Award Winner Tells Stories Of Childhood, Thomas Wolfe

Spencer, a Mississippi native, was presented the Thomas Wolfe Medal for her contributions to writing in the humanities.

The author of nine novels, seven collections of short stories, a memoir and a play, Spencer said after her speech that she finds inspiration in many places.

"I draw from whatever is interesting to write down," she said.

A visiting professor of creative writing at UNC from 1986-92, Spencer recently published a new book, "The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction."

The ceremony, hosted by the Thomas Wolfe Society, the Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program and the UNC Department of English, was the third award given since the inception of the prize in 2000.

"If the Mississippi River could write, it would be what Elizabeth Spencer writes," said Lawrence Naumoff, a UNC professor of creative writing and novelist who attended Thursday's event.

Caitlin Doyle, the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship recipient, showed the medal to the audience before bestowing it on Spencer to the flash of a camera.

The gold medal with Wolfe's portrait hung around Spencer's neck on a Carolina blue ribbon in striking contrast to the autumnal colors of the velvet curtain behind her and the flowers at the foot of the podium.

As she fingered the medal during her lecture, she spoke of her own happy childhood memories of summer vacations in the mountains of North Carolina, where she and her family escaped the oppressive heat of a Mississippi summer.

Spencer began her lecture with a humorous account of her experience at an N.C. summer camp, where she bunked with a girl nicknamed Shanghai.

As Shanghai entertained young Elizabeth with stories of boys she met at the coast, Spencer said, "I began to want to go to the North Carolina coast."

But it was the love of the same mountains that Wolfe grew up in that attached her to his work.

"It was the mountains that lingered with me," Spencer said.

She read aloud to the audience excerpts of one of his short stories on Oktoberfest.

"Thomas Wolfe was right smack in the middle" of whatever he was writing at the time, Spencer said.

Spencer spoke of Wolfe's attention to detail and the emotion with which he wrote that "makes us believe we have not lived enough."

Following a standing ovation at the end of Spencer's lecture, fellow writers spoke warmly of her talent.

"Her stories are so substantive," said Marianne Gingher, assistant English professor. "Her writing seems to be fresh. Her works matter."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.