1978–1979
Cleanth Brooks
1979–1980
John Gardner
Denise Levertov
1980–1981
Richard Brautigan
Michael S. Harper
Francis Warner
1981–1982
Patrick Tucker
George Hersey
Michael Slater
Helen Vendler
1982–1983
Robert Drake
Ellen Gilchrist
Francis Warner
Reynolds Price
Cleanth Brooks
Andrew Lytle
Harry Crews
William Humphrey
David Madden
Peter Kenvyn
Maya Angelou
Neil Freeman
Michael Slater
James Hillman
Barbara Hardy
1983–1984
Alan Dundes
Jerome Rothenberg
Miller Williams
Michael Slater
Selma Lanes
Natalie Babbitt
Francis Warner
Annis Pratt
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Gene Lyons
Seamus Heaney
1984–1985
Nadeem Naimy
David Bevington
Fred Sebulske
Walter Grunzweig
Barry Lopez
China Galland
Marvin Bell
Rayburn S. Moore
Louise Cowan
Andrew Sanders
1985–1986
Reynolds Price
Chaim Potok
Virginia Hamilton
Arnold Adoff
Arthur J. Slavin
Lois McGuire
Michael Slater
1986–1987
Frank W. Fowle, III
Allen Ginsberg
Michael Baron
Howard Nemerov
Maxwell Bloomfield, III
Donald Hays
Eugene McKinney
William F. May
Northrop Frye
Henry Kurth
1987–1988
Nathan Scott
Tomie De Paola
Eric Bentley
Wendy O'Flaherty (also Doniger)
Lois McGuire
Carolyn Kizer
Fred Sebulske
1988–1989 “The Contemporary Scene”
Joyce Armstrong Carol
Charles Howard
J. L. Styan
J. L. Dillard
1989–1990 “The Era of the French Revolution”
George Gopen
Robert Isherwood
Robert Dawson
Leroy Clark
Seamus Heaney
Lois Schwoerer
C. Murray Smart
1990–1991 “Africa”
Andrei Codresçu
Anne V. Adams
Charles Gordone
Martin Bernal
Nellie McKay
Carole Boyce Davies
1991–1992 “Modernism and After: The Literary and Visual Art Dimensions”
Mary Ruefle
Mark Edmundson
Donald Kuspit
Henry Kurth
Stuart Vaughan
Gayle Greene
1992–1993 “Form and Feeling in the Literary Arts”
Bruce Plopper
Julia Budenz
Dana Gioia
Andrea Hollander Budy
Jane Greer
Robert McPhillips
David Dooley
R. S. Gwynn
Timothy Steele
Frederick Feirstein
Larry Johnson
Leon Stokesbury
Annie Finch
Paul Lake
Frederick Turner
John Gery
Robert McDowell
Michael McFee
Philip Pullman
Meade Andrews
Ed Sanders
Barbara Bosch
Jerry Crawford
Nancy Milford
Shirley Abbott
Hope Norman Coulter
Patricia McGraw
Don Harington
1993–1994 "Celebrating the New World and the Old"
Judith Killen
Todd Conner
Jimmy Faulkner
Bruce Plopper
Gwendolyn Brooks
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Gayle Seymour
Jean Elliott
Curtis M. Hinsley
1994–1995 “The American South: A New Reality”
R. L. Burnside
Junior Kimbrough
Cedell Davis
John Weston
Bruce Plopper
Romulus Linney
Henry Kurth
Meade Andrews
Ama Ata Aidoo
Hope Norman Coulter
Gene Lyons
Miller Williams
William Ferris
Kathryn Woods
1995–1996 “The ‘Academy’ in Literature and Language”
Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin
Bruce Plopper
John Churchill
Ishmael Reed
Ken Albers
1996–1997 “Human Earth Relations”
Clive Arrindell
Gregory Floy
Frances Jeater
Peter Lindford
Biddy Wells
Kathleen Norris
Michael Ruse
William Cronon
Ekkehardt Emig
N. Scott Momaday
1997–1998 “Surfing the Twentieth Century: A Retrospective Celebration”
Donald Chapman
Jimmy Faulkner
Margorie Perloff
Hope Norman Coulter
Jo McDougall
Gwendolyn Twillie
Frederick Neumann
Mabou Mines
Jonathan Yardley
Samuel Adler
Peter Frank
Peter Applebome
1998–1999 “Reading and Teaching Literature at Millennium’s End”
David Chapman
Richard Wilbur
James Hynes
Susan Millar Williams
Mark Edmundson
Werner Trieschmann
Glenn Allen Smith
Rita Dove
Meade Andrews
Toru Sasaki
Michael Slater
Jane Tompkins
1999–2000 “Intertextualities of Global Cultures: Constructing Social Form”
Agapi Stassinopoulos
David Teague
Gene Lyons
Yusef Komunyakaa
Preston Jones
Glenn Allen Smith
Ann Muse
Christine Ahmed
Bruno Nettl
Will Rhys
Robert Triplett
2000–2001 “’Clueless in Academe’? Theories in Literature and Language”
Gerald Graff
Cary Nathenson
Clyde Edgerton
Hope Norman Coulter
Kyle Wilson
Glenn Allen Smith
Werner Trieschmann
Clement Hawes
Andrew Delbanco
Robert Pinsky
Fred Neumann
Honora Fergusson
2001–2002 “Australia: Land and Literature”
Jimmy Faulkner
Krishna Winston
Gustavo Verdesio
Jeffery Swan Jones
Jeffrey Elwell
Ann Muse
Colleen McKenna
Oyeronke Oyewumi
David Foster
Karen Swenson
Alison Summers
2002–2003 “Homage, Allusion, Parody, and Plagiarism: Which is Which?”
Gary Pavela
Andrew Delbanco
Juliana “Makuchi” Nfah-Abbenyi
Gus Kaikkonen
Jeffrey Elwell
Kyle Wilson
Li-Young Lee
2003–2004 “Life Writing: The Literature and Language of Biography”
Stephen Greenblatt
David Dunlap
Katherine Fishburn
Tim O’Brien
Virginia Smith
Jeffrey Elwell
2004–2005 “In Extremis: From Chaos, Literature”
John Churchill
Donald Hall
Jeffrey Elwell
James Mainard O’Connell
Candace Denise Cauley
Marie Mainard O’Connell
Jane Jeong Trenka
Robert Hupp
Kevin Bowen
Nguyen Ba Chung
2005–2006 “The Literature and Language of the City”
Jennifer Mizenko
Werner Trieschmann
A. J. Berna
Maxine Isaacs
Mark Jarman
Brent Jennings
Samuel Hazo
Barry Lopez
2006–2007 “The Literature and Language of the Land”
Jennifer Mizenko
Marie Mainard O’Connell
Elizabeth Swan Jones
Cate Wieck
Jane Smiley
Ger’Shun Avilez
Wesley Beal
Sarah White
Terry Wright
David Jauss
Werner Trieschmann
Jana Tift
Ted Kooser
Darcy Pattison
Philip Martin
Stephanie Vanderslice
2007–2008 “Possible Worlds, Other Worlds”
Michael Salinger
Suzan–Lori Parks
Ashlie Atkinson
Lesley Dancer
Rosemary Henenberg
John Vanderslice
Trenton Lee Stewart
David Keith
Joe Haldeman
Martha Nussbaum
Marc Smirnoff
Kevin Crawford
Angie Macri
David Fredrick
Maxine Hong Kingston
Judy Goss
Park Honan
Craig Raine
2008–2009 “West Meets East: The Global Influence of Asian Literature and Language”
Jason Burke Murphy
David Henry Hwang
Peter Ho Davies
Daniel Levine
Diana Trevino Benet
Ruthann Curry
Bei Dao
Frank Chin
2009–2010 “Word and Image”
Francine Prose
Ashlie Atkinson
Arthur Pontynen
Alexandra Pappas
Art Spiegelman
Rebecca Resinski
Brigitte Rogers
Karen Griebling
David Wiesner
Jorie Graham
David Sick
Kirk Boyd
Stephen G. Bloom
Peter Feldstein
Joseph Viscomi
Clint Catalyst
Girish Shambu
2010–2011 “Comedy”
Werner Trieschman
Simon Critchley
Joey Williams
Costaki Economopoulos
Lydia Davis
Shepard Sobel
Jonathan Safran Foer
Freddie Ashley
Michael Johnson
Jack Pendarvis
Tracy Barrett
Alan Michael Parker
2011–2012 “Crime”
Kyle Wilson
Luis Alberto Urrea
April Gentry–Sutterfield
Craig Jensen
John Edgar Wideman
Amelie Hastie
Moises Kaufman
Gene Lyons
Mara Leveritt
Emily Danforth
Dave Madden
Stanley Crawford
Ken Albers
Kate Gale
Michael Ondaatje
Avi Steinberg
2012–2013 “Literature and Medicine”
James Mainard O’Connell
Stephanie Batkie
Rebecca Skloot
Jesse Berger
Mark Richard
Dan Welcher
Arthur Sze
Victoria Pagán
Sarah Jacobson
Sayantani DasGupta
Louise Glück
Drew Cameron
Jan Barry
Sara Nesson
2013–2014
Gordon Bolar
C. D. Wright
Forrest Gander
Daniel Stein
Miranda July
Seth Jeppesen
Trenton Lee Stewart
2014–2015
Robert Preston Jones
Nathan Englander
Kevin Brockmeier
Freddie Ashley
Holly Sypniewski
Carolyn Forché
2015–2016
Lesley Dancer
Edwidge Danticat
Melora Kordos
Randall Pogorzelski
Kevin Young
2016–2017
Eric Walker
Kevin Willmott
Daryl Farmer
Tony Horne
Aracelis Girmay
Catherine Schlegel
2017–2018
Allison Price
Claudia Rankine
Ashlie Atkinson
Genaro Ky Ly Smith
Philip Waddell
Tony Kushner
2018–2019
Brian Earles
Deb Olin Unferth
Sy Montgomery
Trenton Lee Stewart
Laura Hutchison
Greg Brownderville
2019-2020
Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs
Michele Salzman
Angela Iannone
Naomi Wallace
2020-2021
Damon Tweedy, M.D.
Megan Beckman
Gus Kaikkonen
Tayari Jones
Leonard Mlodinow
Mohsin Hamid
2021-2022
Frederick McKindra
Lynn Nottage
Mayda Del Valle
Nikky Finney
Marti Gobel