Book News

World Premier of Crossroads

Robert Inman's new play, Crossroads, is to have its world premier this summer at the Blowing Rock (NC) Stage Company, where it has been in development for more than a year.  The show will run from June 12 to July 6, and will be the latest installment of BRSC's "New Voices of the South" series.

Inman's Crossroads is based on an obscure accident in North Carolina history.  Almost a hundred years ago, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show played in Charlotte.  As usual, after the performance, cast, crew, set and livestock were loaded back onto the train, and sent off to Danville, Virginia, for their next appearance.  Near Salisbury, however, the trained derailed and in Inman's words, this accident "scattered the Wild West Show all over the tracks."

Fellowship of Southern Writers' Awards

The 2003 Awards from the Fellowship of Southern Writers' were presented April 25th at the Chattanooga Conference on Southern Literature.  The recipients were:

Robert Ashcom    - New Writing Award for Fiction

R. H. W. Dillard    - Hanes Prize for Poetry

Donald Harington  - Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction

Horton Foote       - Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement

Silas House         - James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South

Pat C. Hoy II       - Cecil Woods Jr. Prize for Nonfiction

Julia Johnson       - New Writing Award for Poetry

Mary Ward Brown - Hillsdale Award for Fiction

James McLure      - Bryan Family Foundation Award for Drama

Poet Rodney Jones to receive the Harper Lee Award

Poet Rodney G. Jones, professor of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will be presented the 2003 Harper Lee Award at the Alabama Writers Symposium on May 2nd in Monroeville, Alabama.  The award is given annually by the Alabama Writers' Forum to a living, nationally recognized Alabama writer of creative nonfiction, drama, fiction, memoirs or poetry.

Jones was born in Hartsell, Alabama and grew up in Falkville, Alabama.   His desire to become a poet was born as an undergraduate at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. 

His eighth book, Kingdom of the Instant, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002.

Southern Scribe Bragging Rights

Joyce Dixon, owner of Southern Scribe, was interviewed in the Spring 2003 issue of First Draft, the journal of the Alabama Writers' Forum.  In the article, she discussed the history of Southern Scribe and the state of Southern Literature.

NCWN Announces Winners for the Elizabeth Daniels Squire Writers-In-Residence Program

 

 

The North Carolina Writers' Network is pleased to announce the writers who have been selected to participate in the Elizabeth Daniels Squire Writers-In-Residence program, to be held at Peace College July 20-26, 2003. The Writers-in-Residence Program was created to memorialize the life, works, and literary contributions of author, long-time friend of the NC Writers' Network, and Peace College alumna, Elizabeth Daniels Squire. Funded by the Josephus Daniels Charitable Fund, the Elizabeth Daniels Squire Writers-in-Residence program is in its first year.

 

Writers applied in four genres.

 

The fiction winners are:  Frankie Eileen Alexander, Lyn Fairchild, David Frauenfelder and Ann Prospero of Durham;  Peggy Tabor Millin and Bob Mustin of Asheville; Stephanie Fletcher of Charlotte; Michelle Groce of Cornelius; Jenny Elizabeth McCraw of Concord; Joan Medlicott of Barnardsville; Nancy Purcell of Pisgah Forest; Penelope Virginia Robbins of Raleigh; Courtney

Weill of Chapel Hill; Cornelia Bland Wright of Winston-Salem; C. Pleasants York of Sanford

 

The Poetry winners are: Louise Barden and Mary Kratt of Charlotte; Sally Logan and Margaret Rabb of Chapel Hill; Andrea Bates of Wilmington; Kenneth Chamlee of Etowah; L. Teresa Church of Durham; Jan Donaldson of Fayetteville; Mary Hennessy of Raleigh; Glenna Luschei of Wilkesboro; Jennifer S. Madriaga of Henderson; Joanna McKethan of Dunn; Claire A.

Pittman of Greenville; Betty Ritz Rogers of Greensboro; Patricia Riviere-Seel of Asheville

 

The Creative Nonfiction winners are: Paul Austin and Jennifer King of Durham; Susan Gladin and Amanda Gladin-Kramer of Hillsborough; Lori Horvitz and Marla Hardee Milling of Asheville; Bridgette A. Lacy, Susan Byrum Rountree and Sheilah Barton Zimpel of Raleigh; Phronjia Bradley of Charlotte; Glenn Edward Busch of High Point; Eden Foster of Hendersonville;

Sigrid Hice of Hickory; Carole Moore (Lynch) of Jacksonville; John Thomas York of Greensboro.

 

The Teen writers are: Anna Charlton, Kelsey McKinney, and Jesse McLeod of Raleigh; Carolyn Gray and Nyssa M. Johnson of Cary; Caitlin Conner and Alice Turner of Hillsborough; Kate Somer and Victoria (Torii) Spring of Durham; Lisa Bledsoe of Clayton; Amanda Griffin of Charlotte; Kate Jessup of High Point; Joshua King of Gastonia; Elizabeth A. Overcash of

Franklinton; Caitlin Prillamin of Chapel Hill.

 

Participants will live at Peace College for one week and engage in intensive writing workshops, attend craft classes, participate in mentoring sessions, and hear guest readers. Faculty will be Doris Betts, author of nine fiction books and former Alumni Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Fred Chappell, former Poet

Laureate of North Carolina and professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Philip Gerard, author of three novels and several books of nonfiction and professor and director of the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; and Rebecca McClanahan, author of eight books and former

Writer-in-Residence/Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Poetry-in-the-Schools program.

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2002 Self-Published African African American Awards Winners Announced

The Sistah Circle Book Club’s Self-Published African American Authors Awards, in its third year, has selected winners for their 2002 awards.  The various awards recognize African American writers who published their works independently. 

The Michael W. Catledge award is an annual award given to the self-published author who has worked diligently in writing, marketing and public relations.

The winners and honorable mentions for this year's award categories are as follows:

2002 Author of the Year
Brenda Thomas (winner)
Eric E. Pete (honorable)

Book of the Year
Promise Beyond Jordan - Vanessa Davis Griggs

Best Books in 2002

Fiction
That's The Way Love Goes - Daryl C. Diggs (winner)
Someone's In the Kitchen - Eric E. Pete (honorable)

Teen Fiction
Doing Just Fine - C. Annette Boyd
Finding the Rock - D. Earl Davis II

Non-Fiction
Through the Storm - Richard D. Williams
The Soul of a Black Woman - C. Highsmith Hooks

Mystery
Degree of Caution - Sibyl Avery Jackson
The Christmas Party - Chari Davenport

Thriller
Dark Side of Valor - Alicia M. Singleton
Prayer of Prey - Tony Lindsay

Self-Help
Sister Gumbo - Ursula Kindred, et. al.
Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet - Patsy Pullen

Christian Fiction
Promised Beyond Jorden - Vanessa Davis Griggs
Kiss of Judah - Renee Allen

Christian Non-Fiction
Secret Treasures for Wisdom - Kimberly Perry

Christian Self-Help
Before You Say I Do - Sandra and Emmett Mosley
Prone To Wander - Sandra D. Black, et. al.

Poetry
Collapsed on the Wings of a Sigh - Tracey Michae'l Lewis
Butterfly Kisses - Ebony Farashuu

The Sistah Circle Book Club < www.thesistahcircle.com > continually supports self-published authors and remains committed to awarding African American authors on an annual basis.

Poster Designs Donated by Mid South Artist Aid Restoration Efforts of Fire Damaged Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, NC 

The Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, NC, as part of its continuing restoration efforts, is offering two limited edition posters donated by Ed Cathey. The money generated from sale of these prints will be used to repair damage sustained to the Memorial in 1998 by an arsonist’s fire. The posters are on sale both at the memorial's gift shop at 48 N. Market St. and online at www.wolfememorial.com . 

Kevin Donaldson, a volunteer with, and enthusiastic supporter of, the memorial says “It's a pretty hip design, certainly not the old- school Thomas Wolfe memorabilia. So I hope it'll interest a younger crowd and keep interest in Wolfe and the home going into the future."

There are 20 of each design that are numbered, signed and framed on sale for $150 each," said Kim Hewitt, historic interpreter at the memorial. "The unsigned, unframed posters are $24.95." 

Thomas Wolfe is acknowledged as one of the giants of American Literature. He called the historic Old Kentucky Home boarding house, run by his mother, home for ten years. It was depicted as "Dixieland" in Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel. Wolfe was strongly influenced by his hometown of Asheville and by the boarding house itself. 

The Old Kentucky Home is currently undergoing restoration due to damage incurred during a fire in July 1998. The historic boarding house will receive a museum-quality restoration, which will take several years to complete. Fire-damaged furnishings and other historic artifacts are also currently under restoration. 

Thomas Wolfe is perhaps the most overtly autobiographical novelist in American Literature. During his short life (he lived to be only 38), Wolfe produced four novels: Look Homeward, Angel, Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, and You Can't Go Home Again, as well as numerous short stories, novellas, and plays. The historic boarding house has been a memorial to Wolfe since 1949 and is now operated as a North Carolina State Historic Site. A visitor center offers exhibits on Wolfe and his family and an audio-visual presentation on Wolfe's life and writing. Guided tours around the Old Kentucky Home are also offered. Wolfe himself foresaw the future of his mother's boarding house when he wrote in his second novel, Of Time and the River, that the "old dilapidated house had now become a fit museum."

2003: 04 03 02 01
2002: 11 10 09  08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

2001: 12 11 10 09 08  07 06 05 04 03 02 01 

2000: 12 11  10  09  08 

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