1999-00: Ray McNiece
2000-01: Brian Bedford - actor
2001-02: Jim Daniels, Sandra Maria Estevez and Elizabeth Hawkins - poet
2002-03: Tony Buba - filmmaker and Jim Daniels screenwriter
2003-04: Becky Bradway - author
2004-05: Joyce Dyer - author
2006-07: Marilyn Nelson - poet laureate
2007-08: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - acclaimed novelist and poet
2010-11: Julie Otsuka - author
2011-12: Dr. Cynthia Taggart - professor of music education
2012-13: Dr. Michael Olin-Hitt - author and professor and English
2013-14: Samantha Basford Damoulakis and Russell Hall
2014-15: Vituoso jazz trombonist Bob Ferrel and special guest vocal stylist Helen Welch
2016-17: Rowan Ricardo Phillips - poet and author
2017-18: Dr. Theodore Albrecht - professor of Musicology at Kent State University
2018-19: Cameron Awkward-Rich - writer and educator
2022-23: E. Ethelbert Miller - poet and author