FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[GREENVILLE, NC]
The Fall issue of North Carolina Literary Review Online closes the 2024 feature of Disability Literature of North Carolina and confirms that NCLR is now a quarterly.
Guest Feature Editor Casey Kayser approaches this issue’s feature section by saying, “I have mixed feelings as I do so, since it is the final special feature section of my guest editor role. The hard work is over, but it also means the end of my collaborations (for now!) with NCLR’s wonderful editor Margaret Bauer, the fantastic NCLR staff, and all the inspiring contributors to our special feature sections.”
Much like the other NCLR Online issues this year, the Feature section begins with an Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize essay. Here is finalist Ashley Harris’s “Year of the Acorns,” about connecting the ecosystem of her body with that of her yard. The oak trees in her yard were shedding acorns while she was getting diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Regardless of the acorns and diagnosis, Harris was able to come to terms with the diagnosis and built herself a beautiful garden.
Next is Vivian I. Bikulege’s important essay, “Singlehanded Wisdom,” on Camille Shafer, who lost her right hand and most of her forearm due to an explosive her sister accidentally mistook for a toy when she was just two. Since then, Shafer has built Azule, an Artist Residency retreat, which Bikulege has attended herself, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Following is another look into Lee Smith’s work: Paula Gallant Eckard’s essay “War, Motherhood, and Disability in Lee Smith’s On Agate Hill.” Guest Editor Kayser states, “Eckard draws on theoretical ideas in the field of narrative medicine from scholars such as Arthur W. Frank, Rita Charon, and Howard Brody to illustrate how Molly and other characters’ use of narrative and storytelling aid in healing, growth, and recovery from illness, disability, and trauma.”
Concluding the special feature section are a book review written by Robert M. West on James Seay’s book Come! Come! Where? Where?, and Priscilla Melchior’s poem inspired by her friend, the poet Marty Silverthorne (1957–2019), who was a quadriplegic due to a motorcycle accident in 1976.
This issue’s Flashbacks section starts off with “A Modern Poem” (1777) introduced by E. Thomson Shields, Jr., who suggests that “[t]he Censor’s satire of Revolutionary War-era politics hits home in the political climate of the twenty-first-century United States.”
Then, NCLR has the privilege of publishing the North Carolina Writers’ Network’s Rose Post Prize essay winner, “Highway 17 (failing at local journalism),” written by Nikolai Mather, as well as Ronald Jackson’s “The Way Home,” which was selected by David Joy for second place in the 2023 Doris Betts Fiction Prize contest.
This section of the issue also includes four book reviews: two of which feature Young Adult novels, harkening to the 2006 issue feature of children’s and YA writers, and the remaining two feature Appalachian literature, which fits into the theme for the 2010 issue. Also echoing the 2010 feature theme is one of Maria Rouphail’s two poems published in this section, semifinalists in the 2024 James Applewhite Poetry Prize contest. The other poem, inspired by a work of art by the poet’s son, is reminiscent of the 2017 issue’s focus on literature and the other arts.
To end the Flashback section, we have “North Carolina Writers Conference Celebrates 75 Years,” written by Robert G. Anthony Jr.
This issue’s North Carolina Miscellany section starts off with “Words Take the Stage: Submissions Triple for the Jaki Shelton Green Performance Poetry Prize” which was judged by ‘23 Piedmont Laureate Dasan Ahanu. This story features the winner, Ed Mabrey and his poem “Tondu: The Tragicomedy of the Black Boy,” the second-place winner Jess Kennedy and her poem “Foundations,” as well as the third-place winner Marcial “CL Tha Artist” Harper and his poem “Hey, America.” Ahanu also chose three other artists for Honorable Mention: Brenda Bailey, Regina YC Garcia, and Alessandra Nysether-Santos.
Next is editorialist and memoirist Tommy Tomlinson’s piece “Re-Vision,” which was the keynote address for the North Carolinas Writers’ Network’s 2023 Fall Conference. Editor Bauer states, “Tommy also reminds us that not many people get rich on writing, but at NCLR, we are committed to paying our writers something, so we thank our collaborators, the North Carolina Writers’ Network and the North Carolina Poetry Society, for example, who provided the funds to pay the honorees in this section.”
The rest of the Miscellany section features stories from the 2023 Doris Betts Fiction Prize contest: “The Other Donners” by Kaylie Saidin (Third Place); “All Things Work Together for Good” by Jeremy Griffin (Finalist), and “Where I’m Supposed to Be” written by Gabi Stephens (Finalist).
NCLR Online issues are open access. Find the full table of contents of this issue and, upon its release, a link to the issue here.
Produced since 1992 at East Carolina University, and published by the University of North Carolina Press, the North Carolina Literary Review has won numerous awards and citations. The mission of NCLR is to preserve and promote North Carolina’s rich literary culture. NCLR introduces new and emerging writers; reintroduces forgotten authors; showcases work in literary criticism, interviews, book reviews, fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; and reports on the state’s literary news. Artwork used by exclusively North Carolina artists.
