Local Author Wins Strauss Literary Award

Madison Smartt Bell, a novelist and an English professor at Goucher College, has been presented with the 2008 Strauss Living Award from the American Academy ofArts and Letters. The literary award includes a cash prize of $250,000. The association made the official announcement yesterday.

I’ve met Madison at local readings and literary events and am thrilled that the local writer — a neighbor — has been presented with such an honor. And a nice windfall to go with it.

The news of his prize has been published in the New York Times and The Baltimore Sun.

Read more about it in The Sun.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/college/bal-md.bell29nov29,0,6434345.story