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The Ragan Old North State Award, established by the N.C. Literary and Historical Association to recognize a nonfiction writer, will be presented for the first time. The award is the successor to the Mayflower Cup, and is named for the late Sam Ragan, newspaper editor, Poet Laureate of North Carolina, and the first secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. Timothy Silver of Boone will receive the award for his book, “Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America.” Silver is an environmental history professor at Appalachian State University in Boone and lives in Boone. Pamela Duncan will be the recipient of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction, sponsored by the Historical Book Club of North Carolina, for her book, “Plant Life,” which presents a moving portrait of the friendships and work of women in Piedmont cotton mills. Duncan lives in Graham. “Gospel Road Going” by Michael Chitwood will receive the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry. In it his poems recall the Appalachia of his grandparents’ time, when there were no cars, TV or Internet. Based on their stories, he describes their world in his poetry. Chitwood is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Chapel Hill. Asheville-born Wilma Dykeman will be the recipient of the R. Hunt Parker Award for literary achievement. She is author of fiction and nonfiction, and has written about integration and the South, racial peace and justice, and about the mountain region. Her best-known work, “The French Broad,” is about the French Broad River. She lives in Asheville. The American Association of University Women Award for Juvenile Literature will go to Michelle Groce for “Jasper,” the story of a cat with extraordinary powers who senses impending danger. A Nova Scotia native and lover of animals, Groce now lives in Cornelius. Catherine Bishir and Michael Southern will receive the Christopher Crittenden Award for contributions to North Carolina history. The editors of a three-volume series on historic architecture examine houses, churches, tobacco barns, and mountain and maritime communities, among many architectural styles in the state. Southern works for the State Historic Preservation Office, where Bishir, now retired, also worked. They both live in Raleigh. Mark Bradley will receive
the R.D.W. Connor Award for the year’s best article in the “North
Carolina Historical Review.” “‘This Monstrous Proposition’:
North Carolina and the Confederate Debate on Arming the Slaves,”
appeared in the April issue. Bradley, a graduate student in history at
UNC-Chapel Hill, lives in Graham. Middle School winners are: Martin Middle School, Raleigh, first place for “Illusions”; Rugby Middle School, Hendersonville, second place for “Kaleidoscope”; Seventy-First Classical Middle School, Fayetteville, third place, “The Classical Quill”; and Charlotte Country Day School, honorable mention for “Pirates’ Treasure.” The Albert Ray Newsome Awards, presented by the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies, recognize outstanding contributions to the appreciation of local history. The recipients are the Sankofa Center in Wake Forest, and the Gates County Historical Society. The Sankofa Center conducts the North Carolina Rosenwald School Community Project. Its mission is to promote awareness of the public schools built in rural African American communities in the 1920s and 1930s using money from the Julius Rosenwald fund. Recent projects include creating a web site, conducting a survey of the schools, and assisting with a public television program about the schools. The Gates County Historical Society is being recognized for its many accomplishments over the last year. The society published a book of articles by a local newspaper writer, established a web site and held several successful fundraising events. It also sponsored historical programs such as arranging class talks and conducted local historic tours of historic houses in the county. The American Association for State and Local History will recognize the following North Carolinians or projects for outstanding achievements in local, regional, or state history. Certificates of Commendation will be awarded to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association for the “Old West Durham” web site, the Carteret County Historical Society for the development of The History Place museum, and to the Centennial Committee of the N.C. Board of Nursing and the N.C. Nurses Association for the video documentary, “N.C. Nurses: A Century of Caring.” Awards of Merit were presented to Kenneth McFarland and the Warren County Historical Association for “The Architecture of Warren County, N.C. 1770s to 1860s.” For further information or
reservations, call the N.C. Office of Archives and History at 919-807-7279.
Banquet reservations will be taken through Friday, Nov. 7. Return to News Page |