Ron Rash

Ron Rash to Recieve 2020 Thomas Robinson Prize

MACON – Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies will award the 2020 Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature to poet, short story writer and novelist Ron Rash.

The prize will be presented Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. in a live-streamed ceremony at kingcenter.mercer.edu.

“The Robinson 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,” said Rash. “Their writing continues to inspire me, and I am honored to join them as a prize winner.”

Rash was born in Chester, South Carolina, and earned his undergraduate degree from Gardner-Webb University and master’s degree from Clemson University. He currently serves as John Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies in the English Department at Western Carolina University.

“In poetry and prose, Ron Rash depicts the lives and longings of people living precariously in southern Appalachia. His work describes both God and nature as unforgiving, leaving people to struggle and work to survive while they search for brief moments of peace. Rash has made major contributions to the complicated tradition of Southern writing, and the Robinson Prize committee is proud to present him with the prize in recognition of his work,” said Dr. David A. Davis, chair of the Robinson Prize Committee and associate professor of English at Mercer.

Rash is the author of 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River and The World Made Straight.

He has also authored four collections of poems and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. He is a two-time recipient of the O. Henry Prize given annually to short stories of exceptional merit.

The Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature, previously known as the Sidney Lanier Prize, was first awarded in 2012. The prize recognizes writers who have engaged and extended the long, often complicated, tradition of writing about the South. Past winners include Ernest Gaines (2012), Lee Smith (2013), Elizabeth Spencer (2014), Yusef Komunyakaa (2015), Wendell Berry (2016), Ellen Gilchrist (2017), Natasha Trethewey (2018) and Fred Chappell (2019).

The selection committee for the Robinson Prize includes Mercer professors, eminent scholars of Southern literature and members of the Macon community. In addition to Dr. Davis, the committee includes Bob Brinkmeyer, Emily Brown Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina; Sharon Colley, professor of English at Middle Georgia State College; Sarah Gardner, Distinguished University Professor of History at Mercer; Trudier Harris, Distinguished Research Professor of English at the University of Alabama; Barbara Ladd, professor of English at Emory University; John Wharton Lowe, Barbara Methvin Professor of English at the University of Georgia; Judson Mitcham, former Georgia Poet Laureate; Chelsea Rathburn, Georgia Poet Laureate and assistant professor of creative writing at Mercer; and Pam Thomasson, past president of Historic Macon Foundation.

Dr. Joe Sam Robinson Jr. and his wife Betsy, of Macon, made a gift to assist Mercer in meeting a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant during the 2016-17 reporting year. Their financial commitment created a new endowment, the Thomas McRae Hamilton Robinson Endowment, within the Center for Southern Studies that supports a public reading by the prize winner at the annual presentation ceremony. The endowment honors the memory of their son Thomas Robinson and significantly enhances literary programming in Middle Georgia by underwriting the event.