2012 WINNERS

Fiction - Michael Kardos, Mississippi State University - One Last Good Time

Nonfiction - Susan Haltom, Jackson - One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place

Poetry - T. R. Hummer, Arizona State University - Ephemeron: Poems

Music Composition- Contemporary - Kate Campbell, Nashville, TN - Two Nights in Texas

Music Composititon- Classical - Shandy Phillips, Starkville - Concerto for Violin, Viola, Piano, and String Orchestra

Visual Arts - Rod Moorhead, Oxford - Furies

Photography - Betty Press, University of Southern Mississippi - I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb

2012 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Andrew Bucci — A native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Bucci was born in 1922.  He studied with Mary Clare Sherwood in Vicksburg and later, in the 1930’s, with Marie Hull in Jackson.  He continued to paint with Hull during his undergraduate career at Louisiana State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in architectural engineering.  During World War II, he was stationed in Paris, where he worked as a meteorologist, and studied at the Académie Julian.  After the war, he worked in Vicksburg at the U.S. Weather Bureau until 1947, when his avocation of art became his vocation and he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute in 1952 and his Master of Fine Arts two years later. 

Washington D.C. has been home for Bucci for several decades, and where he has exhibited with the Society of Washington Artists, at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  He also has remained active in Mississippi and in the southeast. He is represented by galleries in Jackson and in New Orleans, and his work is widely collected by private individuals and by museums, including the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; the Brooks Memorial Gallery, Memphis; Delta State University, Cleveland, Mississippi; Florence Art Gallery, South Carolina; the Mississippi Museum of Art; and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans.

On February 26, 2009, Governor Haley Barbour presented Bucci with the 2009 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for Lifetime Achievement. 

Sam Gore — A noted Mississippi artist and professor of art, San Gore has won numerous awards for his artwork and for his teaching. Although he was born in Texas in 1927, his family returned to their home state of Mississippi when he was five years old, and he grew up in Webster, Calhoun and Hinds Counties. Dr. Gore earned a BFA from Atlanta College of Art, a BA from Mississippi College, an MA from the University of Alabama, and an EdD from Illinois State University. He studied at Georgia Tech while in the Navy V-5 Air Corps and maintained flight status for 35 years through AF Civil Air Patrol, as Squadron Commander achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He has served on the faculty of Mississippi College, Clinton, since 1951. He spent most of his early art career painting and his most recent years sculpting. In 1997 he was a winner of a Mississippi Governor's Award for his Career in Art and in 2002 he received an Ageless Heroes Award in Creativity from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mississippi. Sam Gore is still an adjunct professor of art at Mississippi College, teaching sculpture. He is also still very active in producing sculptures and other works of art.

Previous Winners

1980 Literature — Ellen Douglas —The Rock Cried Out Music — Luigi Zaninelli — for "The Turn of the Screw" — ballet music Art — Ed McGowin — for large outdoor sculpture on West Capitol Street, Jackson 1981 Literature — Walker Percy — The Second Coming Music — James S. Sclater— for "E.R.A.—tic Behaviour" duet for mezzo—soprano and clarinet Art — Ray Parrish— for large sand and glass sculpture 1982 Literature — Ellen Gilchrist — In the Land of Dreamy Dreams Music — William Grant Still (posthumously)— for "A Bayou Legend" — opera on television Art — Valerie Jaudon — for abstract graphics 1983 Literature — Ellen Douglas — A Lifetime Burning Music — Patrick Houlihan— for "In the Stillness of Time" Art — George Wardlaw— for painted aluminum sculptures top 1984 Literature — Rebecca Hill — Blue Rise Music — Patrick Houlihan — for "Nocturne for Piano and Electronic Tape" Art — James L. Seawright, Jr — for "Electonic Garden #2". 1985 Literature — Ellen Gilchrist — Victory Over Japan Music — Luigi Zaninelli— for "A Musical Banquet for Children (a Beavy of Beasties and the Steadfast Tin Soldier)" Art — William Dunlap — for "Spring Storm—Valley Series" 1986 Literature — John Stone—Renaming of Streets, a collection of poems Music — Samuel Jones— for "The Trumpet and The Swan" Art — Kenneth W. Marlow—for "Self Portrait" Photography — Robert Townsend Jones, Jr. Special Writing Award — Dorothy Abbott 1987 Literature — Richard Ford — The Sportswriter Music — David Caudill— for "Five Sacred Choral Pieces" Visual Art — Ke Francis— for "Hoedown" and "King of Now Here" Photography — Birney Imes, III 1988 Literature — Walker Percy Music — Milton Babbitt Visual Art — Zarah Maranian Photography — Maude S. Clay Lifetime Achievement — Eudora Welty 1989 Literature — Larry Brown Music — Paul Overstreet Visual Art — Mildred Nungester Wolfe Photography — Rita Dewitt Lifetime Achievement — Walter Anderson top 1990 Literature — Rick Bass Music — James S. Sclater Visual Art — Randy Hayes Photography — William Eggleston Special Achievement — William Ferris Charles Reagan Wilson 1991 Literature — Ellen Gilchrist— I Cannot Get You Close Enough Music — Samuel Jones — for "Canticles of Time" Visual Art — Birney Imes, III — for Juke Joint 1992 Fiction — Lewis Nordan — Music of the Swamp NonFiction — Michael B. Ballard — Pemberton: A Biography Visual Art — Ron Dale — mixed media Photography — Maude S. Clay — Music — Luigi Zaninelli — A Song Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra Career Achievement in the Performing Arts — Jane Reid Petty 1993 Fiction — Donna Tartt NonFiction — Chalmers Archer Clifton Taulbert Visual Art — Jere H. Allen Photography — Allen Frame top 1994 Fiction — Barry Hannah — Bats Out of Hell NonFiction — Willie Morris — New York Days Visual Art — Greely Myatt for Sculpture — Book with Bulb Photography — Tom Rankin — for Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta Music — Douglas McConnell — for Songs of the Beloved 1995 Fiction — Beverly Lowry — The Track of Real Desires NonFiction — Mary Garrard — The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970's, HIstory and Impact Visual Art — Sylvain Klaus — for The Island Painters Photography — Birney Imes, III — Whispering Pines Music — James S. Sclater — for Character Sketches: Theme, Variations and Fughetta Lifetime Achievement — Franke and Bern Keating Citation of Merit — ETV and Public Radio in Mississippi 1996 Fiction — Lewis Nordan — The Sharpshooter Blues NonFiction — David Herbert Donald — Lincoln Visual Art — Charles Carraway — for Interiors/Interiors Photography — Milly Moorhead — for Southern Heritage Collection Music — Laurence M. Oden — for Opera Mary Queen of Scotland Lifetime Achievement — Lee and Pup McCarty 1997 Fiction — Cynthia Shearer — The Wonder Book of the Air NonFiction — Stephen Ambrose — Undaunted Courage Visual Art — Valerie Jaudon — Retrospective Exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art Photography — Marion Brown — for "An Unforced Vision" Music — Mark Howell — for "Of Miracles and Magnetism" Poetry — Paul Ruffin 1998 Fiction — Wylene Dunbar — Margaret Cape NonFiction — Will D. Campbell — And Also with You: Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma Visual Art — William Dunlap — for In the Spirit of the Land Photography — Hubert F. Worley, Jr. — for Ballerinas and Bluesmen Music — Luigi Zaninelli — for Three American Hymns for Soprano and Wind Ensemble Poetry — Angela Ball — for poems published in New Yorker Special Achievement — Marion Barnwell — for A Place Called Mississippi 1999 Fiction — Ellen Douglas — Truth: Four Stories NonFiction — Patti Carr Black — Art in Mississippi Visual Art — Jean Cappadonna—Nichols — for Ceramic Sculptures Photography — Lucinda Devlin — for Omega Suites and The Corporal Arenas Music — James Sclater — for Morgana Poetry — John Stone — Where Water Begins top 2000 Fiction — Steve Yarbrough — The Oxygen Man NonFiction — Edward Cohen — The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi Visual Art — Paula Temple Photography — Maude Schuyler Clay Music — Luigi Zaninelli — "A Crown, A Mansion and a Throne" Poetry — D.C. Berry Lifetime Achievement — Leontyne Price Citation of Merit — University Press of Mississippi 2001 Fiction — Howard Bahr — The Year of Jubilo NonFiction — Jeff Durstewitz and Ruth Williams Visual Art — Collier B. Parker Photography — Eudora Welty— Country Churchyards Poetry — Natasha Trethewey — Domestic Work 2002 Fiction — Barry Hannah — Yonder Stands Your Orphan NonFiction — Bobby DeLaughter — Never Too Late Visual Art — Sheila Stott Gourlay — for "Rooted, #6" Photography — John D. Lawrence — for retrospective exhibit Music — Michael Kimber— for composition for strings Poetry — Brooks Haxton — Nakedness, Death, and the Number Zero 2003 Fiction — Brad Watson — The Heaven of Mercury NonFiction — Minor Ferris Buchanan — biography of Holt Collier Visual Arts — Gwendolyn Magee — for "quilts that explore her cultural heritage as an African—American" Photography — Jack Kotz — Ms. Booth's Garden Music — Samuel Jones — for "Eudora's Fable: The Shoe Bird" James Sclater — for "Variations and Toccata on a theme by Pagannini" Poetry — Natasha Trethewey  — Bellocq's Ophelia Lifetime Achievement — Mimi Garrard and James Seawright 2004 Fiction — Tom Franklin — Hell at the Breech NonFiction — Christopher Maurer — Fortune's Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson Visual Arts — Wyatt Waters — for "An Oxford's Sketchbook" Music — Logan Skelton — for "Anderson Songs" Poetry — Ann Fisher—Wirth — Blue Window Lifetime Achievement Shelby Foote 2005 Fiction — Margaret McMullan — How I Found the Strong: A Novel of the Civil War NonFiction — Timothy B. Smith — Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg Visual Arts — Sam Gilliam Musical Composition — Justin Sharp — for "Awakening" Poetry — Brooks Haxton — Uproar Photography — Gretchen Haien top 2006 Fiction — Tom Bailey — The Grace that Keeps this World NonFiction — Suzanne Marrs — Eudora Welty: A Biography Visual Arts — Thomas Nawrocki Music Composition — Andrew Owen — for three etudes for solo piano Photography — Robyn Moore 2007 Fiction — Richard Ford —The Lay of the Land NonFiction — Jere Nash and Andy Taggart — Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power 1976—2006 Visual Arts — Bill Dunlap — Dunlap Music Composition — Samuel Jones — for "Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra" Photography — Debra Ferguson — for "Vanishing Delta" Poetry — Natasha Trethewey — Native Guard: Poems Lifetime Achievement — Morgan Freeman and Myrna Colley—Lee 2008 Fiction —Margaret McMullan — When I Crossed No-Bob NonFiction — Joseph Crespino — In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution Visual Arts — Carlyle Wolfe —  for "The Little House" Music Composition — Albert Oppenheimer —  for "Ravenouse" Photography — Talbot Easton Selby — for "An Unconscious Reality" Poetry — Angela Ball — Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds Lifetime Achievement — Ellen Douglas 2009 Fiction —Howard Bahr — Pelican Road NonFiction —Douglas Blackmon — Slavery by Another Name: The Re—enslavement of Black Americans from the civil War to World War II Visual Arts —H. C. (Chris) Porter — Backyards and Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories Music Composition (Classical/Concert) —Steve Rouse — for "Between Stillness" Music Composition (Contemporary/Popular) —3 Doors Down — for "3 Doors Down" Photography —Jane Rule Burdine — Delta Deep Down Poetry —Brooks Haxton — They Lift Their Wings to Cry Lifetime Achievement — Marshall Bouldin III — Elizabeth Spencer top 2010 Fiction —Frederick Barthelme — Waveland Nonfiction —Charles W. Eagles — The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss Visual Arts —Charles Crossley — Charles Crossley: Textures, Shapes and Forms of Spirits Music Composition (Classical/Concert) — Shandy Phillips — Sonata Number 2 for Violin and Piano Music Composition (Contemporary/Popular) —Caroline Herring — Golden Apples of the Sun Photography —Michael Loyd Young — Blues, Booze, and BBQ Poetry —D. C. Berry — Hamlet Off Stage Special Achievement —Interdisciplinary collaborators Jimmyle Listenbee, Amanda Malloy, Kevin Malloy, Alex Mauney, Rhona Justice-Malloy, Jared Spears and Michael Barnett for The Passions of Walter Anderson: a Dramatic Celebration of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Artist, a premier performace in 2009 at the Oxford Conference for the Book. Lifetime Achievement —William Ferris 2011   Fiction —Brad Watson, Laramie, Wyoming — Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives Nonfiction —Natasha Trethewey, Atlanta, Georgia — Beyond Katrina Musical Composition (Classical/Concert) —Samuel Jones, Seattle, Washington — Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra —James Sclater, Clinton, Mississippi —Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble Musical Composition (Popular) —Eden Brent, Greenville, Mississippi — Ain't Got No Troubles Photography —Oraien Catledge, Decatur, Georgia  — Oraien Catledge: Photographs Poetry —Ava Leavell Haymon, Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Why the House is Made of Gingerbread Visual Arts —Rolland Golden, Natchez, Mississippi — River and Reverie: Paintings of the Mississippi by Rolland Golden Lifetime Achievement —Mary D. Garrard