The Harper Lee Award for a Distinguished Alabama Writer is an annual award, established in 1998, and recognizes the lifetime achievement of a writer who was born in Alabama or who spent his or her formative years living and writing in the state. The award is named for Harper Lee, whose novel To Kill a Mockingbird has sold more than 30 million copies. Ms. Lee is a native of Monroeville and divides her time between her hometown and New York.

Past winners

1998 Albert Murray	1999 Madison Jones	2000 Helen Norris
2001 Sena Jeter Naslund	2002 Mary Ward Brown	2003 Rodney Jones
2004 Sonia Sanchez	2005 Andrew Hudgins	2006 Wayne Greenhaw
2007 William Cobb	2008 Rebecca Gilman