Monthly Archives: July 2023

New Children’s and YA books by Charlotte Authors

July 31, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

New Children’s and YA books by Charlotte Authors – In the world of children’s and YA literature, Charlotte is gaining a reputation as a happening place. Charlotte is home to many successful children’s and YA authors, and they are always bringing out new books.  Three recent examples are Amalie Jahn’s A Walk Between Raindrops, Rebecca Laxton’s The Metamorphosis of Emma Murry, and Anna Sortino’s Give Me a Sign.  I contacted the authors of these books and asked them about their new novels and their experiences as Charlotte writers.

Amalie’s A Walk Between Raindrops is a YA novel about two sisters who win an all-expense paid, fourteen-day trip to the best amusement parks in the country to ride rollercoasters.  The sisters have a strained relationship, but they attempt to heal their relationship over the course of this trip.  Here is what Amalie sent me:

A Walk Between Raindrops received a star from Kirkus Reviews, which called it “a superior, sisterly road drama with a last-act surprise.” Any Charlotteans who’ve spent time at Carowinds will recognize the scenes taking place at the Carolina theme park, along with other parks along the east coast like Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Six Flags. I spent my childhood riding coasters all over the country, but despite the number of coasters I’ve sampled over the years, the Fury and Intimidator are definitely at the top of my list (although these days amusement park rides require Dramamine.) Please don’t ask me to ride the Nighthawk with you, though. Once was enough, thanks anyway.

After a ten-year stint writing for young adults, I recently sold a middle-grade series to Pixel + Ink who will be publishing the first book in the series, Team Canteen and the Magic Boa, in Fall of 2024. For more information about my books, visit my website: https://www.amaliejahn.com/

Rebecca’s The Metamorphosis of Emma Murry is a middle-grades mystery with an environmental theme.  Here is what Rebecca sent to me:

My family moved to Charlotte twenty years ago. When we relocated here, our daughters were seven and four, and then our twins were born two weeks later. We love the Charlotte area; it’s been a wonderful place to raise our family.

I’m a reading specialist, and I started teaching reading in schools and private clinics in 2009.  A few years later, I took a children’s literature class at UNC Charlotte just for fun and loved it so much I enrolled in the graduate program to study children’s literature and creative writing. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to do what I love—teach kids to read and write books for them. It’s so fun! There’s a very supportive writing community here. I’m a member of Charlotte Lit and our local chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators where I facilitate a monthly critique group. Without the opportunities provided by these groups and UNC Charlotte, I would not be a children’s author today.

The Metamorphosis of Emma Murry is set in one of my favorite places—Black Mountain, North Carolina. In the story, thirteen-year-old Emma learns there’s a proposal to destroy the community monarch butterfly garden to build a ski resort, so she and her best friend Sophie rally their middle school environmental club to protest. But when it turns out homegrown celebrity Chester Scott and his teen son Jeb are the ones behind building the resort, Emma decides to make friends with Jeb to try and change their minds.

Then when a mysterious death threat is left at the Scotts’ house, Emma and Jeb team up to investigate, and begin to uncover supernatural secrets on the mountain. Meanwhile, Emma’s decision to befriend the enemy tests her friendship with Sophie, and Emma soon finds everything she loves in jeopardy —her friendships, the butterflies, and her family.

The chapter heading illustrations were drawn by my daughter Gracie, who studied art in Charlotte at both the Holt School of Art and Braitman Studio. She graduated from Central Academy of Technology and Arts in 2021. Recently, the novel won a Gold Mom’s Choice Award and three Purple Dragonfly Book awards. You can learn more about the book at my website https://www.rebeccalaxton.com/

Anna’s Give Me a Sign is a YA romance novel.  Here is what Anna sent to me:

I recently got to do a launch event at Park Road Books for my debut Give Me a Sign, and was so glad to be welcomed to the Charlotte community! This spring, we moved here to be closer to my partner’s family.

Give Me a Sign is a YA contemporary romance novel following seventeen-year-old Lilah as she becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind. Wearing hearing aids, she’s always felt caught in between hearing and deaf, not sure where she belongs. Pitched as Jenny Han meets CODA, this story is all about love, identity, and Deaf pride.

It was such a delight to write a story like this, full of representation I didn’t have growing up. There’s something truly universal about the “stuck in the middle” feeling that a lot of readers can relate to, even if they’re not deaf themselves, so it’s great to see the positive reception this story is getting. Currently I’m putting the finishing touches on my next YA novel, On the Bright Side, which releases summer 2024! Those interested can find out more at http://annasortino.com/

Amalie, Rebecca, and Anna are all part of a community of children’s and YA authors.  For readers who are interested in joining this community, the South Boulevard Branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has an upcoming event just for you.  Meghan Anderson, one of planners of the event, sent me the following information:

Do you want to write a children’s book? Charlotte has a wealth of children’s book writers and illustrators. South Boulevard Library is hosting a round-table discussion event with some of the best children’s book authors and illustrators in our city including Ashley Belote, Halli Gomez, Matt Myers, Maya Myers, and Derick Wilder. We will have picture book writers and illustrators, middle grade writers, and young adult writers. You will be able to rotate through each table where you can pick the brains of these fine creators to best access their knowledge, advice, and processes. Think of it like a mix of speed dating, industry inside information, and professional development! This event is open to all who are interested and at every level of the process, whether that be just in the idea stage or have already begun their writing or illustrations. If you’re interested in attending, please register at the link below!

Registration Link: https://cmlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/649b05170225e3df1083b51f

Location: South Boulevard Library

               4429 South Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28209

Date and Time: Thursday, August 17th from 5:45pm- 7pm

I thank Amalie, Rebecca, Anna, and Meghan for helping me with this week’s blog post and for their contributions to the community that I call Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Children's BooksYA Books

Storied Charlotte

July 24, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Honoring Rolfe Neill and His Contributions to Charlotte’s Community of Readers and Writers – Rolfe Neill, the publisher of The Charlotte Observer from 1975 until his retirement in December 1997, died on Friday, July 14, at the age of 90.  Even though I never met him, I felt like I knew him because I always read his columns that ran in the paper every Sunday.  His columns were thoughtful, gracefully written, and often personal in nature.  His deep love of Charlotte came through in his columns although he was certainly not blind to the city’s flaws. He had a knack for turning phrases and coming up with story angles that resonated with readers.  He clearly cared about the quality of his own writing, and he expected the same commitment to excellent writing from that the journalists who worked for the paper.  During his tenure as publisher, the paper won three Pulitzer Prizes.

In addition to serving as the publisher of The Charlotte Observer, Neill played a significant role in supporting Charlotte’s cultural institutions, including the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  Neill helped establish the library’s Novello Festival of Reading, which ran from 1991 until 2010.  Although Novello came to an end, the community spirit that defined Novello lives on today in the library’s annual Verse and Vino and EpicFest events. 

After his retirement, Neill became very involved in the activities of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation.  Jenni Gaisbauer, the Executive Director of the Foundation, sees him a “true library champion.” I contacted Jenni and asked her for more information about Neill’s support of the library.  Here is what she sent to me:

I met Rolfe during my tenure at Levine Museum of the New South but it wasn’t until I got to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation that I was able to get to know him on a more personal basis.  Something interesting I learned about Rolfe was that when we served on the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation board years ago, he encouraged them to think about funding public libraries as part of their work.  While it’s not one of their major pillars today, Knight Foundation is one of our largest donors for the new Main Library and has given us dozens of grants over the years.  None of that would’ve been possible without Rolfe and the leadership of former Charlotte leader for Knight Susan Patterson and/or Charles Thomas today.

He had a long history with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and was a consistent donor since 1999.  He played a pivotal role in the library securing the large Romare Bearden tile mosaic that was once showcased on the first floor of the Main Library and will once again have a prominent home inside the lobby of the new Main Library. Most recently, he served as an advisor to our current campaign, the CommonSpark.  He would sit down with Karen Beach (the Deputy Director of the Foundation) and me and tell us who we should ask to support the project. I can’t tell you how helpful it is when you reach out to someone to set up a meeting and you can say, Rolfe Neill encouraged me to reach out.

I thank Jenni for her recollections.  I also thank her sending me a photograph of Neill sitting in front of a cluster of book-related sculptures created to honor Neill’s contributions to Charlotte. This work is located on 7th Street in front of ImaginOn, which houses both the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Spangler Library for Children and the Charlotte Children’s Theatre.  Given that so many children visit ImaginOn, it seems fitting that children constantly swarm over this set of sculptures.  The work features a thirty-foot tower of books capped off with a gold quill pen swirling around in a giant inkwell.  It also includes an abstract version of a manual typewriter with keys that are plenty large enough for children to stand on them, and stand on them they do.  Installed in 2005, this set of sculptures is titled “The Writer’s Desk:  A Tribute to Rolfe Neill.”

The sculptures include many inscribed quotations from columns that he wrote during his years with the paper.  One of these quotations reads, “If reading one good book is fun, reading four must be quadruple the pleasure. Two hard covers and two paperbacks carelessly snuggle about me in the hammock.”

Rolfe Neill has left us, but his campaign to support our public library and promote the reading of books still reverberates throughout our community. I like to think of him somewhere in a celestial Storied Charlotte, resting comfortably in a hammock with four books by his side.

Tags: Rolfe Neill

Dina Schiff Massachi’s New Book about the Characters of Oz

July 17, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Storied Charlotte

Dina Schiff Massachi’s New Book about the Characters of Oz– A few years ago I wrote a Storied Charlotte blog post about Dina Schiff Massachi’s participation in the PBS’s documentary titled American Oz: The True Wizard Behind the Curtain, which first aired in April 2021 as part of PBS’s American Experience series. To see this earlier blog post, please click on this link:  Dina Massachi, L. Frank Baum, and The American Experience.

Since then, Dina has continued to teach courses on Oz at UNC Charlotte and work as an Oz scholar.  Her most recent accomplishment in this field of Oz scholarship is the publication of her edited collection titled The Characters of Oz: Essays on Their Adaptation and Transformation, which was just published by McFarland & Company.  Here is the link to the publisher’s listing of the book:  https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-characters-of-oz/

I recently contacted Dina and asked her for more information about how she came to edit The Characters of Oz.  Here is what she sent to me:

For a number of years now, I’ve given talks at the International Wizard of Oz Club’s conventions, theming each talk around a different Oz character, how they’ve adapted, and what their changes say about our American culture. My initial vision for The Characters of Oz was to expand on these talks by inviting members of the Oz Club and other Oz scholars to write essays about Baum’s memorable characters. I wrote up a book proposal and had a contract much faster than I expected—it seemed the powers that be wanted this just as much as I did.

The funny thing about children’s fairylands is everyone thinks the magic is in the fantasy world. While Oz may be spectacular, the real magic in Oz is how the characters all work together to help one another. To quote Jack Zipes, “As an icon of utopian home, Oz reveals how differences might shine and be truly appreciated and how a communal spirit might flourish.” One of the magical things about working with Oz is that same communal spirit prevails— my colleague Mark West contributed an essay, fellow Oz scholars came aboard and referred me to their friends, a former student of the English Department’s M.A program jumped in, Baum descendants contributed, and by the end I had a collection that allowed different voices to shine while collectively telling the tale of how America’s fairy tale has adapted and changed to reflect the changes within America.

I’m a project junkie. The hardest part of completing a project is I need to figure out what comes next. Right around the time Characters was a completed manuscript, I had an idea for my next project—I would continue the collaboration between the Oz Club, the Oz academics, and my other friends in the Oz world and host an Oz festival to make this world come alive for my students and the broader Charlotte community. With thanks to the North Carolina Humanities, and the endless support of my colleagues at UNC Charlotte, that dream is coming true. CharlOz, as we are calling this festival, will take place from September 27-29, 2024, and we are just starting to announce some of our stellar lineup (including Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked). The Charlotte Teacher’s Institute is involved, and we hope to create something magical for everyone—from small children to the young at heart. For more details, please check out: https://charloz.charlotte.edu/

As one of the contributors to Dina’s The Characters of Oz, I am pleased to be included in Dina’s circle of Oz scholars and aficionados.  I am also pleased to be one of her helpers as she plans for the upcoming CharlOz festival. Through her research and publications and her tireless work in organizing CharlOz, Dina is making a real difference not just in the world of Oz scholarship but also in the land of Storied Charlotte. 

Tags: Oz

On the Road with Poet Angelina Oberdan Brooks

July 10, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

On the Road with Poet Angelina Oberdan Brooks – The poems in Angelina Oberdan Brooks’ new chapbook titled Heavy Bloom have their origins in two cross-country road trips that Angelina took with her three dogs a few years ago.  When I first learned about the story behind her chapbook, I immediately flashed back to reading John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley when I was a teenager. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Steinbeck’s account of traveling across America with his French poodle, and ever since then I have had a fondness for road-trip books, especially ones that involve dogs.  In the case of Angelina’s Heavy Bloom, she focuses on images and telling moments that she recalls from her travels. Intrigued by the Angelina’s approach to writing these poems, I contacted her and asked her for more information about how she came to write Heavy Bloom. Here is what she sent to me:

Since I moved to Charlotte in 2014, I’ve been working to support the literary community, so you may recognize my name or my face. I’ve worked with Charlotte Lit, the Betchler and Gantt Museums, and many amazing individuals. I was co-chair (with Amy Bagwell and then Colin Hickey) of CPCC’s Sensoria Literary Committee for five years—bringing the likes of Tracy K. Smith, Hanif Abdurraqib, Carolyn Forche, Eugene Scott, and Juan Felipe Herrera to Charlotte. Through this, I also helped honor the winners of the Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy and Lifetime Achievement Awards. I’m a proud East Charlotte homeowner. If you haven’t run into me at Book Buyers or Bart’s Mart, you probably will one day.

Heavy Bloom, my first chapbook and first collection of poetry, was written while living here. I amassed the originating images in these poems during what was a tumultuous time in my personal life. A formerly accurate and speedy typist, my hands largely stopped working in 2017, which led to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Around the same time, my dad’s cancer became terminal, and he slowly died at home in Clemson, SC—over months and then days. Through all of this, the relationship I was in didn’t hold up. In the summer of 2018, unable to continue the life I’d planned, I moved my three dogs into my SUV and solo-camped from the Blue Ridge in NC to the Uintas in UT and back. Then, we did it again the following summer. The first road trip brought clarity, and the second brought healing.

The poems in Heavy Bloom move from watching an 18-wheeler strike a blue heron to being stalked by a mountain lion in West Texas to considering the carelessness with which we humans harm each other and the world around us. Upon the advice of Morri Creech (my mentor and friend from the McNeese MFA Program, a Charlottean now, too), I fully embraced Robert Bly’s Leaping Poetry. In his book, Bly writes, “In many ancient works of art we notice a long floating leap at the center of the work. That leap can be described as a leap from the conscious to the unconscious and back again, a leap from the known part of the mind to the unknown part and back to the known.” So, my poems start as images or bits of language or memory fragments, and then I meditatively follow my brain wherever it goes. You’ll find that in many of the poems in this collection, I’ve abandoned linear trains of thought, allowing my mind to jump to whatever is stirring in my subconscious. I trust that these associative leaps will eventually make sense, and in this way, my writing is surprising to myself—as Robert Frost recommends it should be in “The Figure a Poem Makes.” These wild jumps are where I learn the most from my own writing—about myself, being human, and living in this universe. (Don’t worry; a workshop on this is in the works!)

Publishing this collection is a feat of which I am very proud. I went through my academic career quickly; I started teaching college at twenty-one and finished both my MA and an MFA in three years. While I published a lot of what I wrote in my twenties, I struggled to figure out what I had to add to the vast canon of poetry. I also had to make a lot of mistakes, repeatedly prioritizing the wrong things. While I think I got it right in this collection, many of the poems didn’t find their way until I participated in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project in November 2020. The same year, this collection found its cohesiveness during a Tupelo Press Manuscript Conference wherein I learned so much from Jeffrey Levine and Kristina Marie Darling. Notes from some beloved-Charlotte poets certainly helped, too—especially from Amy Bagwell and Lisa Zerkle.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the impact my UNC Charlotte creative writing students had on this chapbook. I began teaching part-time at UNCC in Fall 2021—as an attempt to combat post-pandemic burnout. Always happy to share my journey in ways that will help students navigate their own, I was impressed by the attentiveness my students gave to me and my lectures. Empowered by them and coming off the thrill of hosting Juan Felipe Herrera at CPCC’s Sensoria, I quietly left my associate professorship there to give more of my energy to my poems. At UNC Charlotte, I’ve had the opportunity to teach introductory-level technical and creative writing classes as well as liberal studies courses on travel and environmental writing. Teaching classes that allowed me to discuss the words and writing I find most important made a difference in the publication of my poems—which took off in the last year.

Through writing these poems, I learned what I already knew: America—its landscape and its people—is beautiful and horrifying. Indeed, death is more certain than life, and loss is more common than love. We want to turn towards our screens and away from any discomfort, but we can’t. Richard Wilbur wrote that “[o]ne of the jobs of poetry is to make the unbearable bearable, not by falsehood but clear, precise confrontation”; the poems in Heavy Bloom sit with the uncomfortable, look at loss directly, and make way for future joy.

If you’re in Charlotte this summer, please join me for Heavy Bloom’s Launch Party! I’ll be selling and signing books on July 20th from 6-8 pm at Bart’s Mart (next door to Book Buyers), and I’ll read a few poems at 7 pm. Copies are also available here: https://bottlecap.press/products/bloom.

In the meantime, here is “Echo,” a finalist for the LitSouth Award and one of the poems from Heavy Bloom:

For more poetry, road trips, ruminations, and dogs, follow me on Instagram: @ab3dogride.

I thank Angelina for telling the story behind Heavy Bloom and for sharing “Echo.” I also thank her for all that she has done over the years to promote the reading and writing of poetry in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: poetry

Something New Out of Charlotte Lit

July 03, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Something New Out of Charlotte Lit – The Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder once wrote, “There is always something new out of Africa.” Well, he actually wrote this sentence in Latin, but I have taken a liking to the English translation of it.  I know that I am taking liberties with Pliny’s famous proclamation, but it seems to me that there is always something new coming out of Charlotte Lit, too.  I just learned that Charlotte Lit recently published three poetry chapbooks. I contacted Paul Reali and Kathie Collins, the co-founders of Charlotte Lit, and asked them for more information about these poetry chapbooks. Here is what they sent to me:

Mark, thanks for asking us about the three new poetry chapbooks released by Charlotte Lit Press. This is a good example of how different Charlotte Lit programs come together to make something new.

We launched the imprint Charlotte Lit Press last year when we began publishing our literary journal, Litmosphere, knowing there would be more we’d want to publish in the future. After releasing our second issue in May, we were ready to entertain some new publications.

Meanwhile, we had eleven writers in our inaugural Poetry Chapbook Lab. It’s a year-long immersion for poets to take classes and work on their poems with two coaches and with each other. (The second cohort is forming now, in fact

http://www.charlottelit.org/chapbooklab/) The result is a publication-ready poetry chapbook, ready to be submitted to contests and presses.

Putting these two Lit programs together, we decided to expand Charlotte Lit Press into poetry chapbooks, beginning by opening to submissions from Chapbook Lab writers. We’re happy to say we’ve accepted five manuscripts so far, with the first three just released.

Into the Swirl is the debut collection from John Clark, a North Carolina native and former WDAV general manager. John says he “writes poems and composes music as a way to play,” and this collection demonstrates both musicality and playfulness.

I’ll Buy Flowers Again Tomorrow is Patricia Ann Joslin’s debut collection. Published on the five-year anniversary of her husband Roy’s death from pancreatic cancer, this deeply-felt chapbook pays homage to him while exploring grief, hope and healing.

Subjects Suitable for Poetry is the second collection from former Carrboro poet laureate Gary Phillips. He explores family, nature, and his rural upbringing, which prove to be interwoven and inseparable.

These three writers, and others whose books are in our pipeline, will read at Charlotte Lit on September 8 (details available in upcoming Charlotte Lit newsletters). To support the work of John, Patricia, Gary, and future Charlotte Lit Press writers, our books can be ordered from one’s favorite bookstore, any online retailer, or directly from us at https://www.charlottelit.org/press/

We’ll have more publications in the near future, both chapbooks and full collections—including the latest from renowned poet Lola Haskins. We’re not yet open to general submissions, but that will happen within the next year.

I thank Paul and Kathie for sharing this information about these poetry chapbooks and their plans for Charlotte Lit Press.  All of us in Storied Charlotte are indebted to Charlotte Lit for always providing us with something new.