Retired UGA professor honored for Georgia literary contributions
University of Georgia Emeritus Professor of English Hugh Ruppersburg will receive the 2022 Stanley W. Lindberg Award at an event Oct. 11 in Athens, the Friends of the Georgia Libraries recently announced.
The event will be held at 6 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library on South Hull Street on the University of Georgia campus.
The award is presented to persons who contribute to the literary history of Georgia with previous recipients including Pat Conroy, Marion Montgomery, Tina McElroy Ansa and Terry Kay. Lindberg was editor of The Georgia Review from 1977 until he died in 2000.
“It was an unanticipated surprise,” Ruppersburg said when contacted. “I was honored because I knew Stan Lindberg, who was at the university. I thought highly of him. What he did with the Georgia Review was a tremendous achievement that spoke well for him and the university.”
"Georgia Voices" showcases state's literary diversity
Ruppesrburg, who served in the English Department from 1977-2016 and became a dean in the college, authored and edited several books including three anthologies titled “Georgia Voices” that delved into the works of fiction and nonfiction authors and poets.
“What I tried to do in those volumes called 'Georgia Voices' was to show that writing and writers in the state spoke with many voices,” he said. “I wanted to show that writing in Georgia is not one voice, but many voices.”
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Ruppersburg said he didn’t personally know many of the writers he included in the anthologies, “but the way you get to know a writer is through his work, not through aspects of their personality.”
There were writers such as James Dickey and Lewis Grizzard, “who had distinctive personalities that if you went to their readings or met them you would remember that occasion,” he said.
“James Dickey, I thought, was a great poet, but didn’t do well in public, often offending people with his behavior," he recalled. "But that didn’t affect my attitude toward his work."
The cover for the book “Georgia Voices: Nonfiction” was done by Art Rosenbaum, the well-known UGA art professor, who died earlier this month.
“It’s a wonderful cover. I was so pleased with that cover, it’s vitality and its devotion to color,” Ruppersburg said.
Ruppersburg, a native of College Park, graduated Woodward Academy in the class of 1968, and received degrees from UGA and his doctorate at the University of South Carolina.
In a statement released about the Lindberg Award, Dan Aldridge, who was on the award’s selection committee, said, “It would be hard to find someone more worthy of the award. Ruppersburg has devoted much of his professional career to bringing the work of Georgia writers to Georgians as well as to readers far beyond our state. We are thrilled to honor him in this way.
Tickets are $60 and proceeds from the event support the Lindberg Awards. For tickets and more information call (678) 761-3222 or contact 2020lindberg@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Lindberg Award to honor UGA's Hugh Ruppersburg for literary contributions
