Frank Bruni, Eugene C. Patterson professor of the practice of journalism and public policy, will be recognized Nov. 14 as one of eight recipients of the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.
Bruni, who will be honored in the award’s literature category, became a faculty member in the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy of the Sanford School of Public Policy in 2021 after a 25-year career as a journalist for The New York Times.
The North Carolina Award was established in 1961 by the General Assembly to honor contributions to the state in fine arts, literature, public service and science. Gov. Roy Cooper will present the awards at a 7 p.m. banquet and award ceremony at the Raleigh Marriott City Center.
“I'm beyond flattered by this, and I'm really touched by it, too, because North Carolina has such a special place in my heart,” Bruni wrote in a Sunday email to The Chronicle. “… This award — well, it feels like North Carolina is returning my hug in the sweetest and most generous way imaginable.”
The award recipients were announced in a Wednesday press release by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which characterized Bruni as a “prominent journalist” and cited his roles as an op-ed columnist, White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief and restaurant critic.
“My return here three and a half years ago — to the state where I went to college — was very deliberate: I wanted to be here, in this remarkable part of the country,” Bruni wrote.
As The New York Times’ first openly gay op-ed columnist, Bruni received the Randy Shilts Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in 2016 for “his lifetime contribution to LGBTQ equality.”
The release also cited Bruni’s five bestselling books, his appointment in the Sanford School and his continued weekly newsletter and opinion writings for The Times.
“In recognizing Frank Bruni with the highest civilian honor in North Carolina, we celebrate a remarkable literary talent who has a profound commitment to enriching our state and the world with his writing, journalism, teaching and service,” wrote Sanford Interim Dean Manoj Mohanan in a Wednesday announcement. “We are so fortunate to have Frank as our colleague at Duke and a member of our community in North Carolina.”
In Sanford, Bruni teaches a course on opinion writing. His recent contributions to The Times address North Carolina and national politics.
Bruni’s most recent New York Times bestselling book, The Age of Grievance, discusses how “grievance has come to define [American] current culture and politics, on both the right and left.”
Other honorees of the North Carolina Award include the Avett Brothers and William Henry Curry for fine arts, Thomas Earnhardt and Christina Koch for science, and Harold Martin Sr. for public service.
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Michael Austin is a Trinity junior and managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.