Presbyterian News Service
06262 May 11, 2006
South Carolina writer wins Jim Angell Award
Laurel Horton scores Presbyterian Writers Guild 'first book' prize
by Jerry L. Van Marter and Stephen McCutchan, Angell Award chair
LOUISVILLE -- A family history traced through a collection of quilts has won the 2005 Jim Angell Award as the best first book by a Presbyterian writer.
The award, given annually by the Presbyterian Writers Guild (http://www.presbywriters.org/), will be presented during the upcoming 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL, to Laurel McKay Horton for her book, Mary Black's Family Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life.
The award comes with a $500 cash prize.
Published by the University of South Carolina Press, Horton's book explores the changing functions and meanings of a collection of 16 family quilts belonging to Mary Snoddy Black at the time of her death in 1927. The Snoddy family were among the large number of Ulster Presbyterians who settled in what would become Spartanburg County, SC. In telling the story of the quilts, Horton weaves in the story of the religious journey of these Presbyterians who settled in this area of the country.
Horton, a fourth generation member of Jeffersontown (KY) Presbyterian Church, currently lives with her husband, Wayne Richard, in Seneca, SC. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in
library science from the University of Kentucky and a master's degree in folklore from the University of North Carolina.
The latter degree sparked Horton's interest in German and Scotch Irish quilts. She has also studied in Ireland, England and Sweden. In addition to studying quilts, she also has been involved in making quilts for the past 30 years.
While this is her first book, Horton has written more than 30 articles about various aspects of quilting. She is currently pursuing research on a relatively unstudied area of quilting called "white work." In November of 2006, she will present a paper at the British Quilt Study Group in Belfast, Ireland.
Horton will receive the Jim Angell Award at the PWG's luncheon on June 20 -- her mother's 90th birthday. The elder McKay -- who suggested Horton submit her book in the Angell Award competition -- will be present in Birmingham, along with Horton's two sisters.
"It is the best birthday present I could give my mother," Horton says, "and I intend to split the prize with her."