BATT HUMPHREYS WINS PALMETTO BOOK AWARD

Batt Humphreys, our guest author at our next author luncheon on Thursday, has been awarded the Palmetto Book Award for his novel Dead Weight.

Buy a ticket today so you can hear him speak, have him sign your book, and enjoy a delicious meal provided by Bizzell's.

Register at this link.

Batt Humphreys is the 2010 recipient of the Palmetto Book Award bestowed by the South Carolina Center for the Book for excellence in writing.  This is the fifth award debut novelist Batt Humphreys has received for his book “Dead Weight,” a true story of a murder, trial and hurricane in Charleston at the turn of the 20th century.

Dead Weight has earned significant critical acclaim garnering the IPPY gold medal for best true crime novel in 2010 from the Independent Publisher Awards; first place Benjamin Franklin Award for best work of historic fiction; and a top medal from Foreword Magazine for best historic fiction. “Dead Weight” is also a finalist for best book of fiction by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.

Dead Weight was read in its entirety on National Public Radio this spring. Radio Reader host Dick Estell calls it “a stunning, tragic story.” Novelist Ron Rash says “Batt Humphreys brings both a reporter's gift for research and a novelist's imagination to his vivid recreation of 1910 Charleston.”

Humphreys, a former senior producer for the CBS News, will be honored at an awards ceremony on Sept. 8 in Columbia.

The South Carolina Center for the Book is the South Carolina affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book and is a cooperative project of the of South Carolina State Library, the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science, and The Humanities Council. Past winners include Mary Alice Monroe and Dr. Walter Edgar. The South Carolina State Library is a national model for innovation, collaboration, leadership and effectiveness. It is the keystone in South Carolina's intellectual landscape.