Final Judges

Since the Nick Adams Short Story Contest was established in 1973, a prominent writer has served each year as final judge for the contest.

2024 — Sue Miller, Cambridge, Massachusetts

2023 — Lan Samantha Chang, Iowa City, Iowa

2022 — Steve Berry, St. Augustine, Florida

2021 — Sandra Cisneros, Chicago, Illinois

2020 — Scott Turow, Chicago, Illinois

2019 — Audrey Petty, Chicago, Illinois

2018 — Will Boast, Chicago, Illinois

2017 — Karen Abbott, New York, New York

2016 — Bill Hillmann, Chicago, Illinois

2015 — Maureen McCoy, Ithaca, New York, and Taos, New Mexico

2014 — Bonnie Jo Campbell, Kalamazoo, Michigan

2013 — Peter Geye, Minneapolis, Minnesota

2012 — Gina Frangello, Chicago, Illinois; Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University

2011 — Binnie Kirshenbaum, New York, New York and Columbia University

2010 — Alex Kotlowitz, Chicago, Illinois

2009 — Audrey Niffenegger, Chicago, Illinois and Columbia College Chicago

2008 — Stuart Dybek, Chicago, Illinois and Northwestern University

2007 — Antonya Nelson, University of Houston

2006 — Joe Meno, Chicago, Illinois

2005 — S.L. Wisenberg, Chicago, Illinois

2004 — Elizabeth Crane, Chicago, Illinois

2003 — Jean Thompson, University of Illinois

2002 — Stephen Raleigh Byler, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

2001 — Sharon Solwitz, Chicago, Illinois

2000 — Jane Hamilton, Rochester, Wisconsin

1999 — Sara Paretsky, Chicago, Illinois

1998 — Larry Heinemann, Chicago, Illinois

1997 — Bharati Mukherjee, San Francisco, California

1996 — James McManus, The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois

1995 — Charles Baxter

1994 — Jane Smiley

1993 — Barbara Kingsolver

1992 — Patricia Lear

1991 — Maya Angelou

1990 — Janet Desaulniers, Northwestern University

1989 — Paul Hoover, Chicago, Illinois

1988 — Elizabeth Hardwick, New York, New York

1987 — Lore Segal, University of Illinois at Chicago

1986 — Richard G. Stern, University of Chicago

1985 — Leon Forrest, Northwestern University

1984 — R. V. Cassill, Providence, Rhode Island

1983 — Joyce Carol Oates, Princeton, New Jersey

1982 — Anne Tyler, Baltimore, Maryland

1981 — Nicholas Delbanco, Bennington College

1980 — Nicholas Rudall, University of Chicago

1979 — John Updike, Georgetown, Massachusetts

1978 — Cyrus Colter, Northwestern University

1977 — Vance Bourjaily, Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa City, Iowa

1976 — Richard Stern, University of Chicago

1975 — John Leggett, Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa City, Iowa

1974 — Wayne Booth, University of Chicago

1973 — Saul Bellow, University of Chicago

Share this page