Academics: Hobson Lecture & Prize

Hobson Course | Hobson Event

The annual Mary Frances Hobson Lecture and Prize The annual Mary Frances Hobson Lecture and Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Letters brings the college and surrounding community together each spring to celebrate the accomplishments of an author of note from the region.

Initiated in 1995 by the Hobson Family Foundation of San Francisco, the award serves as a memorial to Mary Frances Hobson (1912-1993), a journalist and poet, who was the first woman to receive the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award in journalism from the University of North Carolina.

Mrs. Hobson and her family have always treasured deep ties to the university and community. An aunt, Miss Lois Vann Wynn, a 1905 Chowan graduate, served on the faculty from 1905-1908, and for five generations the family has been connected to the Murfreesboro area.

Each year the university and community look forward to the events surrounding the conferral of the award. These events begin with a luncheon, held at the President's Home, to honor the writer, and to meet and mingle with the writer and Hobson family. Following the luncheon, the writer meets informally with students. The activities of the evening include the conferral dinner, lecture, and a book signing. During the conferral dinner, Charles Hobson, President of the Hobson Family Foundation, presents the recipient with a medallion that is inscribed with a likeness of Mary Frances Hobson on one side and historic McDowell Columns Building on the other.

Mr. Hobson also presents a monetary gift. Following the dinner, the recipient presents a lecture in Vaughan Auditorium. After a question and answer session, an outstanding English student and member of the Chowan University Alpha Zeta Rho charter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society, presents a token of appreciation from the student body. The evening concludes with an informal reception in the lobby of Marks Hall. At that time books are available for purchase and signing.

The 2008 Hobson Prize winner is Judy Goldman

Judy Goldman - 2008 Hobson Prize WinnerJudy Goldman is the author of two novels, The Slow Way Back and Early Leaving. In addition, she has published two books of poetry, Holding Back Winter and Wanting to Know the End. The Slow Way Back won both the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Mary Ruffin Poole Award for First Work of Fiction, and was a finalist for the Southeast Booksellers Association’s Best Novel of 2000. Wanting to Know the End won the Gerald Cable Poetry Award and the top three poetry prizes in North Carolina. The Hobson Prize will be conferred on April 14, 2008.

Previously honored recipients are:
- Josephine Humphreys (2007)
- Michael Parker (2006)
- Shelia P. Moses (2005)
- Chuck Sullivan (2004)
- Sheri Reynolds (2003)
- Padgett Powell (2002)
- Allan Gurganus (2001)
- Amy Hempel (2000)
- G.D. Gearino (1999)
- Randall Kenan (1998)
- Jill McCorkle (1997)
- Mark Richard (1996)
- Kaye Gibbons (1995)



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