| 2007 Award Recipient: Sherman Alexie |
| 2006 Award Recipient: Terry Tempest Williams |
| 2005 Award Recipients: Gerald Vizenor and Joan Didion |
| 2004 Award Recipients: Mary Clearman Blew and Thomas King |
| 2003 Award Recipients: Sandra Cisneros and José David Saldívar, Ramón Saldívar, and Sonia Saldívar-Hull |
| 2002 Award Recipients: Annette Kolodny and Alberto A. Ríos |
| 2001 Award Recipients: Patricia Hampl and Roderick Nash |
| 2000 Award Recipient: Joy Harjo |
| 1999 Award Recipients: James D. Houston and Gerald Haslam |
| 1998 Award Recipient: Rudy Wiebe |
| 1997 Award Recipient: Rudolfo Anaya |
| 1996 Award Recipient: Tillie Olsen |
| 1995 Award Recipient: Robert Kroetsch |
| 1994 Award Recipients: James Maguire, Wayne Chatterton, and James Welch |
| 1993 Award Recipient: Tony Hillerman |
| 1992 Award Recipient: Louise Erdrich |
| 1991 Award Recipient: Ann Zwinger |
| 1990 Award Recipient: Elmer Kelton |
| 1989 Award Recipients: Ivan Doig and Mildred R. Bennett |
| 1988 Award Recipients: Ken Kesey and Max Westbrook |
| 1987 Award Recipients: Larry McMurtry and Thomas
J. Lyon |
| 1986 Award Recipients: Benjamin Capps and Don D. Walker |
| 1985 Award Recipients: Américo Paredes and William Eastlake |
| 1984 Award Recipient: Gary Snyder |
| 1983 Award Recipient: N. Scott Momaday |
| 1982 Award Recipient: Thomas Hornsby Ferril |
| 1981 Award Recipient: Dorothy Johnson |
| 1980 Award Recipients: Sophus Keith Winther and Bernice Slote |
| 1979 Award Recipient: Wright Morris |
| 1978 Award Recipient: Edward Abbey |
| 1977 Award Recipient: Thomas McGrath |
| 1976 Award Recipient: William Stafford |
| 1975 Award Recipient: Jack Schaefer |
| 1974 Award Recipients: Wallace Stegner and J. Golden Taylor |
| 1973 Award Recipient: Paul Horgan |
| 1972 Award Recipient: A. B. Guthrie, Jr. |
| 1971 Award Recipients: Harvey Fergusson and John G. Neihardt |
| 1970 Award Recipient: Henry Nash Smith |
| 1969 Award Recipient: Walter Van Tilburg Clark |
| 1968 Award Recipient: Frank Waters |
| 1967 Award Recipient: Frederick Manfred |
| 1966 Award Recipient: Vardis Fisher |
