Hubert H. McAlexander
Professor of English
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 of Peter
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.
Source: 23rd Annual Research Awards Program (2002)
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