“Show up in person; never use a phone,” said Gay Talese, recipient of the 2013 Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year. “People have admiration for people who have the courtesy to show up in person. Dress well.”

Dressed well in his tailored, double-breasted suit, custom Italian shoes, and Panama hat—“A man is not completely dressed without his hat,” he once said—Talese, the son of a tailor, was concluding an anecdote about getting his first job in journalism as a copyboy at The New York Times. The story also explained this Ocean City, N.J. native’s connection to Alabama.

The creator of “the art of hanging out,” author of the bestsellers Honor Thy Father and Thy Neighbor’s Wife, and longtime contributor to Esquire and other top magazines, Talese was in Monroeville on April 26 to receive the honor at the annual Awards Luncheon during the Alabama Writers Symposium. Read more…