1998-1999 - Li-Young Lee
Li-Young Lee is a highly acclaimed Asian-American poet and winner of many awards for his riveting autobiographical verse. He has taught at several universities, including Northwestern and the University of Iowa, and he is the author of Behind My Eyes (2008), Book of My Nights (2001), which won the 2002 William Carlos Williams Award, The City in Which I Love You (1991), which was the 1990 Lamont Poetry Selection, and Rose (1986), which won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award.
- 2012-2013 - Kevin Young
- 2011-2012 - Giles Foden
- 2010-2011 - James McManus
- 2009-2010 - Linda Gregerson
- 2008-2009 - Scott Russell Sanders
- 2007-2008 - Richard Bausch
- 2006-2007 - Robert Stone
- 2005-2006 - William Least Heat-Moon
- 2003-2004 - Billy Collins
- 2002-2003 - Pam Houston
- 2001-2002 - Patricia Hampl
- 2000-2001 - Bei Dao
- 1999-2000 - Ron Carlson
- 1998-1999 - Li-Young Lee
- 1997-1998 - Amy Hempel
- 1996-1997 - Denise Levertov
- 1995-1996 - Edward Hoagland
- 1994-1995 - Peter Matthiessen
- 1993-1994 - Carolyn Kizer
- 1992-1993 - Rick Bass
- 1991-1992 - Ursula K. LeGuin
- 1990-1991 - William Stafford
- 1989-1990 - Tess Gallagher
- 1988 - Raymond Carver
