WCU'S RON RASH WINS STATE'S
SIR WALTER RALEIGH AWARD
Ron Rash, the John and Dorothy Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the 2006 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his third novel, “The World Made Straight.”
The award is presented annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in recognition of works of fiction that exhibit “creative and imaginative quality, excellence of style, universality of appeal, and relevance to North Carolina and her people.”
Rash will receive the honor as part of the annual North Carolina Book Awards, to be presented Friday, Oct. 27, at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.
In addition to winning numerous literary awards for his fiction and poetry, Rash, who teaches in WCU's department of English, has been winning rave reviews for his latest effort. Published in April, “The World Made Straight” is set in Western North Carolina where a rural mountain community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre provides the setting for a rebellious young man struggling to escape a cycle of violence.
The Los Angeles Times said the arrival of “The World Made Straight” marks Rash “as a major Southern writer,” while The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., praises him for his ability to capture “the speech and landscape of the Carolinas with an elegant precision.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution said “Ron Rash has written some of the most memorable novels of our new century.”
Past recipients of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction include Doris Betts, John Ehle, Lee Smith, Reynolds Price, Allan Gurganus, Charles Frazier and Clyde Edgerton.
Rash also received a prestigious O. Henry Prize for short fiction for 2005 for his story “Speckle Trout.” His debut novel, “One Foot in Eden,” won the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award and Foreword Magazine's Gold Medal for Best Literary Novel of 2002.
His second novel, “Saints at the River,” was named best Southern novel of 2005 by the Southeast Booksellers Association, and is the 2006 selection for Together We Read. Now in its fourth year, Together We Read is a community reading program designed to get people in 16 Western North Carolina counties reading and discussing the same book. Events are scheduled throughout the region through December.
Rash joined the WCU faculty in 2003 from the University of South Carolina, where he served as visiting writer in the graduate creative writing program. At Western, he has helped set up a series of performance, reading and lectures that highlight mountain culture.
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