List of writers' halls of fame

Last updated

This is a list of writers' halls of fame. Institutions in at least five U.S. states have each created a program explicitly named as a "Hall of Fame" for writers, and there are at least two national-level programs focused on genres of writing also named as halls of fame. In addition, there are a number of annual awards for authors programs not using "Hall of Fame" in their name but which are likewise focused on complete, life-long bodies of work; the cumulative lists of awardees of these, especially if systematic and publicized by the awarding body, may be considered to constitute a hall of fame and to be included here.

Contents

The goals of these programs are generally to increase public awareness of important writers, especially those associated with a given geographical area or literary genre, and to honor the authors included. These are given for achievements of substantial collected works of writing, not for individual novels, scripts, poems, or other individual works. This list does not include certain awards naming promising "Early" or "Mid-Career" authors, or aiming to further authors' development (such as the Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes (2011) that gives large financial sums "to provide writers the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns"). Nor does this list include "lifetime achievement awards" which are occasionally but not systematically awarded by an awards program (for example the Academy Awards' Academy Honorary Award or Special Achievement Academy Award which might honor a screenwriter's lifetime achievements).

Unlike the Nobel Prize in Literature (1901), persons may be named after their death, in some of these. Unlike the Pulitzer Prizes for literature or journalism, or the Newbery Medal for children's literature, these awards are not focused upon a single work published.

Unlike, say the Academy Awards, the writers nominated might not be present at an awards ceremony for many of these. The award is an honor that may be appreciated, but nominees might not be expected or pressured to attend. The University of Georgia Libraries' example is one where living author arwardees would be invited to campus to give a speech, and creators of the program hoped it would attract donors. [1]

John D'Agata, in his book Halls of Fame: Essays (2001) commented on the phenomenon of halls of fame. Per a review of the book, "In these refreshingly bold, creative, and incisive essays, John D'Agata journeys the endless corridors of American's myriad halls of fame and faithfully reports on what he finds there. In a voice all his own, he brilliantly maps his terrain in lists, collage, and ludic narratives." [2]

Halls of fame for writers which appear to meet these criteria include (ordered by year of founding):

Songwriters Hall of Fame (1969)

The Songwriters Hall of Fame was founded in 1969. See List of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970)

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1970 by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc.

National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent (1988)

The Chicago State University inaugurated the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in 1988 with 39 initial inductions. [3] In 1999, the audience "buzzed" when one of the 30 inductees was announced to be Studs Terkel. Professor Haki Madhubuti "pointed out that Studs 'is not part of the black community’s genealogical line but its psychological line.', to their relief. [4]

Nevada Writers Hall of Fame (1988)

The Nevada Writers Hall of Fame has given annual awards since 1988. [5]

Michigan Author Award (1992)

The Michigan Library Association has named one author per year for the Michigan Author Award since 1992 for their collective works ("an outstanding published body of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or play script").

Georgia Writers Hall of Fame (2000)

The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame was established in 2000 by the University of Georgia Libraries. Writers are eligible for nomination if they were born in Georgia or if they produced an important work while living in the state. It was hoped that the program "would attract donors by bringing living authors to campus and celebrating those of the past; also the ceremony and exhibits, ideally growing each year, could draw in funds for the Libraries' much-needed new buildings and its endowments, along with opening up possibilities for cultural programs and attracting additional writers (or their estates) who might choose to house their archives." [1]

Indiana Authors Awards (2009)

The Indiana Authors Awards, also known as the "Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards", was started in 2009. Through 2022, it has given 26 awards based on authors' lifetime bodies of work.

New York State Writers Hall of Fame (2010)

The New York State Writers Hall of Fame was established in 2010 "to highlight the rich literary heritage of the New York State and to recognize the legacy of individual New York State writers."

Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame (2013)

The Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame was begun in 2013 by the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, a Lexington, Kentucky institution. [6] and on January 24, 2013 the inaugural class was inducted. [7]

Selected news coverage includes coverage by KTVQ and WUKY in 2022. [8] [9]

KYWHOF inductees are:

Thus living writers include:

Also, since-deceased:

These all seem to have significant Kentucky connections.

Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame (2013)

The Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame was founded in 2013 in Florida by two songwriters.

Authors' Hall of Fame (Colorado, 2019)

The Colorado Authors Hall of Fame "celebrates the accomplishments of living and passed authors that have been connected to Colorado". Its all-volunteer-run 501c3, founded in 2014, had inductions in 2019 and 2021. [13] [14]

2021 inductees were:

Living authors:
Legacy authors:
Lifetime Achievement Award

Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame (retired)

The Romance Writers of America's Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame honored romance writers who were three-time winners of the RITA Award in the same category, for "recognized excellence in published romance novels and novellas". The RITA Award, and hence also its Hall of Fame, was retired in 2020, [17] after controversies. The year of awardees' third or fourth qualifying novels ranged from 1994 to 2015. [18]

It was awarded 18 times to 16 separate persons (Nora Roberts won in three separate categories):

Women Songwriters Hall of Fame (2021)

The Women Songwriters Hall of Fame (WSHOF) is a non profit organization founded, by entrepreneur, songwriter Dr. Janice McLean DeLoatch, to honor female songwriters, composers, and artists from around the world who have made significant contributions to the music industry. [19] [20] [21]

Missouri Writers Hall of Fame

The Missouri Writers Hall of Fame is a nonprofit institution, less salient than some others. See Writers Hall of Fame, Facebook page for the Missouri organization.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berea College</span> Work college in Berea, Kentucky, US

Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. It was integrated from as early as 1866 until 1904, and again after 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</span> Music museum in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures and personnel who have influenced its development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Pop Culture</span> Museum in Seattle, Washington

The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organized dozens of exhibits, 17 of which have toured across the U.S. and internationally.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the heritage and legacy of a spectrum of the most beloved English language songs from the world's popular music songbook. It not only celebrates these established songwriters, but is also involved in the development of new English language songwriting talent through workshops, showcases, and scholarships. There are many programs designed to teach and discover new English language songwriters. Nile Rodgers serves as the organization's chairman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Foley</span> American country musician (1910–1968)

Clyde Julian "Red" Foley was an American musician who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.

For a professional in the bluegrass music field, election to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame is the highest honor the genre can bestow. An invitation can be extended to performers, songwriters, promoters, broadcasters, musicians, and executives in recognition of their contributions to the development of bluegrass music worldwide. The hall of fame honor was created in 1991 by the International Bluegrass Music Association and the inductees are honored annually at the International Bluegrass Music Awards ceremony. The Hall's first inductees were Bill Monroe, widely considered as the founder of the genre, and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, two of bluegrass music's most pioneering and influential artists. Roy Acuff, the first living artist to join the Hall of Fame, was elected in 1962. The most recent inductees are Sam Bush, Wilma Lee Cooper, and David Grisman. The Hall itself is maintained at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. The institution received its current name in 2007, and was known prior to this as the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dottie Rambo</span> American singer and songwriter

Dottie Rambo was an American gospel singer and songwriter. She was a Grammy winning solo artist and multiple Dove award-winning artist. Along with ex-husband Buck and daughter Reba, she formed the award-winning southern Gospel group, The Rambos. She wrote more than 2,500 songs, including her most notable, "The Holy Hills of Heaven Call Me", "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need", "We Shall Behold Him", and "I Go To the Rock".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Harjo</span> American Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurney Norman</span> American poet

Gurney Norman is an American writer documentarian, and professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silas House</span> American writer (born 1971)

Silas Dwane House is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. His fiction is known for its attention to the natural world, working-class characters, and the plight of the rural place and rural people. House is also known as a representative for LGBTQ Appalachians and Southerners, and is among the most visible LGBTQ people associated with rural America.

Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donna Shirley</span> American aerospace engineer (1941–)

Donna Lee Shirley is a former manager of Mars Exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the author of the book Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars—and of the Team Behind the Space Robot That Has Captured the Imagination of the World.

Rebecca Caudill Ayars was an American writer of children's literature. More than twenty of her books were published. Tree of Freedom was a Newbery Honor Book in 1950. A Pocketful of Cricket, illustrated by Evaline Ness, was a Caldecott Honor Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Music Hall of Fame</span> Music recognition in Georgia, U.S.

The Georgia Music Hall of Fame was a hall of fame to recognize music performers and music industry professionals from or connected to the state of Georgia. It began with efforts of the state's lieutenant governor Zell Miller to attract the music industry to Georgia. Following the first Georgia Music Week in 1978, the first Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards were held in 1979, with two inductees. The hall eventually had 163 inductees; the final inductions were made in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal Wilkinson</span> American poet

Crystal E. Wilkinson is an African-American feminist writer from Kentucky, and proponent of the Affrilachian Poet movement. She is the winner of a 2022 NAACP Image Award, a 2020 winner of the USA Fellow of Creative Writing, and a 2021 O. Henry Prize winner. She teaches at the University of Kentucky. Her work has primarily been in involving the stories of Black women and communities in the Appalachian and rural Southern canon. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2021.

James C. Klotter is an American historian who has served as the State Historian of Kentucky since 1980. Klotter is also a history professor at Georgetown College and one of the co-authors of Kentucky's staple history book, A New History of Kentucky.

The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame honors writers who have made significant contributions to the literary legacy of the state of Georgia. Established in 2000 by the University of Georgia Libraries’ Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Hall of Fame existed as a virtual presence until 2012, when it was given a physical space within the university's Richard B. Russell Building.

References

  1. 1 2 Skip Hulett (Fall 2012). "The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame". The Georgia Review. 66 (3): 422-31. It was hoped by the University of Georgia Libraries that the program "would attract donors by bringing living authors to campus and celebrating those of the past; also the ceremony and exhibits, ideally growing each year, could draw in funds for the Libraries' much-needed new buildings and its endowments, along with opening up possibilities for cultural programs and attracting additional writers (or their estates) who might choose to house their archives."
  2. d'Agata, John (2001). Halls of Fame: Essays. ISBN   9781555973148 . Retrieved September 5, 2022. This is a solitary review, likely not independent of the publisher, at Google Books.
  3. Leonard Kniffel (February 1999). "New Hall of Fame Honors Writers of African Descent". American Libraries. 30 (2). American Library Association: 52–53. JSTOR   25635329 . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  4. Michael Marsh (October 28, 1999). "Writer's Best Friend" . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  5. "Nevada Writers Hall of Fame" . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  6. "Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame". Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  7. 1 2 Herald-Leader article
  8. Steve Rogers (January 14, 2022). "Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame inductees for 2022 announced, Induction ceremony to be held in March". KTVQ.
  9. Arlo Barnette (April 15, 2022). "Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, "She brought so many disparate people together": bell hooks remembered at Berea College". WUKY . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  10. Kentucky writers hall of fame 2014 wuky.org
  11. "ANN: Inductees into the 2015 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame | H-Kentucky | H-Net".
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame" . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  13. "Authors' Hall of Fame" . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  14. "About the Authors' Hall of Fame" . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 "Meet the 2021 Inductees".
  16. Kieran Nicholson (August 12, 2021). "Sue Lubeck, longtime owner of The Bookies Bookstore, dies in Denver: Lubeck was a champion of children's books and readings". Denver Post.
  17. "The RITA". Romance Writers of America . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  18. 1 2 "Hall of Fame". Romance Writers of America . Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  19. Diop, Arimeta (June 29, 2021). "The Women Songwriters Hall of Fame Has Honored Its First Class of Inductees". Vanity Fair .
  20. "DOE In The Women Songwriters HOF". The ASR Music News. 2022.
  21. "3RD Annual Women Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awards Celebrates Icons - Jan Daley Angela Bofill Ann Hampton Callaway". Ein Presswire. April 18, 2023.