A Forrest City native and the author of five poetry collections, Spears Jones won the Jackson Poetry Prize in 2017 and is currently the State Poet of New York, where she’s lived since the 1970s.
Porter Fund
Posted inRock Candy
A report from the Charles Portis Gala at the Governor’s Mansion
Last night, the Porter Fund hosted a $200-per-ticket gala to celebrate the Arkansas-born novelist Charles Portis, who was not in attendance. The Fund, started by authors Phillip McMath and Jack Butler in 1984, presents a Lifetime Achievement Award to an Arkansas author every five years, and this year they chose the author of “Norwood,” “True Grit,” “The Dog of the South,” “Masters of Atlantis” and “Gringos,” all of which were on sale at a table display in the foyer of the Governor’s Mansion when I arrived at 6 p.m.
Posted inRock Candy
Porter Fund to honor Charles Portis with Lifetime Achievement Award
The Porter Fund, founded by Little Rock novelists Jack Butler and Phil McMath in 1984, gives a Lifetime Achievement Award to an Arkansas author every five years, and this year’s honoree will be Charles Portis, author of “Norwood” and “True Grit” and “Gringos” among others. Portis, notably uncomfortable with attention or public spectacle of any sort, will be celebrated with a $200-per-ticket gala at the Governor’s Mansion. The night will feature readings by Jay Jennings, writer and editor of “Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany,” Roy Reed, the great journalist and nonfiction writer (and former Porter winner), and Roy Blount, Jr., who once said that Portis “could be Cormac McCarthy if he wanted to, but he’d rather be funny.”