Saturday Review: “Telling Stories to Live,” a review by Terry Roberts of Gary Carden Stories I Lived to Tell (2024) and Christopher Lee Nelson’s Where You Are From (2025) in NCLR Online Spring 2026
“It is an important distinction that one set of stories has been told, the other written.” Roberts delineates between the writer and the storyteller, contrasting between the two meanings and how they apply to Gary Carden and Christopher Lee Nelson. “Whereas Carden honed his craft and sharpened his narratives before live audiences, Nelson learned his craft from other writers in MFA programs and the Sewanee Writers Conference,” writes Roberts.
Roberts describes Carden as not just an author but a storyteller. “There is every sort of illness, loss,
disaster, and death recorded in Carden’s stories, but in the end it is the act of telling that redeems both Carden and his audience,” Roberts says. Gary’s strength doesn’t lie in the words on paper but in the way he delivers them, the unique way in which he brings you along for the ride.
Nelson’s attention to detail allows his fictional stories to feel realistic and vividly come together in the readers’ mind. “It seems clear that the range of protagonists in Nelson’s stories are all trying to make sense of life in a town that is slowly dying around them.” Nelson’s connection to Lenoir, NC and his ability to paint a picture with words results in an entrancing journey.
Read Robert’s review here. Get your own copy of the books from Bookshop.org or from your local independent bookstore.
