Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award through the years

The award, presented annually by the Western North Carolina Historical Association and Dr. and Mrs. E. Frank Edwinn, is given for outstanding literary achievement to individuals from Western North Carolina or who have written on regional topics. 

1955: Wilma Dykeman for “The French Broad”

1956: Glenn Tucker for “Tecumseh: Vision of Glory”

1957: Floyd C. Watkins for “Thomas Wolfe’s Characters”

1958: John Parris for “My Mountains, My People”

1959: Olive Tilford Dargan for “The Spotted Hawk”

1960: Luther Robinson for “We Made Peace with Polio”

1961: David English for “Human Gold from Southern Hills”

1962: Ina W. Van Noppen for “Stoneman’s Last Raid”

1963: no award given                                            

1964: Bruce R. McElderry, Jr. for “Thomas Wolfe”

1965: no award given

1966: Glenn Tucker for “Zeb Vance: Champion of  Personal  Freedom”

1967: Michael Frome for “Strangers in High Places”

1968: Neal Austin “A Biography of Thomas Wolfe”

1969: Harley E. Jolley for “The Blue Ridge Parkway”

1970: Dell B. Wilson for “The Grandfather and the Globe”

1971: Rodney Leftwich for “The Arts and Crafts of the Cherokee”

1972: Moffitt Sinclair Henderson for “A Long, Long Day for November”

1973: Ina and John Van Noppen for “Western North Carolina Since the Civil War”

1974: Ruby J. Lanier for “Blanford Barnard Doughterty: Mountain Educator”

1975: The Appalachian Consortium for various efforts

1976: Francis Hulme for “Mountain Measure: A Southern Appalachian Verse Notebook”

1977: Frank L. FitzSimons for “From the Banks of the Oklawaha, Vol. I”

1978: Charlotte Young for “Day of Miracles”

1979: Theda Perdue for “Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866”

1980: Jim Wayne Miller for “The Mountains Have Come Closer”

1981: Douglas Swaim for “Cabins and Castles: The History & Architecture of Buncombe County, North Carolina

1982: Ronald D. Eller for “Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers”

1983: Lucy S. Herring            for “Strangers No More”

1984: John Ehle for “Last One Home”

1985: Loyal Jones for “Minstrel of the Appalachians: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford”

1986: Patricia Duane Beaver for “Rural Community in the Appalachian South”

1987: Gail Godwin for “A Southern Family”

1988: Durwood Dunn for “Cades Cove: The Life & Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937”

1989: John C. Inscoe for “Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Secional Crisis in Western North Carolina

1991: no award given                                

1992: Kathryn Striping Byer for “Wildwood Flower: Poems”

1993: Howard Dorgan for “The Airwaves of Zion: Radio and Religion in Appalachia”

1994: Reuben A. Holden and Mark T. Banker for “Warren Wilson College: A Centennial  History”         

1995: Jerry W. Williamson for “Hillbillyland: What the Movies Did to the Mountains & What the Mountains Did to the Movies” 

1996: Robert Isbell for “The Last Chivaree: The Hicks Family of Beech Mountain”

1997: Charles Frazier for “Cold Mountain” 

1998: Barbara S. Duncan for “Living Stories of the Cherokee”

1999: Tommy Hays for “In the Family Way: A Novel” 

2000: Judy Jordan for “Carolina Ghost Woods: Poems”

2001: Robert Brunk, editor, for “May We All Remember Well, Volume II”

2002: Rob Amberg for “Sodom Laurel Album”

2003: Leon Fink for “The Maya of Morganton” 

2004: no award given

2005: Richard A. Straw & H. Tyler Blethen, editors, for “High Mountains Rising: Appalachia In Time And Place

2006: Michael McFee for “Shinemaster: Poems” 

2007: Lee Smith for “On Agate Hill”

2008: Ron Rash for “Chemistry & Other Stories”

2009: Bruce Johnson for “Grove Park Inn”

2010: Wayne Caldwell for “Requiem by Fire”

2011: Heather Newton for “Under the Mercy Trees”

--compiled and updated by The Read on WNC