NEWS

Hubert H. McAlexander

Creative Research Medal 2002

Hubert H. McAlexander, Professor of English, has devoted a significant part of his career to studying the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Peter Taylor. During the course of his research, he edited a collection of critical essays about Taylor’s work and a collection of Taylor interviews. The publication ofPeter Taylor: A Writer’s Life last summer culminates more than two decades of Dr. McAlexander’s scholarly pursuit. Recently the biography was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and Dr. McAlexander was nominated as Georgia Author of the Year in Creative Nonfiction. The biography also is part of the prestigious Southern Literary Studies series published by the Louisiana State University Press and has garnered outstanding reviews in many publications, including Publisher’s Weekly, The Washington Post Book World and The New York Times Book Review. Tennessee-born Taylor is regarded by critics as one of the finest writers of short fiction in 20th century America. Reviewers praised Dr. McAlexander’s biography for the picture it paints of the literary world in the latter half of the 20th century and his ability to blend the personal and professional aspects of Taylor’s life. Because of Taylor’s friendships with many accomplished literary figures such as Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell and Randall Jarrell, one reviewer noted that reading this biography is like reading a literary history of modern American literature.