UWG Stories
Terry Kay
"UWG gave me the foundation to become the person I am," Kay said.
Almost 50 years after graduating from West Georgia, internationally famed author Terry Kay reflects on his education as paramount to his success.
“Considering everything—classes, friendships, activities, the simple act of maturing—my two years at West Georgia College were the two finest years of my life” he says. “My West Georgia friendships have provided me with encouragement and positive feedback, and in my work, those qualities matter greatly.”
With humble beginnings as a copy boy and reporter just after graduation, he rose to local stardom as a sports writer and film and theatre critic for the Atlanta Journal. However, it wasn’t until 1976 that he claimed fame as a novelist with “The Year the Lights Came On.” This was only the first in a series of publications that led to his best-selling “To Dance with the White Dog,” which was later made into an Emmy-winning screenplay by the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Translated into several different languages, this heart-wrenching novel granted him international fame.
He went on to author several more books, including “The Runaway,” “Taking Lottie Home,” and “The Kidnapping of Aaron Greene.” He has also written a children’s book and a collection of his essays and columns.
His works have earned him several awards, including the Townsend Prize for Fiction, the Georgia Author of the Year Award, the Southeastern Library Association Outstanding Author of the Year Award, and an induction into the Georgia Writer’s Hall of Fame. He attributes his success as a writer in part to his studies in Carrollton when the University of West Georgia was known as West Georgia College.
“The study and experiences I had at West Georgia more directly influenced my eventual career as a writer than any, other than my family and childhood community,” Kay concluded. “It gave me the foundation to become the person I am.”
