SoLit Award Acceptance Speech - by Deborah Levine

Local Distinguished Author Award 2022

I’m deeply honored by this award from the prestigious SoLit Alliance. Literature is my passion and growing up in Bermuda’s 24 square miles, I explored the vast world through reading. You should have seen me with a pad of paper and a number 2 pencil while still in diapers. I published my first story at age 16 and wrote grants and newsletters for decades. But not until coming to Chattanooga did I blossom as a writer, and thought of myself as one.

Chattanoogans from every sector empowered me. Thank you to faculty friends at our schools and colleges. And thanks to community service organizations for your support. I’m truly grateful to the Human Resource Directors and diversity officers who encouraged me. Many thanks to local foundations, city and county departments, and, of course our local newspapers which turned me into a columnist. And hugs to the creative souls who helped surface my storytelling skills, almost a century after my mother’s publications about the science of storytelling. Love you, Mom!

A shout out to all my diverse colleagues with special thanks to friends who lifted me up when dire illness cut short my role as the Jewish Federation’s executive director. I thought my life was over, but you helped me find a new purpose.

My books, articles, columns, and scripts transformed me, as has the opportunity to give back. 16 years ago, advisors, writers, poets, editors and interns helped create the American Diversity Report. We’ve now published hundreds of writers, spreading our Inclusion message across the globe.

SoLit’s words are profound, “Literature has the incomparable power to connect, uplift and inspire people.” And this award magnifies that power. I feel the creative energy percolating inside me. Seeing my hubby’s grin, he knows that this moment will inspire new ideas to take shape and words to be written.

Thank you so much, SoLit. You’re elevating me to the next level, and the best is yet to come.

About
Latest Posts

Editor-in-Chief

Deborah Levine is Editor in-Chief of the American Diversity Report. She is a Forbes Magazine top Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazer and an award-winning author of 15 books. She has been recognized by the Women's Federation for World Peace and the TN Economic Council on Women. She was featured on C-Span/ BookTV and her published articles span decades in journals & magazines: American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, The Bermuda Magazine, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin. A former blogger with The Huffington Post, she is now an opinion columnist with The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Latest posts by Editor-in-Chief (see all)