FAIRHOPE, Ala. — One might think winning a Pulitzer Prize is the pinnacle to which all men and women of letters aspire. That’s old hat, however, for Calhoun County native and part-time Fairhope resident Rick Bragg, who said this latest honor might top even that.

The best-selling author has been named the 2009 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year, the Alabama Writers’ Forum has announced. He will receive the award at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville on May 1 at the annual luncheon. The conference will take place April 30-May 2.

“I was tickled to death when I heard about it,” Bragg said Friday. “I was thrilled. The great thing about it is that book (To Kill a Mockingbird) and its message have meant a lot for generations.”

Bragg is the author of Southern non-fiction, including a trio of books about his family that have been embraced by working-class Americans — All Over but the Shoutin’, Ava’s Man and The Prince of Frogtown.

He said, “To have that recognition of my rotten life bring a connection to that book and that writer in every way is an honor.”

The University of Alabama journalism professor is also the author of I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story and a collection of newspaper stories entitled Somebody Told Me.

Lee’s beloved novel about racism and injustice in fictional Maycomb, Ala. was based on her own upbringing in Monroeville. Like Scout Finch, the character through whose eyes the story is told, Lee’s father was a country lawyer.

“All my life I’ve had that book in arm’s reach,” Bragg said. “I think I read it every year.”

A 1993 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Bragg has covered stories from Central Asia to the Caribbean to economic and social upheaval in the United States, usually focusing on people in trouble.

He has written from the Bazaar of the Storytellers in Peshawar, Pakistan, and the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He covered the Oklahoma City bombing, the Susan Smith trials, 9/11 and many other stories in newspapers from The Jacksonville News to The New York Times.

Asked if his work will endure over the years as Lee’s has, Bragg said, “I hope they will. I hope All Over but the Shoutin’ and the other books about family will stand up over time. Some well-meaning people say they will, and you feel you've done something that matters.”

But, Bragg remains surprisingly humble. He talked about a day he visited a radio station to record a spot about one of his books. The announcer prefaced the piece by saying, “This book will stand up for 100 years.”

Bragg said, “I walked out of there walking on air.” The ego boost was short-lived though. He added he heard the same said of another book as he passed through the lobby on his way out.

The scruffy scribe has never crossed Lee’s path, but would like to.

“I have gone to events where her work was being honored, and gone to signings and talks in her hometown, but we’ve never met,” Bragg said. “When I was a younger writer, I never wanted to be one of those who forced themselves on a legendary figure, and she’s a legendary figure, so I never made the pilgrimage to meet her. That’s one of my greatest regrets.”

His wife, Dianne, has as a cherished possession a note Lee wrote to her when she had the publicity shy author sign a copy of her masterpiece for each of her sons.

“I feel like I know her,” Bragg said. “I think that’s what you dream about, to have a book like To Kill a Mockingbird. She has written a book that kids who don’t like to read remember. The rest of folks out there who have only read one or two books in their lifetime for pleasure know this book and know its message.”

The Alabama Writers’ Forum coordinates the process to select the Harper Lee Award recipient annually from submitted nominations.

The award includes a cash prize and a bronze sculpture by Frank Fleming of the Monroe County Courthouse clock tower. The courthouse is a setting for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Bragg said, “To win an award in your home state for a book about the people in your home state gives you a warm place in your heart. You never know what’s going to roll around in this old lifetime, and this was a true pleasure.”

The southwest part of the state has long been known for producing acclaimed writers, such as Lee’s childhood friend, Truman Capote. Bragg has a theory why that’s the case.

“There’s something about Alabama — something about the dirt,” he said. “It just grows good writers. Knowing how many fine writers have sprung from it make (the award) an even greater pleasure.”

When not killing snakes and clearing spider webs outside his Fairhope home, Bragg lives in Tuscaloosa with his wife and stepson, Jake. He continues to write for magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Food and Wine, Best Life, Men’s Journal, Southern Living, Garden and Gun and others.

Will Bragg’s continuing success as a working journalist and educator stifle his creative process and prevent him from again satisfying those who clamor to read each of his books?

He said, “I like to think I’ve got a few more books in me. I’ve got to write my serious books first, so that gives me a sense of peace. When I wrote this last book (The Prince of Frogtown) — when I finished that book — I had this peace of mind. I did what I set out to do, writing about these people with all their warts.”

Bragg has brought peace to others as well. He said readers have approached him and revealed they lived a life much like those he wrote about. Although once ashamed of where they came from, Bragg’s writings made them see their hardscrabble heritage in a different light.

“Nobody is just one thing,” he said. “That’s the idea behind the book about my dad (The Prince of Frogtown). When you write about people with one foot in the grave, you want to write about toughness and character — to show that other dimension.”

The Harper Lee Award is presented annually by Alabama Southern Community College at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville. It is made possible through a grant from George F. Landegger.

For more information about the 12th annual Alabama Writers Symposium, visit www.writerssymposium.org. For more information about the Harper Lee Award, call the Alabama Writers’ Forum at (866) 901-1117 or visit www.writersforum.org.