National Book Award for Fiction Winners Trivia Word Search

This Vietnam veteran's novel 'Paco's Story' won the 1987 award.

This prolific author's novel about a working-class Detroit family, 'them,' won the 1970 award.

This author's small-town Pennsylvania novel 'Ten North Frederick' won the 1956 award.

This Iraq War veteran's story collection 'Redeployment' won the 2014 award.

Philip Roth's 1995 winner follows a disgraced former puppeteer; the title character's surname is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This author's novel 'The Eighth Day,' set in a small Illinois town after a murder, won the 1968 award.

This author's Civil War-era novel of a soldier's long walk home, 'Cold Mountain,' won the 1997 award.

This author's satirical retelling of 'Huckleberry Finn' from Jim's perspective, 'James,' won the 2024 award.

This author's novel about a woman inheriting her late friend's Great Dane, 'The Friend,' won the 2018 award.

This author's philosophical slave-ship novel 'Middle Passage' won the 1990 award.

This Mississippi author's 1951 winning collection gathered decades of his Yoknapatawpha County stories.

This Native American author's novel about a tribal judge's son seeking justice, 'The Round House,' won the 2012 award.

Denis Johnson's Vietnam War-era spy novel won the 2007 award; its three-word title ends in '_ _ _ _ _.'

Wright Morris's 1981 winner traces generations of a Nebraska farm family; its first word is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _.'

This author's novel about Irish-born Eliza Lynch in 19th-century Paraguay, 'The News from Paraguay,' won the 2004 award.

This author's novel set among Newfoundland fishing communities, 'The Shipping News,' won the 1993 award.

This author's novel blending memoir and magical realism, 'Hell of a Book,' won the 2021 award.

J. F. Powers won the 1963 award for a novel about an ambitious priest, Father _ _ _ _ _ Flanagan, whose first name is in its title.

This author's coming-of-age novel drawing on Greek myth, 'The Centaur,' won the 1964 award.

Saul Bellow's 1971 winner follows an aging Holocaust survivor in New York; the title character's surname is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This author's sprawling novel spanning the Nazi and Soviet eras, 'Europe Central,' won the 2005 award.

This Chinese-born author's novel about a decades-long divorce delay, 'Waiting,' won the 1999 award.

This author's novel about a charming, doomed Irish-American, 'Charming Billy,' won the 1998 award.

This author's sole novel, 'Invisible Man,' about an unnamed Black narrator, won the 1953 award.

Bernard Malamud's 1967 winner follows a wrongly jailed handyman in Tsarist Russia; its one-word title is spelled '_ _ _ _ _.'

William Gaddis's 1994 winner satirizes the legal system; its title phrase ends 'of His Own,' with the middle word spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _.'

Drawing on his own Army service in Hawaii, this author won the 1952 award for 'From Here to Eternity.'

A disaffected New Orleans stockbroker narrates this author's 1962 winner, 'The Moviegoer.'

This Vietnam War veteran's novel 'Going After Cacciato' won the 1979 award.

This author's linked story collection 'Victory Over Japan' won the 1984 award.

This author's story collection 'The Magic Barrel' blended Jewish folklore with realism to win the 1959 award.

This author's novel set among expatriates in Botswana, 'Mating,' won the 1991 award.

This author's story collection linking science and history, 'Ship Fever,' won the 1996 award.

This Georgia author's posthumous 1972 winner gathered her complete short fiction.

This author's novel set at a performing-arts high school, 'Trust Exercise,' won the 2019 award.

This author's meditation on memory and the Nebraska plains, 'The Field of Vision,' won the 1957 award.

This author's novel narrated by a boy disguised as a girl during John Brown's raid, 'The Good Lord Bird,' won the 2013 award.

This author's novel about a retired literary agent looking back on his life, 'The Spectator Bird,' won the 1977 award.

This Chicago-set picaresque novel about a Depression-era drifter won its author the 1954 award.

This author's novel about a Rhode Island sailor, 'Spartina,' won the 1989 award.

This author's novel reimagining an escape route as a literal railroad, 'The Underground Railroad,' won the 2016 award.

This Mississippi author's Hurricane Katrina novel 'Salvage the Bones' won the 2011 prize.

A young man courts a wealthy Jewish family's daughter in this author's 1960 winner, 'Goodbye, Columbus.'

This author's suburban Massachusetts family saga 'The Wapshot Chronicle' won the 1958 award.

This author's satire of consumerism and an 'airborne toxic event,' 'White Noise,' won the 1985 award.

This author's novel about an old man returning to his boyhood town, 'The Waters of Kronos,' won the 1961 award.

This author's mythological pastiche 'Chimera' won the 1973 award.

This Polish-American author's fragmented novel 'Steps' won the 1969 award.

This author's satire of corporate America, narrated largely through an eleven-year-old's scheme, 'J R,' won the 1976 award.

This Irish author's novel weaving stories around a tightrope walk between the Twin Towers won the 2009 award.

This author's coming-of-age Western 'All the Pretty Horses' won the 1992 award.

This Australian-born author's World War II-era novel 'The Great Fire' won the 2003 award.

Adam Johnson's 2015 winning story collection has a title ending 'Smiles'; its first word is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

John Updike's 1982 winner follows a car dealer prospering in middle age; the title nickname is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _.'

This critic and novelist's book about a 19th-century actress emigrating to America, 'In America,' won the 2000 award.

This author's novel set at the 1939 New York World's Fair won the 1986 award.

Saul Bellow's 1965 winner follows a professor drafting unsent letters; the title character's surname is spelled '_ _ _ _ _ _.'

Jesmyn Ward's second winner follows a Mississippi family's road trip; its repeated title word is spelled '_ _ _ _.'

This reclusive author's sprawling World War II novel 'Gravity's Rainbow' won the 1974 award.

This author's family drama 'The Corrections' won the 2001 award.

This author's debut novel about a widower and his adult children, 'Three Junes,' won the 2002 award.

This author's novel 'Blood Tie,' set among expatriates in Turkey, won the 1978 award.

This author's novel about a Nebraska crash victim convinced his sister is an impostor, 'The Echo Maker,' won the 2006 award.

This Lebanese-American author won the 2025 award for a novel about a gullible man and his mother; his first name is spelled '_ _ _ _ _.'

This author's 2008 winner 'Shadow Country' follows a Florida outlaw; his first name (surname Matthiessen) is spelled '_ _ _ _ _.'

This author's lifetime story collection won the 1966 award decades into her career.

This author's novel about a violent Georgia businessman in 1949, 'Paris Trout,' won the 1988 award.

This author's novel about a Holocaust survivor's devastating wartime choice, 'Sophie's Choice,' won the 1980 award.

This author's epistolary novel 'The Color Purple' won the 1983 award.

This author's novel set at a West Virginia racetrack, 'Lord of Misrule,' won the 2010 award.