- Anne Szumigalski, 1981 – 1982
- Patrick Lane, 1982 – 1983
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, 1983 – 1984
- Geoffrey Ursell, 1984 – 1985
- Joe Rosenblatt, 1985 – 1986
- Gertrude Story, 1986 – 1987
- Lois Simmie, 1987 – 1988
- Glen Sorestad, 1988 – 1989
- Samuel Selvon, 1989 – 1990
- Candace Savage, 1990 – 1991
- Sean Virgo, 1991 – 1992
- Armin Wiebe, 1992 – 1993
- Betsy Warland, 1993 – 1994
- Robert Minhinnick, 1994 – 1995
- Sandra Birdsell, 1995 – 1996
- Steven Ross Smith, 1996 – 1997
- Harry Rintoul, 1997 – 1998
- Elisabeth Harvor, 1998 – 1999
- John Livingstone Clark, 1999 – 2000
- Edna Alford, 2000 – 2001
- Dave Margoshes, 2001 – 2002
- Myrna Kostash, 2002 – 2003
- Yann Martel, 2003 – 2004
- J. Jill Robinson, 2004 – 2005
- Jeanette Lynes, 2005 – 2006
- Curtis Peeteetuce, 2006 – 2007
- Terry Jordan, 2007 – 2008
- John Barton, 2008 – 2009
- Anne Simpson, 2009 – 2010
- Alice Kuipers, 2010 – 2011
- Yvette Nolan, 2011 – 2012
- David Poulsen, 2012 – 2013
- Rosemary Nixon, 2013 – 2014
- John Donlan, 2014 – 2015
- Dee Hobsbawn-Smith, 2015 – 2016
- Arthur Slade, 2016 – 2017
- Katherine Lawrence, 2017 – 2018
- Elizabeth Philips, 2018 – 2019
- Edward Willett, 2019 – 2020
- Danny Ramadan, 2020 – 2021
- Di Brandt, 2021 – 2022
- Kristine Scarrow, 2022 – 2023