| Year | Winner | Work | Genre(s) | Author's origin | Finalists |
|---|
| 1980 | | Norman Mailer (1923–2007) | The Executioner's Song | Little, Brown (1979) | True crime novel | New Jersey |
|---|
| 1981 | John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969) | A Confederacy of Dunces (posthumously) | Louisiana State University Press (1980) | Picaresque novel | Louisiana |
| 1982 | | John Updike (1932–2009) | Rabbit Is Rich | Alfred A.
Knopf (1981) | Novel | Pennsylvania |
|---|
| 1983 | | Alice Walker (b. 1944) | The Color Purple | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1982) | Epistolary novel | Georgia |
|---|
| 1984 | William Kennedy (b.
1928) | Ironweed | Viking Press (1983) | Novel | New York |
| 1985 | Alison Lurie (1926–2020) | Foreign Affairs | Random House (1984) | Novel | Illinois |
| 1986 | | Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) | Lonesome Dove | Simon & Schuster (1985) | Western novel | Texas |
|---|
| 1987 | | Peter Taylor (1917–1994) | A Summons to Memphis | Alfred A.
Knopf (19
|
|---|