The Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library presented the 2016 Royden B. Davis, S.J., Distinguished Author Award to Scranton native Stephen Karam, best known for his Tony Award-winning play, The Humans, which centers on a Thanksgiving dinner in a New York City apartment hosted by a former Scrantonian for relatives who traveled from Northeastern Pennsylvania for the holiday.
Karam, also a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist for his Sons of the Prophet, is a native Scrantonian whom University President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., called a “faithful advocate of the liberal arts” who “spent his career extolling the virtues of a liberal education.”
The Distinguished Author Award series benefits the Friends of the Library Endowment Fund, which supports special gifts for the Weinberg Memorial Library collections and services.
At the presentation, University benefactor and director of the Schemel Forum Sondra Myers introduced Karam, who shared a host of growing-up-in-Scranton memories with the packed house, ranging from enjoying Dime Night at Nay Aug Park and burgers at Chick’s Diner or The Glider Diner to being “the worst player in Green Ridge baseball history.”
In addition to the positive memories, Karam paid special tribute to life’s “darker moments,” which he called crucial to the human condition.
“My path to a career in the arts wasn’t easy or overnight, and the truth is that most artists’ work stems from their pain and adversity,” he said.
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