| 1981 |
| Spring | Fall |
| pre WOLM era |
 Candide Voltaire |
1982 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy |  As I Lay Dying William Faulkner |
1983 |
| Spring | Fall |
Henderson, the Rain King Saul Bellow |
 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary |
1984 |
| Spring | Fall |
 1984 George Orwell |
 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen |
1985 |
| Spring | Fall |
 A Gathering of Old Men Ernest Gaines |  Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert |
1986 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad |
 To the LighthouseVirginia Woolf |
1987 |
| Spring | Fall |
 A Passage to India E. M. Forster |
 The Tempest William Shakespeare |
1988 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West |  The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols |
| 1989 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain |  The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald |
1990 |
| Spring | Fall |
 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez |  Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse |
1991 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison |
Dubliners James Joyce |
1992 |
| Spring | Fall |
Frankenstein Mary Shelley |  Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee |
1993 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Works of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov |  The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway |
1994 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko |  Beloved Toni Morrison |
1995 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë |  Invisible Man Ralph Ellison |
1996 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Grand Avenue Greg Sarris |  My Ántonia Willa Cather |
1997 |
| Spring | Fall |
 As You Like It William Shakespeare |  Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll |
1998 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston |  Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard |
1999 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson |  Hard Times Charles Dickens |
2000 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver |  A selection of short stories, including "Gimpel the Fool" I. B. Singer |
2001 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien |  The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Fiction Henry James |
2002 |
| Spring | Fall |
 The Awakening Kate Chopin |  The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck |
2003 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Tracks Louise Erdrich |
 Howards End E.M. Forster |
2004 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin |  Leaves of Grass Walt Witman |
2005 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Middle Passage Charles Johnson |  The Lathe Of Heaven Ursula Le Guin |
2006 |
| Spring | Fall |
 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen |  Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko |
2007 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko |  Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen |
2008 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen |  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain |
2009 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain |  Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston |
2010 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Into the Forest Jean Hegland |  Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston |
2011 |
| Spring | Fall |
 Into the Forest Jean Hegland | TBA |