2009 Robert Bausch

• Out of Season
• The Gypsy Man
• A Hole in the Earth

2008 Allen Wier

• Tehano
• A Place for Outlaws
• Departing as Air
• Blanco

2006 Kent Haruf

• Plainsong
• Eventide
• The Tie That Binds
• Where You Once Belonged

2005 Tim Gautreaux

• The Next Step in the Dance
• The Clearing

2004 Maureen Howard

• Grace Abounding
• Expensive Habits
• Natural History

2003 Richard Powers

• Three Farmers on their way to a Dance (1985)
• Gain (1998)

2002 Randall Kenan

• A Visitation of Spirits (1989)
• Walking on Water, Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999)

2001 Madison Smartt Bell

• The Washington Square Ensemble (1983)
• Master of Crossroads (2000)

2000 Jill McCorkle

• The Cheer Leader (1985)
• Carolina Moon (1996)

1999 Eric Kraft

• The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, Observations of Peter Leroy (1982)
• Herb 'n' Lorna (1994)

1998 Maxine Hong Kingston

• The Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood among Ghosts (1976)
• China Men (1980)

1997 Annie Proulx

• The Shipping News (1993)
• That Old Ace in the Hole (2002)

1995 Helena Maria Viramontes

• The Moths and the Other Stories (1985)
• Under the Feet of Jesus (1995)

1994 James Welch

• The Death of Jim Lonely (1979)
• Indian Lawyer (1990)

1993 Ernest J. Gaines

• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)
• A Lesson Before Dying (1993)

1992 William Hoffman

• The Land that Drank the Rain (1982)
• By Land, by Sea: Stories (1988)

1991 Elizabeth Spencer

• The Light in the Piazza (1960)
• The Night Travellers (1991)

1990 Larry Woidode

• Poppa John (1981)
• The Neumiller Stories (1983)

1989 Paule Marshall

• Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959)
• Praisesong for the Widow (1983)

1988 Shelby Foote

• Shiloh: A Novel (1952)
• The Civil War: A Narrative (1958-74)

1987 Lee Smith

• Oral History (1983)
• Fair and Tender Ladies (1988)

1986 John Edgar Wideman

• Brothers and Keepers (1984)
• Sent for You Yesterday (1983)

1985 Russell Banks

• Searching for Survivors (1975)
• Continental Drift (1985)

1984 Tom Wolfe

• The Right Stuff (1979)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)

1983 Dorris Betts

• Beasts of the Southern Wild (1973)
• Heading West (1981)

1982 Robert Stone

• Dog Soldiers (1974)
• A Flag for Sunrise (1981)

1981 Gilbert Sorrentino

1. Aberration of Starlight (1980)
2. Crystal Vision (1981)

1980 Graham Greene

• The Heart of the Matter (1948)
• The Honorary Consul (1973)