The Porter Prize

I was lucky to be invited by a friend to attend this year’s Porter Prize Lifetime Achievement Award celebration at the Clinton Library on Thursday night.  The honoree was Forrest City native, Patricia Spears Jones. 

      

The Porter Prize was established in 1984 by Jack Butler and Phillip McMath as a non-profit organization supporting Arkansas writers and poets.  It was founded in honor of Dr. Ben Drew Kimpel, chairman of the English Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville from 1952 until his death in 1983.  Kimpel asked that the prize be named for his mother, Gladys Kimpel Porter. 

Established as the Porter Fund, it’s annual prize has been awarded to 40 novelists, non-fiction writers, poets and playwrights.  Originally the prize was $500, but through donations and support the prize is now $5000.