[Greenville, NC] The North Carolina Literary Review releases its 2023 Winter online issue. This year’s feature is Native American Literature of North Carolina, guest edited by Dr. Kirstin L. Squint. “I was thrilled when NCLR Editor Margaret Bauer asked me to assume the role of the journal’s first guest feature editor” remarked Dr. Squint. She appreciated the opportunity to guide NCLR in “acknowledging the importance of North Carolina’s Indigenous peoples and their continuing contributions to our state’s literature.”
The winter issue’s special feature section begins with Squint’s interview with The Red Justice Project podcasters Brittany D. Hunt and Chelsea Locklear, who are adding the neglected voices of Indigenous women to the true crime genre. Hunt remarked during the interview, “Our issue is not that white women don’t deserve coverage; it’s just that Indigenous women and girls deserve the same level of coverage and that the purposeful covering up of these cases is adding to the
problem that’s happening in our community.”
Following the interview, find book reviews of the anthology Upon Her Shoulders: Southeastern Native Women Share Their Stories of Justice, Spirit, and Community, edited by Cherry Beasley, Mary Ann Jacobs, and Ulrike Wiethaus, and of a collection of poetry inspired by Cherokee legends and history by Kimberly L. Becker. Read a poem in the section by Cherokee poet Mary Leauna Christensen. As is usual for NCLR issues, the written content is complemented by art, in this section by North Carolina Lumbee Raven Dial-Stanley and Cherokee Jody Bradley.
The Flashbacks section of the winter issue features content connected to themes featured in previous issues and authors previously published in NCLR. Editor Margaret Bauer recognized, “After three decades of feature sections and writers, it is no surprise that our Flashbacks section gets longer and longer.” In this section, find more book reviews, as well as Dale Bailey’s essay on John Kessel’s fiction, finalist essays from the 2022 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize, and finalists and semifinalists from the 2022 James Applewhite Poetry Prize contest, complemented by art by several North Carolina artists. This section also celebrates some of the 2022 literary award winners and the 2020 inductees to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, the ceremony having been delayed to 2022 due to COVID quarantining. Appropriately, too, this section looks back upon the literary life of Philip Gerard, who passed unexpectedly in November.
In the North Carolina Miscellany section introduction, the editor observes that “2022 might have been a record year for the number of finalists and semifinalists
selected for publication.” This section features more poetry and creative nonfiction (look for the fiction finalists in the fall issue) in this section, by writers new to NCLR’s pages, as well as more reviews, featuring writers new to us, and more North Carolina art and photography.
NCLR Online issues are open-access, and this issue widely introduces almost 20 new books by North Carolina writers, shares the latest writing and in and literary
news of the state. Access this issue via the NCLR website to find out who and what to add to your reading list. Subscribe to NCLR for the 2023 print issue, with
more essays on and interviews with Native American writers and the winners of the 2022 contests.
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