Weatherford Award Winners

• 1970 – Ben A. Franklin of the New York Times for his series of articles on Appalachia
• 1971 – David H. Looff – Appalachia's Children
• 1972 – Eliot Wigginton and students of Rabun Gap – Nacoochee School – The Foxfire Book
• 1973 – Barry Bingham, Jr., of the Louisville Courier – Journal for thorough, persistent and influential reporting on Appalachia.
• 1974 – No award given
• 1975 – Brian Woolley and Ford Reid – We Be Here When the Morning Comes
• 1976 – Kai T. Erikson – Everything in Its Path
• 1977 – Gurney Norman – Kinfolks
• 1977 – Laurel Shackelford and Bill Weinberg – Our Appalachia
• 1978 – John W. Hevener – Which Side Are You On?
• 1978 – Henry D. Shapiro – Appalachia On Our Mind
• 1979 – Thomas J. Schoenbaum – The New River Controversy
• 1980 – John Gaventa – Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley
• 1981 – David Corbin – Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields
• 1982 – Ronald Eller – Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers
• 1983 – John Egerton – Generations
• 1984 – John Ehle – Last One Home
• 1985 – Eliot Wigginton – Sometimes a Shining Moment
• 1986 – Martin Cherniack – The Hawk's Nest Incident
• 1987 – Denise Giardina – Storming Heaven
• 1987 – Rodger Cunningham – Apples on the Flood: The Southern Mountain Experience
• 1988 – Lee Smith – Fair and Tender Ladies
• 1989 – John Inscoe – Mountain Masters, Slavery, and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina
• 1990 – Helen Lewis and Susanna O'Donnell – Remembering Our Past, Building Our Future
• 1991 – Crandall A. Shifflett – Coal Towns: Life, Work, and Culture in Company Towns of Southern Appalachia, 1880-1960
• 1992 – Denise Giardina – The Unquiet Earth
• 1993 – No award given
• 1994 – Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – Colored People: A Memoir
• 1995 – Deborah Vansau McCauley – Appalachian Mountain Religion: A History
• 1996 – Wilma A. Dunaway – The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700-1860
• 1997 – Charles Frazier – Cold Mountain
• 1998 – Homer Hickam, Jr. – Rocket Boys: A Memoir
• 1999 – Loyal Jones – Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands
• 2000 – Dwight B. Billings and Kathleen M. Blee – The Road to Poverty: the Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia
• 2001 – John O'Brien – At Home in the Heart of Appalachia
• 2002 – John A. Williams – Appalachia
• 2003 – Non-Fiction – Wilma A. Dunaway – Slavery in the American Mountain South
• 2003 – Fiction and Poetry – Gretchen Moran Laskas – The Midwife’s Tale
• 2004 – Non-Fiction – Michael Montgomery – Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
• 2004 – Fiction and Poetry – Ron Rash – Saints at the River
• 2005 – Non-Fiction – Sharon Hatfield – Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell
• 2005 – Fiction and Poetry – Darnell Arnoult – What Travels With Us: Poems
• 2006 – Non-Fiction – Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell, Editors – The Encyclopedia of Appalachia
• 2006 – Fiction and Poetry – Dot Jackson, John F. Blair Publisher – Refuge

Special Weatherford Award Winners
The Weatherford Committee may create a special Weatherford Award to honor another work or body of work that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of Appalachian people.

• 1972 – Robert Coles, M.D.
• 1973 – Wilma Dykeman
• 1975 – Jesse Stuart
• 1976 – Harry Caudill
• 1977 – James Still
• 1978 – Harriette Simpson Arnow
• 1979 – Cratis Williams
• 1985 – Albert Stewart - Certificate of Achievement
• 1988 – Alfred Perrin
• 1996 – Loyal Jones
• 1999 – Sidney Saylor Farr
• 1999 – Jerry W. Williamson