| Year | Title | Publisher | Prize Amount | Judge |
| 1989 | Variable Directions by Dan Pagis | North Point Press | $1,000 | Serge Gavronsky |
Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1943, and he attended Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale. In 1973 he began studying Zen practice with Zen Master Seung Sahn.