National Book Award (US) – Non-Fiction

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

The National Book Awards have been awarded every November by the National Book Foundation in the United States since 1950. We list winners from 1990, and winners and finalists for the last three years.

See the other National Book Awards category winners and all the other literary prize winners we list.

2024 

• Soldiers and kings: Survival and hope in the world of human smuggling Jason De León Winner
• Circle of hope: A reckoning with love, power, and justice in an American church Eliza Griswold
• Unshrinking: How to face fatphobia Kate Manne
• Knife: Meditations after an attempted murder Salman Rushdie
• Whiskey tender: A memoir Deborah Jackson Taffa

 

2023  

• The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History Ned Blackhawk Winner
• Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice Cristina Rivera Garza
• Ordinary Notes Christina Sharpe
• We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir Raja Shehadeh
• Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World John Vaillant

2022

• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Imani Perry Winner
• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness Meghan O’Rourke
• Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus David Quammen
• The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

2021 

• All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake Tiya Miles Winner
• A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib
• Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains Lucas Bessire
• Tastes Like War: A Memoir Grace M. Cho
• Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America Nicole Eustace

2020

• The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Tamara Payne and Les Payne Winner
• Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory Claudio Saunt
• My Autobiography of Carson McCullers Jenn Shapland
• The Undocumented Americans Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• How to Make a Slave and Other Essays Jerald Walker

2019

• The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom Winner
• Thick: And Other Essays Tressie McMillan Cottom
• What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance Carolyn Forché
• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present David Treuer
• Solitary Albert Woodfox and Leslie George

2018

• The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke Jeffrey C. Stewart Winner
• The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation Colin G. Calloway
• American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic Victoria Johnson
• Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth Sarah Smarsh
• We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights Adam Winkler

2017

• The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Masha Gessen Winner
• Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America Frances FitzGerald
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI David Grann
• Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America Nancy MacLean 

2016

• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi Winner
• Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right Arlie Russell Hochschild
• Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America Andrés Reséndez,
• Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Heather Ann Thompson

2015

• Between the world and me Ta-Nehisi Coates Winner
• Hold still Sally Mann
• The soul of an octopus Sy Montgomery
• If the oceans were ink: an unlikely friendship and a journey to the heart of the Quran Carla Power
• Ordinary light Tracy K. Smith

2014

• Age of ambition: chasing fortune, truth, and faith in the New China Evan Osnos Winner
• Can’t we talk about something more pleasant? Roz Chast
• No good men among the living: America, the Taliban, and the war through Afghan eyes Anand Gopal
• Tennessee Williams: mad pilgrimage of the flesh John Lahr
• The meaning of human existence Edward O. Wilson

2013

• The unwinding: an inner history of the New America George Packer Winner
• Book of ages: the life and opinions of Jane Franklin Jill Lepore
• Hitler’s furies: German women in the Nazi killing fields Wendy Lower
• The internal enemy: slavery and war in Virginia, 1772–1832 Alan Taylor
• Going clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the prison of belief Lawrence Wright

2012

• Behind the beautiful forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity Katherine Boo Winner
• Iron Curtain: the crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 Anne Applebaum
• The passage of power: the years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 4 Robert A. Caro
• The boy kings of Texas Domingo Martinez
• House of stone: a memoir of home, family, and a lost Middle East Anthony Shadid

2011

• The swerve: how the world became modern Stephen Greenblatt Winner

2010

• Just kids Patti Smith Winner

2009

• The first tycoon: the epic life of Cornelius Vanderbilt T. J. Stiles Winner

2008

• The Hemingses of Monticello: an American family Annette Gordon–Reed Winner

2007

• Legacy of ashes: the history of the CIA Tim Weiner Winner

2006

• The worst hard time: the untold story of those who survived the Great American Dust Bowl Timothy Egan Winner

2005

• The year of magical thinking Joan Didion Winner

2004

• Arc of justice: a saga of race, civil rights and murder in the Jazz age Kevin Boyle Winner

2003

• Waiting for snow in Havana: confessions of a Cuban boy Carlos Eire Winner

2002

• The years of Lyndon Johnson: master of the Senate Robert A. Caro Winner

2001

• The noonday demon: an atlas of depression Andrew Solomon Winner

2000

• In the heart of the sea: the tragedy of the whaleship Essex Nathaniel Philbrick Winner

1999

• Embracing defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II John W. Dower Winner

1998

• Slaves in the family Edward Ball Winner

1997

• American Sphinx: the character of Thomas Jefferson Joseph Ellis Winner

1996

• An American requiem: God, my father, and the war that came between us James Carroll Winner

1995

• Facing Europe’s ghosts Tina Rosenberg Winner

1994

• How we die Sherwin B. Nuland Winner

1993

• United States: essays 1952–1992 Gore Vidal Winner

1992

• Becoming a man: half a life story Paul Monette Winner

1991

• Freedom Orlando Patterson Winner

1990

• The house of Morgan Winner Ron Chernow