Historical Literature Award

The Patrick D. Smith Literature Award, named for the three-time Pulitzer Prize winning Florida native of the same name, is awarded to an author with outstanding writing about Florida. Smith is probably best known for his novel: “A Land Remembered.”

At the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Florida Historical Society Patrick D. Smith was named the "Greatest Living Floridian." Smith acknowledged the honor, but refused the $5,000 prize. Since then, the society has used the money to endow the "Patrick D. Smith Award for Florida Literature" with a $200.00 stipend each year.

This year’s winner is author Suzanne Williams, chosen for her historical suspense novel “Paper Woman” (Whittler’s Bench Press, ISBN 0-9785265-1-1-, $19.95, http://www.dramtreebooks.com/)

Williams, who now lives in Raleigh, N.C., strives to make her novels as historically accurate as possible, bringing women into a history that previously omitted them.

The award will be presented in Clearwater, FL, on May 24 at the luxurious Belleview Biltmore Resort.

I will be interviewing Suzanne for a future blog. So stay tuned.