2022 PORTER FUND LITERARY PRIZE AWARDED TO MARK BARR
Arkansas fiction writer Mark Barr is the recipient of the 2022 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 $5,000 prize makes it one of the state’s most lucrative as well as prestigious literary awards. Eligibility requires an Arkansas connection.
Barr will be honored at a special award ceremony on October 25.
The Porter Prize was founded in 1984 by novelist Jack Butler and novelist and lawyer Phil McMath to honor Dr. Ben Kimpel. Butler and McMath were students of Kimpel, noted professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. At Kimpel’s request, the prize is named in honor of Kimpel’s mother, Gladys Crane Kimpel Porter. The annual prize, now $5,000, has been handed out to 38 poets, novelists, non-fiction writers and playwrights.
Little Rock writer Trent Stewart, the 2008 recipient of the Porter Prize, notified Barr of his award.
“I grew up in central Arkansas and learned to love reading and writing here,” said Barr. “I’ve been aware of the Porter Prize and following its annual occurrence for just about my entire adult life, so when I received the telephone call, I was incredibly thrilled. The Porter and its community of previous recipients form a vital piece of Arkansas' literary community. I'm humbled and honored to be included in their ranks.”
Mark Barr's debut novel, Watershed (Hub City, 2019), received favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and was awarded the 2019 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction and the 2019 Writers' League of Texas Discovery Prize in Fiction. His stories and essays have appeared in Garden & Gun, Wisconsin Review, Poets & Writers, LitHub, Necessary Fiction, and elsewhere. Mark has been awarded fellowships at Blue Mountain Center, I-Park Artists Enclave, Jentel Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Millay Colony, and Yaddo. He lives in Little Rock with his wife and sons.
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Photo: Mark Barr
Photo credit: Kristi McKim