Charlotte is home to many talented nonfiction writers, including Gavin Edwards, Scott Fowler, and Lara Vetter. All three of these writers have new books out in time for the holidays, and all three books are intended for general readers.
Edwards, together with Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales, just released MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. The book tells the story behind the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is often referred to as the MCU. The authors trace the history of Marvel Studios from the release of Iron Man in 2008 to the company’s evolution into one of Hollywood’s dominant players. The book in based on more than a hundred interviews with actors, writers, producers and others involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Edwards is a regular writer for Rolling Stone and the author of more than a dozen books, such as Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever; The World According to Tom Hanks: The Life, the Obsessions, the Good Deeds of America’s Most Decent Guy; and The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party-Crashing.
Scott Fowler and photographer Jeff Siner published a hardcover coffee-table book titled Sports Legends of the Carolinas. Many of the people profiled in the book are tied to Charlotte, including Muggsy Bogues, Jake Delhomme, Bob McKillop, and Judy Rose. Fowler wrote the text, and Siner, a photographer for The Charlotte Observer, provided photographs for all of the people profiled in the book.
Scott Fowler is a sports columnist for The Charlotte Observer, where he has worked as a writer since 1994. He recently started a podcast featuring interviews with sports icons from North and South Carolina, and he drew on these interviews in writing Sports Legends of the Carolinas.
Lara Vetter’s new release is a biography, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), which is part of Reaktion Books’ Critical Lives series. It provides a lively account of modernist poet H.D.’s life and remarkable literary career including discussions of H.D.’s interactions with such notable figures as Sigmund Freud, Marianne Moore, and Ezra Pound. Since H.D. spent most of her adult life in London and Switzerland, this biography also sheds life on the American expatriates who moved to Europe during the first half of the 20th century.
Vetter, a professor of English at UNC Charlotte, is an internationally recognized expert on H.D.
The diverse nature of these three books shows reflects the wide range of authors who call Storied Charlotte home.