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1950 The man with the golden arm, a novel by Nelson Algren
1951 Collected stories by William Faulkner
1952 From here to eternity by James Jones
1953 Invisible man by Ralph Ellison
1954 The adventures of Augie March, a novel, by Saul Bellow
1955 A fable by William Faulkner
1956 Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara
1957 The field of vision by Wright Morris
1958 The Wapshot chronicle by John Cheever
1959 The magic barrel by Bernard Malamud
1960 Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
1961 The waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter
1962 The moviegoer by Walker Percy
1963 Morte D'Urban by J. F. Powers
1964 The centaur by John Updike
1965 Herzog by Saul Bellow
1966 The collected stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katharine Anne Porter
1967 The fixer by Bernard Malamud
1968 The eighth day by Thornton Wilder
1969 Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
1970 Them by Joyce Carol Oates
1971 Mr. Sammler's planet by Saul Bellow
1972 The complete stories by Flannery O'Connor
1973 Chimera by John Barth; Augustus by John Williams
1974 Gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon; A crown of feathers and other stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1975 Dog soldiers by Robert Stone; The hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
1976 J R by William Gaddis
1977 The spectator bird by Wallace Stegner
1978 Blood tie by Mary Lee Settle
1979 Going after Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
1980 Sophie's choice by William Styron (hardcover); The world according to Garp by John Irving (paperback); Birdy by William Wharton (first novel); The green ripper by John D. MacDonald (mystery, hardcover); Stained glass by William F. Buckley, Jr. (mystery, paperback); Jem by Frederick Pohl (science fiction, hardcover); Book of the dun cow by Walter Wangerin, jr. (science fiction, paperback); Bendigo Shafter by Louis L'Amour
1981 Plains song, for female voices by Wright Morris (hardcover); The stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (paperback); Sister wolf : a novel by Ann Arensberg (first novel)
1982 Rabbit is rich by John Updike (hardcover); So long, see you tomorrow by William Maxwell (paperback);
Dale loves Sophie to death by Robb Forman Dew (first novel)
1983 The color purple by Alice Walker (hardcover); The collected stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (paperback); The women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor (first novel); The red magician by Lisa Goldstein (original paperback [science fiction])
1984 Victory over Japan : a book of stories by Ellen Gilchrist; Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr (first work of fiction)
1985 White noise by Don DeLillo; Easy in the islands by Bob Shacochis
1986 World's fair by E. L. Doctorow
1987 Paco's story by Larry Heinemann
1988 Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
1989 Spartina by John Casey
1990 Middle passage by Charles Johnson
1991 Mating by Norman Rush
1992 All the pretty horses by Cormac McCarthy
1993 The shipping news by E. Annie Proulx
1994 A frolic of his own by William Gaddis
1995 Sabbath's theater by Philip Roth
1996 Ship fever and other stories by Andrea Barrett
1997 Cold mountain by Charles Frazier
1998 Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
1999 Waiting by Ha Jin
2000 In America by Susan Sontag
2001 The corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2002 Three Junes by Julia Glass
2003 The great fire by Shirley Hazzard
2004 The news from Paraguay : a novel by Lily Tuck
2005 Europe central by William T. Vollmann
2006 The echo maker by Richard Powers
2007 Tree of smoke : a novel by Denis Johnson
2008 Shadow country : a new rendering of the Watson legend by Peter Matthiessen
2009 Let the great world spin : a novel by Colum McCann
2010 Lord of misrule : a novel by Jaimy Gordon
2011 Salvage the bones : a novel by Jesmyn Ward
2012 The round house by Louise Erdrich
2013 The good lord bird by James McBride
2014 Redeployment by Phil Klay
2015 Fortune smiles : stories by Adam Johnson
2016 The underground railroad : a novel by Colson Whitehead
2017 Sing, unburied, sing by Jesmyn Ward
2018 The friend by Sigrid Nunez