Ron Rash to add Sidney Lanier Prize to his list of awards
Ron Rash
Ron Rash, 甜瓜视频app鈥檚 John Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies in the Department of English, will soon add to his lengthy list of awards.
Rash, a poet, short story writer and novelist, will be awarded the 2020 Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature by Mercer University鈥檚 Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies. The prize will be presented April 18.
鈥淭he Lanier Prize is especially meaningful to me because, as a beginning writer, the work of several previous winners was crucial, especially that of Lee Smith, Wendell Berry, Ernest Gaines and Fred Chappell,鈥� Rash said. 鈥淭heir writing continues to inspire me, and I am honored to join them as Lanier Prize winners.鈥�
The Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature was first awarded in 2012 and is named for the 19th-century Southern poet who was born in Macon, Georgia. The prize is awarded to writers who have engaged and extended the tradition of writing about the South.
Rash, who was born in Chester, South Carolina, and earned his undergraduate degree from Gardner-Webb and master鈥檚 degree from Clemson University, is the author of the New York Times bestseller 鈥淪erena鈥� (which was a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist) and 鈥淎bove the Waterfall.鈥� Other prizewinning novels include 鈥淭he Cove,鈥� 鈥淥ne Foot in Eden,鈥� 鈥淪aints at the River鈥� and 鈥淭he World Made Straight.鈥�
He also has written four collections of poems and six collections of stories, including 鈥淏urning Bright,鈥� which won the 2010 Frank O鈥機onnor International Short Story Award, and 鈥淐hemistry and Other Stories,鈥� which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Rash is a two-time recipient of the O. Henry Prize given annually to short stories of exceptional merit.
鈥淚n poetry and prose, Ron Rash depicts the lives and longings of people living precariously in Southern Appalachia,鈥� said David A. Davis, chair of the Lanier Prize committee and associate professor of English at Mercer. 鈥淗is work describes both God and nature as unforgiving, leaving people to struggle and work to survive while they search for brief moments of peach. Rash has made major contributions to the complicated tradition of Southern writing, and the Sidney Lanier Prize committee is proud to present him with the prize recognition of his work.鈥�
