-war awards and the 1980 to 1983 graphics awards are covered here following the main list that is organized by award category and year.

Repeat winners and split awards are covered at the bottom of the page.

This section covers awards starting in 1950 in the four current categories as defined by their names. Some awards in "previous categories" may have been equivalent except in name.

General fiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category that has been continuous since 1950, with multiple awards for a few years beginning 1980. From 1935 to 1941, there were six annual awards for novels or general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery", the "Most Original Book"; both awards were sometimes given to a novel.

General nonfiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category continuous only from 1984, when the general award was restored after two decades of awards in several nonfiction categories. From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general nonfiction, two for biography, and the Bookseller Discovery or Most Original Book was sometimes nonfiction.

This section covers awards from 1964 to 1983 in categories that differ from the "current categories" in name. Some of them were substantially equivalent to current categories.

The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association to four 1935 books selected by its members. Subsequently the awards were announced mid-February to March 1 and presented at the convention. For 1937 books there were ballots from 319 stores, about three times so many as for 1935. There had been 600 ABA members in 1936.

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