Fiction writer Allen Wier will receive the 27th John Dos Passos Prize for Literature on Thursday, Nov. 20

Allen Wier, whose novels draw upon his native Southwest, will receive the 27^th John Dos Passos Prize for Literature on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. in Molnar Recital Hall in Wygal. The Dos Passos Prize, which includes a $2,000 cash award and a medal, is sponsored by the Department of English and Modern Languages. Wier (pronounced Wire) is the author of four novels – Tehano, A Place for Outlaws, Departing as Air, and Blanco – and a collection of stories, Things About to Disappear. He edited the anthology Walking on Water and other stories and co-edited Voicelust, a collection of essays on style in contemporary fiction.

Wier is professor of English at the University of Tennessee, and he taught at Longwood from 1970 to 1972. The Dos Passos Prize committee is chaired by Mary Carroll-Hackett, assistant professor of English, and the other members are Dr. Craig Challender, professor of English, and Dr. Chene Heady, assistant professor of English. The jurors for this year’s prize were Carroll-Hackett; last year’s winner, novelist Kent Haruf; and poet Peter Makuck, professor emeritus of English at East Carolina University.