Shorter University professor named Georgia Author of the Year

June 24 - Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher, professor of English and Scholar-in-Residence at Shorter University, was awarded as Georgia Author of the Year for her book “The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel.” The award was presented to Dr. Butcher at the 46th Annual Georgia Author of the Year ceremony held last week at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Butcher’s award was in the creative non-fiction category. The book is a 21st century translation of a medieval manuscript comprised of letters written by an anonymous Christian teacher to his student, explains Dr. Butcher. “The book is a rainmaker for anyone whose soul has ever felt as dry as a bone. Its nameless author was a gifted teacher. Page after page, he patiently explains what contemplative prayer is and how it can end any spiritual drought — shortages of love, low levels of humility, and absence of peace,” Dr. Butcher said. “Through practical spiritual exercises that he calls the “cloud of unknowing” and the “cloud of forgetting,” he teaches us to pray without ceasing and shows us that a dialogue with mystery is not only possible but is in fact, ‘the work of the soul that most pleases God’.”

Dr. Butcher’s latest award is one of many on an already impressive list of achievements. As the author of numerous books, scholarly articles and international lectures, Dr. Butcher was named the 2006 Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year for Georgia and received the 2007 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship at Shorter University. She has been a Fulbright scholar and lecturer twice. She was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea for the 2004-2005 academic year, and she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London from 1989-1991, conducting research in the British Library, the Bodleian, and other Oxbridge libraries.

To purchase “The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel” and to read more about Dr. Butcher’s other publications, visit www.carmenbutcher.com.

Founded in 1873, Shorter University is a Christian college committed to excellence in education. Since 2003, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Shorter among the South’s best baccalaureate colleges. The university offers traditional bachelor’s degrees in 48 major areas as well as undergraduate degree programs for working adults, the Master of Business Administration, the Master of Education and the Master of Arts in Leadership. Online courses are also available. For more information, visit www.shorter.edu.

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