NCLR Online Winter 2026

featuring Military Writing in North Carolina

cover art by Amy L. Brown

Spotlighting Military Writing

section introduction by Anna Froula, Guest Feature Editor

“I am honored to serve as the feature editor for NCLR’s 2026 issues on military writing, which, I hope, will open new avenues for conversation and understanding of the unique experiences of military service and the long absence it creates
for families.”

Unresolved Grief and World War II Memories
a review by Elaine Thomas
Barbara Presnell, Otherwise, I’m Fine

Love During War Time
a poem and photograph by Michael Loderstedt

When the Devil Walked on Water
creative nonfiction by Kyle Abbott Smith
art by Amy Louise Brown

resin
a poem by Julian P. Seddon
art by Amy Louise Brown

An American Odyssey
a review by Anna Froula
Michael Ramos, The After: A Veteran’s Notes on Coming Home

Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues

Award-Winning Writers and Books Abound in North Carolina

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“It is not surprising that most of the North Carolina literary award winners are “flashbacks” to previous issues.”

Wiley Cash Adds the North Carolina Award for Literature to His Long List of Honors
by Michele Walker

Railroads, Relationships, and Reality
a review by Jessica Cory
Dean Marshall Tuck, Twinless Twin

Making History: Another First for Carole Boston Weatherford
by Lorraine Hale Robinson

Interrogating Partiality: Questioning as a Path Toward the Whole Truth
a review by Sterling Neill
Carol Baldwin, Half-Truths

Patrice Gopo: One of Two AAUP of North Carolina
Young People’s Literature Award Recipients

Temporal Healings
a review by Sheila Smith McKoy
Glenis Redmond, The Listening Skin
Crystal Simone Smith, Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound

Wounding and Healing
an essay by Mildred Kiconco Barya
art by Richard Wilson

Timelessness and Human Connection
a review by Lisa Wenger Bro
Katherine Scott Crawford, The Miniaturist’s Assistant

Foundation Issues
Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize essay by Susan Wilson
art by Dru Scott Warmath

Two Writer’s Diverged: New Destinations for Short Fiction
a review by Rebecca Duncan
David C. Dickson, Down to the Root
Nathan Dixon, Radical Red

Mystic Neighborhood
a poem by J.S. Absher
art by Jenn Adams

Paying Closer Attention to the Word and the World:
McIlovy’s Radical Reordering of Writerly Advice
a review by Dale Neal
Kevin McIlvoy, Willingness: A Writer’s Meditations on Crossing the Flood

Remembering the Poetry of Black Mountain College
a review by Jeff Davis
Blake Hobby, Alessandro Porco, and Joseph Bathanti, editors,
The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry

Art as Practice
a review by Sayantani Dasgupta
Dorianne Laux, Finger Exercises for Poets

Blessed Memory
a review by Jim Clark
Lee Zacharias, Remember Me

Nature and Writing Memoir from Appalachia
a review by Rebecca Godwin
Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

Before Helene
a review by Eric Walker
Wayne Caldwell, River Road and Shadow Family

North Carolina Miscellany

Raising the Bar

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“This last section of each issue is where we publish writers and reviews of writers new to our pages. It certainly does seem that North Carolina produces a bottomless well of literary talent.”

what i remember most of church
a poem by Zachariah Claypole White
art by Jason Craighead

Lent
by Makayla Carmichael
art by Ann Harwell

A Poem about Us Composed of Cliches, Part 2
a poem by Joan Barasovska
art by Amy Freeman

A Place Called Vulnerable
a review by Laura Dennis
Karen Salyer McElmurray, I Could Name God in Twelve Ways

Monsters, Preachers, and Young Lovers in Southern Appalachia
a review by Evelyn Berry
Andrew K. Clark, Where Dark Things Grow and Where Dark Things Bite

Virtually Real
a review by Barbara Bennett
Lindsay Starck, Monsters We Have Made

The Speech of the Place
a review by David Poston
Britt Kaufmann, Midlife Calculus
Tony Robles, Where the Warehouse Things Are

Perceptions Beyond the Tangible World
a review by Joan Gelfand
Sheila Smith McKoy, The Bones Beneath

“Sweet Sweat” and “Plainsongs”:
The Lyrical Reclamation of Place
a review by Annie Woodford
Forrest Rapier, As the Den Burns
Jacinta V. White, Resurrecting the Bones