2023—-Barbara Kingsolver

2022—-Sheila Redling

2021—-Dr. Cicero M. Fain III

2018—-Nancy Abrams

2017—-Sharyn McCrumb

2016—- Eliot Parker

2015 —- Nikki Giovanni

2014 —- Carter Taylor Seaton

2013 —- Marilyn Shank

2012 —- John Billheimer

2011 —- Dwight Harshbarger

2007 —- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

2006 —- James Casto

2004 —- Keith Maillard

2002 —- John Cuthbert

2001 —- Irene McKinney

2000 —- Stephen Coonts

1999 —- Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

1998 —- Cheryl Ryan Harshman

1997 —- Denise Giardina

1996 —- Jayne Anne Phillips

1995 —- Laurence Yep

1994 —- Anna Smucker

1993 —- Marc Harshman

1992 —- David Alan Corbin

1991 —- Phil Laska

1990 —- James Haught

1990 —- Barbara Ferro

1989 —- Pat Hussey

1987 —- Otis Rice

1986 —- Breece D. J. Pancake

1985 —- Charles E. Yeager

1984 —- Cynthia Rylant

1983 —- Ken Hechler

1982 —- Jim Comstock

1981 —- Mary Lee Settle

1980 —- Meredith Sue Willis

1979 —- James Gay Jones

1978 —- Davis A. Grubb

1977 —- Louise Pease McNeill

1976 —- John A. Williams

1975 —- Agnes Smith Parrish

1974 —- Brooks Wigginton

1973 —- Marie Boette

1972 —- Ruth Ann Musick

1957 —- Charles L. Repper

1956 —- Jean Lee Latham

1955 —- Cecile R. Goodall

1954 —- Edgar B. Sims