Book News

Sir V. S. Naipaul is the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.  In the presentation it was said that Naipaul received the honor "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories."

A citizen of Great Britain, Naipaul once wrote about the American South in his book, A Turn in the South.  In a review of the book, Ingram credited Naipaul with bringing "his unique intellect and insight to bear on the complex, often hidden life and culture of the South."

Marie Rudisill is the 2001 recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award.  Rudisill is Truman Capote's aunt and the author of Fruitcake: Memories of Truman Capote and Sook (Hill Street Press, 2000).

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John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court (LSU Press, November 2001), by University of Connecticut School of Law professor R. Kent Newmyer, is the winner of the 2001 Jules and Frances Landry Award, given annually to the best new book in southern studies published by Louisiana State University Press. 

More than the summation of John Marshall's legal and institutional accomplishments, Newmyer's study captures the nuanced texture of the justice's reasoning, the complexity of his mature jurisprudence, and the affinities and tensions between his system of law and the transformative age in which he lived.

Nominees for the  2002 Appalachian Book of the Year Award are: 

Patrick Bone, A Melungeon Winter, The Overmountain Press, March 2001

Silas D. House, Clay's Quilt, Algonquin Books, March 2001

Doug McGuinn, The Apple Indians: A Novel, Parkway Publishers, April 2001

Robert Morgan, This Rock, Algonquin Books, September 2001

James Still (edited by Ted Olson), From the Mountain, From the Valley: New and Collected Poems, University Press of Kentucky, June 2001

To be eligible, the book must have been first published in calendar year 2001.  The Book of the Year Award will be presented in July 2002 at the Appalachian Writers Association Conference.

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Books to Film Watch.

Here's a preview of what is coming to from Hollywood in 2002. 

A Walk to Remember, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, will be in theaters January 25th, 2002.  The small town romantic story set in 1950's North Carolina features Mandy Moore and Shane West in the lead roles. Karen Janszen wrote the screenplay.

Sweet Home Alabama, a romantic comedy that in many ways is an updated Breakfast at Tiffany's, is finishing up shooting in New York.  The 2002 release features Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen, Mary Kay Place, and Jean Smart.  Screenwriters include Douglas Eboch, C. Jay Cox, and Andy Tennant.

Cold Mountain, based on the novel by Charles Frazier, is set for release in Fall 2002.  The historical romance takes place in North Carolina during the final days of the Civil War.  Tom Cruise has signed and Renee Zellweger is in talks for the lead roles.  Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley) wrote the screenplay.  Production is scheduled to begin in February 2002.

Skipping Christmas, based on the current novel by John Grisham, is set for a Holiday 2002 release.  The independent film is being produced by John Grisham and Hugh Wilson.  Grisham wrote the screenplay.  Cast has not been announced.

Alabama novelist Tom Franklin (Poachers: Stories) has been named the John and Renee Grisham Southern Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi for 2001-2002.  Franklin is teaching a graduate level fiction writing workshop.  His next book is Hell at the Breech, a historical novel based on a brutal series of events in Alabama.

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Call for Papers

New Approaches to Eudora Welty (deadline: November 15, 2001)

Eudora Welty Around the Globe: Inner and Outer Spaces (deadline: November 15, 2001)

Delta Blues Symposium VIII: The Sacred and the Secular (deadline: January 15, 2002)

Appalachian Writers Association Call for Papers (deadline: February 15, 2002)

Southern Literary Journal (deadline: March 1, 2002)

 

Contests

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 2002 (deadline: December 31, 2001)

South Carolina Fiction Project 2002 (deadline: January 15, 2002)

William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition 2002 (deadline: April 1, 2002)

Appalachian Writers Association Contests for 2002 (deadline: June 1, 2002)

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News from Past Issues

 

2001: 10 09 08  07 06 05 04 03 02 01 

2000: 12 11  10  09  08 

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