Believer Book Award
Believer Book Award was an American literary award presented yearly by The Believer magazine between 2005 and 2021. The award was given to those novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021, works of graphic narrative that the magazine's editors thought were the "strongest and most under-appreciated" of the year. A shortlist and longlist were announced for each genre, along with readers' favorites, then a final winner was selected by the magazine's editors.
The inaugural award was in 2005 for books published in 2004. The last award was given in 2021, when the magazine ceased production. The magazine was bought by McSweeney's in 2022 and resumed publication. It is not known whether the book award will also resume.
Winners and shortlist
2004–2018
The year below denotes when the books were published; the award is announced the following year. Thus below, the inaugural 2004 books were announced in early to mid-2005. From 2004 to 2018, a single award was presented. Beginning in 2019, awards were presented in categories.| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
| 2004 | ' | Home Land | Winner | |
| 2004 | Dot in the Universe | Shortlist | ||
| 2004 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2004 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2004 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2005 | ' | Atomik Aztex | Winner | |
| 2005 | Canaan's Tongue | Shortlist | ||
| 2005 | God Lives in St. Petersburg | Shortlist | ||
| 2005 | Wide Eyed | Shortlist | ||
| 2005 | Willful Creatures | Shortlist | ||
| 2006 | ' | Winner | ||
| 2007 | ' | Remainder | Winner | |
| 2007 | African Psycho | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | Generation Loss | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | Samedi the Deafness | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | Sunless | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | Zeroville | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | ' | Novel About My Wife | Winner | |
| 2008 | All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | Black Flies | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | Girl Factory | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | Souls of Wind | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | Tampico | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2009 | ' | I Am Not Sidney Poitier | Winner | |
| 2009 | One D.O.A., One on the Way | Shortlist | ||
| 2009 | Scorch Atlas | Shortlist | ||
| 2009 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2009 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2010 | ' | Next | Winner | |
| 2010 | Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles | Shortlist | ||
| 2010 | Skippy Dies | Shortlist | ||
| 2010 | Sprawl | Shortlist | ||
| 2010 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2011 | ' | Leaving the Atocha Station | Winner | |
| 2011 | Lightning Rods | Shortlist | ||
| 2011 | Spurious | Shortlist | ||
| 2011 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2011 | Widow | Shortlist | ||
| 2012 | ' | Maidenhead | Winner | |
| 2012 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2012 | I'm Trying to Reach You | Shortlist | ||
| 2012 | My Struggle | Shortlist | ||
| 2012 | Parsifal | Shortlist | ||
| 2013 | ' | Bobcat and Other Stories | Winner | |
| 2013 | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2013 | Hawthorn and Child | Shortlist | ||
| 2013 | Long Division | Shortlist | ||
| 2013 | Woke Up Lonely | Shortlist | ||
| 2014 | ' | McGlue | Winner | |
| 2014 | Faces in the Crowd | Shortlist | ||
| 2014 | Man V. Nature | Shortlist | ||
| 2014 | Thunderstruck and Other Stories | Shortlist | ||
| 2014 | Writers | Shortlist | ||
| 2017 | ' | Winner | ||
| 2017 | I’m Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking | Shortlist | ||
| 2017 | MacArthur Park | Shortlist | ||
| 2017 | Sour Heart | Shortlist | ||
| 2017 | Temporary People | Shortlist | ||
| 2018 | ' | Belly Up | Winner | |
| 2018 | Riddance; Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children | Shortlist | ||
| 2018 | , trans. by Louise Heal Kawai | Seventeen | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Tell Them of Battles, Kings, | Shortlist | ||
| 2018 | Your Black Friend and Other Strangers'' | Shortlist |
2019–present
The year below denotes when the books were published; the award is announced the following year. Thus below, the inaugural 2004 books were announced in early to mid-2005. From 2004 to 2018, a single award was presented. Beginning in 2019, awards were presented in categories.| Year | Category | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
| 2019 | Fiction | ' | Hot Comb | Winner | |
| 2019 | Fiction | trans. by Ann Goldstein | ' | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Fiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Fiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Fiction | , trans. by Maureen Shaughnessy | ' | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Nonfiction | ' | Socialist Realism | Winner | |
| 2019 | Nonfiction | , trans. by John Lambert | 97,196 Words | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Nonfiction | Females | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Nonfiction | , trans. by Janet Hong | Grass | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Nonfiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Poetry | ' | Soft Targets | Winner | |
| 2019 | Poetry | Dispatch | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Poetry | Safe Houses I Have Known | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Poetry | Soft Science | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Poetry | Valuing | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Fiction | , trans. by Charlotte Barslund | Long Live the Post Horn! | Winner | |
| 2020 | Fiction | How to Pronounce Knife | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Fiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Fiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Fiction | What Happens at Night | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Graphic Narrative | Odessa | Winner | ||
| 2020 | Graphic Narrative | and Georgia Webber | Dancing after TEN | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | Graphic Narrative | From Truth with Truth | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Graphic Narrative | Gipi, trans. by Jaime Richards | One Story | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | Graphic Narrative | Shame Pudding: A Graphic Memoir | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Nonfiction | ' | Winner | ||
| 2020 | Nonfiction | ' | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Nonfiction | Heaven | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Nonfiction | Stranger Faces | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Nonfiction | '' | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Poetry | You Don’t Have to Go to Mars For Love | Winner | ||
| 2020 | Poetry | Death Industrial Complex | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Poetry | Exclusions | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Poetry | Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Poetry | Rift Zone | Shortlist |