by Margaret Bauer, Editor
Linked In jumped the gun and is telling everyone it’s my 30th anniversary at ECU, which officially doesn’t come until the fall semester. But it’s been nice hearing from folks. It might be time to change my Linked In photograph, lest they think I made some kind of deal with the devil. I don’t use Linked In very often, and I have not updated the headshot since I uploaded it to my brand-new Linked In account – around the turn of the century.
In 1998, my dad said all he wanted for Christmas was 8x10s from all his children. I waited until the last minute, so I ended up having mine taken at a Wal Mart after standing in line with mothers and babies waiting on holiday photographs. I had to beg the photographer to put up a non-Christmas background for me. (Note to self: take that 1998 photograph down when this blog post is replaced with next month’s.)
Not surprisingly, as most have experienced, I don’t feel so different from the young woman looking out at the Wal Mart photographer who snapped that photo just a couple of months after my first issue of the North Carolina Literary Review was published. That is, unless you count my joint and back pain. Inside, I mean. My mom was right: however many years pass, inside yourself, you’re still a particular age, and I’m about forty in my head. It makes for shocking morning mirror time. (Who is that woman looking back?)
As retirement age creeps up on me, I’ve been taking time to record my almost thirty years of amazing experiences with North Carolina’s literary talent, from telling a young writer she won the James Applewhite Poetry Prize contest with her very first submission to a literary magazine to walking across the ECU campus with Charles Frazier (!) telling him about my idea that the black hole is to Luce in his Nightwoods what the white whale is to Ahab, that fear of nothingness. The opportunity to talk with the author of Cold Mountain (that book I hope I have with me if I find myself on a desert island) was certainly a “love my job” moment.
Realizing I am no longer that 30-something new NCLR editor in the 1998 photograph or the 40-something editor who interviewed Charles Frazier (I’ll stop there) prompts me to revisit the topic of NCLR’s sustainability plan, which I’ve mentioned before. University Advancement staff are working with NCLR staff this year to reintroduce Friends of NCLR, a community of readers, writers, and champions who believe in the power of North Carolina’s literary arts. We are seeking annual pledges that will supplement our state budget, which has remained largely static since about 2008 (when it was cut) – even as we have grown since then from a single print issue to a quarterly. There are also endowment opportunities related to NCLR staff support important to sustainability beyond my editorship that I’d be thrilled to talk about with anyone who has the desire and the means. But every donation makes a difference, and I thank all who have given in the past, appreciate all who continue to give.
There are other ways to get involved in NCLR’s mission as well: volunteer to write a book review or conduct an interview with a writer. We have an idea for starting a First Book Fellows group within our Friends to match writers with interviewers. We would also like to reconnect with past members of the NCLR staff. Current student staff members would appreciate the opportunity to interview you about the role of your NCLR experience in your career. Indeed, we’d love to hear others’ NCLR stories – writers, artists, publishers, readers.
Finally, one other, perhaps the easiest thing you can do to support NCLR is SUBSCRIBE and encourage others to do so. Ask your local bookstore to add NCLR to their shelves as well. Check out our back issues page, scroll down the page to see all the different topics we’ve featured over the years, and you’re bound to find one just right for that reader in your life.
Thank you for your support!