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.
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