Hegwood named first Mississippi winner of Faulkner award

By Courtney Warren

With a state so rich with literature, one would think a Mississippian would have already been chosen as the recipient of an award from the William Faulkner Literary Committee. However, standards are high - as they should be for such a prestigious honor. 

The William Faulkner Literary Contest is for aspiring writers, as it recognizes the significance of being the birthplace of one of the most celebrated writers in American Literature, generally, and Southern Literature, specifically.

Cantonian Martin Hegwood was named the winner of its 2022 novel competition for his latest manuscript, titled Memphis.

Hegwood said his inspiration for Memphis came from his findings that the city is often underrepresented in American literature.

“I always found this puzzling, since Memphis, more than any other major city, is emblematic of the nation’s cotton culture, a society that for generations has fascinated people around the world. I have some relatives in Memphis, and, when I was a child, we would drive from Pascagoula to Memphis every summer and visit for several weeks. 

“I also went to Ole Miss, and we went to Memphis all the time. I got to know a lot about Memphis society. It’s a tight knit group and very hard for an outsider to crack. There’s a lot of old money and old families, and they tend to socialize within their social set, their own world. And that group - and that world - provide the background for my story,” said Hegwood. 

The writing of Memphis did not take place overnight. 

“I worked on Memphis off and on for about five years. Of course, this was not five years of continuous writing. I would set it aside for months at a time. When I was writing detective stories, I would turn out a manuscript every year. I wrote one of them in ten months,” he said. 

Hegwood is thrilled with the honor and said, “I really feel good about being the first Mississippian to win this award. Mississippi has a great writing tradition, and I am delighted to be able to make a contribution to this legacy.”

Hegwood had already begun a new project that involves Mr. Faulkner himself. 

“I’m currently conducting research for a limited biography of William Faulkner, concentrating on the time he spent in Pascagoula between 1925 and 1929. It was a period of transition for him, during which he quit thinking of himself as a poet and began realizing he was a novelist,” he said. 

For more information about the William Faulkner Literary Competition, visit WilliamFaulknerLiteraryCompetition.com.