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)