Special Collections / Exhibits / Lee Smith / The Awards of Lee Smith

The Awards of Lee Smith

Photo of Lee Smith and her Son

Lee Smith has received many awards and honors throughout her career. She is the recipient of the Academy Award in Literature presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York (May 19, 1999). She has been honored with the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award (1995-1997), the Robert Penn Warren Prize for Fiction (1991), the Lyndhurst Grant (1990-1992), the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Literature (1988), the North Carolina Award for Fiction (1984), the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Oral History (1983) and Fair and Tender Ladies (1989), and the O. Henry Award (1979 and 1981).

1960's1970's1980's1990's

1967:

Smith received the prestigious Book-of-the-Month Club Fellowship in 1967.

Article about Smith's Book-of-the-Month Club Fellowship.
Telegram announcing that Smith had won the fellowship.
Article from the Roanoke Times describing the fellowship. Telegram sent to Smith informing her of the fellowship she won.

1979:

Smith received an O. Henry Award in 1979 for her short story "Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach." The story was published in her collection of short stories, Cakewalk (1981).

Page 1 of Smith's short story, "Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach."
Page 2 of Smith's short story, "Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach."

Above are the first two pages of the short story, "Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach."


1981:

Smith received another O. Henry Award in 1981 for her short story "Between the Lines." The story was published in her collection of short stories, Cakewalk (1981).

Page 1 of short story, "Between the Lines" from "Cakewalk."
Page 2 of short story, "Between the Lines" from "Cakewalk."

Above are the first two pages of the short story, "Between the Lines."


1984:

Smith receiving the prestigious North Carolina Award for Fiction, November 15, 1984.

Photo of Smith receiving the North Carolina Award for Fiction. Pictured [left to right] are Larry Wheeler (former deputy secretary, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources), Lee Smith, former North Carolina governor Terry Sanford, and Sara W. Hodgkins (former secretary, Department of Cultural Resources).

 

Description of Smith's work and background.
 
Letter from Terry Sanford.
Description of the award and Smith's work.
 
Letter to Lee from former North Carolina governor Terry Sanford. The letter annnounces Smith as the 1984 North Carolina Award for Fiction recipient.

1985:

Smith was on the faculty of the Seventh Annual Bennington Writing Workshops in July 1985.

The 1985 brochure which lists Smith as a visitor at the Bennington Writing Workshop.

 

Emory and Henry College in southwestern Virginia honored Smith with a Lee Smith Festival in 1985.

Brochure for the Lee Smith Festival with her photo on the front.
Description of festival events.

1989:

Smith received the W. D. Weatherford Award from Berea College in 1989.

 

The W.D. Weatherford Award presented to Lee Smith.
The W.D. Weatherford Award Program of Events.

 

Flier for Pen/Faulkner Readings.
Smith gave a PEN/Faulkner Reading in 1989. Her many lectures, readings, speeches, and book signings attest to her popularity as a public speaker both locally and nationally.

1991:

Smith was chosen as a Fellow of the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 1991.

Paper announcing Smith as recipient of the award. Letter to Smith concerning her new membership.

 

Announcement of Lee Smith as the 1st recipient of  the Chubb LifeAmerica Award in honor of Robert Penn Warren.

Also in 1991, Smith received the venerable Robert Penn Warren Fiction Prize.

Smith's story "Mom" from her collection of short stories Me and My Baby View the Eclipse (1990), was selected as one of the best short stories by the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project in 1991.

 

A Writer in the Making
Lee's Brilliant Career
Bibliography

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