WOODWARD-FRANKLIN AWARD FOR HISTORICAL WRITING

Wayne Flynt, 2017 Recipient

Born Oct. 4, 1940, in Pontotoc, Mississippi.  Grew up primarily in Alabama and graduated from Anniston High School in 1958.  Attended Samford University as a ministerial student; double majored in History and Speech.  Attended graduate school at Florida State University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1965 in American History. 

Of his fourteen books (three co-authored), two deal with Florida politics, three with evangelical religion, three with poverty, and three are broad surveys of Alabama history, including his two most acclaimed, POOR BUT PROUD: ALABAMA’S POOR WHITES, and ALABAMA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.   His memoir entitled, KEEPING THE FAITH, was published in 2011, and  SOUTHERN RELIGION AND CHRISTIAN DIVERSITY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY in  2016.  MOCKINGBIRD SONGS: MY FRIENDSHIP WITH HARPER LEE, his newest book, was published in 2017 in the U. S. and U.K.  Two of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and one won the Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction (the oldest and most highly regarded book prize in the South, given by the Southern Regional Council).  Two of his books have won the Alabama Library Association prize for best works of non-fiction, three times he has won the James Sulzby book award for best work on Alabama history (awarded by the Alabama Historical Association), and three times the University of Alabama Press has bestowed the McMillan prize on his manuscripts as the best received in history.  

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS:

James C. Cobb, 2015

Michael O'Brien, 2013