UA Cason Award To Honor Albert Murray; Next Day Symposium To Host Renowned Writers, Pulitzer Winners

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The department of journalism at The University of Alabama will present novelist and jazz critic Albert Murray with this year’s Clarence Cason Writing Award during an awards banquet on Thursday, March 15.

The banquet will be followed the next day with “The Art of the Narrative: A Symposium on Nonfiction Writing,” featuring numerous nationally known authors and Pulitzer Prize winners. Both events are open to the public and tickets are now available through the UA department of journalism in the College of Communication and Information Sciences.

Tickets to the banquet honoring Murray are $35 and include dinner. The event will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel on the UA campus. The dinner and award presentation will follow at 7 p.m. Attendees will be entertained during the reception by local jazz group “Paper Moon.”

Tickets to the March 16 symposium are $50 and include lunch. The event will begin at 8 a.m. in the Bryant Conference Center and will run until 1:30 p.m. It will include a panel discussion, breakout sessions and a luncheon speech. “The Art of the Narrative: A Symposium on Nonfiction Writing,” will host a panel of renowned writers and Pulitzer Prize winners, including Dr. Don Nobel of The University of Alabama, Roy Hoffman of “The Mobile Register,” Albert Murray, Pulitzer Prize winner Howell Raines of “The New York Times,” and author Ann Waldron. Also, Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Franklin will provide the keynote speech and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg will present the luncheon remarks. Breakout sessions will be set up to include topics on Web writing, creative non-fiction, narratives for newspapers and news writing and minorities.

Clarence E. Cason founded the Department of Journalism at The University of Alabama in 1928. The department annually honors Cason’s legacy and spirit with its award for distinguished nonfiction writing.

Each year, the department bestows this honor upon a recipient who has made an outstanding contribution to nonfiction writing over the course of his or her career and has been associated with the state of Alabama or The University of Alabama. Past winners include renowned creative non-fiction writer Gay Talese, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson and New York Times Editorial Page Editor and Howell Raines.

“The Cason Writing Award celebrates the tradition of fine non-fiction writing by Alabama authors. Albert Murray is one of the state’s great gifts to the world, and we want to honor him for his contributions not only to jazz and African-American letters, but also to the art of writing itself. He is one of the masters,” said Dr. Bailey Thomson, associate professor of journalism and coordinator of the Cason banquet and symposium.

Albert Murray, is a novelist, social critic and one of America’s leaders in jazz studies and criticism. The Mobile native earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Tuskegee Institute in 1939 and received his master’s from New York University in 1948. While in the U.S. Air Force, Murray served in both World War II and the Korean War. He retired from the military in 1962 as a major.

His first work, a collection of essays titled “The Omni-Americans: New Perspectives on Black Experience and American Culture,” appeared in 1970. The next year he published the autobiographical “South to a Very Old Place.” His other works include “Train Whistle Guitar,” “Stomping the Blues,” “The Spyglass Tree,” “The Seven-League Boots” and “The Blue Devils of Nada.” In 1985, Count Basie chose Murray to co-author his autobiography, “Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray.”

In June 2000 Murray published “Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray,” and last year, a poet devoted to William Faulkner appeared in “The New Republic” magazine. The poem, along with selected interviews, is also featured in “Conversations with Albert Murray.” He appeared recently on television in the PBS series “Jazz,” produced by Ken Burns, which aired in January 2001. Critics often praise Murray’s writings for the way his words mimic the syncopation and rhythms of jazz. He has taught subjects such as journalism and creative writing in different universities across the nation, and his lectures on the blues have been presented in universities worldwide. He, his wife and his daughter currently reside in New York City.

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the department of journalism at 205/348-8607. Also, log on to www.ccom.ua.edu/cason/default.html for more information.

The Art Of The Narrative: A Symposium On Nonfiction Writing

Attendee Biographies

Keynote Speaker:

JON FRANKLIN, a self-described “science writer,” is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author. He has written numerous books, including “Writing for Story,” a how-to book for writers, and “The Molecules of the Mind,” a 1987 New York Times book of the year. Franklin has also authored numerous articles, speeches and Internet publications and has delivered lectures all over the country concerning both science writing and the art of nonfiction. He has taught journalism and creative writing at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the University of Maryland, and he serves on numerous editorial and professional boards. His account of one woman’s neurosurgery, “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster,” won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1979. Six years later his series on the revolution in neurochemistry and the treatment of mental illness, “The Mind Fixers,” won the first-ever Pulitzer awarded for explanatory journalism.

Luncheon Speaker:

RICK BRAGG is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the “New York Times” whose youth in northeastern Alabama is illustrated in his heartfelt 1997 memoir, “All Over But the Shoutin.'” Currently a writer for the “New York Times,” Bragg has covered news events throughout the country for newspapers such as the “Los Angeles Times,” the “St. Petersburg Times” and “The Birmingham News.” Some of his best feature articles can be found in “Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg,” a collection that showcases Bragg’s ability to connect with everyday people and their often extraordinary lives. He is the recipient of the ASNE Distinguished Writing Award, along with the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Bragg currently is a national correspondent for “The New York Times” based in New Orleans.

HOWELL RAINES, a Birmingham native and Pulitzer Prize winner, Raines is editorial page editor for “The New York Times.” He has written for newspapers such as the “Birmingham Post-Herald,” “The Tuscaloosa News,” the “Atlanta Constitution” and the “St. Petersburg Times.” In addition, he has authored books such as “Whiskey Man,” “My Soul is Rested” and a memoir, “Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis.” In 1992 he received the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “Grady’s Gift,” his story about racism in Birmingham through the eyes of Grady Hutchinson — his family’s housekeeper. Raines won the Clarence Cason Writing Award in 2000.

DEWEY ENGLISH is managing editor of “The Mobile Register” and the director of many prize-winning special reports. A graduate of Auburn University, he has worked at the Jackson, Miss., “Clarion-Ledger,” and the “Courier-Journal” in Louisville, Ky.

ROY HOFFMAN is the author of the award-winning novel “Almost Family.” His most recent book, published this spring by The University of Alabama Press, is a collection of essays titled “Back Home.” He is currently a writer-in-residence at “The Mobile Register.”

BILL MAXWELL is editorial writer and columnist for the “St. Petersburg Times.” His column is syndicated by Scripps-Howard and the New York Times Syndicate. A former investigative reporter for the “Fort Pierce Tribune” in Florida, he taught college English and journalism for 20 years. In 1989 and 1991 he won the Florida Press Club awards for general excellence in commentary. In 1990 he received the Community Champion Award from the American Trial Lawyers Association in Orlando.

DON NOBLE, professor of English at The University of Alabama, is featured on Alabama Public Television’s popular program, “Book Notes.” He earned his doctorate in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1998 he received an Emmy award for Screenwriting, Southeast Region, for the television film, “I’m in the Truth Business: William Bradford Huie.” He has also edited several books on American authors, including “The Steinbeck Question: New Essays in Criticism” and “Hemingway: A Reevaluation.”

JUDITH PATERSON is associate professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. She has written for such publications as The New York Times Book Review, the “Los Angeles Times,” and “The Village Voice.” Born in Montgomery, she recounted her childhood in Alabama in her 1996 memoir, “Sweet Mystery.”

JIM STOVALL is professor of journalism at The University of Alabama and the author of several textbooks including “Writing for the Mass Media,” an introductory text that has been used at some 200 colleges and universities. His newspaper experience includes stints as a reporter or editor at the Bristol “Herald Courier,” the “Knoxville News-Sentinel,” “The Birmingham News,” “The Tuscaloosa News” and the “Chicago Tribune.”

BAILEY THOMSON , presiding over his fourth press and public symposium, is associate professor of journalism at The University of Alabama. He directs the master’s program in journalism and teaches depth reporting and creative nonfiction. He is former editorial page editor of “The Mobile Register” and chief editorial writer of “The Orlando Sentinel.” He won the 1999 ASNE Distinguished Writing Award for commentary/editorial writing.

MANUEL TORRES is a staff writer at the New Orleans “Times-Picayune” and a recent graduate of The University of Alabama, where he received his master’s in journalism. Before studying in Tuscaloosa, he was an investigative reporter for “El Nuevo Diario” in Managua, Nicaragua.

ANN WALDRON is a free-lance writer of numerous books, articles and reviews. She is the author of “Eudora: A Writer’s Life” and “Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist,” a 1993 New York Times Best Book of the Year. A graduate of The University of Alabama and former editor of “The Crimson White,” she currently writes book reviews for the “Philadelphia Inquirer,” “The Washington Post” and “The Trenton Times.”