1989
* Fiction: "Breathing Lessons" by Anne Tyler
* Drama: "The Heidi Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein
* History: "A Troublesome Presence: The United States and Latin America" by Walter LaFeber
* Biography: "Peter Taylor's Collected Stories" by Peter Taylor
* Poetry: "New and Collected Poems" by Richard Wilbur
1990
* Fiction: "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" by Oscar Hijuelos
* Drama: "The Piano Lesson" by August Wilson
* History: "In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines" by Stanley Karnow
* Biography: "Machiavelli in Hell" by Sebastian de Grazia
* Poetry: "The Wild Iris" by Louise Glück
1991
* Fiction: "Rabbit at Rest" by John Updike
* Drama: "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon
* History: "The Search for Modern China" by Jonathan Spence
* Biography: "John Quincy Adams" by Paul C. Nagel
* Poetry: "Trying to Talk with the Dead" by Czeslaw Milosz
1992
* Fiction: "A Thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley
* Drama: "The Kentucky Cycle" by Robert Schenkkan
* History: "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America" by Garry Wills
* Biography: "Truman" by David McCullough
* Poetry: "Selected Poems" by James Tate
1993
* Fiction: "The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields
* Drama: "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner
* History: "The Rise of American Democracy" by Sean Wilentz
* Biography: "Robert Frost: A Biography" by Jay Parini
* Poetry: "The Collected Poems of Louise Bogan" by Louise Bogan
1994
* Fiction: "The Shipping News" by E. Annie Proulx
* Drama: "Three Tall Women" by Edward Albee
* History: "1861: The Civil War Awakening" by Adam Goodheart
* Biography: "Lenin" by Dmitri Volkogonov
* Poetry: "Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems" by Yusef Komunyakaa
1995
* Fiction: "The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields
* Drama: "Love! Valour! Compassion!" by Terrence McNally
* History: "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History" by John M. Barry
* Biography: "Go Down, Moses: A Life of Albert Einstein" by Ronald W. Clark
* Poetry: "The Collected Poems of Anthony Hecht" by Anthony Hecht
1996
* Fiction: "Independence Day" by Richard Ford
* Drama: "Rent" by Jonathan Larson
* History: "The Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West" by Stephen E. Ambrose
* Biography: "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63" by Taylor Branch
* Poetry: "Blizzard of One" by Mark Strand
1997
* Fiction: "Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer" by Steven Millhauser
* Drama: "Titanic" by Maury Yeston
* History: "Summer for the Gods: