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