Winners

 

 

Previous Winners

1980-1989   ||   1990 - 1999   ||   2000 - 2009

1980
Literature
- Ellen Douglas -The Rock Cried Out
Music
- Luigi Zaninelli - for "The Turn of the Screw" - ballet music
Art
- Ed McGowin - for large outdoor sculpture on West Capitol Street, Jackson
1981
Literature
- Walker Percy - The Second Coming
Music

- James S. Sclater- for "E.R.A.-tic Behaviour" duet for mezzo-soprano and clarinet
Art

- Ray Parrish- for large sand and glass sculpture

1982
Literature
- Ellen Gilchrist - In the Land of Dreamy Dreams
Music
- William Grant Still (posthumously)- for "A Bayou Legend" - opera on television
Art
- Valerie Jaudon - for abstract graphics
1983
Literature
- Ellen Douglas - A Lifetime Burning
Music
- Patrick Houlihan- for "In the Stillness of Time"
Art
- George Wardlaw- for painted aluminum sculptures

top

1984
Literature
- Rebecca Hill - Blue Rise
Music
- Patrick Houlihan - for "Nocturne for Piano and Electronic Tape"
Art
- James L. Seawright, Jr - for "Electonic Garden #2".
1985
Literature
- Ellen Gilchrist - Victory Over Japan
Music
- Luigi Zaninelli- for "A Musical Banquet for Children (a Beavy of Beasties and the Steadfast Tin Soldier)"
Art
- William Dunlap - for "Spring Storm-Valley Series"
1986
Literature
- John Stone-Renaming of Streets, a collection of poems
Music
- Samuel Jones- for "The Trumpet and The Swan"
Art

- Kenneth W. Marlow-for "Self Portrait"

Photography

- Robert Townsend Jones, Jr.

Special Writing Award - Dorothy Abbott

1987
Literature
- Richard Ford - The Sportswriter
Music
- David Caudill- for "Five Sacred Choral Pieces"
Visual Art
- Ke Francis- for "Hoedown" and "King of Now Here"
Photography
- Birney Imes, III
1988
Literature
- Walker Percy
Music
- Milton Babbitt
Visual Art
- Zarah Maranian
Photography
- Maude S. Clay
Lifetime Achievement
- Eudora Welty
1989
Literature
- Larry Brown
Music
- Paul Overstreet
Visual Art
- Mildred Nungester Wolfe
Photography
- Rita Dewitt
Lifetime Achievement
- Walter Anderson

top

1990
Literature
- Rick Bass
Music
- James S. Sclater
Visual Art
- Randy Hayes
Photography
- William Eggleston
Special Achievement
- William Ferris
Charles Reagan Wilson
1991
Literature
- Ellen Gilchrist- I Cannot Get You Close Enough
Music
- Samuel Jones - for "Canticles of Time"
Visual Art
- Birney Imes, III - for Juke Joint
1992
Fiction
- Lewis Nordan - Music of the Swamp
NonFiction
- Michael B. Ballard - Pemberton: A Biography
Visual Art
- Ron Dale - mixed media
Photography
- Maude S. Clay -
Music
- Luigi Zaninelli - A Song Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra
Career Achievement in the Performing Arts
- Jane Reid Petty
1993
Fiction
- Donna Tartt
NonFiction
- Chalmers Archer
Clifton Taulbert
Visual Art
- Jere H. Allen
Photography

- Allen Frame

top

1994

Fiction
- Barry Hannah - Bats Out of Hell
NonFiction
- Willie Morris - New York Days
Visual Art
- Greely Myatt for Sculpture - Book with Bulb
Photography
- Tom Rankin - for Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta
Music
- Douglas McConnell - for Songs of the Beloved
1995
Fiction
- Beverly Lowry - The Track of Real Desires
NonFiction
- Mary Garrard - The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement ofthe 1970's, HIstory and Impact
Visual Art
- Sylvain Klaus - for The Island Painters
Photography
- Birney Imes, III - Whispering Pines
Music
- James S. Sclater - for Character Sketches: Theme, Variations and Fughetta
Lifetime Achievement
- Franke and Bern Keating
Citation of Merit
- ETV and Public Radio in Mississippi
1996
Fiction
- Lewis Nordan - The Sharpshooter Blues
NonFiction
- David Herbert Donald - Lincoln
Visual Art
- Charles Carraway - for Interiors/Interiors
Photography
- Milly Moorhead - for Southern Heritage Collection
Music
- Laurence M. Oden - for Opera Mary Queen of Scotland
Lifetime Achievement
- Lee and Pup McCarty
1997
Fiction
- Cynthia Shearer - The Wonder Book of the Air
NonFiction
- Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage
Visual Art
- Valerie Jaudon - Retrospective Exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art
Photography
- Marion Brown - for "An Unforced Vision"
Music
- Mark Howell - for "Of Miracles and Magnetism"
Poetry
- Paul Ruffin
1998
Fiction
- Wylene Dunbar - Margaret Cape
NonFiction
- Will D. Campbell - And Also with You: Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma
Visual Art
- William Dunlap - for In the Spirit of the Land
Photography
- Hubert F. Worley, Jr. - for Ballerinas and Bluesmen
Music
- Luigi Zaninelli - for Three American Hymns for Soprano and Wind Ensemble
Poetry
- Angela Ball - for poems plublished in New Yorker
Special Achievement
- Marion Barnwell - for A Place Called Mississippi
1999
Fiction
- Ellen Douglas - Truth: Four Stories
NonFiction
- Patti Carr Black - Art in Mississippi
Visual Art
- Jean Cappadonna-Nichols - for Ceramic Sculptures
Photography
- Lucinda Devlin - for Omega Suites and The Corporal Arenas
Music
- James Sclater - for Morgana
Poetry
- John Stone - Where Water Begins

top

2000
Fiction
- Steve Yarbrough - The Oxygen Man
NonFiction
- Edward Cohen - The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi
Visual Art
- Paula Temple
Photography
- Maude Schuyler Clay
Music
- Luigi Zaninelli - "A Crown, A Mansion and a Throne"
Poetry
- D.C. Berry
Lifetime Achievement
- Leontyne Price
Citation of Merit
- University Press of Mississippi

2001
Fiction
- Howard Bahr - The Year of Jubilo
NonFiction
- Jeff Durstewitz and Ruth Williams
Visual Art
- Collier B. Parker
Photography
- Eudora Welty- Country Churchyards
Poetry
- Natasha Trethewey - Domestic Work
2002
Fiction
- Barry Hannah - Yonder Stands Your Orphan
NonFiction
- Bobby DeLaughter - Never Too Late
Visual Art
- Sheila Stott Gourlay - for "Rooted, #6"
Photography
- John D. Lawrence - for retrospective exhibit
Music
- Michael Kimber- for composition for strings
Poetry
- Brooks Haxton - Nakedness, Death, and the Number Zero
2003
Fiction
- Brad Watson - The Heaven of Mercury
NonFiction
- Minor Ferris Buchanan - biography of Hold Collier
Visual Arts
- Gwendolyn Magee - for "quilts that explore her cultural heritage as an African-American"
Photography
- Jack Kotz - Ms. Booth's Garden
Music
- Samuel Jones - for "Eudora's Fable: The Shoe Bird"
James Sclater - for "Variations and Toccata on a theme by Pagannini"
Poetry
- Natasha Trethewey  - Bellocq's Ophelia
Lifetime Achievement
- Mimi Garrard and James Seawright
2004
Fiction
- Tom Franklin - Hell at the Breech
NonFiction
- Christopher Maurer - Fortune's Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson
Visual Arts
- Wyatt Waters - for "An Oxford's Sketchbook"
Music
- Logan Skelton - for "Anderson Songs"
Poetry
- Ann Fisher-Wirth - Blue Window
Lifetime Achievement
Shelby Foote
2005
Fiction
- Margaret McMullan - How I Found the Strong: A Novel of the Civil War
NonFiction
- Timothy B. Smith - Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg
Visual Arts
- Sam Gilliam
Musical Composition
- Justin Sharp - for "Awakening"
Poetry
- Brooks Haxton - Uproar
Photography

- Gretchen Haien

top

2006
Fiction
- Tom Bailey - The Grace that Keeps this World
NonFiction
- Suzanne Marrs - Eudora Welty: A Biography
Visual Arts
- Thomas Nawrocki
Music Composition
- Andrew Owen - for three etudes for solo piano
Photography
- Robyn Moore
2007
Fiction
- Richard Ford -The Lay of the Land
NonFiction
- Jere Nash and Andy Taggart - Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power 1976-2006
Visual Arts
- Bill Dunlap - Dunlap
Music Composition
- Samuel Jones - for "Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra"
Photography
- Debra Ferguson - for "Vanishing Delta"
Poetry
- Natasha Trethewey - Native Guard: Poems
Lifetime Achievement

- Morgan Freeman and Myrna Colley-Lee

2008

Fiction
-Margaret McMullan - When I Crossed No-Bob
NonFiction

- Joseph Crespino - In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution

Visual Arts
- Carlyle Wolfe -  for "The Little House"
Music Composition
- Albert Oppenheimer -  for "Ravenouse"
Photography
- Talbot Easton Selby - for "An Unconscious Reality"
Poetry
- Angela Ball - Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds

Lifetime Achievement

- Ellen Douglas

2009

Fiction

-Howard Bahr - Pelican Road

NonFiction

-Douglas Blackmon - Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the civil War to World War II

Visual Arts

-H. C. (Chris) Porter - Backyards and Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories

Music Composition (Classical/Concert)

-Steve Rouse - for "Between Stillness"

Music Composition (Contemporary/Popular)

-3 Doors Down - for "3 Doors Down"

Photography

-Jane Rule Burdine - Delta Deep Down

Poetry

-Brooks Haxton - They Lift Their Wings to Cry

Lifetime Achievement

- Marshall Bouldin III

- Elizabeth Spencer

top