FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[GREENVILLE, NC]
The North Carolina Literary Review was honored “in recognition and appreciation [for] supporting North Carolina literature since 1992” during the annual gathering of the North Carolina Writers Conference, the weekend of July 18-19 in Greensboro, NC. Surrounded by many of the writers, reviewers, and editors who have contributed to NCLR’s longevity, longtime Editor Margaret Bauer received the honor on behalf of the literary magazine. “NCLR certainly changed the course of my career, as it has done for so many other authors,” Bauer remarked in gratitude.
With her on a panel to talk about NCLR’s 34-year history, were Founding Editor Alex Albright, Senior Associate Editor Christy Alexander Hallberg, and North Carolina Writers’ Network Director Ed Southern. Former NCLR Editorial Assistant Michael Brantly, in his capacity as this year’s Conference Chair, presented the award, saying, “Alex’s goal was a serious and entertaining magazine whose purpose is to explore and explain the connections of four centuries of writers have had in North Carolina.”
NCLR has expanded from a single annual issue into an award-winning quarterly. The enterprise requires a team of staff and freelancers, student workers, volunteers, and collaborating organizations to produce. Work begins two or three years in advance on each annual feature and runs up to the last minute to meticulously edit every piece. Southern explained that “there are a lot of wonderful literary magazines in North Carolina, but NCLR is the only one that’s about North Carolina and it’s so vital to keeping our literary community thriving and vibrant.”
In addition to the thousands of NC authors who have graced NCLR’s pages, panelists remarked on the incredible art direction, graphic design, and use of NC visual artists’ work in each issue. All four of NCLR’s Art Directors over the years—Eva Roberts, Mary Thiesen, Stephanie Whitlock Dicken, and Dana Ezzell—began their design careers at the ECU School of Art and Design.
The North Carolina Writers Conference (not to be confused with the NC Writers’ Network, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year) dates back to 1950. Since 1977, the annual end-of-July gathering has served as both a supportive gathering to published authors to discuss craft as well as present lifetime achievement awards to those who have contributed to the vitality of literature across the state.
Produced since 1992 at East Carolina University and published by the University of North Carolina Press, 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 literary news. We complement the writing with the work of North Carolina artists and photographers.
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