Dr. M. Diane Gleason, Arkansas Tech University alumna and former member of the ATU faculty, is the 2018 recipient of the Booker Worthen Literary Prize from the Central Arkansas Library System.
Gleason was honored for “Dardanelle and the Bottoms: Environment, Agriculture, and Economy in an Arkansas River Community, 1819–1970,” which was published by the University of Arkansas Press in August 2017.
A graduate of ATU with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Gleason went on to obtain Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Arkansas. She taught at the secondary level for 22 years before serving on the Arkansas Tech Department of History and Political Science faculty for 11 years.
Gleason retired retired from ATU at the rank of associate professor of history in May 2017.
The Booker Worthen Literary Prize was established in 1999. It is awarded each year to the best work, fiction or non-fiction, by an author living in central Arkansas. It is named in honor of William Booker Worthen, who served on the Central Arkansas Library System Board of Trustees for more than 20 years.
