Chancellor's literary award honors Jane Hamilton
Released: May 16, 2008
Author Jane Hamilton Author Jane Hamilton will be honored with the fourth annual University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award on Oct. 20.
Hamilton will be honored at a 7 p.m. reading Monday, Oct. 20. The event is free and will be held in the Summers Auditorium of the James R. Connor University Center. The public is invited to attend the reading. Hamilton will sign books after the reading and books will be available for purchase at the event.
Chancellor Richard Telfer said, "I am pleased that the fourth annual UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award will be presented to an author the caliber of Jane Hamilton. She has the ability to portray life’s joys and agonies in a way that touches the reader deeply."
Hamilton is being honored for her body of work including: "The Book of Ruth," "A Map of the World," "Disobedience," "Short History of a Prince" and "When Madeline Was Young."
Her first novel, "The Book of Ruth," won the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was later named as an Oprah’s Book Club selection. In 1994, she published "A Map of the World." That book was also an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Hamilton won the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for fiction in 1998 for "The Short History of a Prince." That same title was short-listed for Britain’s Orange Prize. She has received numerous other honors.
Of "The Book of Ruth," Kirkus Review wrote: "Unforgettably, beat by beat, Hamilton maps the best and worst of the human heart and all the mysterious, uncharted country in between."
Hamilton is the fourth author to receive the Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award. The first award was given in April 2006 to C.J. Hribal, a professor at Marquette University, for his novel, "The Company Car." In April 2007, A. Manette Ansay was honored for her body of work including "Vinegar Hill," "Limbo," and most recently "Blue Water." In April 2008, Michael Perry was given the honor for his body of work including "Population 485" and "Truck: A Love Story." Previously the award had been given in April but will now be awarded in October to allow UW-Whitewater faculty to include the author’s works in more of their students’ course work.
The award recognizes writers who celebrate all that makes the Upper Midwest special.
- Sara Kuhl,kuhls@uww.edu
