- 2010 Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts, South Carolina, Lifetime Achievement.
- 2009 South Carolina Hall of Fame inductee
- 2006 Southeast Library Association, Outstanding Author Award
- 2005 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award
- 2004 Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
- 2003 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Book of the Year Award
- 2003 Thomas Wolfe Prize awarded by the Department of English, U of NC at Chapel Hill
- 2002 South Carolina Order of the Palmetto
- 1996 Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, Humanitarian Award
- 1995 The Thomas Cooper Medal for Distinction in the Arts
- 1993 American Academy of Achievement, Golden Plate Award
- 1988 South Carolina Academy of Authors inductee
- 1974 National Education Association, special citation
Honorary Doctorate Degrees
- 2000 The Citadel
- 1997 University of South Carolina