Two faculty members in creative writing in the department of English and comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences received awards at the 115th annual meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in Raleigh on Nov. 13..
Pam Durban, the Doris Betts Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, given for the year’s best book of fiction written by a North Carolinian, for her collection of short stories Soon (University of South Carolina Press).
And Daphne Athas, who retired in 2009 after 40 years of service in UNC’s classrooms, won the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award, a lifetime achievement award given in recognition of the recipient’s contribution to the preservation and promotion of North Carolina literature.
Five other creative writing faculty writers have won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction: Doris Betts (in 1957, 1965 and 1974), Daphne Athas (in 1972 and 1979), Marianne Gingher (in 1987), Lawrence Naumoff (in 2005) and Daniel Wallace (in 2008).
Three other creative writing faculty have received the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award: Doris Betts (in 1989), Bland Simpson (in 2009) and Michael McFee (in 2010).
