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Monthly Archives: September 2021

The Filming of Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret

September 24, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

I regularly teach a children’s literature course at UNC Charlotte, and a few weeks ago one of the students waited to speak to me after class.  “Are you going to talk about Judy Blume’s books?” she asked.  I told her that I would talk about Judy Blume during an upcoming class session, and she responded by telling me how much she loves Blume’s books.  She then told me that she recently worked as an extra in the film version of Blume’s 1970 novel Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, which was filmed in Charlotte during the spring and summer.  We talked about her experiences working as an extra, and she agreed to share her experiences with the rest of the class.  This past week she told the whole class about how much fun she had acting in one of the scenes in the movie, and I could tell that the entire class enjoyed hearing about her adventures as a budding movie star. 

The production company Lionsgate began filming of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret in Charlotte, and several of the surrounding communities in April 2021 and continued filming until the beginning of July.  The filming brought some famous movie stars to Charlotte, including Kathy Bates, who plays the role of Margaret’s grandmother, and Abby Ryder Fortson, who plays the role of Margaret.  Since the film takes place in the early 1970s, the filming also involved shooting street scenes filled with cars from the 1960s and early ‘70s.  As a result, several area car collectors had the pleasure of having their cars included in the film.  Although the filming wrapped up this past summer, Lionsgate does not plan to release the film until 2022.

The fact that Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was filmed in the Charlotte area has a special meaning for me, for it causes me to reflect on the day I met Judy Blume to interview her about the efforts to censor her books.  We met on June 10, 1985, in her home on the top floor of an attractive high-rise in New York City. I can pinpoint the date because I jotted it down on the cassette tape that I used to record the interview. When I listen to the tape now, I am almost embarrassed by how nervous I sounded at the start of our conversation, but I had never interviewed a famous author before, nor even been inside a building that had a doorman. Blume quickly put me at ease by telling me a bit about her family and offering me a beverage. Then, for the next several hours, we talked about censorship. At that time, I was in the middle of writing my first book, Children, Culture, and Controversy, and I was conducting research for a chapter about the various attempts to ban children’s books written by Blume and other controversial authors.

When I asked her questions about the campaigns against her books, she answered in ways that went beyond herself. She often drew connections between her own experiences with book censors and the experiences of other children’s authors whose books had also been banned. She talked about her commitment to children’s intellectual freedom and their right to read a variety of books. She told me about the National Coalition Against Censorship and suggested I interview its then-director, the late Leanne Katz. She also suggested I talk with other authors of censored children’s books. I followed up on her suggestions, and this eventually led to my collection of interviews titled Trust Your Children: Voices Against Censorship in Children’s Literature.  I would have never written this book if it were not for Blume’s suggestion and encouragement.

I will always treasure my memories of my trip to New York to interview Judy Blume, and I continue to value my connection to Blume and her children’s books.  I have long wished that I could reciprocate her gracious hospitality.  In fact, I tried to bring her to Charlotte to speak, but we could not work out the details.  However, now that her classic novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret has been filmed in Charlotte, I am pleased that Storied Charlotte has its own special connection to Judy Blume.    

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with Mimi Milan

September 20, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15, so now is an especially fitting time to celebrate the work of Mimi Milan, one of Charlotte’s leading Latina authors.  Mimi grew up in Charlotte after having moved to the city as a child.  She graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2016 with a degree in English.  During her undergraduate days, she took courses in creative writing, literature, and film. She then went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from Queens University.  Since I was the chair of UNC Charlotte’s English Department at the time that Mimi was pursuing her BA degree, I am particularly proud that she has gone on to make such a success of herself after her graduation.

Mimi has published a wide variety of works, including poetry, romance novels, westerns, fantasies, and paranormal fiction.  However, in almost all of her work, she draws on her Latino background and her familiarity with Mexico and other places in Latin America. In fact, several of her books are available in Spanish.  For more information about Mimi and her publications, place click on the following link:  https://www.mimimilan.com/

I recently contacted Mimi and asked her about her experiences as a Charlotte writer.  Here is what she sent to me:

I moved to the Charlotte area back in the days when it was still a little uncomfortable for some folks to see people like me. That is, a Latina with mixed family roots. It was way back in the eighties, but I still remember the first interaction I had with “the local yokels.” A little blonde-headed girl rode her bike up to our yard and asked, “Are you allowed to play with white people?” 

Mimi’s parents

It was an odd question for someone claiming stomping grounds from Caldwell, New Jersey, to the Bronx, born with a parent on each end of the color spectrum. It was also a little confusing for a child who was raised to eat arroz con gandules and pollo guisado, while watching shows like Good Times and dancing to songs by Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. So in typical ten-year-old fashion, I relied on my parents for the right answer. I still laugh when I think of the response I was to deliver. 

“Tell her we said, ‘Yeah… as long as they’re not dead.'” 

It’s an odd answer, tinged with sarcasm and a tiny bit of morbidity. However, it’s also sharp dialogue. That’s what I aim for with all of my writing. I’ve written everything from historical romance (The Dancing Lady) to westerns (Dueling the Desperado and Where the Snowy Owl Sleeps), suspense stories, a paranormal that made the USA Today bestseller list last year, and even poetry published in various literary journals (such as Sanskrit and the Blue Mountain Review). Regardless of what I write, I always strive to create stories and characters that resonate with the people of my past–words that will keep both them and our culture alive forever. That’s how I would describe my latest project that is currently being shopped around. 

A satirical romp about the end of the world, the rapture is set off when some important pop culture is stolen and Jesus (very much resembling the stereotypical Gen-Xer) is tasked with deciding who is to be saved when all he really wants is a long overdue vacation. However, the novel is more than a stab at pearl clutching political policies. It is also a roman à clef, as much of my own life and the people I have known are disguised within it.

In Mimi’s forthcoming fantasy novel titled Born of Fire & Magic, the central character, Idalia Sanchez, has to undo a magical curse that is threatening the world.  In order to deal with this crisis, she must learn about her unique family heritage. By embracing her roots, she is able to gain the power she needs to make a difference.  In a sense, Mimi’s story is similar to Idalia’s story.  Mimi’s power as a writer comes in part from the fact that she has drawn on her Latino heritage.  By embracing her roots, Mimi has succeeded in making many unique and compelling contributions to the diverse library that is Storied Charlotte.

Tags: fantasy novelhistorical romanceLatina authorsparanormalsuspense storieswestern stories

Michael A. Almond’s The Tannery: A Tale of Mystery, Courtroom Drama, and North Carolina History

September 13, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Michael A. Almond’s debut novel, The Tannery, pairs up perfectly with Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  Both are historical novels set in the South during the Jim Crow era.  Both deal with the impact of racial prejudice on the court system.  Both include highly principled lawyers who fight for justice even though the odds are stacked against them.  And both provide readers with insider depictions of life in small Southern communities.  It might not seem fair to compare The Tannery to Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird since Lee’s novel is recognized as one of the most important novels in the history of Southern literature, but The Tannery stands up to the comparison. Michael has created a riveting novel that combines the excitement of a legal thriller with the complexities of a well-researched work of historical fiction.  Michael’s depiction of North Carolina’s bigoted past is unflinching and disturbing, but his portrait of his native state is not entirely negative.  His story has its bigots, but it also has its heroes.

In writing The Tannery, Michael drew on his experience and contacts as a long-time Charlotte resident.  He moved to Charlotte in 1976, a year after he graduated from the law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He spent many years with the Charlotte law firm of Parker Poe, and because of this background, he has a deep understanding of the intricacies of the legal system.  This background helped him when writing the courtroom scenes in The Tannery.  His many Charlotte contacts also helped him when he decided to try his hand at writing a novel.  As he was writing The Tannery and preparing to submit it to publishers, he sought feedback from the writing community in Charlotte, and he readily acknowledges the help that he received from these writers.  For more information about his career and his debut novel, please click on the following link:  www.michaelalmondbooks.com

I recently contacted Michael and asked him for more background about his decision to write The Tannery.  Here is what he sent to me:

My debut novel, The Tannery, will be released by Koehler Books on October 19, 2021.  The book is a work of historical fiction, a murder mystery/legal thriller set in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in the pivotal year of 1900 amidst the turbulent world of post-Reconstruction political, social, and racial conditions in the South at the dawn of the Jim Crow era.  When I began researching and outlining the novel back in 2007, I had no idea that the themes of Black voter suppression and intimidation, vigilante “justice,” and White Supremacy that drive the story would resonate so vividly in today’s polarized environment.

I am a lifelong resident of North Carolina, raised in the small town of Pilot Mountain in the Piedmont foothills, and I came of age during the Civil Rights upheavals of the 1960s.

My decades-long career as an international business lawyer was entirely spent in Charlotte.  Back in 1976, I turned down offers from law firms in larger cities, convinced that Charlotte was about to make its case and stake its claim as a leader in global trade, business, finance, and investment.  It turns out that this was the right idea, at the right time, in just the right place.

I am a voracious reader, getting through 40-50 books a year, and somewhere along the way I began to wonder…perhaps there is a book in me?  I am not a historian, but I am a huge fan of Southern history and historical fiction, so the genre appealed to me as I began thinking about what sort of story I wanted to tell.

Budding authors are always told to “Write what you know.” So in researching and outlining The Tannery, I drew heavily from my own personal background and experience.  I grew up in Surry County, next door to Wilkes, and I was generally aware of Wilkes’ rich and compelling history: Daniel Boone, the Overmountain Men, Tom “Dooley,” the Fort Hamby Gang, Eng and Chang Bunker (the original “Siamese Twins”), the C.C. Smoot & Sons Tannery (the largest steam leather tannery in the Southeast), the devastating Yadkin River floods, and of course, moonshine!  Maybe I could build a story around that?

Last April, after 13 years of historical research, plotting, and outlining, I proudly presented my wife, Helen Ruth, with what I thought was the final outline for the book.  Exasperated, she looked me in the eye and said, “Listen, Michael, all of your friends and I are tired of hearing about your research and outlining.  We are stuck at home in the middle of a pandemic, so you have no excuse.  Either go upstairs and write the book or be quiet about it!”  So, I did.  Overcoming the terrifying image of a blank computer screen before me, I began to write.  And five months and 125,000 words later, The Tannery was complete.

In my experience, readers of historical fiction always want to learn something new, but they are also interested in just where the “historical” ends and the “fiction” begins, the line between reality and imagination.  My goal was to write a fast-paced, suspenseful, compelling, and, most of all entertaining story with lots of twists, turns, and surprises, all the while weaving in the historical details that hopefully enrich the narrative.  The keys to successful historical fiction, I believe, are authenticity and context.  In a sense, then, The Tannery is a sort of “time machine,” transporting readers to a different time and place, aiming for a deeper understanding of the post-Reconstruction South and exposing some of the darker, more shameful forces and personalities at work in 1900 North Carolina.

The Tannery is by no means autobiographical, but the book does draw upon my own personal and professional experiences as an international attorney and long-time resident of Charlotte.  Local venues in the book include Wilkes County, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Charlotte, but many scenes take place in such far-off places as Oxford, London, Alsace, Baden-Baden, and Argentina.  My international travels over the years also suggested many of the fictional characters (and the languages they speak, as well as many of the meals they consume!) who appear in the book alongside such historical personalities as Charles B. Aycock, Cameron Morrison, and Josephus Daniels.  I expect that many of my Charlotte friends, who have patiently listened to my stories and anecdotes over the years, will smile and recognize much of the Michael Almond they know in The Tannery!

Once the novel was completed, I faced the challenge of getting the thing published.  And here I must salute the incredible community of local Charlotte authors and others in our local Book World who so generously contributed their time, wisdom, and resources to help me, as a novice, navigate what is an always challenging and sometimes bewildering publication and marketing process.  Kudos and much appreciation to Mark Ethridge, Mark de Castrique, Millie and Tom Cox, Kim Wright, Kimmery Martin, Tracy Curtis, Tommy Tomlinson, Leslie Hooten, Bess Kercher, Frye Gaillard, Frances and Bill Thompson, Landis Wade, Judy Goldman, Karen Beach, and Judith Sutton!”

Since retiring from his career as an attorney, Michael and his wife divide their time between their farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Charlotte.  However, he still considers himself a Charlotte writer, and so do I.  As the keeper of Storied Charlotte’s ever-expanding library, I am pleased to add The Tannery to the collection of historical novels by Charlotte authors.

North Carolina Poets Respond to 9/11

September 07, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston once wrote, “In a time of destruction, create something.”  I thought about Kingston’s words of advice as I was reading the poems included in Crossing the Rift:  North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath, a new anthology co-edited by Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate, and David Potorti, a co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.  The anthology includes works by 116 poets from across North Carolina, including many poets from the Charlotte area.  The contributors to this anthology all responded to the destruction associated with 9/11 by creating poetry.  Some of their poems are about loss—the loss of loved ones, the loss of landmarks, the loss of a sense of security.  Some of their poems are about the personal experiences of the poets on that tragic day.   Some of the poems are reflections on how the events of 9/11 have changed our lives, beliefs, and values.  All of the poems are moving in their own way. For more information about this anthology, please click on this link: https://www.press53.com/anthologies/1w771a3bujbgbwgm9ki563j09zpbs7

I first found out about this anthology from Joseph Bathanti.  He contacted me at the beginning of July and informed me that Press 53 would be publishing this anthology on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers, and we have been corresponding since then. I agreed to feature the anthology in my Storied Charlotte blog, and he agreed to send me more background information about the anthology and its Charlotte connections.  Here is what Joseph sent to me: 

Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath had its genesis in September of 2010, just prior to the ninth anniversary of 9/11. David Potorti, then the Arts Tourism Manager at the North Carolina Arts Council (NCAC), and I agreed to assemble a complement of poems to memorialize the tenth anniversary of 9/11. By June of 2011, we had concrete plans; and, in August of 2011, we sent out the call to poets across North Carolina: “to commemorate and acknowledge in poetry the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 … a poem that in some way [touched] directly on the events of 9/11 or [reflected] associated themes of peace, hope, reconciliation, loss, etc.” The harvested poems were posted, in the order they arrived, each day leading up to 9/11, on the Poet Laureate section of NCAC’s blog.

In early January of 2021, David and I decided to revive and radically expand our earlier 9/11 project into a print anthology. The twentieth anniversary of 9/11 was approximately eight months off, so we had to move with dispatch. A few days later, we contacted Kevin Watson, editor and publisher of the brilliant Press 53 in Winston-Salem, and secured his enthusiastic pledge to publish the book. On January 31, David and I sent out the call to North Carolina poets requesting poems for the proposed anthology centered upon the original thrust of its much smaller digital predecessor, but that also took into account the exponential collateral fallout spawned by 9/11 over the past twenty years: Islamophobia, the vilification of immigrants and the undocumented, ramped-up xenophobia, nationalism and isolationism, two wars and supercharged military budgets that continue to impoverish our nation, as well as concurrent rises in homophobia, transphobia, virulent racism, and domestic terrorism. It was our hope that the invited poets would craft poems with those themes in mind and through the lenses of their experiences and lived lives, and in inimitable ways. The poems, from 116 poets, poured in from all over North Carolina and from extraordinarily diverse vantages and voices. The yield was extraordinary, wildly varied, uniformly moving.

A number of the contributors in Crossing the Rift are from Charlotte and those precincts surrounding it (including a robust cohort from Davidson): Tony Abbott, Peter Blair, Ann Campanella, Christopher Davis, M Scott Douglass, Brenda Flanagan, Irene Honeycutt, Stephen Knauth, Rebecca McClanahan, Tootsie O’Hara, Alan Michael Parker, Gail Peck, Diana Pinckney, Dannye Romine Powell, Gretchen Pratt, Julie Suk, Chuck Sullivan, Gilda Morena Syverson, Richard Taylor, Dede Wilson, and Lisa Zerkle.

I still number myself among these wonderful writers, since Charlotte, from 1976 to 1985, is where I cut my teeth as a writer. In 1976, newly arrived in Charlotte from my hometown in Pittsburgh, 23 years old – a brand new VISTA Volunteer with the North Carolina Prison System – I barged into the newsroom of The Charlotte Observer on Tryon Street downtown and presented myself to Dannye Romine, the then Book Editor for the Observer. I dreamt of a foothold as a writer, clawing for any kind of smiling encouragement and validation from the likes of writers as charitable, humble, and quietly luminous as Dannye. She delivered it in spades and has remained a powerful influence all these years. Central Piedmont Community College is where I first taught, and where Irene Honeycutt was its acknowledged virtuoso poet who taught creative writing. She magnanimously made space for me, a complete rookie, and eventually and so graciously allowed me to teach creative writing. I was in awe of Chuck Sullivan, a tough, gritty poet, a Northeast Catholic boy like me, who read his work so inimitably. Tony Abbott invited me to teach a prison literature course with him at Davidson College, encouraged me to keep writing, and advocated for me for the rest of his storied life.

Charlotte is where I had my first successes as a writer, where I was allowed to claim that mantle and not feel pretentiously unworthy (though I often felt unworthy), where I would go on to meet so many of the esteemed and kind poets mentioned above and call them my friends. Charlotte is where I initially discovered the glorious community of writers that exemplify the elegance and generosity that characterize the literary community of North Carolina.

I thank Joseph for providing the readers of my Storied Charlotte blog with his inside story about the editing of Crossing the Rift and for sharing his experiences as a young writer in Charlotte.  Today Joseph is the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.  However, in my mind, he belongs to Storied Charlotte’s pantheon of poets.

Tags: 9/11anthologypoetry
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