Clapsaddle wins Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
The Western North Carolina Historical Association has announced that Even As We Breathe, a novel by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, is the 66th winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. The award has been presented annually by the Western North Carolina Historical Association since 1955, for printed works that focus special attention on Western North Carolina.
“Even As We Breathe immerses us in a specific place and time, Asheville’s Grove Park Inn when it was being used to house Axis diplomats and their families in 1942, and in the Qualla Boundary where Cherokee traditions are deeply embedded but in conflict with an ever-encroaching outside world,” said Catherine Frank, chair of the selection committee. “But the story of Cowney Sequoyah and Essie Stamper is also timeless and universal, exploring what it means to lose innocence and to find ‘who we are supposed to be.’ Most importantly, the book is beautifully written, with convincing, well-drawn characters and compelling imagery that tie the various stories together. This first novel by an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians exemplifies the quality of the most compelling regional writing,” Frank said.
Smoky Mountain Living nominated Clapsaddle for this award.
A prize of $2,500, supported by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Board and Michael Sartisky, accompanies the engraved Literary Award trophy, both of which will be presented December 9.
Finalists, chosen from 40 nominations, are:
- Mary Othella Burnette for Lige of the Black Walnut Tree: Growing Up Black in Southern Appalachia
- Wayne Caldwell for Woodsmoke
- Vicki Lane for And the Crows Took Their Eyes
- Matthew Wimberley for All the Great Territories
The first award in 1955 was given to Wilma Dykeman for her landmark The French Broad.
Others who have received the award over the years include such notables as Robert Morgan, Charles Frazier, John Parris, Gail Godwin, John Ehle, Robert Brunk, Michael McFee, Lee Smith, Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Wayne Caldwell, Fiona Ritchie, and Doug Orr.