Monthly Archives: October 2025

It’s Almost Time for EpicFest

October 25, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

For those of us who live in the Charlotte area, Thanksgiving isn’t the only occasion in November when families gather, share stories, and make memories.  EpicFest, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s free literary festival for children and their families, also takes place in November.  I contacted Walker Doermann, one of the organizers of the event, and asked her about the plans for this year’s EpicFest.  Here is what she sent to me:

EpicFest is an extraordinary, free literary festival that joyfully connects children and families with books and the people who write them through activities that encourage a love of reading and learning.  Nationally recognized children’s authors and illustrators will share their latest books, experiences and passion for libraries with kids of all ages.

This year’s EpicFest features eight incredible children’s authors who will be visiting Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools on Friday, November 7, 2025, and then promoting their newest books on Saturday, November 8, 2025. Saturday’s family festival will take place at ImaginOn (300 E. Seventh Street).  The event will start at 10:00 a.m. and conclude at 3:00 p.m. It is a great time for young readers to engage with some of their favorite authors and hear about their writing inspiration, and for aspiring young writers to ask them questions about their writing process. Authors Justin Colón, Charlotte Gunnufson, James Riley, Kirk Reedstrom, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Lucy Knisley, Kwame Mbalia, and Ben Gundersheimer (MISTER G) will be at ImaginOn speaking about their experience as writers and signing books. 

In addition to a stellar author lineup on Saturday, there will be an abundance of hands-on activities for children of all ages, as well as a special free Children’s Theatre of Charlotte performance of Topsy Turvy Cinderella at noon. Other festive touches throughout the day include book giveaways, roving costumed book characters, face painting and balloon twisting, and a visit from GameTruck Charlotte. For more information about this year’s featured guests, please click on the following link:  https://www.cmlibrary.org/epicfest

The success of EpicFest is tied in part to the contributions of the many enthusiastic volunteers who staff the hands-on activities, assist with administrative matters, and perform as the costumed book characters. I am pleased that students from UNC Charlotte are among the volunteers who have stepped up to help with this event.  One of these students is Jessica Berrios, a graduate student in the English Department’s M.A. concentration in Children’s Literature. Jessica volunteered at last-year’s EpicFest, and she has signed up to volunteer again at this year’s event.  I contacted Jessica and asked her about experiences as an EpicFest volunteer.  Here is what she sent to me:

Last year was my first time experiencing EpicFest as a volunteer, so I didn’t quite know what to expect out of it, but I was willing to help in any capacity I could. The first thing that caught my attention was that there was a position to be a costumed mascot, but it looked like the position had been filled. When I got there and we had all been instructed about what to do, the leader asked us if anyone wanted to volunteer for costumed positions. I was shocked that the person who signed up was not there to play the part, so I volunteered myself to dress as the Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

As someone earning a master’s degree in children’s literature, as well as being a children’s literature enthusiast and aspiring author, I understand that children love to connect with their favorite literary characters in books they enjoy, so to see a larger-than-life representation can be thrilling… or perhaps a bit unnerving, depending on how real the experience is. While I enjoyed waving to kids, giving high fives and hugs, “nibbling” on my fake cookie, and posing for more pictures than I could count, I had not anticipated there would be children who would also run away from the giant, fuzzy rodent in overalls that somehow couldn’t talk or move his mouth. Overall, it was a very worthwhile experience to help kids get excited about reading and learning, as well as give them a fun and memorable moment in their day.

I am very excited about this year’s EpicFest, and I’m preparing myself by familiarizing myself with the character and getting myself ready for a LOT of moving around. This year, I’ve signed up to dress up as one of Mo Willems’ most well-known characters, The Pigeon. I’m sure I will hear a lot of kids tell me not to drive a bus, but something tells me I wouldn’t be able to get onto one even if I tried.

As usual, I will also be volunteering all day at EpicFest.  In fact, I will be serving as the emcee for the authors’ presentations. I have my own traditions associated with the day. On Saturday morning, I will put on my book tie, which my wife bought for me at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.  I will then take the light rail to the Seventh Street Station.  After exiting the train, I will take the short walk to ImaginOn where I will spend the day helping the authors with their presentations and book signings. I hope to see you there. I would not miss EpicFest for anything.  After all, EpicFest is a Storied Charlotte tradition. 

Tags: EpicFest

Martin Settle’s New Memoir about Growing Up on the Banks of the Mississippi River

October 18, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

I got to know Martin (Marty) Settle during the years that he taught in the English Department at UNC Charlotte. During one of our conversations in the faculty/staff lounge, Marty and I discovered that we share an interest in Mark Twain. He mentioned to me that he, like Twain, grew up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River. He talked about how as a child he identified with the boy characters in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He said that he hoped to write about his childhood experiences  someday when he had more time to devote to writing. Well, that time is now.

Since retiring from teaching in 2010, Marty has focused on writing and various other creative endeavors.  His latest publication is a memoir about his growing-up years. Titled This Little Ichnolite of Mine: A Memoir, the book was just released by Legacy Book Press. I contacted Marty and asked him for more information about his memoir. Here is what he sent to me:

The first question people ask me about my book is, “What’s an ichnolite?” An ichnolite is a fossil footprint, and I took the word from an Illinois artist that loved decay as much as I do – Ivan Albright. He has a painting called “This Ichnolite of Mine,” which displays his love of old worn things.

My memoir is about my childhood in a small city on the Mississippi River during the 1950s and ‘60s. Quincy, Illinois, was part of the rust belt when I was born and had seen its golden age pass by in the riverboat era. However, to me and my friends, all the abandoned buildings, the rusted junk, painted-peeled porches, and brick streets with hitching posts represented a land of enchantment. In addition, we had the river with its mythology of Huck Finn and Hogback Island for exploration and eating turtle eggs. Quincy, also, had plenty of woodlands surrounding the city, which were places to build camps and encounter the fascinating behaviors of creatures that did not live in the city. 

Besides how children played in my time, I have devoted a number of chapters in Ichnolite to my colorful relatives. River towns tended to be rather independent and lawless and, participating in this frontier spirit were my ancestors, who were bootleggers, gamblers, and barkeeps. At one time in Quincy, I had five uncles and one aunt, who ran bars. I was raised behind bars, and I got to hear some of the finest storytellers around. I include a lot of these tall tales in the book.

Not all is fun and nostalgic in Ichnolite. I have chapters in the memoir about the racism and homophobia at the time (our bar would not serve Black people; and I had a gay brother, who thought he was the only homosexual on earth). I include a look at some of the morose aspects of a Catholic education. Finally, I write about a friend, who was the most adventurous person I’ve ever met, but who finally succumbed to cocaine addiction and suicide.

Why does one write a memoir? I can tell you positively it’s not because I had such a fantastically interesting life nor that my ego required some flattery. There are two quotes I will use to explain my attempt at memoir. First, Ellen Meloy has said, “It seems as if the right words can come only out of the perfect space of a place you love.” My love for my childhood place runs deeper than the Mississippi waters. I have lived in many places in my seventy-nine years, but none qualify for the epithet “home.” Finally, Olga Tokarczuk states, “A thing that happens and is not told ceases to exist and perishes.” In a small way, I would like my past in this place and time with all its varied characters to stay remembered. Quincy, Illinois, is built on limestone bluffs with fossils from an extinct sea. I would like to add a small fossil to those bluffs.

Marty will be reading from his book This Little Ichnolite of Mine this Tuesday, October 21, at Troubadour Booksellers (Sardis Crossing, 1721-7C Sardis Rd N) from 7-9. 

For more information about Marty and his books and other creative endeavors, please click on the following link: https://martinsettle.com

In thinking about Marty’s memoir, I am reminded of Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, which came out in 1883.  A lot has changed in the 142 years between the publication of these two memoirs, but the Mississippi is still just as mighty as ever.  In both of these memoirs, the Mississippi River is not just a geographical feature; it is almost a character in these stories.  By focusing on the Mississippi River and the communities that are located on the banks of this river, both Marty and Twain show us how our stories are shaped by places. As I see it, this theme reverberates throughout our community of readers and writers, for Storied Charlotte is not just about stories—it’s also about a place.     

Tags: Martin Settlememoir

The 12th Annual Celebration of Verse & Vino

October 12, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The twelfth annual celebration of Verse & Vino, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s grand literary gala and fundraiser, will take place in the Charlotte Convention Center on November 6, 2025.  In the span of just twelve years, Verse & Vino has come to be recognized as one of our community’s premier cultural events as is reflected in the fact that this year’s event is already sold out. I contacted Maggie Bean, the Director of Communications for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, and I asked her to comment on the success of Verse & Vino.  Here is what she sent to me:

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s literary gala Verse & Vino returns this fall — and though the event is already sold out (with a long waitlist of hopefuls), there’s still plenty to celebrate about its storied history.

First held in 2014 at the Westin, the inaugural Verse & Vino sold out all 850 seats. The lobby was so packed that guests coming off the escalator practically ran into each other on their way to toast the evening’s authors. That first lineup included five writers, among them New York Times bestselling romance novelist Debbie Macomber, who delighted the crowd with the story of her most loyal fan club: male inmates who write her heartfelt letters from across the country. (She writes them back.)

In the eleven years since, Verse & Vino has grown into one of Charlotte’s most anticipated events, raising more than $5.4 million to support Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. PNC Bank has proudly served as the Presenting Sponsor since day one, and beloved radio personality Sheri Lynch has emceed every year, reading each featured author’s work in full before stepping up to the microphone to deliver personal and eye-opening remarks.

Park Road Books has been the exclusive bookseller since the beginning as well, selling an impressive 12,750 books through the years, but none has been more popular than Chef Edward Lee’s Bourbon Land, which sold 417 copies last year. Longtime event planner Todd Murphy and his team have orchestrated each year’s celebration including immersive and elaborate vignettes based on the novels. Just don’t lay on the beds; they’re cardboard.

And there will be wine. More than 7,000 bottles of wine have been poured over our eleven years.

This year’s gathering is the largest yet, welcoming 1,380 guests to hear from an exceptional roster of 2025 authors: Nathan Harris (Amity), Rachel Hawkins (The Heiress), Diane Kochilas (Athens), and Jason Mott (People Like Us).

Verse & Vino may be one night only, but its good vibes last all year long.

I attended the very first Verse & Vino event in 2013, and I remember how much I enjoyed the evening.  Since then, I have been impressed with how our community has embraced this event and in the process has embraced the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. As I see it, Verse & Vino is more than a fundraiser for our public library; it is also a celebration of libraries, literacy, books, and our Storied Charlotte community of readers and writers.

Tags: Verse & Vino

Remembering Karon Luddy, a Lover of Words  

October 04, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Karon Luddy, the author of Spelldown and Bewilderment of Boys, died on September 21, 2025, at the age of seventy-one. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, November 7, at Myers Park Baptist Church, with a reception to follow. Her full obituary is available here.

Obituary of Karon Gleaton Luddy

Karon grew up in the small town of Lancaster, South Carolina, and she drew on her childhood memories in her creative writing. While still a child, Karon had dreams of becoming a writer, but she did not seriously pursue these dreams for many years. After graduating for UNC Charlotte in 1982, she led a successful career in sales and marketing, working for various technology companies in Charlotte, but her desire to be a writer never left her.  She enrolled in the creative writing program at Queens University, where she received her MFA in 2005. She then started teaching writing courses at UNC Charlotte in both the English Department and the American Studies Program. She taught at UNC Charlotte for over ten years.

I knew Karon from her days at UNC Charlotte. During this time, she completed her debut novel, Spelldown: The Big-Time Dreams of a Small-Town Word Whiz, which Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers published in 2007. The novel deals with a thirteen-year-old girl from a small town in South Carolina who competes in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

I remember talking with Karon about her novel, and she told me that the central character, Karlene Kay Bridges, is largely based on herself.  Like Karlene, Karon loved participating in spelling bees during her childhood.  I mentioned to Karon that I hated spelling bees as a boy because I was so bad at spelling. She then explained that what she really liked about spelling bees wasn’t the process of spelling words per se but rather the learning of new words. She said that she traced her lifelong love of words back to her sixth-grade teacher who helped her prepare for spelling bees by providing her with lists of new words to study. Karon does the same thing in her novel. At the end of Spelldown, Karon provides a glossary of words (along with their definitions) that Karlene encounters at spelling bees.

Spelldown was a great success.  The book received strong reviews from numerous journals, including Publishers Weekly, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews. The reviewer for Kirkus wrote, “Karlene’s engaging personal journey from word whiz-kid to winning young woman is artfully glossed with the emerging feminism of the late 1960s. This first-rate spelldown will have readers spellbound.”

I was so impressed with Karon’s novel that I invited her to appear as a featured author at the Children’s Literature Association Conference, which I co-chaired with my friend and colleague Paula Connolly. This conference took place in Charlotte in 2009, and Karon made us all proud as a hometown star who achieved national success, just as her character does in Spelldown.

Karon followed up the success of Spelldown with a sequel titled Bewilderment of Boys, which came out in 2014. In this novel, Karlene is seventeen years old and is trying her hand at songwriting. Like Spelldown, the sequel is steeped in small-town life, but outside events also come into play. Karlene and several of the other characters are affected by the Vietnam War. Shortly after the book came out, Karon came by my office and gave me a copy of the book. We talked for a little while about the book and about growing up during the Vietnam War. We agreed that the war had shaped our teenaged years.

In more recent years, Karon served as a faculty member for Charlotte Lit. Just as she had done with the students in her UNC Charlotte classes, she encouraged the writers whom she worked with at Charlotte Lit to take full advantage of the magic power of words in their writing. Throughout her life, Karon was a word lover, and Storied Charlotte is a better place because of her love of words.

Tags: Karon Luddy