NPR's Blount to give lecture

Roy Blount Jr. didn’t always have ambitions of becoming a professional writer.

“Originally, I wanted to be a three-sport immortal,” he said in an interview Monday.

It wasn’t until a 10th-grade English teacher convinced him to shift his dreams to wordplay that he realized his desire to become a writer.

The young aspiring writer grew into an acclaimed author and winner of this year’s Thomas Wolfe Prize. He will deliver the annual Thomas Wolfe lecture today in Carroll Hall.

The prize honors the memory of the famous UNC alumnus and author, Thomas Wolfe, and recognizes contemporary writers for their work.

Michael McFee, director of the creative writing program, said Blount, an author, playwright and radio personality, was a natural choice for the award.

McFee said nominees for the prize must be American and preferably Southern, so Blount, who grew up in Georgia, fit the bill.

“He’s the one we wanted. He’s the one we got,” McFee said.

Blount started reporting for his high school newspaper in the 10th grade and decided to make a career out of writing.

“Somehow, it worked. I’ve written through my life,” he said.

As an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Blount edited his campus’ newspaper. He said he worked with the paper to campaign for the integration of black students at the university.

Blount said the experience of writing during the racially charged era had a significant impact on his decision not to become an English professor after earning his master’s degree from Harvard University in 1964.

“Academia was a little too dry. I had gotten used to telling off the forces of darkness, standing at Armageddon and fighting for the Lord,” he said. “I wanted to do something big — something real.”

From college he moved on to writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and then Sports Illustrated, where he was assigned to spend the 1973 football season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

From this experience, Blount collected material that he turned into the first of his 21 books.

Blount has also written for 166 different periodicals, acted as a panelist on National Public Radio and written a screenplay, among other accomplishments.

He will formally accept his award and medal before tonight’s lecture.

McFee said he was excited to hear Blount’s talk.

“I met him, and he was just so personable, I knew he would be right for this,” he said.

Blount said he will talk about the importance of language and word choice, with anecdotes interspersed.

He said he is proud to be honored by the University.

“As Jerry Lewis said when he won his lifetime Oscar: ‘My humility in this moment is staggering.’”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.