Georgia Writers Hall of Fame

Valerie Boyd, a writer, editor, professor and mentor, will be inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame later this year.

The University of Georgia Libraries will host online conversations with two of the newest members of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame this November, as part of UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival.

The personal correspondence of Lillian Smith, one of the most prominent white Southern activists before and during the Civil Rights Movement, will be digitally preserved and made available online, as part of a partnership between the University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the University of Florida’s Smathers Libraries.

Four writers whose words have inspired people around the world will be celebrated as the newest members of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame this fall.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown, playwright and performance artist Pearl Cleage, and National Book Award Bronze Medal recipient Clarence Major have earned the 2021 distinction, administered by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia to honor the state’s literary legacy.

In addition, the November ceremony will include a special posthumous recognition in honor of the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who was elected into the hall in 2019 for various works, including his speeches, his autobiography, and his trilogy of graphic novels.

His memoir “Run: Book One” — a sequel to the best-selling “March” trilogy — will be published Aug. 3. Lewis completed the story before his death last July at 80.

Terry Kay has had a lot of ideas in his life, and most of those developed into page-turning novels. But in the summer of 1999, one of his ideas wasn’t about creating books — it was about honoring the authors that came before him.

“I thought Georgia needed to be doing more to honor its writers, to honor its rich literary heritage,” said Kay, whose seventh novel was published that year. “Around the same time, I began to be aware that Georgia literature wasn’t being taught in the schools anymore and I thought that establishing an award that focused not just a particular work by a writer but their whole lifetime of work was a good way to honor the remarkable writers who hail from Georgia or who have made Georgia their home and might encourage teachers of English to see what incredible writers we have right here in Georgia.”

Three UGA Libraries virtual events featuring film makers and writers have been named to the University of Georgia Signature Lectures series this fall.

The events include celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Brown Media Archive and Peabody Awards Collection and the 20th anniversary of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. The third event, sponsored by the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, introduces the new annual Food, Politics, and Power Lecture series.

Two historical accounts that explore how higher education and the banking industry have influenced civil rights have been named the 2020 recipients of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, which are administered by the

The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame will begin celebrations of its 20th anniversary with a reading of inductee Philip Lee Williams’ 20th novel.

Williams’ book launch event is scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30, the acclaimed writer’s 70th birthday, at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at the University of Georgia.

The University of Georgia Libraries will celebrate three new inductees to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame with author discussions and a special dinner this November.

The festivities honor food writer John T. Edge and poet A.E. Stallings, as well as pioneering journalist Julia Collier Harris, who is being inducted posthumously.

The UGA Libraries host award-winning author Tayari Jones Feb. 7 in celebration of the paperback launch of An American Marriage. Jones was a 2018 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, but was unable to attend the fall ceremony.  The award will be presented at this event, which is co-sponsored by Avid Bookshop.

The program is from 7-9 p.m. at the Foundry Ballroom (295 E. Dougherty Street, Athens, GA 30606). Tickets are $22 and include a paperback copy of either An American Marriage or Silver Sparrow. Books will be distributed upon check-in to the event.

An American Marriage was selected for the The New York Times' and The Washington Post's Most Notable of 2018 lists and was named 2018 Book of the Year by Apple Books. TIME Magazine selected it as the 2018 Best Fiction of the Year