Festival Founders Award

The Founders Award, established in 2011, honors literary achievement that has captivated our imagination and whose body of work will be an inspiration to readers, writers and booklovers. The Founders Award is presented at the Authors Table Dinner on the University of Arizona campus and attracts 900 patrons.

Past Recipients

2024   T. Jefferson Parker

2023   Thomas Perry

2022   Annette Gordon-Reed

2021   Lisa See 

2019   Luis Alberto Urrea 

2018   Billy Collins

2017   T.C. Boyle 

2016   J.A. Jance 

2015   Rock Bottom Remainders 

2014   Richard Russo 

2013   R.L. Stine 

2012   Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana 

2011   Elmore Leonard