NCLR Online Winter 2023

Native American Literature of North Carolina

cover art by Gene Locklear

NCLR Online Winter 2023 Press Release [PDF]

Pushcart Nomination
Blaise Kielar

Spotlighting North Carolina’s Indigenous Voices

section introduction by Kirstin L. Squint, Guest Feature Editor

“The winter online issue provides a taste of what is to come in the 2023 print issue, which will include creative writing by Cherokee and Lumbee writers, . . . literary criticism by scholars of Indigenous and US Southern literatures about Cherokee, Lumbee, and Catawba texts . . . [and] artwork by North Carolina Native artists. . . . Be sure to subscribe to NCLR, if you don’t already, to receive this historic issue, the first to focus on North Carolina Native American literature.”

**Kristin L. Squint, guest feature editor (ECU photo by Cliff Hollis)**

The Red Justice Project:
An Interview with Brittany Hunt and Chelsea Locklear
by Kirstin L. Squint

Taking Up the Mantle and Making it Her Own
a review by Lynne Norris Murray
art by Raven Dial-Stanley
Cherry Beasley, Mary Ann Jacobs, Urlike Wiethaus, eds. Upon Her Shoulders: Southeastern Native Women Share Their Stories of Justice, Spirit, and Community

In Which I Am a Sum of Parts
a poem by Mary Leauna Christensen
art by Jody Bradley

Re-membering the Dark and the Light
a review by Jennifer Peedin
art by Jody Bradley
Kimberly L. Becker, Bringing Back the Fire

Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“After three decades of feature sections and writers, it is no surprise that our Flashbacks section gets longer and longer. Welcome back to several writers, whether for yet another poem or essay that was a finalist, for having a new book reviewed, or for receiving a new award covered here (looking at you, ’22 Raleigh award winner Valerie Nieman).”

Celebrating, Finally, the 2020 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Inductees

A Triumph from Doodle Hill
a review by Rebecca Godwinn
Malaika King Albrecht and Marsha White Warren, eds.
Collected Poems of Marty Silverthorne

“We’ve all lost a champion”: Philip Gerard (1955–2022)

A Very Dark Ride: Three Ways of Looking at
the Short Fiction of John Kessel
a review essay by Dale Bailey

Cosmic Background Radiation
a poem by Eric Weil
art by Robert Langford

The Coming of Wisdom in WWII Eastern North Carolina
a review by Donna A. Gessell
Leah Weiss, All the Little Hopes

NC AAUW Young People’s Literature Award

Making Sense of the Sixties
a review by Sheryl Cornett
Lee Zacharias, What a Wonderful World This Could Be

Valerie Nieman Receives Sir Walter Raleigh Award

Captain von Trapp in the Surgical Suite
a poem by Maureen Sherbondy
art by Tim Lytveninko
Listen to the poem, ready by the poet

Jubilee
a poem by Janet Ford
art by Carrie Tomberlin

Complicated Connections: Young Love in the 1970s South
a review by David Deutsch
Jim Grimsley, A Dove in the Belly

Vocation and Dead Sea Pantoum
two poems by Janis Harrington
art by Horace Farlowe
Listen to “Vocation” and “Dead Sea Pantoum”

Raised by Hand and Story
an essay and poem by Glenis Redmond

Heading West
a poem by Debra Kaufman
art by Ralston Fox Smith
Listen to the poem, ready by the author

Violin Shop: Behind the Velvet Counter
an essay by Blaise Kielar

“All come to look for America”
a review by Jim Clark
Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti, eds.
Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath

Brow
a poem by Morrow Dowdle
art by Peter Marin

An Examined Life Through the Lens of Artistic Vision
a review by Heather Bell Adams
Luke Whisnant, The Connor Project

Daylight Saving
a poem by Bill Griffin
art by Chris Liberti

“idealist with the big broken heart”
a review by Barbara Bennett
Mark Powell, Lioness

Patient Doe Escapes the Asylum and Goes on the Town
a poem by J.S. Absher
art by Theodorus Stamos
Listen to the poem, read by the poet

“the human heart in conflict with itself”
a review by Patti Frye Meredith
Erica Plouffe Lazure, Proof of Me & Other Stories

North Carolina Miscellany

Miscellaneous Contests, Prize Winners, Artists, Book Reviews, and More!

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“Reviews are a way to give back to your writing community, of course, but also . . . delving into another’s work might very well positively influence your own.”

A Private History of Deviled Eggs
an essay by Ashley Memory
art by Krista Harris

Gas Station Hat
a poem by Cindy Brookshire
art by Kyle Highsmith

Nest
a poem by Liza Wolff-Francis
art by Ann Roth

What Survives of Us
a review by Anna McFadyen
Alana Dagenhart, Yellow Leaves
Cheryl Wilder, Anything That Happens

Horizons
a poem by Anne Myles
art by Lee Nisbet
Listen to “Horizons”

Divine Miss Hitchens
a poem by Jo Ann S. Hoffman
art by Margaret Balzar Cantieni
Listen to the poem, read by the poet

How to Support your Daughter When She Moves to San Francisco
an essay by Lockie Hunter
photography by Paul Gemperline

A Right of Passage Toward Acceptance and Understanding
a review by Betina Entzminger
photography by Paul Gemperline
Megan Miranda, The Last to Vanish

Hard Tailed
a poem by Almyr L. Bump
art by Donald Sexauer

Interference
a poem by Joanne Durham
art by Brandon Cordrey

Any Adjectives for Divorce
a poem by Jamal Michel
art by Dimeji Onafuwa
Listen to the poem, read by the poet

Fading into Reflection
a review by Sharon Colley
Spencer K.M. Brown, Move Over Mountain

Living on Shifting Ground
a review by Monica Carol Miller
Judith Turner-Yamamoto, Loving the Dead and Gone

Draft Animal
a poem by Annie Woodford
art by Alex Harris

Family Secrets and Amazing Grace
a review by Elaine Thomas
Patti Frye Meredith, South of Heaven

Cross-Cut
a poem by Astrid Bridgwood
art by Leah Sobsey

When Worlds Collide
a review by Janna McMahan
Diane Chamberlain, Big Lies in a Small Town
and The Last House on the Street