IATE Illinois Authors of the Year
- 1970 Vachel Lindsay
- 1971 Dee Brown
- 1972 Rebecca Caudill
- 1973 Clyde S. Kilby
- 1974 Edgar Lee Masters
- 1975 Mike Royko
- 1976 Victor Hicken
- 1977 Richard Peck
- 1978 Gwendolyn Brooks
- 1979 Natalia Belting
- 1980 Harry Mark Petrakis
- 1981 J. N. Hook
- 1982 Marguerite Henry
- 1983 Burl Ives
- 1984 Carl Sandburg
- 1985 Michael Anani
- 1986 John Knoepfle
- 1987 Stella Pevsner
- 1988 Lloyd Kropp
- 1989 Eugene Redmond
- 1990 Elizabeth Tallent
- 1991 Haki Madhubuti
- 1992 Lucien Stryk
- 1993 Larry Heinemann
- 1994 Lucia Getsi
- 1995 Lisel Mueller
- 1996 Leon Forrest
- 1997 Robert Olen Butler
- 1998 Alex Kotlowitz
- 1999 Jackie Joyner-Kersey
- 2000 Luis Rodriguez
- 2001 Richard Powers
- 2002 Mary Schmich
- 2003 Sandra Cisneros
- 2004 Fern Chapman
- 2005 Dave Eggers
- 2006 Mawi Asgedom
- 2007 Scott Turow
- 2008 Simone Elkeles
- 2009 Li-Young Lee
- 2010 Tony Romano
- 2011 Achy Obejas
- 2012 Chris Ware
- 2013 Marilyn Brandt
- 2014 Libby Hellmann
- 2015 Jesse Ball
- 2016 Melanie Benjamin
- 2017 Adam Selzer
- 2018 Brittany Cavallaro
- 2019 Erika Sanchez
- 2021 Mikki Kendall
- 2022 Allison Joseph
- 2023 Jessamine Chan
Return to Conference Program, 2023
