by Margaret Bauer, Editor
I am so pleased to report that NCLR begins the new year with two new associate editors: Book Review Editor Kristi Southern and Fiction Editor Rebecca Bernard.
Many of you already know Kristi, as she’s been managing our book reviews since spring 2024, first as a graduate intern and then as a graduate assistant during her MBA program at ECU. And if you go way back, when Kristi taught in the English Department several years ago, she served as NCLR’s submissions manager.
Given our weekly review blog and corresponding social media postings, it is absolutely vital that we keep making and keep up with review assignments and keep track of all the books coming out to add to our list of books available for review. When I asked Kristi if she’d like to stay on as our Book Review Editor, she wrote, “I look forward to joining the NCLR team in a more specific and consistent capacity this spring. My previous work with the book review process has allowed me to connect with such a variety of NCLR participants, including our authors, reviewers, publishers, current and retired faculty from multiple NC academic institutions, and student interns at ECU. I am excited to continue to build those relationships and begin new ones – and of course, I am eager to see what new NC literary contributions are coming our way.”
Rebecca Bernard joined the ECU English Department in the fall, bringing experience on literary magazines with her, so I jumped at the opportunity to have a fiction editor again. She’s already helped with the 2024 Doris Betts Fiction Prize contest. Rebecca has an MFA in fiction from Vanderbilt and a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of North Texas. She is the author of the story collection Our Sister Who Will Not Die (Mad Creek Books, 2022). Read recent stories by her in the Oxford American, Los Angeles Review, and Cincinnati Review. The latter also just published craft essay by her on their blog.
Rebecca says, “some of my favorite writers have North Carolina roots, and I am excited to learn more about the rich, literary tradition of this place. Writing to me is about community, craft, innovation, and amplifying voices we haven’t heard from before, and I am looking forward to finding ways to expand and deepen our coverage of North Carolina fiction while carrying on the great work of NCLR.”
We’ve got several new student staff members, too, starting this week, and some returning. They’ll work with Devra introducing themselves via our social media this month. I welcome them to the staff, welcome back a couple of returning students, and say congratulations to the students who graduated in December. And thank you to Kristi and Rebecca for offering their vital service to the North Carolina literary community as they don their respective editor caps.