For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books).
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Tree of Smoke" by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and "Shakespeare's Kitchen" by Lore Segal (The New Press).