Outstanding Contributions to Appalachian Literature

Current Appalachian Writers Association members may nominate candidates for the Outstanding Contributions to Appalachian Literature award. This award recognizes career-long dedication to Appalachian culture and writing; those having earned the award represent authors of poetry, fiction, nonfiction prose, drama, and academic study. Nominations for the 2007 OCAL Award were extended from May 30 to July 1, 2008. Send an email to President, Dr. Christina Walton (c.walton@moreheadstate.edu) with the following information:

Email Subject line: AWA OCAL Nomination

Name of Nominee:

OCAL Nominee Contact Information: Address, City, State

OCAL Nominee Phone and Email:

Your reason for the nomination:

Brief listing of books or contribution to Appalachian Literature.

Name of Nominator:

Nominator Contact Information: Address, City, State

Nominator Phone and Email:

Thank you for the Nomination

Sandra L. Ballard, 2006 Honoree
Sandra Ballard is editor of Appalachian Journal and professor of English at Appalachian State University.

Jack Higgs, 2005 Honoree
Jack Higgs, a middle Tennessee native, attended Vanderbilt University and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1955 with a B.S. and a commission in the United States Air Force. After eight years in the Air Force, he resigned his commission and earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee in 1967. He taught at Eastern Kentucky University for one year and then moved to East Tennessee State University, where he taught American Literature, Southern Literature, and Appalachian Literature.

His books include: Voices from the Hills: Selected Readings of Southern Appalachia (1974), Appalachia Inside Out (1995) with Ambrose Manning and Jim Wayne Miller, Laurel and Thorn: The Athlete in American Literature (1982), God in the Stadium: Sports and Religion in America (1995), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sports (2004) with Michael Braswell.

During his twenty-seven years at ETSU, Dr. Higgs was awarded the ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award (1972), The ETSU Foundation Research Award (1982), The Exceptional Achievement Award from the Council and Support of Education, and he was one of eight finalists for National Professor of the Year in 1984.

Dr. Higgs has presented numerous lectures at civic clubs, churches, libraries, schools, and universities on Appalachian, Southern, and American literature and culture and on the literature of humor and sports.

Sidney Saylor Farr, 2004 Honoree
Sidney Farr edited Appalachian Heritage for fourteen years, from 1985 to 1999, while working as a librarian in the Department of Special Collections at Berea College’s Hutchins Library. During her tenure she gained many readers and friends for the magazine by publishing the work of the region’s best writers as well as encouraging the efforts of many new and unknown writers and visual artists.

Appalachian Heritage, founded in 1973 by poet Albert Stewart at Alice Lloyd College, is one of the best-known literary publications in the Southern Appalachians. Under Sidney’s guidance as editor, the magazine celebrated regional literary life through fiction, poetry, articles, reviews, and photography significant to the region. Many of the writers sitting in this room today can thank Sidney Farr for giving them a start in their publishing careers by featuring their works in issues of Appalachian Heritage. [This presentation was made during the 2004 Appalachian Writers Association Conference.]

Sidney was born on Stoney Fork Creek in Bell County, Kentucky, about fifteen miles from Pineville, in 1932. The oldest of ten children, Sidney was forced to drop out of school in the seventh grade to take care of her ailing mother and younger siblings. She earned her high school degree completely through mail correspondence.

Upon moving to Berea in 1962, Sidney worked as an associate editor for the regional magazine Mountain Life and Work, where she met writers like Harriette Arnow, James Still, Jesse Stuart, and Harry Caudill. In 1980, Sidney completed her college degree at Berea College with a major in English. In 1984, Berea College President John Stephenson asked Sidney to take on the editorship of Appalachian Heritage when the magazine moved from Hindman, Kentucky to Berea College.

A poet, short story writer, essayist, and excellent cook, Sidney has authored Appalachian Women: An Annotated Bibliography, a major contribution to Appalachian scholarship; a volume of poetry called Headwaters; three cookbooks that contain not only unusual recipes, but that feature prose recollections that tell the story of Sidney’s life growing up in the mountains of Kentucky on Stoney Fork near Pine Mountain; and What Tom Sawyer Learned from Dying, a book exploring near-death experience.

Sidney has also taught numerous Elderhostel classes and writing workshops; she has also worked as a performing artist. Sidney is a founding member of The New
Opportunity School for Women writers group, where she serves as mentor, advisor, and advocate. Many of the women in that group are here today, and
like them, the Appalachian Writers Association agrees that Sidney exemplifies the spirit of Appalachian writing.

The members of AWA are honored to give this award to Sidney Saylor Farr.

--Marianne Worthington

George Brosi, 2003 Honoree
George Brosi grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. While he was home between semesters, he became
active in local civil rights concerns, including speaking out at a City Council meeting against segregated barbershops--a fact often cited as an explanation for the fact that George has seldom had his hair cut since. George had a long career as a social activist with such organizations as the Council of the Southern Mountains, Students for a Democratic Society, Southern Student Organizing Committee, American Friends Service Committee, Vocations for Social Change, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Save Our Cumberland Mountains, and the Mountain Community Union. In 1979, George again went to work for The Council of the Southern Mountains, this time as Manager of the Appalachian Book and Record Shop in Berea, Kentucky.

In 1982 he established his own book business, Appalachian Mountain Books, specializing in out-of-print as well as new Appalachian books. Ever since, he has sold books through the mail and at regional events, and he has led in-service training sessions on regional literature for librarians and teachers.

In 1991 George completed a Masters Degree in English Education at Western Carolina University. Returning to Berea, he has worked ever since as a part-time and temporary full-time English and Appalachian Studies instructor for the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Somerset Community College, and Lexington Community College. On July l, 2002, George was hired as Editor of Appalachian Heritage by Berea College. He continues to teach English part-time for nearby colleges and universities.

--Marianne Worthington and Silas House

Jeff Daniel Marion, 2002 Honoree
Jeff Daniel Marion is retired professor of English, distinguished poet-in-residence, and director of the Appalachian Center, Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tennessee. Author of seven poetry collections and one children’s book, Danny has most recently edited the poems of Ann Cobb for the Hindman Settlement School. That book, Kinfolks & Other Selected Poems, is nominated for the 2004 AWA Book of the Year Award in Poetry.

Danny’s Ebbing & Flowing Springs: New and Selected Poems and Prose 1976-2001 (Celtic Cat, 2002) was the co-winner of the 2003 AWA Book of the Year Award, winner of the 2003 Awards for Excellence (Poetry category) from the Independent Publishers Association, a finalist for the Publishers Marketing Association Benjamin Franklin Award, and nominated entry for the 2003 Weatherford Award. Currently, Danny is working on an expanded paperback version of his poetry collection, Letters Home, to be released by Gnomon Press in 2004. He was most recently profiled as the “Featured Author” in the Fall 2003 issue of Appalachian Heritage. A new interview and the essay he delivered as the 2002 AWA keynote speaker appear in the Winter 2004 issue of Appalachian Journal. Among Danny’s many awards and honors are: First recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Literary Arts Fellowship, 1978; National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Writers Reading Series, 1993, Featured Writer, Emory & Henry Literary Festival, 1994, Palmer Lecturer, Cumberland College, 1997, Copenhaver Scholar in Residence, Roanoke College, 1998, and AWA’s Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award, 2002. He lives in Knoxville with his wife, Linda Marion, and tends to his writing in his river house, on the banks of the Holston River in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

--Marianne Worthington

Outstanding Contributions to Appalachian Literature Honorees

2004 Sidney Saylor Farr
2003 George Brosi
2002 Jeff Daniel Marion
2001 Jo Carson
2000 Lee Smith
1999 Betty N. Smith
1998 Parks Lanier
1997 Sharyn McCrumb
1996 Bennie Lee Sinclair
1995 Fred Chappell
1994 Bernice "Stevie" Stephens
1993 Loyal Jones
1992 Albert Stewart
1991 Marilou Awaiakta
1990 Jim Wayne Miller
1989 John Ehle
1988 Wilma Dykeman
1987 Don West
1986 James Still
1985 Harriette Arnow