Purdue University College of Liberal Arts
Information for
Previous Speakers for Literary Awards
2007 Sherman Alexie
2006 A.S. Byatt
2005 Maxine Hong Kingston
2004 Charles Wright
2003 Tony Kushner
2002 Seamus Heaney
2001 Ha Jin
2000 Jane Hamilton
1999 Eavan Boland
1998 Richard Ford
1997 Russell Banks
1996 Sandra Gilbert
1995 Denise Levertov
1994 Robert Olen Butler
1993 Louise Erdrich
1992 Adrienne Rich
1991 Margaret Drabble
1990 Derek Walcott
1989 Grace Paley
1988 John Barth
1987 John Ashbery
1986 John Irving
1985 John Williams
1984 Mary McCarthy
1983 William Gass
1982 Felix Stefanile
1981 John Gardner
1980 Pauline Kael
1979 William Stafford
1978 Edward Albee
1977 Clive Barnes
1976 Stephen Spender
1975 Peter Taylor
1974 Gwendolyn Brooks
1973 Anthony Burgess
1972 Tennessee Williams
1971 Allen Tate
1970 Saul Bellow
1969 Theodore Weiss
1968 Stanley Elkin
1967 James T. Farrell
1966 W. D. Snodgrass
1965 Andrew Lytle
1964 Eudora Welty
1963 Howard Nemerov
1962 William Golding
1961 Herbert Gold
1960 Richard Eberhart
1959 John Crowe Ransom
1958 John Ciardi
1957 Lillian Hellman
1956 Randall Jarrell
1955 J. Frank Dobie
1954 Malcolm Cowley
1953 Louis Kronenberger
1952 William Carlos Williams
1951Warren Beck
1950 John Crowe Ransom
1949 Mark Van Doren
1948 Katherine Anne Porter
1947 Jesse Stuart
1942 Edward C. Elliott
1941 Mary Ellen Chase
1940 Robert Frost
1939 Carl Van Doren
1938 Thomas Wolfe
1937 William Allen White
1936 Theodore Dreiser
1935 Stephen Leacock
1934 Christopher Morley
1933 Thornton Wilder
1932 James Weber Linn
1931 Sherwood Anderson
1930 Carl Sandburg
1929 Elmer Davis
1928 Zona Gale