Contact: Ralph Derickson

Bobbie Ann Mason

April 23, 2003 (Lexington, Ky.) -- Bobbie Ann Mason, writer-in-residence in the University of Kentucky Department of English, has been awarded a Kentucky Literary Award for excellence for her recent book “Elvis Presley,” published in 2002 by Viking Books.

Mason received a $1,000 cash prize from the Southern Kentucky Festival of Books for best nonfiction writing at its recent conference in Bowling Green.

Mason graduated from UK in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She received a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1966 and a doctorate in English from the University of Connecticut in 1972.