As if to start the new year by reporting on the end of the last year, I tell you now what my shyness didn’t tell you in November 2018. I am appreciative and thankful but wasn’t sure how to pass this news along without sounding like a boast.
Dr. Don Arnold and Ernie Fleming of Oakley Hall Antiques & Art in Warrenton, bestow an annual award of an engraved plaque and $100 cash prize. In November of 2018 this second annual award came to me for “outstanding contributions to Southern literature and encouragement of Southern writers. Don recited a long list of wonderful adjectives (that made me blush, smile in appreciation & weep in surprise a bit) while presenting this beautiful plaque to me at the First Friday Poetry Night held at Working Landscapes on S. Main Street in Warrenton, NC.
Don quotes from Henderson Daily Dispatch, “she has been involved in founding the Warren Artists’ Market, considered a go-to professional for local writers for help in improving their craft and publishing their works. She is a member of the International Women Writers Guild and has received the Florence Poet of Distinction Award. She has published 12 non-fiction books, many available for sale at Oakley Hall Antiques & Art.
Congratulations, Arlene! It doesn’t sound like boasting at all. It sounds like well-deserved recognition for someone who works very diligently at her craft. And as a writer, it inspires me to know hard work and perseverance pay off. I feel we must share our successes and also our growing pains. So, thank you. Bravo!
Thanks Cheryl. It’s hard to self-promote.