Friday from the Archives: “Renaissance Man: An Interview with Clyde Edgerton” by George Hovis, from NCLR Issue 26 (2017)
Congratulations to the renowned author, professor, musician, and artist Clyde Edgerton on being the 2023 Caldwell Award Recipient from NC Humanities. This award honors distinguished individuals who have strengthened the educational, cultural, and civic life of North Carolinians through their life’s work. (Past winners include our very own Margaret Bauer and Founding Editor Alex Albright!)
“Love, family, heritage – these are terms critics typically muster to discuss the works of Clyde Edgerton. His often gentle humor, his focus on human relationships, his celebration of the ties that bind individuals to each other, to their families, and to their histories encourage such thematic readings of Edgerton’s works…” wrote Tim Edwards in 2003. Edgerton continues to pursue these themes, both in his writings and in his teaching at UNC-W and his advocacy work.
We have interviewed and published Edgerton many times over the past thirty-one years. In our 2003 Special Feature section “Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the First Flight: Aviation in North Carolina Literature and Letters,” we printed two Edgerton related pieces. Son of a Gun, Sky-high: Clyde Edgerton on Flying an interview by Tonita S. Branan and Soaring on “words of living flame”: Flights of Narrative Fancy in Clyde Edgerton’s The Floatplane Notebooks and In Memory of Junior by Tim Edwards.
In our 2008 special addition CD for “North Carolina Humor: The Old Mirth State” we included three tracks by Edgerton: Safety Patrol Song, Baloney Bacon and Beer, and Older People in Cars, from Lunch at the Piccadilly.
Sheryl Cornett revisited several authors for a piece in the 2017 Online issue, including Edgerton, for Northeast to Down East: Four Diverse North Carolina Authors Revisit Their NCLR Interviews.
For our 2017 print issue, George Hovis interviewed Clyde Edgerton. The conversation not only highlights Edgerton’s repeated success in multiple artistic mediums, but also gives us a deep dive into the author’s philosophy about creativity. Edgerton’s artwork accompanied this interview.
Book reviews include Where Trouble Sleeps (NCLR 1998), Solo: My Adventures in the Air (NCLR 2006), The Bible Salesman (NCLR 2009), and The Night Train (NCLR Online 2012).
All of us at NCLR look forward to reading and working with Edgerton again.
Read the entire Hovis interview on ProQuest or by ordering the 2017 issue featuring “North Carolina Literature and the Other Arts.”
