Award-winning author and former Poet Laureate of Alabama Jennifer Horne received Troy University’s Hall-Waters Prize on April 25.
The poet and nonfiction author began the day reading some of her works and answering questions from students in Dr. Kirk Curnutt’s English senior seminar class during a presentation in the Lamar P. Higgins Ballrooms on the Troy Campus. Horne was introduced at the event by her husband, Don Noble.
The award was presented during a luncheon at the International Arts Center.
Endowed by the late Dr. Wade Hall, a Bullock County native and TROY alumnus, in memory of his parents Wade Hall, Sr. and Sarah Elizabeth Waters, the award is presented regularly to a person who has made significant contributions to Southern heritage and culture in history, literature or the arts. Dr. Wade Hall was an author, former member of the faculty at the University of Florida and professor emeritus of English at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.
Dr. Kerry Palmer, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said the University was honored to host and award the prize annually.
“This ceremony goes back almost 25 years as an opportunity for Troy University to represent some of what is the very best about being in the deep South and that is literature, writing and artistic expression that is unique to this part of the country,” Dr. Palmer said. “All of this and the reason we are sitting here today is due to the efforts of Wade Hall. There was a 30-mile journey that changed Wade Hall’s life and that was coming down the road from Union Springs to Troy and graduating in 1953 from what was then Troy State Teachers College. It is our honor to host this event that celebrates the legacy of Wade Hall and celebrates artistic and literary expression in the deep South that we all love so much.”
Gregg Swem represented the late Dr. Hall at the luncheon and said he is drawn to biography such as “Odyssey of a Wandering Mind,” Horne’s biography of author Sara Mayfield.
“I love rich details of people’s lives in context of social, political and geographical frameworks,” Swem said. “So, I had no trouble settling into our honoree Jennifer Horne’s biography of author Sara Mayfield. “Odyssey of a Wandering Mind” is an engrossing account of a brilliant woman from a privileged background who accomplished a great deal in her creative life despite being confined to a mental institution for a number of years. To get a complete picture, she has burrowed into Mayfield’s complex life to such an extent that I’m sure she must have felt almost consumed by it, working for a number of years on this outstanding biography. Congratulations to Ms. Horne. We all look forward to more creativity from the pen of this year’s Hall-Waters Prize recipient.”
Horne called the experience as somewhat overwhelming and a delight.
“It is a delight to win the Hall-Waters Prize. Dr. Hall was truly a powerhouse as a writer, teacher, editor, interviewer, reviewer, playwright, and from all I have heard, a really kind and generous person,” she said. “I feel a certain kinship with him as someone who grew up in one state but who has made an adult life and career in another. I’m grateful for what my adopted state of Alabama has brought me, still a daughter of Arkansas. I also love the way that this award honors Dr. Hall’s parents. As has been said, my latest book of poems, “Letters to Little Rock,” is about my father, and in 2020, my sister and I published a book of poems by our late mother. It is important to honor where you come from and from whom.”
While it took a number of years before Horne had her first work published, she said writing was always what she wanted to do.
“For a while, I wasn’t sure that I would get my poems published in a book, but along the way, I kept building a writing life,” Horne said. “It is what I always wanted and what I have been fortunate enough to have and keep having. Writing is a lifelong engagement and a lifelong joy, and this recognition of what I have done so far means the world to me.”
Horne served as the 12th Poet Laureate of Alabama from 2017-2021. In addition to her biography, “Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield,” published in 2024 by the University of Alabama Press, her work includes poetry collections including “Little Wanderer,” “Bottle Tree,” “Borrowed Light” and “Letters to Little Rock” and a collection of short stories, “Tell the World You’re a Wildflower.” Additionally, she has edited and co-edited several volumes of poetry, including “Root & Plant & Bloom: Poems by Dodie Walton Horne.” She is the recipient of the Tuscaloosa Arts Council’s Druid City Literary Arts Award and was named the Poet of the Year by the Alabama State Poetry Society in 2021.
A photo gallery from the Hall-Waters events is available at: https://troyuniversity.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000OD4mp1008z4/G0000_3WRR8XrIuQ/20250425-Hall-Waters-Prize.
