For the past fifty years, the Saint Louis University Library Associates has conferred the St. Louis Literary Award on the most important writers of our time and celebrate the contributions of literature in enriching our lives. The St. Louis Literary Award is known as one of the top literary prizes in the country.
From 1967 until 1981, the award was known as the Messing Award in honor of Roswell and Wilma Messing, Jr., who provided the initial funding for the prize. The highlight of each year, at least since 1967, has been the selection of the recipient and the presentation of the St. Louis Literary Award to a distinguished figure in literature.
Recipients of the Saint Louis Literary Award
The list of awardees of this prize reflects numerous Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Book Award recipients.
- 2021 Zadie Smith
- 2020 Michael Chabon
- 2019 Edwidge Danticat
- 2018 Stephen Sondheim
- 2017 Margaret Atwood
- 2016 Michael Ondaatje
- 2015 David Grossman
- 2014 Jeanette Winterson
- 2012 Tony Kushner
- 2011 Mario Vargas Llosa
- 2010 Don Delillo
- 2009 Salman Rushdie
- 2008 E. L. Doctorow
- 2007 William H. Gass
- 2006 Michael Frayn
- 2005 Richard Ford
- 2004 Garry Wills
- 2003 Margaret Drabble
- 2002 Joan Didion
- 2001 Simon Schama
- 2000 N. Scott Momaday
- 1999 Chinua Achebe
- 1998 Seamus Heaney
- 1997 Stephen E. Ambrose
- 1996 Antonia Fraser1
- 1995 Edward Albee
- 1994 Stephen Jay Gould
- 1993 David McCullough
- 1992 Shelby Foote
- 1991 August Wilson
- 1990 Tom Wolfe
- 1989 Richard Purdy Wilbur
- 1988 Joyce Carol Oates
- 1987 John Updike
- 1986 Saul Bellow
- 1985 Walker Percy
- 1984 No Recipient
- 1983 Eudora Welty
- 1982 William Styron
- 1981 James A. Michener
- 1980 Arthur Miller
- 1979 Howard Nemerov
- 1978 Mortimer J. Adler
- 1977 Robert Penn Warren
- 1976 R. Buckminster Fuller
- 1975 John Hope Franklin
- 1974 Tennessee Williams
- 1973 James T. Farrell
- 1972 Francis Warner
- 1971 Barbara Tuchman
- 1970 W. H. Auden
- 1969 George Plimpton
- 1968 Jacques Barzun
- 1967 Henry Steele Commager
2021 Campus Read
The February 18 Campus Read celebrates the twenty-year anniversary of St. Louis Literary Award winner Michael
Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay."
We are hosting a series of book talks throughout the winter and early spring, and
all of them will be virtual, free and open to the public. Click on the link immediately
below to learn more about the program and sign up for the next book talk.
Learn More about the Campus Read Program
Craft Talks at Saint Louis University Series
The Saint Louis University Craft Talks is a series about creativity in all its forms. In each episode, our host, Edward Ibur, interviews writers, artists, educators and other visionaries to explore their creative processes and world perspectives. We peer inside the minds of creators and teachers who share their thoughts, opinions and beliefs with the world in captivating formats.