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Distinguished author fete to be set among books
Peggy Helmerich (from left), Janie Funk and Gina Lodes gather to promote the Dec. 4 dinner and presentation of the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award to Geraldine Brooks. STEPHEN PINGRY / Tulsa World
By DANNA SUE WALKER World Staff Writer
Published: 11/11/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/11/2009 4:45 AM
An elegant black-tie dinner set among the stacks of books at the Tulsa Central Library is a little dream-like. Add a nationally acclaimed author speaking to the crowd and the mix becomes irresistible.
A long list of writers who had made major contributions to the field of literature and letters has journeyed to Tulsa to receive the Tulsa Library Trust's Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award.
It is always an occasion.
This year, Geraldine Brooks will receive the award, which consists of a $40,000 cash prize and an engraved crystal book presented at the dinner Dec. 4.
She will also speak at a public presentation at 10 a.m. Dec. 5 at the Central Library.
The Australian-born author and journalist is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the novel "March" and the best-selling "People of the Book."
She grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. After college, she worked as a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald for three years.
In 1982, she won a scholarship to the journalism master's program at Columbia University in New York.
Later she worked for the Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.
Brooks and her husband, author Tony Horwitz, and two sons, Nathaniel and Bizuayehu, divide their time between homes in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and Sydney.
The Tulsa Library Trust is a public foundation created by private contributions to benefit Tulsa City-County Library. Income generated by the trust's endowment is used to fund projects and purchase materials that the library could not afford through its operating budget.
Gina Lodes is chairwoman of the Distinguished Author dinner. Janie Funk is co-chairwoman. Mary Wheeler Brown is chairwoman of the author's award selection committee.
Committee members include Larry Bartley, Bill Bernhardt, Judge Tom Brett, Donna Farrior, Janell Helmerich, Peggy Helmerich, Margaret Neely, Ruth Nelson, Beth Rainey, Linda Saferite and Laurie Sundborg.
Other committee chairmen include Susie Tatum Woody, Susie Wallace, Janell Helmerich, Debbie Grillot, Laura Stauffer, Pattie Bowman, Marcy Robinowitz, Donna Clack, Lisa Hardin, Phyllis Dotson, Deanna Mizel, Joan Hoar, Jane Hawkins, Ellen Duecker, Terry Beach, Kristin Bender, Linda Frazier and Joan Seay.
Former Helmerich Award recipients have included John Grisham, E.L. Doctorow, John Hope Franklin, Neil Simon, David McCullough, Ray Bradbury, Peter Matthiessen, Norman Mailer, Eudora Welty, John le Carré, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Larry McMurtry and Norman Cousins.
By DANNA SUE WALKER World Staff Writer
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