Bread Loaf Writers' Conference scholarship honors literary editor

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - The Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference recently announced the establishment of the Carol Houck Smith Contributor Scholarship, which has been made possible through a generous bequest by longtime editor Smith, who passed away in November 2008. The scholarship will be given to a returning Bread Loaf contributor of exceptional talent and will allow the winner to attend the conference in a consecutive year. The scholarship will support room, board and tuition.

The Contributor Scholarship complements the Carol Houck Smith Scholarship in Fiction, established by Smith in 2000, and the Carol Houck Smith Scholarship in Poetry, created by friends, writers and colleagues of Smith in 2005 to honor and recognize her significant contribution to American literary culture as one of its foremost editors.

Over the past two decades, Smith was an annual visitor to the conference. As a senior editor at W.W. Norton, she met with conference participants to discuss their work and give advice about publishing. Smith cherished her association with the conference, which began as early as the 1940s when she attended a session as an aspiring writer.

Smith is remembered for the generous encouragement she gave to many, her insightful work as an editor, and the pure pleasure she took in literary writing and in her friendships with writers.

For complete information regarding the Carol Houck Smith Contributor Scholarship, please contact the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference office at blwc@middlebury.edu.