2022: The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alamaeddine
2021: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
2020: Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
2019: Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi
2018: Improvement by Joan Silber
2017: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
2016: Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
2015: Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish
2014: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
2013: Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
2012: The Buddha in the Attic byJulie Otsuka
2011: The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg
2010: War Dances by Sherman Alexie
2009: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
2008: The Great Man by Kate Christensen
2007: Everyman by Philip Roth
2006: The March by EL Doctorow
2005: War Trash by Ha Jin
2004: The Early Stories, 1953-1975 by John Updike
2003: The Caprices by Sabina Murray
2002: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
2001: The Human Stain by Philip Roth
2000: Waiting by Ha Jin
1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
1998: The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor
1997: Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault
1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
1995: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
1994: Operation Shylock by Philip Roth
1993: Postcards by E Annie Proulx
1992: Mao II by Don DeLillo
1991: Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
1990: Billy Bathgate by EL Doctorow
1989: Dusk by James Salter
1988: World's End by T Coraghessan Boyle
1987: Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley
1986: The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor
1985: The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
1984: Sent for You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman
1983: Seaview by Toby Olson
1982: The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
1981: How German Is It? by Walter Abish

Yiyun Li, 2022

Charles Baxter, 2021

Lydia Davis, 2020

John Edgar Wideman, 2019

Amina Gautier and Joan Silber, 2018

Jhumpa Lahiri, 2017

Joy Williams, 2016

Deborah Eisenberg, 2015

George Saunders, 2013

James Salter, 2012

Edith Pearlman, 2011

Nam Le and Edward P. Jones, 2010

Alistair MacLeod and Amy Hempel, 2009

Cynthia Ozick and Peter Ho Davies, 2008

Elizabeth Spencer, 2007

Adam Haslett and Tobias Wolff, 2006

Lorrie Moore, 2005

Richard Bausch and Nell Freudenberger, 2004

Barry Hannah and Maile Meloy, 2003

Junot Diaz and Ursula K. Le Guin, 2002

Sherman Alexie and Richard Ford, 2001

Ann Beattie and Nathan Englander, 2000

T. Coraghessan Boyle, 1999

John Barth, 1998

Alice Munro, 1997

Joyce Carol Oates, 1996

Stuart Dybek and William Maxwell, 1995

Grace Paley, 1994

Peter Taylor, 1993

Eudora Welty, 1992

Frederick Busch and Andre Dubus, 1991

George Garrett, 1990

Saul Bellow, 1989

John Updike, 1988

2023: Terry Gross

2022: Oprah Winfrey

2021: LeVar Burton