Valerie Sayers Wins Governor’s Award in the Humanities

Celebrated Beaufort writer wins state award for literary and academic achievements in the humanities.

Valerie Sayers

South Carolina Humanities has announced the 2025 recipients of the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities, the Akers Prize, and this year’s new state-wide award known as the McMeekin Award, named after its inaugural recipient, S.C. (Cal) McMeekin, Jr. Writer, author, and former William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English at Notre Dame, Valerie Sayers, is one of the recipients of the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities. 

Established in 1991, the Governor’s Awards recognize outstanding achievement in humanities research, teaching, and scholarship; institutional and individual participation in helping communities in South Carolina better understand our cultural heritage or ideas and issues related to the humanities; excellence in defining South Carolina’s cultural life to the nation or world; and exemplary support for public humanities programs.

Valerie Sayers is a fiction writer, essayist, and critic born and raised in Beaufort, which features prominently in her work. The author of six novels, including The Powers and Brain Fever, and a collection of stories, The Age of Infidelity, her literary honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes, as well as three “distinguished” citations from Pushcart. Her prose has appeared widely in venues ranging from the New York Times and Washington Postto Agni, Ploughshares, and Zoetrope, and her books have been on many “Best of the Year” and “Editors’ Choice” lists, including those at the New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune. She was the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English at Notre Dame, where she served terms as chair of the English Department and Director of the Creative Writing Program, founded the Notre Dame Review, and taught in the Moreau College Initiative, a college prison program in Northern Indiana. After retirement, she returned to Beaufort, where she continues to write and serves on the board of the Pat Conroy Literary Center. She is especially honored to be a member of the South Carolina Academy of Authors. 

Joining her in this category are: Dr. Bernard Powers, professor emeritus of history at the College of Charleston and director of its Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston; Dr. Philip Racine, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History Emeritus at Wofford College; and Margaret Seidler, retired Organization and Leadership Development consultant, national conference speaker, and author.

The Akers Prize, formerly the Fresh Voices in the Humanities Award, recognizes innovative individuals who use culture and history to bring people together, but whose efforts may have gone relatively unnoticed beyond their own community. The 2025 recipient of the Akers Prize is Dr. Erica Johnson, associate professor of history, co-director of African and African American Studies, and the faculty coordinator for Universities Studying Slavery at Francis Marion University.

The new McMeekin Award recognizes individuals who embody service and advocacy of the humanities as well as the values of the humanities in their professional life, outside of the realms of academia and professional humanistic endeavors. The inaugural recipient is S.C. (Cal) McMeekin, Jr. who worked for 29 years at South Carolina Electric and Gas Company in a variety of positions before retiring in 2000. He later joined Dial, Dunlap, & Edwards, LLC, a commercial real estate firm in Columbia. He has served as a board member for South Carolina Humanities for 41 years.

Learn more about this year’s winners and sponsorships on the Humanities Awards page of SC Humanities’ website.

The 34th annual South Carolina Awards in the Humanities Luncheon and Ceremony will be held at the Pastides Alumni Center in Columbia, South Carolina on Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 11:30 am. Table sponsorships are available now and individual tickets will go on sale afterMonday, September 1, 2025. Table sponsorship opportunities close on Friday, September 19, 2025. To learn more about this event, call 803-771-2477.