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The F. Scott Fitzgerald Award In 1996, the city of Rockville honored the centennial of the birth of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was a year-long celebration, filled with activities and happenings which would have delighted Fitzgerald, the romantic legend and the chronicler of the Jazz Age who, incidentally, is buried with his family at Saint Mary's Church in Rockville. One of these creations was the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference and its Award, which honored the achievements of a great American author. The event has proven so popular that we have continued it to this day. Every year, as close as possible to Fitzgerald's birthday, we have continued to honor an outstanding American writer. 2008 Award Winner: Elmore Leonard 
Born in New Orleans on October 11th, 1925, Elmore Leonard has been a top-selling writer since the mid-1980s. Referred to as "Dutch" (a childhood nickname), he is the author of more than three dozen crime and western novels famous for their crackling dialogue and dark humor. Leonard had a career in advertising when he began writing westerns in the 1950s. The success of the movie version of his novel Hombre allowed him to write novels full-time and he turned to writing fast-paced crime stories in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, he started to be noticed by reviewers and critics, and by the mid-1980s he was a consistently bankable author. His stories often revolve around the misadventures of amiable-but-crooked protagonists and lowlifes --characters who are thieves, hustlers, and loan sharks. His novels include Glitz (1985), Freaky Deaky (1988) and Tishomingo Blues (2002). Films made from his novels include: Hombre (1967, starring Paul Newman); Valdez is Coming (1971, starring Burt Lancaster); Get Shorty (1995, starring John Travolta): Jackie Brown (1997, starring Pam Greer, from the 1992 novel Rum Punch): Out of Sight (1998, starring Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney); and The Big Bounce (2004, starring Owen Wilson). Leonard has also written several screenplays, including Joe Kidd (1972, starring Clint Eastwood) and Mr. Majestyk (1974). Out of Sight was the basis for the 2003 television series Karen Sisco. Past Award Winners
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