WVLA Literary Merit Award

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 Heckler

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