Living Canon

National Book Award 2015: Complete list of winners

The 2015 National Book Award season brought fresh recognition to some of contemporary literature’s most daring voices. Established in 1950, the National Book Award remains one of America’s most prestigious literary honors, and this year’s selections demonstrated the breadth and ambition of current American writing. The award, which celebrates excellence across fiction, nonfiction, young people’s literature, and poetry, has long served as a bellwether for which books will endure in the literary canon.

Robin Coste Lewis took home the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry for her stunning debut collection Voyage of the Sable Venus. The collection, which weaves together historical research, lyrical innovation, and formal experimentation, represents the kind of genre-bending work that has increasingly captured the judges’ attention in recent years. Lewis’s win signals a continued embrace of poetry that challenges conventional structures while engaging with America’s complex historical narratives—a notable trend as the National Book Award for poetry continues to champion voices that refuse easy categorization.

Here are the complete winners from the 2015 National Book Awards:

Poetry