Harper Lee Awards Guidelines

The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, calls for nominations for Alabama’s most prestigious award in literary arts:

THE HARPER LEE AWARD
FOR ALABAMA’S DISTINGUISHED WRITER OF THE YEAR 2009

The Alabama Writers’ Forum invites nominations for the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year 2009. The award will be made to a living, nationally recognized Alabama writer who has made a significant, lifelong contribution to Alabama letters. The Harper Lee Award recognizes those who primarily write creative nonfiction, drama, fiction, memoir, poetry, or a combination of these. This is not an award for journalistic, historical, or scientific writing, nor is it an award for service, scholarly research, or teaching.

The Harper Lee Award carries a $5,000 stipend and an original Frank Fleming bronze rendering of the Monroeville Courthouse Clock Tower. The Harper Lee Award for 2009 will be presented with its sister award, the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Literary Scholar 2009, at the Alabama Writers Symposium at Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville, Alabama, in May 2009.

To nominate, write a letter telling briefly why the writer is eligible to be considered for the award. List her or his books, awards, and other credentials as a published writer. A brief resume of the writer (one-two pages maximum) is helpful but not required. Do not send photocopies of works, reviews, etc. Do not send books. The awards committee may request supplementary material. Be sure to list the nominator’s daytime phone number. E-mailed nominations will be accepted if they are sent in an MS Word attachment. No faxed nominations. Nominations must be received by November 5, 2009. All nominations and all deliberations of the awards committee are confidential. People may call the Forum office at 334-265-7728, for further information about the nomination process. Email: writersforum@bellsouth.net.

Mail letters of nomination to:
The Harper Lee Award Selection Committee
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, PO Box 4777
Montgomery AL 36103-4777.


PREVIOUS HARPER LEE AWARD RECIPIENTS:
1998: Albert Murray; 1999: Madison Jones; 2000: Helen Norris; 2001: Sena Jeter Naslund; 2002: Mary Ward Brown; 2003: Rodney Jones; 2004: Sonia Sanchez; 2005: Andrew Hudgins; 2006: Wayne Greenhaw; 2007: William Cobb; 2008: Rebecca Gilman..

To nominate candidates for THE EUGENE CURRENT-GARCIA AWARD for Alabama’s Distinguished Literary Scholar 2009 contact the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA) for guidelines: Dr. Steve Hubbard, executive secretary, ACETA, shubbard@lbwcc.edu.

PREVIOUS EUGENE CURRENT-GARCIA AWARD RECIPIENTS:
1998: Claudia Durst Johnson; 1999: Philip K. Beidler; 2000: Donald R. Noble; 2001: Bert Hitchcock; 2002: Trudier Lopez-Harris; 2003: William Hutchings; 2004: Benjamin Williams; 2005: Robert W. Halli; 2006: Nancy Grisham Anderson; 2007: Elaine Hughes; 2008 : Norman McMillan..

The Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer and the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Literary Scholar are made possible through a generous grant from George Landegger.