Writer and publisher Louis Rubin, artist Daniel Nie and blues musician Scott Ainslie, received the 20th annual Sam Ragan Awards at St. Andrews Presbyterian College at an awards ceremony on Sept. 21, in the William Henry Belk Center on the college campus.

Rubin, a Chapel Hill resident, is the founder of Algonquin Press. He has written and edited 47 books and two more, “The Quotable Baseball Fanatic” and “A Memory of Trains,” are due out this year. He is the first publisher of novelist Clyde Edgerton, a former St. Andrews professor. The recipient of six honorary degrees, Rubin founded the graduate program in creative writing at Hollins College. He has been professor to such successful students as Jill McCorkle, Lee Smith, Kaye Gibbons, John Barth, Annie Dillard and Randall Keenan.

Nie, currently of Charlotte, is a former St. Andrews professor. Born in Shanghai, Nie came to the United States in 1981. He received his B.A. in art from Wake Forest and his M.A. and M.F.A. in art from the American University in Washington, D.C. Nie’s works of watercolor and mixed media are exhibited widely on the east coast and are included in many private and corporate collections.

Ainslee, a guitarist, author and teacher, makes his home in Durham. A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Ainslie lectures and performs on campuses throughout the south where he has been an artist-in-residence on eight occasions. He has appeared on television and radio and in New York in off-broadway productions.