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Doris Betts -- a nationally recognized voice in contemporary Southern
literature and a renowned professor of creative writing at the University since
1966 -- will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on Dec. 28 from the Modern
Language Association (MLA) Conference on Christianity and Literature in
Washington, D.C.
Betts, a winner of the 1994 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist
for the 1973 National Book Award, is the author of six novels and three
short-story collections. Her fiction -- set primarily in North Carolina --
often reflects biblical influences and depicts ordinary people showing
extraordinary perseverance and common sense in the face of life's troubles.
"In addition to the excellence of her prose, her work shows her continually
making connections to a reality larger than the mundane and banal," said Jill
Baumgaertner, president of the MLA group presenting the award, and professor of
English at Wheaton College. "Her work stirs in the reader an awareness of
lasting things, even while it portrays the human condition which is not always
pleasant,"
In her latest novel, The Sharp Teeth of Love, Betts tackles a range of
subjects, including religion, adoption and the actions of the federal
government against the Branch Davidians at Waco. The New York Times
named the work one of the top 100 books of 1997. "Betts offers her readers a
contemporary woman who struggles to combine what is best in her history with an
ever-sharper awareness of the flexibility and resourcefulness required to
survive in the modern world," wrote the Times.
Betts' 1994 novel, Souls Raised from the Dead, won the Southern Book
Critics Circle Award and was named one of the 20 best books of the year by The
New York Times.
Her most widely reprinted short story, "The Ugliest Pilgrim," was the basis for
a musical, which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and a film, which
received an Academy Award.
Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories, a 1973 collection of
Betts' short stories, was a finalist for the National Book Award. That book and
two others by Betts -- Tall Houses in Winter and The Scarlet
Thread -- won the Sir Walter Raleigh Awards from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters.
A native of Iredell County, Betts has received national recognition for her
writing since her days as a Phi Betta Kappa student at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro. In 1953, while still a student, she received her first
literary award, the Mademoiselle magazine college fiction award. A year
later, Putnam awarded her its Book-length Manuscript Prize and published The
Gentle Insurrection, her first collection of short stories -- written as a
college sophomore.
Betts, who began her career as a newspaper reporter, came to Carolina to teach
creative writing in 1966, and has held the title of alumni distinguished
professor since 1980. She has received five honorary degrees, and has been
recognized several times for her excellence in teaching, including the 1974
Tanner Award, the 1980 Katherine Carmichael Award, and the 1991 UNC Alumni
Association Faculty Award. She was one of three Master Teachers nationwide
cited for teaching excellence in1986 by the Association of Departments of
English.
Citing Betts' teaching, library and school outreach efforts, and widespread
reading audience, "Doris Betts represents the best of Carolina," said William
L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams professor of English and chair of the
department.
At Carolina Betts has also served as dean of the General College, in charge of
the Honors Program (1978-81) and chair of the Faculty (1982-85).
Today, two awards bear Doris Betts' name: the Betts Fiction Prize by the N.C.
Writers' Network and the Betts Teaching Award at the University. In addition,
the University has established a new Doris Betts professorship in the
Department of English, the first endowed professorship for the Creative Writing
Program.
The MLA Lifetime Achievement Award goes to outstanding scholars and writers
whose work over the course of their careers has contributed and supported
connections between Christianity and literature. Recent recipients have
included Nobel Prize winning poet Czeslaw Milosz, Christian philosopher Owen
Barfield, critic Rene Girard, and poets Richard Wilbur and Denise Levertov.
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