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Clyde Edgerton to deliver Thomas Wolfe Lecture on Oct. 6
Beloved North Carolina author will receive prize named in honor of UNC alumnus Thomas Wolfe, author of ‘Look Homeward, Angel’
(Chapel Hill, N.C.— Sept. 21, 2015) – North Carolina author Clyde Edgerton will receive the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s 2015 Thomas Wolfe Prize and deliver the annual lecture on Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm in Carolina’s Genome Sciences Building auditorium.
Edgerton, a Carolina alumnus, has published 10 novels, a book of advice (“Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers”) and a memoir (“Solo, My Adventures in the Air”). “The Night Train,” his 10th novel, was published by Little, Brown in 2011. Three of his novels have been made into movies — “Raney,” “Walking Across Egypt” and “Killer Diller” — and many more have been adapted for the stage.
Edgerton is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNC-Wilmington. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, honorary doctorates from UNC-Asheville and St. Andrews Presbyterian College, membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the North Carolina Award for Literature.
Raised in the community of Bethesda, near Durham, Edgerton has written about small-town bigotry, religious hypocrisy and greed — three of his most important themes — in a darkly comic style, one comparable to that of Flannery O’Conner, according to Daniel Wallace, J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing.
“Not since Mark Twain has the South been blessed with a comic novelist as important as Clyde Edgerton,” said Wallace. “His voice is unmistakable: at once eloquent and down-home, hilarious and heartfelt, satirical and solemn.”
The annual lecture and prize in the College of Arts and Sciences honor Thomas Wolfe, author of “Look Homeward, Angel,” who graduated from Carolina in 1920.
Edgerton’s talk is free and open to the public. The Genome Sciences Building auditorium is located at 250 Bell Tower Rd.
For more information see: http://englishcomplit.unc.edu/wolfe
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About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 78 bachelor’s, 112 master’s, 68 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina’s more than 308,000 alumni live in all 50 states and 150 countries. More than 167,000 live in North Carolina.
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu
Communications and Public Affairs contact: MC VanGraafeiland, (919) 962-7090, mc.vangraafeiland@unc.edu