Anthony Abbott 2020 Inductee in the NC Literary Hall of Fame Shares His Wonderful Poetry and His Literary Journey – May He Rest in Peace
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In this episode 146, we honor award-winning Davidson NC poet and novelist Anthony “Tony” Abbott (January 7, 1935 – October 3, 2020), 2020 Inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, an organization which celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature.
Tony talks about his writing life and reads poetry from three of his award-winning chapbooks published by Lorimer Press: “New and Selected Poems,” “If Words Could Save Us,” and “The Angel dialouges.”
Of “The Angel Dialogues,” Joseph Bathanti, Poet Laureate of North Carolina 2012, says that “Abbott miters each poem into the next with the precision of a master carpenter, in language that moves seamlessly, often floating, from impressionism into a quirky vernacular narrative …” And Cathy Smith Bowers, Poet Laureate of North Carolina 2010-2012 says “this angel … is a double-tasking, sarcastic, Yeats-reading, quantum-leaping trickster …
Tony starts the show reading a poem that is one of signature pieces: “The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat.”
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About the Author:
The winner of the 2015 NC Award for Literature from the State of North Carolina, Anthony S. Abbott is the author of seven books of poetry, two novels, and four books of literary criticism.
The Angel Dialogues was the recipient of honorable mention in the 2015 Brockman-Campbell competition of the NC Poetry Society and If Words Could Save Us was co-winner in the same competition in 2012.
His acclaimed first novel, Leaving Maggie Hope, won the Novello Award in 2003 and was published by Novello Press.
Born in San Francisco and educated at the Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts and Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, he received his A.B. from Princeton University, Magna cum laude, in 1957. With the support of a Danforth Fellowship he received his A.M. from Harvard University in 1960 and his Ph.D. in 1962.
An instructor in English at Bates College for three years beginning in 1961, he joined the English Department at North Carolina’s Davidson College in 1964. He became Full Professor in 1979 and was named Charles A. Dana Professor of English in 1990. He served as the Chair of the Department from 1989 to 1996.
Modern Drama, creative writing, and literature and religion his major fields of interest, he is the author of two critical studies, Shaw and Christianity and The Vital Lie: Reality and Illusion in Modern Drama. His first volume of poems, The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, was published by St. Andrews Press in 1989 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
His second poetry collection, A Small Thing Like a Breath was published by St. Andrews Press in 1993, and his third, The Search For Wonder in the Cradle of the World in 2000. A fourth collection, The Man Who, received the Oscar Arnold Young Award and was published by Main Street Rag Publishing in 2005.
His 2003 novel, Leaving Maggie Hope, was followed by its sequel, The Three Great Secret Things, published in 2007 by main Street Rag Publishing Company. He returned to poetry in 2009 with his New and Selected Poems, published by Lorimer Press, which also published his two most recent poetry collections, If Words Could Save Us and The Angel Dialogues, mentioned at the outset of this biography.
In addition to his teaching, for which Davidson College honored him in 1969 with the Thomas Jefferson Award and in 1997 with the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award.
He has also served as President of the Charlotte Writers Club, President of the N.C. Writers Network, and President of the N.C. Poetry Society.
Abbott has been an active member of the local community, coordinating a Sunday School class at Davidson College Presbyterian Church and driving dialysis patients to their appointments for the Red Cross.
He lectures widely on religion and literature in area churches and gives poetry workshops in Charlotte, Davidson, and Winston-Salem.
He and his wife Susan have three sons and seven grandchildren, They live at the Pines at Davidson with summers in their home on Lake Norman.
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Anthony Abbott’s Literary Honors and Awards
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, 2020
NC Award for Literature, 2015
Honorable Mention, Brockman-Campbell Competition – NC Poetry Society for The Angel Dialogues, 2014
Co-Winner, Brockman-Campbell Competition – NC Poetry Society for If Words Could Save Us, 2012
James Larkin Pearson Award for After Vespers, NC Poetry Council, 2009
Irene Blair Honeycutt Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts, Central Piedmont Community College, 2008
First Prize, Oscar Arnold Young Award, Best Book of Poems by a NC Author, North Carolina Poetry Council, 2006
Novello Festival Award for Leaving Maggie Hope, 2003
Sam Ragan Award for Service to the Arts Community in NC, St. Andrews College, 1996
Sam Ragan Award for The Poet, the Lovers and the Nuns, Crucible, 1990
Pulitzer Prize nomination for The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, 1989
James Larkin Pearson Prize for Of Catchers, NC Poetry Council, 1989
First Prize for Poetry, Longings, Crucible, 1989
Thomas H. McDill Award for First Love NC Poetry Society, 1986
Thomas H. McDill Award for Poem for Robert Bly, NC Poetry Society, 1986
Carl Sandburg Award for Mary’s Dream, NC Poetry Society, 1983
Thomas H. McDill Award for The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, NC Poetry Society, 1982
First Prize, Columns in a Weekly Newspaper, NC Press Association, 1975
First Prize, Fiction, for The Weekend, Crucible, 1975
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