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