| 1998 | David Bodanis | The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours Inside the Mysterious Worlds of Our Minds and Bodies |
| Rick Bragg | All Over but the Shoutin' |
| Rebecca Carroll | Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America |
| Karin Cook | What Girls Learn |
| Pete Hamill | Snow in August |
| Sebastian Junger | The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea |
| Jon Krakauer | Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster |
| Velma Maia Thomas | Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation |
| Dawn Turner Trice | Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven |
| Connie Willis | To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last |
| 1999 | Caroline Alexander | The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition |
| James Finney Boylan | Getting In |
| Andie Dominick | Needles |
| John Gilstrap | At All Costs |
| Jesse Lee Kercheval | Space |
| Steve Kluger | Last Days of Summer |
| Robert Silverberg | Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Antarctica |
| Esmeralda Santiago | Almost a Woman |
| Danzy Senna | Caucasia |
| 2000 | David Breashears | High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places |
| Orson Scott Card | Ender's Shadow |
| Breena Clarke | River, Cross My Heart |
| Esmé Raji Codell | Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year |
| Jonathon Scott Fuqua | The Reappearance of Sam Webber |
| Neil Gaiman | Stardust |
| Linda Greenlaw | The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey |
| Elva Trevino Hart | Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child |
| Kent Haruf | Plainsong |
| Connie Porter | Imani All Mine |
| 2001 | Darin Strauss | Chang & Eng |
| Larry Colton | Counting Coup |
| Juliet Marillier | Daughter of the Forest |
| Alan Watt | Diamond Dogs |
| James Bradley and Ron Powers | Flags of Our Fathers |
| Tracy Chevalier | Girl with a Pearl Earring |
| Nathaniel Philbrick | In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex |
| Ben Sherwood | The Man Who Ate the 747 |
| Gillian Bradshaw | The Sand Reckoner |
| June Jordan | Soldier: A Poet's Childhood |
| 2002 | Geraldine Brooks | Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague |
| William Doyle | An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi |
| David Anthony Durham | Gabriel's Story |
| Barbara Ehrenreich | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-Time America |
| Leif Enger | Peace Like a River |
| Kobie Kruger | The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa's Wildlife |
| Donna Morrissey | Kit's Law |
| Mel Odom | The Rover |
| Vineeta Vijayaraghavan | Motherland |
| Rebecca Walker | Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self |
| 2003 | Lynda Barry | One! Hundred! Demons! |
| Pat Conroy | My Losing Season |
| Timothy Ferris | Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril |
| Jasper Fforde | The Eyre Affair |
| Mary Lawson | Crow Lake |
| Brian Malloy | The Year of Ice |
| Julie Otsuka | When the Emperor Was Divine |
| Ann Packer | The Dive from Clausen's Pier |
| Martha Southgate | The Fall of Rome |
| Joseph Weisberg | 10th Grade |
| 2004 | Amanda Davis | Wonder When You'll Miss Me |
| Mark Haddon | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
| Khaled Hosseini | The Kite Runner |
| Audrey Niffenegger | The Time Traveler's Wife |
| ZZ Packer | Drinking Coffee Elsewhere |
| Mary Roach | Stiff |
| Mark Salzman | True Notebooks |
| Marjane Satrapi | Persepolis |
| Jacqueline Winspear | Maisie Dobbs |
| Bart Yates | Leave Myself Behind |
| 2005 | Steve Almond | Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America |
| Lynne Cox | Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer |
| Brendan Halpin | Donorboy |
| Robert Kurson | Shadow Divers |
| Kent Meyers | Work of Wolves |
| Ann Patchett | Truth & Beauty: A Friendship |
| Jodi Picoult | My Sister's Keeper |
| Kit Reed | Thinner Than Thou |
| Jim Shepard | Project X |
| Robert Sullivan | Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants |
| 2006 | Judy Fong Bates | Midnight at the Dragon Café |
| Kalisha Buckhanon | Upstate |
| Neil Gaiman | Anansi Boys |
| Gregory Galloway | As Simple as Snow |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | Never Let Me Go |
| A. Lee Martinez | Gil's All Fright Diner |
| Susan Palwick | The Necessary Beggar |
| Nancy Rawles | My Jim |
| Julia Scheeres | Jesus Land: A Memoir |
| Jeannette Walls | The Glass Castle: A Memoir |
| 2007 | John Connolly | The Book of Lost Things |
| Ivan Doig | The Whistling Season |
| Michael D'Orso | Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska |
| Sara Gruen | Water for Elephants |
| Pamela Carter Joern | Floor of the Sky |
| John Hamamura | Color of the Sea |
| Michael Lewis | The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game |
| David Mitchell | Black Swan Green |
| Ron Rash | The World Made Straight |
| Diane Setterfield | The Thirteenth Tale |
| 2008 | Matthew Polly | American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China |
| Matt Ruff | Bad Monkeys |
| Jeff Lemire | Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm |
| Conn Iggulden | Genghis: Birth of an Empire |
| Aryn Kyle | The God of Animals |
| Ishmael Beah | A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier |
| Lloyd Jones | Mister Pip |
| Patrick Rothfuss | The Name of the Wind |
| Thomas Maltman | The Night Birds |
| Lisa Lutz | The Spellman Files |
| 2009 | David Benioff | City of Thieves |
| Michael Swanwick | The Dragons of Babel |
| Zoë Ferraris | Finding Nouf |
| Hannah Tinti | The Good Thief |
| Stephen King | Just After Sunset: Stories |
| Hillary Jordan | Mudbound |
| Todd Tucker | Over and Under |
| Stephen G. Bloom | The Oxford Project |
| Toby Barlow | Sharp Teeth |
| Theresa Rebeck | Three Girls and Their Brother |
| 2010 | William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer | The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope |
| Meg Rosoff | The Bride's Farewell |
| Ron Currie Jr. | Everything Matters! |
| David Finkel | The Good Soldiers |
| Diana Welch and Liz Welch | The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir |
| Lev Grossman | The Magicians |
| Peter Rock | My Abandonment |
| Gail Carriger | Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel |
| David Small | Stitches: A Memoir |
| Kevin Wilson | Tunneling to the Center of the Earth |
| 2011 | DC Pierson | The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To |
| Liz Murray | Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard |
| Jean Kwok | Girl in Translation |
| Peter Bognanni | The House of Tomorrow |
| Steve Hamilton | The Lock Artist |
| Aimee Bender | The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake |
| Matt Haig | The Radleys |
| Alden Bell | The Reapers Are the Angels |
| Emma Donoghue | Room |
| Helen Grant | The Vanishing of Katharina Linden |
| 2012 | Rachel DeWoskin | Big Girl Small |
| Jo Ann Beard | In Zanesville |
| David Levithan | The Lover's Dictionary |
| Brooke Hauser | The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens |
| Erin Morgenstern | The Night Circus |
| Ernest Cline | Ready Player One |
| Daniel H. Wilson | Robopocalypse |
| Jesmyn Ward | Salvage the Bones |
| Caroline Preston | The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures |
| Roland Merullo | The Talk-Funny Girl |
| 2013 | David Zimmerman | Caring Is Creepy |
| Tupelo Hassman | Girlchild |
| Richard Ross | Juvenile in Justice |
| Robin Sloan | Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore |
| Derf Backderf | My Friend Dahmer |
| Chris Ballard | One Shot at Forever |
| Julianna Baggott | Pure |
| Louise Erdrich | The Round House |
| Carol Rifka Brunt | Tell the Wolves I'm Home |
| Maria Semple | Where'd You Go, Bernadette? |
| 2014 | Mark Slouka | Brewster |
| Lisa O'Donnell | The Death of Bees |
| Abigail Tarttelin | Golden Boy |
| John Searles | Help for the Haunted |
| Max Barry | Lexicon |
| Wesley Chu | Lives of Tao |
| Koren Zailckas | Mother, Mother |
| Lucy Knisley | Relish: My Life in the Kitchen |
| Katja Millay | The Sea of Tranquility |
| Gavin Extence | The Universe Versus Alex Woods |
| 2015 | Anthony Doerr | All the Light We Cannot See |
| Kate Racculia | Bellweather Rhapsody |
| James A. Levine | Bingo's Run |
| Kanae Minato | Confessions |
| Celeste Ng | Everything I Never Told You |
| John Scalzi | Lock In |
| Andy Weir | The Martian |
| Zak Ebrahim | The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice |
| Michael Koryta | Those Who Wish Me Dead |
| John Darnielle | Wolf in White Van |
| 2016 | Ryan Gattis | All Involved |
| Ta-Nehisi Coates | Between the World and Me |
| Camille DeAngelis | Bones & All |
| David Wong | Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits |
| Sara Nović | Girl at War |
| Joe Abercrombie | Half the World |
| Brandon Stanton | Humans of New York: Stories |
| Liz Suburbia | Sacred Heart |
| Dan-el Padilla Peralta | Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League |
| Keija Parssinen | The Unraveling of Mercy Louis |
| 2017 | Sarah Beth Durst | The Queen of Blood |
| Manuel Gonzales | The Regional Office Is Under Attack! |
| Diane Guerrero with Michelle Burford | In the Country We Love: My Family Divided |
| Hannah Hart | Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded |
| Holly Jennings | Arena |
| Seanan McGuire | Every Heart a Doorway |
| Ryan North | Romeo and/or Juliet: A Choosable-Path Adventure |
| Rob Rufus | Die Young with Me: A Memoir |
| Matt Simon | The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar |
| Scott Stambach | The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko |
| 2018 | Martha Wells | All Systems Red |
| Daniel H. Wilson | The Clockwork Dynasty |
| Seanan McGuire | Down Among the Sticks and Bones |
| Eve Ewing | Electric Arches |
| Melissa Fleming | A Hope More Powerful than the Sea |
| Joey Comeau | Malagash |
| Jeff Lemire | Roughneck |
| Jordan Harper | She Rides Shotgun |
| Tasha Kavanagh | Things We Have in Common |
| Kat Howard | An Unkindness of Magicians |
| 2019 | P. Djèlí Clark | The Black God's Drums |
| Meghan MacLean Weir | The Book of Essie |
| Madeline Miller | Circe |
| Tara Westover | Educated: A Memoir |
| Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil | The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After |
| Sam Graham-Felsen | Green |
| David Small | Home After Dark |
| N. K. Jemisin | How Long 'til Black Future Month? |
| Jonathan Evison | Lawn Boy |
| Naomi Novik | Spinning Silver |
| 2020 | C.A. Fletcher | A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World |
| Temi Oh | Do You Dream of Terra-Two? |
| Angie Cruz | Dominicana |
| Maia Kobabe | Gender Queer: A Memoir |
| Tegan and Sara | High School |
| AJ Dungo | In Waves |
| Seanan McGuire | Middlegame |
| Colson Whitehead | The Nickel Boys |
| Casey McQuiston | Red, White & Royal Blue |
| Lisa Lutz | The Swallows |
| 2021 | Rebecca Roanhorse | Black Sun |
| TJ Klune | The House in the Cerulean Sea |
| Colin O'Brady | The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice - Crossing Antarctica Alone |
| Derf Backderf | Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio |
| Gretchen Anthony | The Kids Are Gonna Ask |
| Stephen Graham Jones | The Only Good Indians |
| Emily M. Danforth | Plain Bad Heroines |
| Tochi Onyebuchi | Riot Baby |
| Allie Brosh | Solutions and Other Problems |
| Quan Barry | We Ride Upon Sticks: A Novel |
| 2022 | Ryka Aoki | Light from Uncommon Stars |
| Marianne Cronin | The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot |
| Genevieve Gornichec | The Witch's Heart |
| T. L. Huchu | The Library of the Dead |
| Will Leitch | How Lucky |
| Everina Maxwell | Winter's Orbit |
| Kate Quinn | The Rose Code |
| Kareem Rosser | Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever |
| Rachel Smythe | Lore Olympus, Vol. 1 |
| Heather Walter | Malice |
| 2023 | Sophie Irwin | A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting |
| R. F. Kuang | Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution |
| Jennette McCurdy | I'm Glad My Mom Died |
| Jarrett Melendez, illus. by Danica Brine | Chef's Kiss |
| Sara Nović | True Biz |
| Jamila Rowser, illus. by Robyn Smith | Wash Day Diaries |
| John Scalzi | The Kaiju Preservation Society |
| James Spooner | The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. |
| Sue Lynn Tan | Daughter of the Moon Goddess |
| Javier Zamora | Solito: A Memoir |
| 2024 | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Chain-Gang All-Stars |
| Darrin Bell | The Talk |
| Jessica George | Maame |
| Jessica Johns | Bad Cree |
| Khashayar J. Khabushani | I Will Greet the Sun Again |
| Daniel Kraus | Whalefall |
| Oksana Masters | The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and Triumph |
| John Scalzi | Starter Villain |
| Jade Song | Chlorine |
| Rebecca Yarros | Fourth Wing |
| 2025 | Melissa Blake | Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths About Disability |
| David F. Walker, illus. by Marcus Kwame Anderson | Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined |
| Eve J. Chung | Daughters of Shandong |
| P. Djèlí Clark | The Dead Cat Tail Assassins |
| Kristen Perrin | How to Solve Your Own Murder |
| Lara Pickle | I Feel Awful, Thanks |
| Stephen Graham Jones | I Was a Teenage Slasher |
| Rosie Hewlett | The Witch of Colchis |
| Henry H. Neff | The Witchstone |
| Marjane Satrapi, trans. by Una Dimitrijević | Woman, Life, Freedom |
| 2026 | Layne Fargo | The Favorites |
| Leila Mottley | The Girls Who Grew Big |
| Bob the Drag Queen | Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert |
| Daniel H. Wilson | Hole in the Sky |
| Peter Kuper | Insectopolis: A Natural History |
| Andy Anderegg | Plum |
| Sonita Alizada | Sonita: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom |
| Mia McKenzie | These Heathens |
| Janelle Brown | What Kind of Paradise |
| Travis Kennedy | The Whyte Python World Tour |