ATHENS, Ga -- A look at
segregated public libraries in the Jim Crow South and a biography of a civil
rights activist turned elected official are the winners of the 2016 Lillian
Smith Books Awards.
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The award seeks to honor works
focused on race, social justice, civil and human rights, issues championed by
Smith in her lifetime. The ceremony, part of the Decatur Book Festival, is Sept.
4 at 2:30 p.m. at the Decatur Library.
“Every year we have to make tough
choices among the 40-plus excellent entries.
The two winners this year join the lineup of so many distinguished
winners that have been our honor to choose over the years,” said Mary Twining
Baird, chair of the board of judges.
Knott’s articles have appeared in
scholarly journals, including Library Quarterly, Libraries & Culture, and
Library Trends, have focused on the history of public libraries and on
information access broadly construed. She holds a doctorate in library and
information science from the University of Texas at Austin and master’s degrees
in history and in library science from the University of Arizona.
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The Southern Regional Council
established the Lillian Smith award shortly after Smith's death in 1966.
Internationally acclaimed as author of the controversial novel, Strange Fruit (1944), Lillian Smith was
the most liberal and outspoken of white, mid-20th century Southern writers on
issues of social and racial injustice. Smith’s family donated the collection of
her letters and manuscripts to the University of Georgia 's Hargrett Rare Book
and Manuscript Library and, in 2004, the UGA Libraries joined the SRC as a
partner in administering the awards. The property where she lived and worked in
Clayton now serves as an educational center and an artist retreat, the Lillian
E. Smith Center of Piedmont College. In 2015, the college joined as a partner
in presenting the awards. The Georgia Center for the Book is also an award
sponsor, joining in 2007.
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