National Book Award (going back to 1950–winners and honor books)
Note: there is no separate category for memoirs; these are the memoirs that have won in the nonfiction category. The National Book Award is given out each November.
The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order by Joan Wickersham – 2008
Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat – 2007
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion – 2005
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire – 2003
American Chica by Maria Arana – 2001
A Slant of Sun: One Child’s Courage by Beth Kephart – 1998
An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us by James Carroll –
1996
In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff – 1994
Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story by Paul Monette – 1992
One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty – 1984
Facts of Life by Maureen Howard – 1981
Obituaries by William Saroyan – 1980 (verify auto)
Front and Center by John Houseman – 1980 (verify auto)
I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can by Barbara Gordon – 1980
Lauren Bacall by Myself by Lauren Bacall – 1980 (verify title)
And I Worked at the Writer’s Trade: Chapters of Literary History by Malcolm Cowley – 1980
Brother to a Dragonfly by Will D. Campbell – 1978
The Diary of Anais Nin, vol. 6 by Anais Nin – 1977
Pentimento by Lillian Hellman – 1974
Images and Shadows by Iris Origo – 1972
An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman – 1970
Stop-Time by Frank Conroy – 1968
In My Father’s Court by Isaac Bashevis Singer – 1967
Starting Out in the Thirties by Alfred Kazin – 1966
Paris Journal by Janet Flanner – 1966
My Wilderness by William O. Douglas – 1961
The Years with Ross by James Thurber – 1960
Act One by Moss Hart – 1960
A Life in the Theatre by Tyrone Guthrie – 1960
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy – 1958
A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin – 1952
This I Remember by Eleanor Roosevelt – 1950
National Book Critics Circle Award
Note: before 2005, autobiography and biography were a single category. The NBCC award is given out each March.
Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill – 2009
My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar – 2008
Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat – 2007
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn – 2006
Them: A Memoir of Parents by Francine du Plessix Gray – 2005
Angela’ Ashes by Frank McCourt – 1996
Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore – 1994
Patrimony: A True Story by Philip Roth – 1991
Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson – 1983
Pulitzer Prize (going back to 1950)
Note: there is no separate category for memoirs; these are the memoirs that have won in the biography/autobiography category. The Pulitzer Prize is awarded in April.
Personal History by Katherine Graham – 1998
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt – 1997
Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet by Lewis B. Puller – 1992
Growing Up by Russell Baker – 1983
Memoirs by George F. Kennan – 1968
