# William T. Vollmann

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American writer and journalist

William T. Vollmann Vollmann in 2006 Born William Tanner Vollmann (1959-07-28) July 28, 1959 (age 66) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Occupation Novelist journalist short story writer essayist Education Deep Springs College Cornell University (BA) Period 1987–present Genre Literary fiction, historical fiction Subject War, violence, science, human compassion

**William Tanner Vollmann** (born July 28, 1959) is an American novelist, journalist, [war correspondent](/source/War_correspondent), short story writer and essayist. He won the 2005 [National Book Award for Fiction](/source/National_Book_Award_for_Fiction) with the novel *[Europe Central](/source/Europe_Central)*.

## Biography

Vollmann was born in Los Angeles and lived there for five years. He attended public high school in [Bloomington, Indiana](/source/Bloomington%2C_Indiana), and has also lived in New Hampshire, New York, and the [San Francisco Bay Area](/source/San_Francisco_Bay_Area). His father was Thomas E. Vollmann, a business professor at [Indiana University](/source/Indiana_University). When he was nine years old, Vollmann's six-year-old sister drowned in a pond while under his supervision, and he felt responsible for her death.[1] According to him, this loss has influenced much of his work.[2]

Vollmann studied at [Deep Springs College](/source/Deep_Springs_College), and completed a [BA](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts), *[summa cum laude](/source/Latin_honors)*, in [comparative literature](/source/Comparative_literature) at [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University),[3] where he lived at the [Telluride House](/source/Telluride_House).[1]

After graduation, Vollmann went on to the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), on a fellowship for a doctoral program in [comparative literature](/source/Comparative_literature).[1] He dropped out after one year.[4]

Vollmann lives in [Sacramento, California](/source/Sacramento%2C_California), with his wife, who is a [radiation oncologist](/source/Radiation_oncologist).[4] In 2022, Vollmann's daughter Lisa died of complications from alcoholism.[5]

## Career

Vollmann worked odd jobs, including a post as a secretary at an insurance company and saved up enough money to go to [Afghanistan](/source/Afghanistan) in 1982. During this trip, he sought to gather information and images that could determine the most deserving candidates for American aid. He eventually embedded himself in a group of *[mujahideen](/source/Mujahideen)* heading for the front lines. He saw battle with the soldiers, who were [fighting the Soviet Union](/source/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War), before he came down with [dysentery](/source/Dysentery) and had to be dragged through the Hindu Kush mountains.[6] His experiences on this trip inspired his first non-fiction book, *An Afghanistan Picture Show, or, How I Saved the World,* which was not published until 1992.

Upon his return to the US, Vollmann started work as a computer programmer, even though he had virtually no experience with computers. According to a *[New York Times Magazine](/source/The_New_York_Times_Magazine)* profile by the novelist [Madison Smartt Bell](/source/Madison_Smartt_Bell), for a year Vollmann wrote much of his first novel, *[You Bright and Risen Angels](/source/You_Bright_and_Risen_Angels)*, after hours on office computers, subsisting on candy bars from vending machines and hiding from the janitorial staff.[7]

His writing influences include [Ernest Hemingway](/source/Ernest_Hemingway), [Comte de Lautréamont](/source/Comte_de_Lautr%C3%A9amont), [Louis-Ferdinand Celine](/source/Louis-Ferdinand_Celine), [Yukio Mishima](/source/Yukio_Mishima), [Yasunari Kawabata](/source/Yasunari_Kawabata) and [Leo Tolstoy](/source/Leo_Tolstoy).[8]

In addition to full-length books, Vollmann has written articles and had stories published in *[Harper's](/source/Harper's_Magazine)*, *[Playboy](/source/Playboy)*, *[Conjunctions](/source/Conjunctions_(journal))*, *[Spin Magazine](/source/Spin_Magazine)*, *[Esquire](/source/Esquire_(magazine))*, *[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)*, *[Gear](/source/Gear_(magazine))* and *[Granta](/source/Granta).* He has also contributed to *[The New York Times Book Review](/source/The_New_York_Times_Book_Review).* Vollmann identifies as a "hack journalist"; he often does travel writing and reportage while doing research for his larger fiction or non-fiction projects.

In November 2003 (after many delays), his book *[Rising Up and Rising Down](/source/Rising_Up_and_Rising_Down)* was published. It is a 3,300-page, heavily illustrated, seven-volume treatise on violence. It was nominated for the [National Book Critics Circle Award](/source/National_Book_Critics_Circle_Award). A single-volume condensed version was published at the end of the following year by [Ecco Press](/source/Ecco_Press). Vollmann's sole justification for the abridgment was that he "did it for the money."[9] *Rising Up and Rising Down* represents more than 20 years of work in which he tries to establish a moral calculus to consider the causes, effects and ethics of violence. Vollmann based it on his reporting from places of warfare, including [Cambodia](/source/Cambodia), [Somalia](/source/Somalia) and [Iraq](/source/Iraq).

Vollmann's other works often deal with the settlement of North America (as in *[Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes](/source/Seven_Dreams%3A_A_Book_of_North_American_Landscapes)*, a cycle of seven novels); or stories of people (often prostitutes) on the margins of war, poverty and hope. His novel *[Europe Central](/source/Europe_Central)* (2005) follows the trajectories of a wide range of characters (including the Russian composer [Dmitri Shostakovich](/source/Dmitri_Shostakovich)) caught up in the fighting between Germany and the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union). It won the 2005 [National Book Award for Fiction](/source/National_Book_Award#Fiction).

In 2008, he was awarded a five-year Strauss Living Award, which provides $50,000 a year, tax free, to allow writers to dedicate their time solely to writing. In 2009, Vollmann published *[Imperial](/source/Imperial_(Vollmann_book)),* a nonfiction account of life in [Imperial County, California](/source/Imperial_County%2C_California), on the border of Mexico.[10]

In 2010, Vollmann published a critical study of [Japanese Noh theater](/source/Noh) entitled *Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater*.[11]

In 2008, as part of an exploration of femininity, Vollmann began cross dressing and developed a female alter ego named Dolores, which is documented in *[The Book of Dolores](/source/The_Book_of_Dolores)*.[12][13] "'Dolores is a relatively young woman trapped in this fat, aging male body,' Mr. Vollmann said. 'I’ve bought her a bunch of clothes, but she's not grateful. She would like to get rid of me if she could.'"[14]

As early as 2007, Vollmann was writing ghost and supernatural stories—("Widow's Weeds" was published in *[AGNI](/source/AGNI_(magazine))* no. 66 in 2007).[15]—which were eventually published by Viking as *Last Stories and Other Stories*. In interviews, he has mentioned a book about abortion called *The Shame of Our Youth,* as well as a study on rape cases in court.[16]

Vollmann's papers were acquired by the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of [Ohio State University](/source/Ohio_State_University).[17]

In his personal life, Vollmann – who eschews not only the fame of authorship but also cellphones, credit cards and other modern age touchstones – has sometimes been characterized as a misanthrope, even a [Luddite](/source/Luddite). In a 2013 *[Harper's](/source/Harper's)* essay, "Life as a Terrorist", Vollmann revealed how the perception of "anti-progress, anti-industrialist themes" in his early writings had changed his life. Utilizing official files obtained through the [Freedom of Information Act](/source/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_States)), the essay details Vollmann's investigation by the [FBI](/source/FBI) as a suspect in the mid-1990s [Unabomber](/source/Unabomber) case. Though he was cleared, Vollmann describes a lifetime of unabating negative repercussions from his permanent classified record.[18][19]

In August 2025, Vollmann revealed that he had been battling colon cancer for years, was undergoing chemotherapy treatment and had a life expectancy of 2-3 years.[20]

## Studies

Full-length critical essays about Vollmann's work have been published in *Review of Contemporary Fiction, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, BookForum,* *Open Letters Monthly*, and *Science Fiction Studies.* In 2010, the German magazine *[032c](/source/032c)* dedicated 40 pages of its 19th issue to Vollmann, and featured a rare interview with the author in addition to reprinted texts.[21]

[Michael Hemmingson](/source/Michael_Hemmingson) co-edited, with [Larry McCaffery](/source/Larry_McCaffery), *Expelled from Eden: A WTV Reader* (NY: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004) and published *William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews* (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co) in 2009.

*William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion*, edited by Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes, and including contributions from Larry McCaffery, Jonathan Franzen, Michael Hemmingson, James Franco, Carla Bolte, and others, was published by the University of Delaware in October 2014. *Conversations with William T. Vollmann*, edited by Daniel Lukes, and including pieces by Jonathan Coe, Dennis Cooper, and Donna Seaman, was published by University Press of Mississippi in January 2020.

## Awards

- (1988) [Whiting Award](/source/Whiting_Awards)

- (2005) [National Book Award for Fiction](/source/National_Book_Award_for_Fiction) for *[Europe Central](/source/Europe_Central)*

## Bibliography

Main article: [William T. Vollmann bibliography](/source/William_T._Vollmann_bibliography)

#### Novels

- *[You Bright and Risen Angels](/source/You_Bright_and_Risen_Angels)* (1987, Penguin)

- *[Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes](/source/Seven_Dreams%3A_A_Book_of_North_American_Landscapes)* (1990-) - *[Volume I: The Ice-Shirt](/source/The_Ice-Shirt)* (1990, Viking) - *[Volume II: Fathers and Crows](/source/Fathers_and_Crows)* (1992, Viking) - *[Volume III: Argall](/source/Argall%3A_The_True_Story_of_Pocahontas_and_Captain_John_Smith)* (2001, Viking) - *[Volume V: The Dying Grass](/source/The_Dying_Grass)* (2015, Viking) - *[Volume VI: The Rifles](/source/The_Rifles_(novel))* (1994, Viking)

- *Whores for Gloria* (1992, Pantheon)

- *[The Atlas](/source/The_Atlas_(novel))* (1996, Viking)

- *[The Royal Family](/source/The_Royal_Family_(novel))* (2000, Viking)

- *[Europe Central](/source/Europe_Central)* (2005, Viking)

- *The Lucky Star* (2020, Viking)

- *A Table for Fortune* (forthcoming, 2026, Arcade Publishing), a four-part novel[22][23]

#### Short story collections

- *[The Rainbow Stories](/source/The_Rainbow_Stories)* (1989, Penguin)

- *Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs* (1991, Pantheon)

- *Last Stories and Other Stories* (2014, Penguin)

### Non-fiction

- *An Afghanistan Picture Show* (1992, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

- *[Rising Up and Rising Down](/source/Rising_Up_and_Rising_Down)* (2003, McSweeney's), seven-volume collection

- *Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means* (2005, Ecco), abridged version

- *Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres* (2006, Atlas Books/W. W. Norton)

- *Poor People* (2007, Ecco)

- *Riding Towards Everywhere* (2008, Ecco)

- *[Imperial](/source/Imperial_(book))* (2009, Viking)

- *Kissing the Mask* (2010, Ecco)

- *Into the Forbidden Zone: A Trip Through Hell and High Water in Post-Earthquake Japan* (2011, Byliner Books), published as an ebook

- *Carbon Ideologies* (2018) - *No Immediate Danger: Volume One* (2018, Viking) - *No Good Alternative: Volume Two* (2018, Viking)

## See also

- [1994 roadside attack on Spin magazine journalists](/source/1994_roadside_attack_on_Spin_magazine_journalists)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Bell_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Bell_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Bell_1-2) Bell, Madison Smartt (Fall 2000). ["William T. Vollmann, The Art of Fiction No. 163"](http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/620/the-art-of-fiction-no-163-william-t-vollmann). The Paris Review, no. 156. Retrieved August 9, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [Interview: "William T. Vollman"](http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw041104william_t_vollmann/), KCRW, April 11, 2004

1. **[^](#cite_ref-pw_3-0)** Bush, Ben (March 30, 2006). ["An Interview With Creative Nonfiction Writer William T. Vollmann"](https://www.pw.org/content/interview_creative_nonfiction_writer_william_t_vollmann?cmnt_all=1). *Poets & Writers*. Retrieved August 22, 2013.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Braverman_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Braverman_4-1) Braverman, Kate (2005). ["An Interview with William T. Vollmann"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130606171633/http://www.katebraverman.com/interview.html). Archived from [the original](http://katebraverman.com/interview.html) on June 6, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Vollmann, William T. (November 2023) "Four Men: Keeping Company with Outdoor People." Harper's. [https://harpers.org/archive/2023/11/four-men](https://harpers.org/archive/2023/11/four-men).)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** 032c.com. ["WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN: Conflict, Compassion and the Process of Understanding"](http://032c.com/2011/william-t-vollmann-conflict-compassion-and-the-process-of-understanding/). Retrieved July 17, 2014.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_numeric_names:_authors_list))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Bell, Madison Smartt](/source/Madison_Smartt_Bell) (February 6, 1994). ["WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN"](https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE0DD1739F935A35751C0A962958260). *[The New York Times Magazine](/source/The_New_York_Times_Magazine)*. Retrieved January 3, 2008.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Biblioklept (September 24, 2011). ["William T. Vollmann's Favorite "Contemporary" Books"](https://biblioklept.org/2011/09/24/william-t-vollmanns-favorite-contemporary-books/). biblioklept. Retrieved August 1, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [Wood, Michael](/source/Michael_Wood_(academic)) (December 15, 2005). ["Parables of a Violent World"](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/dec/15/parables-of-a-violent-world/). *[The New York Review of Books](/source/The_New_York_Review_of_Books)*. **52** (20). Retrieved July 24, 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Ross, Steven (March 4, 2010). ["A MODEST IMPERIALIST: William T. Vollmann"](https://brooklynrail.org/2010/03/express/a-modest-imperialist). *The Brooklyn Rail*. Retrieved August 1, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Vollmann, William T. (c. 2009). *Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater*. HarperCollins. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0061228483](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0061228483).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Vollmann, William T. (October 29, 2013). *The Book of Dolores* (1St ed.). powerHouse Books. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781576876572](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781576876572).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Becoming Dolores: William T. Vollmann Exposes His Female Alter Ego – 3:AM Magazine"](https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/becoming-dolores-william-t-vollmann-exposes-his-female-alter-ego/). Retrieved November 29, 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Heyman, Stephen (November 13, 2013). ["William T. Vollmann: The Self Images of a Cross-Dresser"](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/fashion/Author-William-T-Vollmann-Explores-His-Cross-Dressing.html). *The New York Times*. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0362-4331](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved March 4, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** ["AGNI 66 Table of Contents (2007)"](https://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/index.html). *[AGNI](/source/AGNI_(magazine)) Online*. [Boston University](/source/Boston_University). c. 2008. Retrieved July 26, 2009.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** *William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews*. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2009

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** ["William T. Vollmann papers"](http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/vollmann.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20060901074422/http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/vollmann.html) September 1, 2006, at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** Lai, Jennifer (August 2013). ["How the FBI's Poor Reading Skills Led It to Suspect an Acclaimed Author Was the Unabomber"](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/22/william_vollmann_unabomber_life_of_a_terrorist_in_harper_s_magazine_details.html). *[Slate](/source/Slate_(magazine))*. Retrieved July 24, 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** Vollmann, William T. (September 2013). ["Life as a Terrorist: Undercovering My FBI File"](http://harpers.org/archive/2013/09/life-as-a-terrorist/). *[Harper's](/source/Harper's_Magazine)*. Vol. 327, no. 1960. Harper's Foundation. pp. 39–47. Retrieved December 6, 2013.(subscription required)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** [https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-last-untamed-writer-in-america-6d2a129f](https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-last-untamed-writer-in-america-6d2a129f)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["William T. Vollmann Against the Tyrannical World"](http://032c.com/archive/issues/no19/), *[032c](/source/032c)*, issue 19 (Summer 2010).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** ["A Table for Fortune: Box Set"](https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing/9781648211881/a-table-for-fortune-box-set/). *Arcade Publishing*. Retrieved May 21, 2026.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** ["How 'A Table for Fortune' by William T. Vollman Got Made"](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/99689-how-a-table-for-fortune-by-william-t-vollman-got-made.html). *Publishers Weekly*. February 13, 2026. Retrieved May 21, 2026.

## External links

- [William T. Vollmann Collection, 1980–2000](https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann.php) The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

- [William T. Vollmann Collection, 2003–2004](https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2003-04.php) The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

- [William T. Vollmann Collection, 2004–2005](https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2004-05.php) The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

- [William T. Vollmann Collection, 2001–2007](https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2001-07.php) The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

- [William T. Vollmann Collection, 2008–2010](https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2008-10.php) The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

- ["A Conversation with William T. Vollmann"](https://hdl.handle.net/1811/73090) Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, September 15, 2015. Vollmann reading from *The Dying Grass* and in conversation with Professor Brian McHale, The Ohio State University Department of English.

- [Profile of Vollmann in the New York Review of Books, December 2005](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/18560)

- [TimeOut New York interview](https://archive.today/20070928055843/http://66.111.110.102/newyork/DetailsAr.do?file=features/253/253.ft.vollman.html)

- [Profile at The Whiting Foundation](https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/william-t-vollmann#/)

- ["Seeing Eye to Eye"](http://bookforum.com/inprint/015_05/3246) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110928222457/http://bookforum.com/inprint/015_05/3246) September 28, 2011, at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), Vollmann on ethics in photography, in [Bookforum](/source/Bookforum), Feb/Mar

- [Critical essay on Vollmann at *Open Letters*](http://openlettersmonthly.com/issue/troubled-guests-of-earth/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190321132321/https://www.openlettersmonthly.com/issue/troubled-guests-of-earth/) March 21, 2019, at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)

- [William Vollmann’s Burqa](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishtalks/6/) by Guy Reynolds, on Vollmann's "literary globalism."

- Madison Smartt Bell (Fall 2000). ["William T. Vollmann, The Art of Fiction No. 163"](http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/620/the-art-of-fiction-no-163-william-t-vollmann). *The Paris Review*. Fall 2000 (156).

- [In Conversation: A Modern Imperialist: William T. Vollmann, *The Brooklyn Rail*](https://brooklynrail.org/2010/03/express/a-modest-imperialist/)

- [You Are Now Entering the Demented Kingdom of William T. Vollmann](https://newrepublic.com/article/118748/william-t-vollmanns-dangerously-uncorrupted-literary-mind), The New Republic, July 24, 2014.

- ["Fathers and Crows"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-vollmann/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. November 1992.

- ["The Royal Family"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. January 2001.

- ["Rising Up and Rising Down"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-1/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. November 2004.

- ["Riding toward Everywhere"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-2/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. March 2008.

- ["Last Stories and Other Stories (Part I)"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-last-stories-and-other-stories-part-i/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. August 2014.

- ["Last Stories and Other Stories (Part II)"](http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-last-stories-and-other-stories-part-ii/). *Bookworm* (Interview). Interviewed by [Michael Silverblatt](/source/Michael_Silverblatt). KCRW. August 2014.

- [Bookslut, an interview with William T. Vollmann](http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_11_006908.php), November 2005.

v t e William T. Vollmann Collections The Rainbow Stories (1989) 13 stories and 13 epitaphs (1991) The Atlas (1996) Last Stories and Other Stories (2014) Seven Dreams series The Ice-Shirt (1990) Fathers and Crows (1992) The Rifles (1994) Argall (2001) The Dying Grass (2015) Prostitution Trilogy Whores for Gloria (1991) Butterfly Stories (1993) The Royal Family (2000) Standalone novels You Bright and Risen Angels (1987) Europe Central (2005) The Lucky Star (2020) Non-fiction An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World (1992) Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means (2003) Uncentering the Earth (2006) Poor People (2007) Riding Toward Everywhere (2008) Imperial (2009) Kissing the Mask (2010) The Book of Dolores (2013) No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (2018) No Good Alternative: Volume Two of Carbon Ideologies (2018)

v t e National Book Award for Fiction 1950–1975 The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (1950) Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner (1951) From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1952) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1953) The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1954) A Fable by William Faulkner (1955) Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (1956) The Field of Vision by Wright Morris (1957) The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1958) The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1960) The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter (1961) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1962) Morte d'Urban by J. F. Powers (1963) The Centaur by John Updike (1964) Herzog by Saul Bellow (1965) The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (1966) The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (1967) The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder (1968) Steps by Jerzy Kosiński (1969) them by Joyce Carol Oates (1970) Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (1971) The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (1972) Chimera by John Barth (1973) Augustus by John Williams (1973) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1974) A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1974) Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (1975) The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (1975) 1976–2000 J R by William Gaddis (1976) The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (1977) Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle (1978) Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (1979) Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1980) The World According to Garp by John Irving (1980) Plains Song: For Female Voices by Wright Morris (1981) The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1981) Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982) So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1982) The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (1983) Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist (1984) White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985) World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow (1986) Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann (1987) Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (1988) Spartina by John Casey (1989) Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (1990) Mating by Norman Rush (1991) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (1992) The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1993) A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis (1994) Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth (1995) Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett (1996) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997) Charming Billy by Alice McDermott (1998) Waiting by Ha Jin (1999) In America by Susan Sontag (2000) 2001–present The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001) Three Junes by Julia Glass (2002) The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2003) The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (2004) Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (2005) The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (2006) Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2007) Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (2008) Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (2010) Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2011) The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012) The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (2013) Redeployment by Phil Klay (2014) Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson (2015) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016) Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017) The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (2018) Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (2019) Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020) Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (2021) The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (2022) Blackouts by Justin Torres (2023) James by Percival Everett (2024) The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (2025)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [William T. Vollmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Vollmann) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Vollmann?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.