Alabama Writer's Forum
Patti Callahan Henry announced as
2020 Harper Lee Award Winner
The Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year was established in 1998, to recognize the lifetime achievement of a writer who was born in Alabama or who spent his or her formative years living and writing in the state. The award is named for Harper Lee, whose novel To Kill a Mockingbird has sold more than 30 million copies. It is made possible through a generous grant from George F. Landegger, Chairman, Parsons & Whittemore. In 2020 the award will be presented at the Monroeville Literary Festival, a project of Coastal Alabama Community College and other organizations in Monroeville, AL, Ms. Lee’s hometown.
The Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year will be made to a living, nationally recognized Alabama writer who has made a significant, lifelong contribution to Alabama letters. The honor recognizes those who primarily write creative nonfiction, drama/screenwriting, fiction, memoir, poetry, or a combination of these. This is not an award for journalistic, historical, or scientific writing, nor is it an award for service, scholarly research, or teaching.
Previous Harper Lee Award winners include: Daniel Wallace 2019; Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
2018; Brad Watson, 2017; E.O. Wilson, 2016; Hank Lazer, 2015; Mark Childress, 2014; Gay Talese, 2013; Fannie Flagg, 2012; Winston Groom, 2011; Carolyn Haines, 2010; Rick Bragg, 2009; Rebecca Gilman, 2008; William Cobb, 2007; Wayne Greenhaw, 2006; Andrew Hudgins, 2005; Sonia Sanchez, 2004; Rodney Jones, 2003; Mary Ward Brown, 2002; Sena Jeter Naslund, 2001; Helen Norris, 2000; Madison Jones, 1999; Albert Murray, 1998.
The Harper Lee Award and the Eugene Current-Garcia Award are made possible through a generous grant from George F. Landegger, CEO of Parsons and Whittemore.
Author and Podcast Host
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of fifteen novels, including the (Historical Fiction), BECOMING MRS. LEWIS—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis (writing as Patti Callahan). In addition, she is the recipient of The Christy Award—A 2019 Winner "Book of the Year.” ; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year for 2020 and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for 2019.
The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original "Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series" launched, October 2019. The podcast audiobook collection including bonus material was released on January 7, 2020, and available now. The new expanded Becoming Mrs. Lewis paperback edition will launch on March 24, 2020, and available for pre-order now.
In March of 2021, a new historical fiction novel based on the true story of the Steamship Pulaski wreck will be released.
THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER (writing as Patti Callahan Henry—Southern Contemporary Fiction) was launched on June 4, 2019, and THE PERFECT LOVE SONG—A Christmas Holiday novella released October 8, 2019, and available now.
A full-time author and mother of three children, she now resides in both Mountain Brook, Alabama and Bluffton, South Carolina with her husband. Website