In the 1990s Harper was the recipient of many awards, including an honorary degree from Notre Dame College. He was also awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from Coe College. The Coe College events later made up a special section of the 1991 issue of Callaloo: A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters. It includes a series of essays by Harper's friends and former students, each of whom remembered him in special (if telling) ways:

From Robert Stepto: "When I think of Michael the teacher, I think of phrases like, 'where is the bibliography?' or. 'Where are the pages?' or, 'Ok, you got stuck; on what page did you get stuck?'...the follow-up line goes like this: 'Oh, I see; you got stuck on page two. Let me see page two. Oh, you don't have it. You threw it away. Well, let me see page one, your first paragraph. You don't have that? Let me see now: you had an assignment; it is not done; you got stuck on page two; you don't have page two or even page one. I think we're going to have to call your Mama. Let me have the number - or have you lost that, too?'" (p. 803)

From Anthony Walton: "I'll never forget my first serious talk with him. He stared at me with his Crazy Horse on a bad day glare...and said, matter-of-factly, 'Boy, I'm gonna teach you things you ain't gonna understand for 10 or 20 years.' During that session he also demolished my most accomplished and favorite poem to that point; asked me in a cryptic and menacing way if I knew anything about the Civil War; told me that he thought I had it in me to write a good book someday but that it was up to me, not him; waved me out the door with a brusque, 'Go on. Boy, you gonna spoil my lunch.'" (p. 808)