After working as a newspaper reporter for a number of years , Betts joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966 . She received the UNC Putnam Book Prize in 1954 for her first book , '' The Gentle Insurrection '' , three Sir Walter Raleigh Awards ( 1958 , 1965 , and 1973 ) for the best fiction books by a North Carolinian , a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Writing ( 1958 – 1959 ) , the North Carolina Award and Medal ( 1975 ) , the Distinguished Service Award for Women ( Chi Omega ) , and the John Dos Passos Award from Longwood College . She has also written articles for professional journals , lectured at writers ' conferences , and delivered speeches on major college campuses . In 1980 she was named a UNC Alumni Distinguished Professor of English . She received the Tanner Award for distinguished undergraduate teaching in 1973 and the Katherine Carmichael Teaching Award in 1980 . " Violet " , a film adaptation of " The Ugliest Pilgrim " , her most widely reprinted short story , won Best Live Action Short at the 54th Academy Awards . In 1998 , it was the basis of a musical that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award
54th Academy Awards
54th Academy Awards
Doris Betts