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Arkansas author Toni Jensen is the recipient of the 2024 Porter Fund Literary Prize. The Porter Prize is presented annually to an Arkansas writer with a substantial and impressive body of work that merits enhanced recognition. Past winners of the Porter Prize include Mara Leveritt, Morris Arnold, Kevin Brockmeier and Jo McDougall, the former Poet Laureate of Arkansas. The $5000 prize makes it one of the state’s most lucrative as well as prestigious literary awards. Eligibilit

Michael Heffernan, Man of Letters 1942-2024 The poet, Michael Heffernan has died. He was 81 years old. Attended by family, he was briefly in the care of Circle of Life Hospice, in Springdale, Arkansas. Dr. Heffernan suffered from complications of Alzheimer’s and died peacefully on the afternoon of Friday, the 3rd of May, with Ann by his side. Born on 20 December 1942, in Detroit, he was the son of Susan (Schneider) and Joseph Heffernan. A native Detroiter, he was a lo

Poet and playwright Patricia Spears Jones, a native of Forrest City, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Porter Fund, an organization supporting the literary arts in Arkansas. Spears Jones will be recognized at an award ceremony on May 16. The Porter Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award is given out every five years to an Arkansas writer with a substantial and recognized body of work. Spears Jones is the fifth Arkansas writer to receive the Lifetime Achievement