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