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
