Arkansas State University in Jonesboro has named a writing fellowship after Mary Gay Shipley, owner of That Bookstore in Blytheville, Ark. The Mary Gay Shipley Writing Fellowship is offered through ASU's heritage studies Ph.D. program and focuses on the social and cultural history of the Mississippi River Delta region, with an emphasis on eastern Arkansas. Writer and social activist Minnijean Brown Trickey is the first recipient of the fellowship, which covers three years.
Program director Clyde A. Milner II told PW that the fellowship was named for Shipley because of "her many contributions to this area as an advocate of books and writing. Mary Gay is a widely beloved figure around here, actually almost legendary." Milner noted Shipley's advocacy of Jonesboro native John Grisham and credited her with playing an "essential role" in helping to organize a fundraiser for the program last year featuring the premier of the Hallmark Hall of Fame television adaptation of Grisham's The Painted House. The fundraiser netted $170,000; some $100,000 went to the program's endowment, and the remaining $70,000 was used to fund the fellowship.
Speaking at the fellowship presentation two weeks ago, Shipley said having the fellowship named for her was a "distinct privilege." She acknowledged the program's breadth and potential for adding to awareness of the region. "It is hardly a secret that I think the written word is powerful. But it is not just the written word, rather the context, the political environment, the personal experience that empowers the written word," she said.
Back in That Bookstore in Blytheville Monday afternoon, Shipley told PW she was pleased by Trickey's selection as the recipient of the first fellowship. Prior to working as an activist and serving in the administration of former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton during his second term as president, Trickey was one of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated the public schools in 1957.
Again a resident of Little Rock, Trickey will use her fellowship to work on a book about her life and the principles that have motivated her.
