1998  Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate (Basic)

1999  Ted Solotaroff, Truth Comes in Blows (Norton)

2000  Jeffery Smith, Where the Roots Reach for Water (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

2001  C. K. Williams, Misgivings: My Mother, My Father, Myself (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

2002  Marie Arana, American Chica (Dial)

2003  Rick Moody, The Black Veil (Little Brown)

2004  Anthony Swofford, Jarhead (Scribner)

2005  Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir (W.W. Norton & Company)

2006  Gregory Rabassa, If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents (New Directions)