2003 Dawn Trouard
Professor of Modern American Fiction, University of Contral Florida
 
2002 Michael Dirda
Writer and senior editor for The Washington Post Book World 
 
2001 Steven Knapp
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Johns Hopkins University
 
2000 Jerome McGann
John Stewart Bryan University Professor, University of Virginia
 
1999 Deborah Brandt
Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison Project head with the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA)

1998 Peter Balakian
Professor of English, Colgate University

1997 Paul Fussell
Professor Emeritus of English,
University of Pennsylvania

1996 Jane Tompkins
Professor of English, Duke University

1995 Jackson R. Bryer
Professor of English, University of Maryland

1994 John Barth
Professor of English and Creative Writing Emeritus, The Johns Hopkins University

1993 Nancy A. Walker
Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies, Vanderbilt University

1992 Jonathan Yardley
Book Critic and Columnist, The Washington Post

1991 Myra Jehlen
Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

1990 Daniel Hoffman
Poet in Residence, Director of the Writing Program, University of Pennsylvania

1989 Richard B. Sewell
Professor of English Emeritus, Yale University

1988 Louis D. Rubin Jr
University Distinguished Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

1987 S. Schoenbaum
Distinguished Professor of Renaissance Literature and Director, Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, University of Maryland, College Park

1986 M.H. Abrams - Inaugural
Professor of English Emeritus, Cornell University