Newswise — Clyde Edgerton, a University of North Carolina Wilmington professor of creative writing, received The Ragan Old North State Award for Non-fiction for his book, Solo: My Adventures in the Air. The awards were presented at the N.C. Museum of History on Oct. 27.
Solo, his first and only non-fiction book, is a memoir of his flying years and combat missions in Vietnam. Edgerton and Tim McLaurin are the only two authors to receive both non-fiction and fiction awards from the Literary and Historical Association. Edgerton was honored with the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction in 1997 for Where Trouble Sleeps.
Solo was favorably reviewed in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Edgerton has previously published eight novels, five of which were New York Times Notables.
"Debra's Flap and Snap," a short story by Edgerton was included in Best of the South, From the Second Decade of New Stories from the South, 1996-2005, an anthology of short stories selected and introduced by Anne Tyler. Also, "Crib Notes," a non-fiction essay by Edgerton, ran in The Funny Pages, a New York Times Magazine segment.
Lunch at the Picadilly: A Musical, based on his best-selling 2003 novel, ran at Cape Fear Regional Theatre during March 2006. Three of his novels have been previously adapted to stage.
Killer Diller, a film based on his novel by the same name, opened in select cities this past April and received "two thumbs up" from Ebert and Roeper Killer Diller is a sequel to Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt, which was released as a feature film in 1999 starring Ellen Burstyn and Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Edgerton, a native of Durham, N.C., earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in English education from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to the North Carolina Awards for Literature, he is the past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lyndhurst Fellowship and a Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC. He has been a professor of creative writing at UNCW since 1998.
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