Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
N C L R ONLINE
PHOTOGRAPH BY LINDA FOX; COURTESY OF NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
“WORDS OF TRUTH HAVE NEVER MATTERED MORE.” —PHILIP GERARD
excerpted from acceptance remarks by Philip Gerard I am honored and humbled by this recognition from the state that I have been privileged to call home for more than thirty years. I have far too many people to thank for all they have given me – family, friends, teachers, fellow writers, readers, students. You know who you are. So I will name only my parents, Felix and Margaret, who taught me the value of books; my brother Stephen and his wife Laura, who traveled here from California, and my sister Sharon and her husband Mike, who came in from Ohio to be here for this event; Sister Marie Bernadette, my first grade teacher, who taught me to read and write – what a lovely gift that has turned out to be – and my wife Jill, my support and counsel in all things.
ABOVE Philip Gerard accpeting the North Carolina Award for Literature, Raleigh, 16 Nov. 2019
Words of truth have never mattered more. I believe in the writer as a witness to evil, as a reporter of injustice, as a chronicler of human compassion, even on occasion of greatness, as one whose skills illuminate the Truth with a capital T, without irony. I believe it is the job of the writer to put into words what is worst – and also what is best – about us. To light up our possibilities, to discover the finest lives to which we can aspire, and to inspire our readers to greatness of soul and heart. I will continue to do my best to live this credo. Thank you all for this magnificent award. n
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