By Howard Rambsy II
1953: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) – National Book Award for Fiction
1978: James Alan McPherson’s Elbow Room* (1977) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1983: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1983: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) – National Book Award for Fiction
1988: Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1990: Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage (1990) – National Book Award for Fiction
1991: Ben Okri’s The Famished Road (1991) – Booker Prize
2004: Edward P. Jones’s The Known World (2003) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2011: Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2011) – National Book Award for Fiction
2013: James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird (2013) – National Book Award for Fiction
2015: Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014) – Booker Prize
2016: Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (2015) – Booker Prize
2016: Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016) – National Book Award for Fiction
2017: Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2017: Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) – National Book Award for Fiction
2019: Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other (2019) – Booker Prize
2020: Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (2019) – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2021: Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book (2021) – National Book Award for Fiction
*short story collection