Lifetime Achievement Awards

PURPOSE

To honor great artists and scholars who have enabled us to think more profoundly, more intelligently, more critically, and more self-critically about the relations between literature and Christian faith and practice. In honoring them, CCL affirms the value of the religious dimension in literature and scholarship and draws attention to the issues that guide the organization and its members' intellectual commitments.

CRITERIA

The recipient of the award will meet the following criteria:

A. Maturity/Productivity

1. Must have served the profession of letters for a substantial number of years;

2. Must have produced a significant and mature body of written work, whether theoretical, critical, or creative;

B. Professional recognition

3. Must be recognized and respected in the larger professional community for scholarship or creative writing;

C. Dialogue

4. Must have enriched the understanding of the relation of Christianity and literature;

5. Must have contributed significantly to the dialogue among Christian scholars and between Christian scholars and the secular community of professionals.

D. Religious witness

6. All other things being equal, special consideration will be given to candidates who are explicitly associated with a Christian or Jewish religious community.

PROCEDURES FOR NOMINATION AND SELECTION

Any member of CCL may submit the name of a person to be considered for the award. All nominations are to be made in writing and submitted to the President no later than November 1. Each nomination should be accompanied by a brief letter of recommendation along with either a copy of the nominee's CV or an equivalent biographical sketch; the latter documents may be supplied in electronic form or as links to web sites containing the information. The CCL Board of Directors will consider the nominations and conclude the selection process at its annual meeting in early January. For a nominee to be selected for the award, that individual must receive an affirmative vote from at least 75% of the Board.

Winners of the lifetime achievement award include:

2012
Robert Alter

2011
Rowan Williams

2009
Dana Gioia
Geoffrey Hill

2008
Marilynne Robinson

2007
Frederick Buechner

2006
John Updike

2005
Wendell Berry

2004
Robert Coles

2003
David Lyle Jeffrey

2002
Denis Donoghue

2001
Paul Ricoeur

2000
Doris Betts

1999
Barbara Kiefer Lewalski and Louis Lohr Martz

1998
Czeslaw Milosz

1997
Rene Girard

1996
Walter J. Ong, S.J.

1995
Wayne Booth

1994
Denise Levertov and Owen Barfield

1993
Nathan A. Scott, Jr.

1992
Cleanth Brooks and Richard Wilbur