NCLR Online Winter 2022

Writers Who Teach; Teachers Who Write

cover art by Joan Mansfield;
cover design Dana Ezzell Lovelace

NCLR Online Winter 2022 Press Release [PDF]

The Many Hats a North Carolina Writer Wears

section introduction by Margar et D. Bauer, Editor

“My own passion for both teaching and writing and my appreciation for those who do both inspired the special feature topic I chose for my twenty-fifth year as NCLR Editor.”

One Hell of a Book (By a North Carolina Writer) Receives the National Book Award for Fiction
by Margaret D. Bauer

“The Black Condition” in Hell of a Book
a review by Helen Stead
Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

Borrowed Light
a poem by Kelly Jones
art by Rand Kramer

People Constructed of Pain and Grief
a review by Jim Coby
Wiley Cash, When Ghosts Come Home

Mixed Messages: A Southern Childhood
a poem by Sylvia Freeman
art by Charles Alston

New Fiction Reckons with Landscape of Change
a review by Kristina L. Knotts
Naima Coster, What’s Mine and Yours
Kevin McIlvoy, One Kind Favor

Betrayal
a poem by Charles Murray
art by Lacey McKinney

They Have Been at Something, Some Carrion, a Deer or Such
a review by Jimmy Dean Smith
Vicki Lane, And the Crows Took Their Eyes

First Published Novel by a Member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Receives 2021 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
by Margaret D. Bauer

Linking the Common and the Uncanny
a review by Lisa Wenger Bro
Jen Fawkes, Tales the Devil Told Me

You Can Come Home Again – and Be Lauded:
Jim Grimsley Receives 2021 Hardee Rives Dramatic Arts Award
by Lorraine Hale Robinson

An Interview with Rock ’n’ Roll Novelist Christy Alexander Hallberg
by George Hovis

The Eye
a poem and photography by Michael Loderstedt
Listen to the poem here. ?

An Unsung Legend
a review by Max Kilgore
Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

More Than a Haircut
a poem by Gwen Priest
art by Moriah LeFebvre

Stories about Growing Up
Black and Female in America
a review by Mark I. West
Alica D. Williams, Genesis Begins Again, Jump at the Sun, and Shirley Chisholm Dared

Ghazal: Reflection and We Think of Night as Still
two poems by Lavonne J. Adams
art by Carmen Grier and Alicia A. Armstrong

A Roving Search for Provisions of Any Kind
a review by Kathryn Kirkpatrick
Rose McLarney, Forage

A Reading Full of Light
a review by John Zheng
Gideon Young, my hands full of light

Why I Flinch at the Thought of Daylight Squandered
a poem by Justin Hunt
art by Linda Foard Roberts

Poems of Love and Loss
a review by James W. Kirkland
Anthony S. Abbot, Dark Side of North

Clichés
a poem by Mark Smith-Soto
art by Francisco Gonzalez

Charting Grief, Seeking Solace
a review by John Lang
Faith Shearin, Lost Language

Debut Novel by Halli Gomez
Wins NC AAUW Award

Turning Reality on Its Head
a review by Grace C. Ocasio
Pat Riviere-Seel, When There Were Horses
Maureen Sherbondy, Dancing with Dali

Love – and Mushrooms and Zooms – in the Ruins
an essay by Caroline Rash
art by Sue Holder Rash
Listen to the essay here. ?

Timothy B. Tyson Receives 2021 North Carolina Award for Literature
by Michele Walker

Being Christian, Being Jewish
a review by Judy Goldman
Mirinda Kossoff, The Rope of Life

J.J. 1985
a poem by Sandra Dreis
art by Jesse Murry

A Year of Collected Notes: Storytelling Sublime
a review by Donna A. Gessell
Kat Meads, Dear Deedee

Wintering
a poem by Charles Dodd White
art by Kenny Nguyen

The Transformational Potential of Writing
a review by Monica Carol Miller
Karen Salyer McElmurray, Voice Lessons

2021 Crittenden Award, Well-Deserved Honor for “Mr. North Carolina,” Robert G. Anthony, Jr.
by John Blythe

Calling the Bluff on Show-Don’t-Tell
a review by Laura Hope-Gill
James Tate Hill, Blind Man’s Bluff
art by Cynthia Bickley-Green

Tireless and Selfless Promoter of North Carolina Literature Alex Albright: Recipient of the 2021
John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities
presentation remarks by Margaret D. Bauer

A Lifetime’s Labors
acceptance remarks by Alex Albright

Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“In this section, find reviews of books by writers we’ve published – Allan Gurganus’s selected stories collection and Ed Southern’s memoir – and on the subject of previous content – Popcorn Sutton. Enjoy poems by writers who have been James Applewhite Poetry Prize finalists before: J.S. Absher, Priscilla Melchior, and Benjamin Pryor. And here too we pay our respects to North Carolina’s much lauded and beloved mystery writer, Margaret Maron, and her husband, Joe, who passed away within months of each other this past year.”

That ye be not judged: A Remembrance of Margaret and Joe Maron
by D.G. Martin

Gluttons for Local Color
a review by Zackary Vernon
Allan Gurganus, The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus

Memory’s Songbook
a review by Anna McFadyen
Jill Caugherty, Waltz in Swing Time

Two New City-Set Novels
a review by James W. Clark, Jr.
L.C. Fiore, Coyote Loop
Terry Roberts, My Mistress’ Eyes Are Raven Black

Telling Her Story
a review by Sharon E. Colley
Heather Frese, The Baddest Girl on the Planet

Lost in the Maze of Genre
a review by Dale Bailey
Michael Amos Cody, A Twilight Reel
Tim Garvin, A Dredging in Swann

Flower of Zeus
a poem by J.S. Absher
art by Meredith Hebden

Confederate Memorial Day
a poem by Priscilla Melchior
art by Stephen L. Hayes, Jr.
Listen to the poem here. ?

The Ladder
a poem by Benjamin Pryor
art by Chris Foley

The Vitruvian Outlaw
a review by Jessica Martell
Neal Hutcheson, The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton

A Tale of Two Souths
a review by Fred Hobson
Ed Southern, Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South

Natania Barron Wins 2021 Manly Wade Wellman Award

North Carolina Miscellany

New Voices

section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor

“Both Emily Dunlap Carter, whose submission last year was selected by final judge Michael Parker for second place, and Eve Odom, selected for Honorable Mention, are new to our pages, and Eve reports that this is her first publication. . . . I remind you here that the North Carolina Miscellany section of our issues allows us to publish interviews with and essays on new writers – and not so new but previously uncovered by NCLR.”