Powell named 2009 Chaffin Award winner
Morehead State University’s Department of English and the Kentucky Folk Art Center have announced that novelist Mark Powell, author of “Prodigals and Blood Kin,” is the recipient of the 2009 Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing.
A reception will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Gateway Regional Center for the Arts, located at 101 E. Main Street, in Mt. Sterling.
Powell will read from his work, followed by a reception and book signing. He also will conduct a workshop in novel writing earlier in the day as part of the Morehead Writing Project’s Writing Eastern Kentucky Conference. The reading and reception are free and open to the public while the workshop is offered at a nominal fee.
A winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for “Blood Kin,” Powell has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers' Conference. His stories and essays have appeared in a number of journals, including Rivendell, The South Carolina Review and The New Delta Review.
He was educated at the Citadel, the University of South Carolina, and Yale Divinity School. Born and raised in South Carolina, he now lives in Florida where he teaches at Stetson University and is completing a novel, “The House of the Lord.”
The Chaffin Award, which includes a cash prize of $1,000, recognizes outstanding Appalachian writers in all genres. Past winners of this award include Diane Gilliam, Erik Reece, Sharon Hatfield, Ron Rash, John Sparks, Silas House and Denise Giardina.
Sponsors of this event include The Buckner and Sally S. Hinkle Endowment for Humanities; Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies; MSU Arts and Humanities Council; The Chaffin Award Endowment; Kentucky Folk Art Center; and Morehead State Public Radio.
Additional information on the Chaffin Award is available by calling the Department of English (606) 783-2185. For information on the Writing Eastern Kentucky Conference, you may call (606) 783-2426 or visit www.moreheadwritingproject.org.
Posted: 11-6-09
