The South Carolina Academy of Authors will honor writers Gilbert Allen, Janette Turner Hospital, John Lane and the late Robert Quillen on April 26 at 6:00 p.m. at Furman University's Younts Conference Center in Greenville, S.C.
The academy, which is devoted to the identification, recognition and promotion of the state's distinguished authors and emerging writers, annually honors writers in a weekend of literary events. The reception and induction ceremony includes recognition of the writers and their induction in the South Carolina Academy of Authors literary hall of fame. Tickets, $35 a person, are still available. For more information and full schedule of events, please visit scacademyofauthors.org.
Janette Turner Hospital, a native of Queensland, Australia, is the Carolina Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of South Carolina, where she teaches one course a year. Among her novels are Orpheus Lost, Due Preparations for the Plague and Oyster. Orpheus Lost was a finalist for the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Prize. Forecast: Turbulence, her most recent short-story collection, received the Steele Rudd Award for Best Collection of Short Stories in 2012.
Robert Quillen published the weekly newspaper The Fountain Inn Tribune from 1911 to 1948. The journalist and humorist was called "one of the leading purveyors of village nostalgia" thanks to his column, which was syndicated in 400 newspapers in the United States and Canada. He was the model for Will Rogers' role in the feature film Life Begins at 40, about a small-town newspaper editor.
John Lane, a professor of English and Environmental Studies at Wofford College, is also director of the college's Goodall Environmental Studies Center and a cofounder of The Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg. Begin with Rock, End with Water is his most recent essay collection. Abandoned Quarry: New and Selection Poems won the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance 2012 award for poetry.
Gilbert Allen, the Bennette E. Geer professor of literature at Furman University, is the author of six collections of poetry. His 2014 collection of poetry, Catma, was published by Measure Press. His work has been awarded the Robert Penn Warren Prize in Poetry from The Southern Review, and he has won the South Carolina Fiction Project prize five times.
The South Carolina Academy of Authors was founded at Anderson College in 1986. Its public recognition of the state's literary talents serves to increase the general readership of authors working today and leads to the rediscovery of works from the past.
Those wishing to support the Academy, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, may make a donation as a supporter, $10-$75; a sustainer, $100-$250; a patron, $300-$500; a sponsor, $600-$800, or a partner, $1,000 or more. Checks to the S.C. Academy of Authors may be directed to unrestricted funding of the Academy's projects or to the Memorial Endowment Fund and should be mailed to Tom Mack, Department of English, USC Aiken, 471 University Drive, Aiken, SC 29801.
For more information, please visit scacademyofauthors.org.
