Florence M. Turcotte, Literary Manuscripts Archivist, recently won the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Visiting Faculty Travel Grant and will travel to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN for research at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. She will consult with Mary McSparran, Curator of Manuscripts and conduct research in the Edwin Mims Papers Mss.0292 and the Andrew Nelson Lytle Papers MSS.0603 concerning her book project about the literary relationships of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
The SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program is intended to enhance faculty collaboration that stimulates scholarly initiatives between SEC universities. This initiative gives faculty from one SEC university the opportunity to travel to another SEC campus to: exchange ideas; develop grant proposals; conduct research; consult with faculty and/or students; offer lectures or symposia; or engage in whatever activities are agreeable to the visitor and host unit. This award is sponsored by the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium.
Turcotte has served as Literary Manuscripts Archivist and curator of the John D. MacDonald, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Zora Neale Hurston Papers at the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries since 2005. Turcotte also curates a wide variety of archival collections, including environmental and African American history papers, women’s and religious collections, and LGBT collections. Flo holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgetown University, and earned her Library and Information Science degree from the University of South Florida. She published 2 books of correspondence from her literary collections, and an award-winning article about Rawlings in the Florida Historical Quarterly, and often makes presentations in the community about UF’s manuscript holdings.