Hub City Writers Project is proud to announce that Betsy Teter is the recipient of the 2017 Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts, South Carolina’s highest arts honor.
To recognize outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina, the Arts Commission annually presents the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Awards. These awards honor South Carolina arts organizations, patrons, artists, members of the business community, and government entities who maximize their roles as innovators, supporters and advocates of the arts. In 1980, the Verner Awards took on a special significance with their designation as the official “Governor’s Awards for the Arts.”
“Betsy Teter has shown us what it means to be a cultural crusader for the public good and her hometown’s health.”
“Betsy Teter is a rare constellation of talent: a gifted writer and editor, a nimble, innovative entrepreneur, a skilled business leader, and a passionate advocate of the literary arts.”
“What excites me about Betsy Teter is not only her activities and projects, but also, her sense of humor, encouragement of others, and high integrity make her a true treasure not only for the broad Spartanburg community but the Upstate and state of South Carolina as a whole.”
“Betsy Teter co-founded the Hub City Writers Project in 1995 to give her community a literary identity. Under Teter’s watch, Hub City Writers Project and Hub City Press have published 75 titles, hundreds of writers, awarded $28,000 in scholarships to emerging writers in SC, sold 150,000 books across the nation and won the S.C. Governor’s Award for the Humanities and 14 Independent Publisher Awards. Writers across the country submit their work to Hub City Press, not just because of its award-winning reputation, but also because of Teter’s unmatched dedication to authors published by Hub City.
In 2010, Teter realized her vision for a revolutionary independent bookstore and opened Hub City Bookshop. Proceeds from book sales fund creative writing education and independent book publishing – a new concept that is now being copied around the country. Teter has cultivated strong partnerships between Hub City and local and state organizations and successfully pursues grants to support Hub City and the literary arts. Wake Forest Magazine declared her “the literary maven who sparked a celebrated movement to nurture writers and cultivate readers.”
Teter’s leadership goes beyond promoting the literary arts. She was the founding director of HUB-BUB, which sponsors music, film, art, theatre and other programs in downtown Spartanburg and was the driving force behind the Spartanburg Music Trail. The Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce named her the “2016 Tourism Person of the Year.” Teter will go down in the state’s arts history as a visionary, a leader and a passionate nurturer of South Carolina’s readers and writers.”
More information about the Verner Award at the South Carolina Arts Commission website.