Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize

Past Recipients of the Kafka Prize

Listed by year of publication

  • 2022: Claire Stanford, Happy for You, Viking
  • 2021: Rebecca Sacks, City of a Thousand Gates, Harper Collins
  • 2020: Danielle Evans, The Office of Historical Corrections, Riverhead Books
  • 2019: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, The Revisioners, Counterpoint 
  • 2018: Tiffany Quay Tyson, The Past Is Never, Skyhorse Publishing
  • 2017: Marian Crotty, What Counts as Love, University of Iowa Press
  • 2016: Elizabeth Poliner, As Close to Us as Breathing, Little, Brown
  • 2015: Mia Alvar, In the Country, Alfred A. Knopf
  • 2014: Jacinda Townsend, Saint Monkey, W.W. Norton and Company
  • 2013: Ru Freeman, On Sal Mal Lane, Graywolf Press
  • 2012: Anna Keesey, Little Century, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
  • 2011: Amy Waldman, The Submission, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
  • 2010: Linda LeGarde Grover, The Dance Boots, University of Georgia Press
  • 2009: Isla Morley, Come Sunday, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • 2008: Saher Alam, The Groom to Have Been, Spiegel & Grau
  • 2007: Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, Set Me Free, Warner Books
  • 2006: Nell Freudenberger, The Dissident, Ecco
  • 2005: Jill Ciment, The Tattoo Artist, Pantheon Books
  • 2004: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Madeliene Is Sleeping, Harcourt, Inc.
  • 2003: Kate Moses, Wintering, St. Martin's Press
  • 2002: Joyce Hackett, Disturbance of the Inner Ear, Carroll & Graf
  • 2001: Edie Meidav, The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon, Houghton Mifflin Company
  • 2000: Carrie Brown, The Hatbox Baby, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
  • 1999: Susan Hubbard, Blue Money, University of Missouri Press
  • 1998: Nicole Mones, Lost in Translation, Delacorte Press
  • 1997: Cristina García, The Agüero Sisters, Alfred A. Knopf
  • 1996: Kathleen Cambor, The Book of Mercy, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • 1995: Melissa Pritchard, The Instinct for Bliss, Zoland Books
  • 1994: Ann Patchett, Taft, Houghton Mifflin Company
  • 1993: Sherri Szeman, The Kommandant's Mistress, Harper Collins
  • 1990: Valerie Martin, Mary Reilly, Doubleday & Company
  • 1990: Karen Tei Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Coffee House Press
  • 1989: Marianne Wiggins, John Dollar, Harper & Row
  • 1988: Kathryn Davis, Labrador, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • 1987: Gail Godwin, A Southern Family, Wm. Morrow & Company
  • 1986: Hortense Calisher, The Bobby Soxer, Doubleday & Company
  • 1985: Ursula LeGuin, Always Coming Home, Harper & Row
  • 1984: Rosellen Brown, Civil Wars, Alfred A. Knopf
  • 1983: Joan Chase, During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, Harper & Row
  • 1982: Mary Lee Settle, The Killing Ground, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • 1981: Mary Gordon, The Company of Women, Random House
  • 1980: Anne Tyler, Morgan's Passing, Alfred A. Knopf
  • 1979: Barbara Chase-Riboud, Sally Hemings, Viking Press
  • 1978: Mary Gordon, Final Payments, Random House
  • 1977: Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon, Alfred A. Knopf
  • 1976: Judith Guest, Ordinary People, Viking Press
  • 1975: Jessamyn West, The Massacre at Fall Creek, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich