Awarded each spring by Columbia University.
| Year | Title | Author |
| 2016 | The Sympathizer | Viet Than Nguyen |
| 2015 | All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr |
| 2014 | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt |
| 2013 | The Orphan Master’s Son | Adam Johnson |
| 2011 | A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan |
| 2010 | Tinkers | Paul Harding |
| 2009 | Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout |
| 2008 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Diaz |
| 2007 | The Road | Cormac McCarthy |
| 2006 | March | Geraldine Brooks |
| 2005 | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson |
| 2004 | The Known World | Edward P. Jones |
| 2003 | Middlesex | Jeffrey Eugenides |
| 2002 | Empire Falls | Richard Russo |
| 2001 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon |
| 2000 | Interpreter of Maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 1999 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham |
| 1998 | American Pastoral | Philip Roth |
| 1997 | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer | Steven Millhauser |
| 1996 | Independence Day | Richard Ford |
| 1995 | The Stone Diaries | Carol Shields |
| 1994 | The Shipping News | E. Annie Proulx |
| 1993 | A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | Robert Olen Butler |
| 1992 | A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley |
| 1991 | Rabbit At Rest | John Updike |
| 1990 | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love | Oscar Hijuelos |
| 1989 | Breathing Lessons | Anne Tyler |
| 1988 | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
| 1987 | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor |
| 1986 | Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry |
| 1985 | Foreign Affairs | Alison Lurie |
| 1984 | Ironweed | William Kennedy |
| 1983 | The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| 1982 | Rabbit Is Rich | John Updike |
| 1981 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole |
| 1980 | The Executioner’s Song | Norman Mailer |
| 1979 | The Stories of John Cheever | John Cheever |
| 1978 | Elbow Room | James Alan McPherson |
| 1977 | No award | |
| 1976 | Humboldt’s Gift | Saul Bellow |
| 1975 | The Killer Angels | Michael Shaara |
| 1974 | No award | |
| 1973 | The Optimist’s Daughter | Eudora Welty |
| 1972 | Angle of Repose | Wallace Stegner |
| 1971 | No award | |
| 1970 | Collected Stories | Jean Stafford |
| 1969 | House Made of Dawn | N. Scott Momaday |
| 1968 | The Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron |
| 1967 | The Fixer | Bernard Malamud |
| 1966 | Collected Stories | Katherine Anne Porter |
| 1965 | The Keepers of the House | Shirley Ann Grau |
| 1964 | No award | |
| 1963 | The Reivers | William Faulkner |
| 1962 | The Edge of Sadness | Edwin O’Connor |
| 1961 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| 1960 | Advise and Consent | Allen Drury |
| 1959 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Robert Lewis Taylor |
| 1958 | A Death in the Family | James Agee |
| 1957 | No award | |
| 1956 | Andersonville | MacKinlay Kantor |
| 1955 | A Fable | William Faulkner |
| 1954 | No award | |
| 1953 | The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway |
| 1952 | The Caine Mutiny | Herman Wouk |
| 1951 | The Town | Conrad Richter |
| 1950 | The Way West | A.B. Guthrie |
| 1949 | Guard of Honor | James Gould Cozzens |
| 1948 | Tales of the South Pacific | James A. Michener |
| 1947 | All the King’s Men | Robert Penn Warren |
| 1946 | No award | |
| 1945 | a Bell for Adano | John Hersey |
| 1944 | Journey in the Dark | Martin Flavin |
| 1943 | Dragon’s Teeth | Upton Sinclair |
| 1942 | In This Our Life | Ellen Glasgow |
| 1941 | No award | |
| 1940 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| 1939 | The Yearling | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |
| 1938 | The Late George Apley | John Phillips Marquand |
| 1937 | Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
| 1936 | Honey in the Horn | Harold L. Davis |
| 1935 | Now in November | Josephine Winslow Johnson |
| 1934 | Lamb in His Bosom | Caroline Miller |
| 1933 | The Store | T.S. Stribling |
| 1932 | The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck |
| 1931 | Years of Grace | Margaret Ayer Barnes |
| 1930 | Laughing Boy | Oliver Lafarge |
| 1929 | Scarlet Sister Mary | Julia Peterkin |
| 1928 | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Thornton Wilder |
| 1927 | Early Autumn | Louis Bromfield |
| 1926 | Arrowsmith | Sinclair Lewis |
| 1925 | So Big | Edna Ferber |
| 1924 | The Able McLaughlins | Margaret Wilson |
| 1923 | One of Ours | Willa Cather |
| 1922 | Alice Adams | Booth Tarkington |
| 1921 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharon |
| 1920 | No award | |
| 1919 | The Magnificent Ambersons | Booth Tarkington |
| 1918 | His Family | Ernest Poole |
Great books blog 