Peterkin Award Winner Peter Schmitt to Give Reading
The Converse College Visiting Writers Series welcomes Poet Peter Schmitt, the 2012 Julia Peterkin Award winner, for a reading on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. in the Bain Room in Wilson Hall. A reception will precede the event at 7:30 in the Wilson Hall lobby. The events are open to the public and free of charge.
Schmitt is the author of five books of poems, three of them full-length collections: Renewing the Vows, from David Robert Books; Hazard Duty, and Country Airport, from Copper Beech Press. He has received the Lavan Award from The Academy of American Poets; The “Discovery”/ The National Prize; is a two-time recipient of grants from The Florida Arts Council; and was awarded a fellowship from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. He has taught creative writing and literature at The University of Miami since 1986.
Established in 1998 and given annually by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Converse College, the Julia Peterkin Award is a national contest honoring both emerging and established poets and writers. The award is named for Converse graduate Julia Mood Peterkin, South Carolina’s only Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, who won the award for her novel Scarlet Sister Mary. The award is offered in both poetry and fiction and provides the winner with a cash prize of $1,000 plus travel expenses to give a reading on campus.
The 2013 Julia Peterkin Award is open to all fiction writers writing in English. Deadline for entry is February 15, 2013.