Friday, April 14, 2000
Contact: Susan Landrum, UGA Libraries, 706/542-0622
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA LIBRARIES LAUNCH GEORGIA WRITERS HALL OF FAME
ATHENS, Ga. -- The University of Georgia Libraries has launched the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, a program to recognize past and present Georgia writers for their contributions to the state's literary heritage.
UGA's Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library will administer the program and is seeking nominations from the public. Two Georgia writers, living or deceased, will be selected annually for induction into the Hall of Fame in November. To be eligible, a writer must be either a Georgia native or have lived in Georgia and produced a significant work while residing in the state. A board of judges -- with representatives from the Georgia Library Association, the Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press, plus citizens from around the state -- will make the selections from nominations received.
To launch the nomination process, the board of judges has chosen 12 Georgia writers for posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame:
*Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987). Born in Macon, author of God's Little Acre and Tobacco Road. His books have sold 80 million copies and been translated into 43 languages.
*James Dickey (1923-1997). Born in Buckhead. Known best for his novel Deliverance, he also received the National Book Award in poetry for Buckdancer's Choice.
*W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963). A professor at Atlanta University from 1898-1910 and again from 1934-1944. His works, including The Soul of Black Folks, were instrumental in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans.
*Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908). Born near Eatonton. Best known for his "Uncle Remus" stories, he was a humorist, short story writer, journalist and children's writer and among the charter members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
*John Oliver Killens (1916-1987). Born in Macon. Author of novels, plays and screenplays, he is best known for Youngblood, And Then We Heard Thunder and Cotillion. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
*Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968). Born in Atlanta. Author of Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story and Why We Can't Wait, he is best known for his essays, including "Letter from the Birmingham Jail."
*Sidney Lanier (1842-1881). Born in Macon. Well-known for his poems "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Song of the Chattahoochee," he has been acknowledged as one of the South's finest 19th-century poets.
*Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870). Born in Augusta. Author of Georgia Scenes, he is considered a pioneer Southern humorist and recognized among the first portraitists of common Georgia.
*Carson McCullers (1917-1967). Born in Columbus. A prolific writer, she authored such classics as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Member of the Wedding and Reflections in a Golden Eye and is regarded among the preeminent figures in the Southern literary tradition.
*Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949). Born in Atlanta. A journalist and author, Mitchell is internationally known for her novel Gone With the Wind, which won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
*Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). Born in Savannah. Regarded as one of the greatest short-story writers of the 20th century, her works won three O. Henry Awards for short fiction, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
*Lillian Smith (1897-1966). Though born in Florida, she lived most of her life in Georgia. One of the first Southern women writers to take a stand against racism and segregation, Smith is best known for her novel Strange Fruit, which has been translated into 14 languages.
Nomination forms and selection criteria for the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame are available from the Hargrett Library at the University of Georgia and through the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame web site (http://www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters). Nominations for November inductees will be accepted until Oct. 1.
For more information, contact Susan Landrum, 706/542-0626.
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