The McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award is associated with the Manitoba Book Awards and was established in 1988. It is presented to the Manitoba writer whose adult English language book is judged the best written. The author receives a cash award of $5,000, donated by McNally Robinson Booksellers.
| Year | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Jan Horner | Recent Mistakes |
| 1989 | Kristjana Gunnars | The Prowler |
| 1990 | Di Brandt | Agnes in the sky |
| 1991 | Margaret Sweatman | Fox |
| 1992 | Sandra Birdsell | The Chrome Suite |
| 1993 | Carol Shields | The Stone Diaries |
| 1994 | Patrick Friesen | Blasphemer's Wheel |
| 1995 | Victoria Jason | Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak |
| 1996 | David Bergen | A Year of Lesser |
| 1997 | Catherine Hunter | Latent Heat |
| 1998 | Miriam Toews | A Boy of Good Breeding |
| 1999 | Gordon Sinclair Jr. | Cowboys and Indians |
| 2000 | Miriam Toews | Swing Low: A Life |
| 2001 | Margaret Sweatman | When Alice Lay Down With Peter |
| 2002 | Jake MacDonald | Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield Country |
| 2003 | Armin Wiebe | Tatsea |
| 2004 | Miriam Toews | A Complicated Kindness |
| 2005 | David Bergen | The Time in Between |
| 2006 | Faith Johnston | A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen |
| 2008 | Wayne Tefs | Be Wolf: A True Account of the Survival of Reinhold Kaletsch |
| 2009 | David Bergen | The Retreat |
| 2010 | Allan Levine | Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba |
| 2011 | Dora Dueck | This Hidden Thing |
| 2012 | Esme Claire Keither | Not Being on a Boat |
| 2013 | Meira Cook | The House on Sugarbush Road |
| 2014 | Barbara Huck | Kisiskatchewan |
| 2015 | Joan Thomas | The Opening Sky |
| 2016 | Wab Kinew | The Reason You Walk |
| 2017 | Katherena Vermette | The Break |
| 2018 | Michael Kaan | The Water Beetles |
| 2019 | Gordon Goldsborough | More Abandoned Manitoba: Rivers, Rails, and Ruins |
| 2020 | Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm et al. | This Place: 150 Year Retold |
| 2021 | David Bergen | Here the Dark |
| 2022 | David Bergen | Out of Mind |
| 2023 | Jonathan Dyck | Shelterbelts |