TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Clyde Bolton, reporter, columnist and author, will receive the 2011 Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing from The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences Thursday, March 3 at a dinner in his honor at the NorthRiver Yacht Club.
Bolton, of Trussville, had a 46–year career in journalism. He was a sports reporter and columnist for The Birmingham News for 41 of those years. For 31 years, he wrote four sports columns a week, and he places among the most widely read newspaper columnists of the late 20th century.
Bolton also is the author of 16 books. His first, in 1972, was “The Crimson Tide,” and he went on to write others about Auburn and Georgia football and Alabama basketball. He is also the author of several works of fiction, including a historical novel.
Most recently, Bolton has published two volumes of memoirs: “Stop the Presses (So I Can Get Off)” about his career in sports reporting with insightful biographical sketches of coaches Paul Bryant and Shug Jordan, and “Hadacol Days,” a memoir of growing up in the South of the 1940s and 1950s.
Bolton has been honored repeatedly for his work, especially by the Associated Press. He has also received the All-American Football Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, is three-time Alabama Sports Columnist of the Year, and in 2001 he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Writers Hall of Fame.
The journalism department in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at UA established the Cason Award in 1997 to honor exemplary non-fiction over a long career. All of the recipients have had strong connections to the state of Alabama.
“Clyde Bolton’s two insightful, touching volumes of memoir would, by themselves, merit the Clarence Cason Award, which is given for books of extended narrative nonfiction,” said Don Noble, chair of the 2011 Cason Award selection committee. “That these two books are backed up by 40 years of reporting, thousands of newspaper columns, seven novels and a dozen books of sports reporting and history makes Bolton a most impressive recipient, indeed.”
In winning the Clarence Cason Award, Bolton joins such distinguished writers as Rick Bragg, Diane McWhorter, Howell Raines and E.O. Wilson, all winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
Tickets for the dinner honoring Bolton are $60. The event will begin with a 6 p.m. reception. Bolton will accept the award and speak at the dinner. To order tickets, phone Sheila Davis at 205/348-4787.
Contact
Deidre Stalnaker, 205/348-6416, dstalnaker@ur.ua.edu