Richard Layman honored with prestigious Governor’s Award in the Humanities
August 12, 2026
South Carolina Humanities Recognizes Layman Publishing Leader in Company’s 50th Year
Richard Layman of Layman Publishing Partners was announced as a recipient of the Governor’s Award in the Humanities at a press conference hosted by South Carolina Humanities on August 11.
The annual South Carolina Awards in the Humanities is the premier statewide celebration of outstanding individuals and organizations who enrich the Palmetto State through creativity and education.
Established in 1991, the Governor’s Award in the Humanities initiative recognizes notable achievement in humanities; institutional and individual participation in helping communities in South Carolina better understand cultural heritage; excellence in defining South Carolina’s cultural life; and exemplary support for public humanities programs.
Layman is the president of Columbia-based Layman Publishing Partners, a full-service, custom publishing services provider that specializes in developing and producing works of literary and social history. This recognition comes as the company celebrates its 50th anniversary, honoring five decades of publishing work.
“I am both gratified and humbled by this award. Gratified because it comes from an organization whose work I have admired and supported for as long as I have been in Columbia,” said Layman. “I am humbled because it points to the accomplishments of my company, in whose fifty-year record of achievements I take pride but can hardly claim sole credit.”
Layman attended Indiana University and the University of Louisville before receiving his PhD from the University of South Carolina in 1975. The following year he began working as the sole employee at Bruccoli Clark Publishers, founded by his dissertation director Matthew J. Bruccoli. The first volume of their signal work, the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), was published in 1978. The DLB now comprises more than 400 volumes, 100 million words and nearly 16,000 biographies of writers of all nationalities from antiquity to present. Layman has led the company, now known as Layman Publishing Partners, since Bruccoli’s death in 2008. Layman has written or edited twenty books on subjects including Dashiell Hammett, Ring Lardner and John Dos Passos, and has been editorial director of a host of award-winning reference series.
Layman is a trustee of the Literary Property Trust of Dashiell Hammett, he serves on the executive committee of the South Carolina Academy of Authors and he is a library affiliate at USC’s Thomas Cooper Library.
The South Carolina Awards in the Humanities will be commemorated later this year with an event on October 15 at the South Carolina State Museum.
About Layman Publishing Partners
Layman Publishing Partners provide end-to-end, custom publishing solutions for academic, governmental and corporate clients. For five decades, companies within the Layman Publishing Partners umbrella have specialized in developing and producing works of literary and social history, including notably the Dictionary of Literary Biography, American Decades, History in Dispute, American Eras and Disability Experiences, all of which have earned major awards.
Layman Publishing Partners is a family of four companies building on the resources of Bruccoli Clark Layman (BCL), encompassing BCL, Manly Inc., Layman Poupard Publishing and Bruccoli Layman Development. Learn more at laymanpublishing.com.
