Monthly Archives: January 2026

Reconnecting with AJ Hartley  

January 24, 2026 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

When AJ Hartley was a professor in UNC Charlotte’s Theatre Department, I used to see him on campus on a regular basis. On the occasions when we ran into each other, I always asked him about his latest book projects, and he always had news to share. However, since his retirement in 2023, we have not had as many chance-encounters. In an effort to get caught up with his latest writing projects, I reached out to him and asked him if he had any new books.  Here is what he sent to me:

I published two novels last year. They are wildly different from each other in genre, style and content. One is a sci-fi thriller titled Time Rider. It’s about a totalitarian future reaching back into the nineteen sixties to counter what it sees as temporal terrorism. It follows a throwback called Bowie, selected because he’ll blend into the US population more seamlessly than some of his masters would, and because he is attempting to cement his relationship with a government which despises him and his kind. He enters the past on a purpose-built motorcycle but quickly proves too susceptible to the culture of the moment and goes rogue. The story, which leaps through key moments of history—particularly the Kennedy assassination—is part of my on-going work with Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 and is informed by Peter Levenda’s Sinister Forces nonfiction trilogy. It’s an action-packed mystery which grows out of the tradition of films like The Terminator and Twelve Monkeys, but it is also a rumination on what it is to be human.

The other book is a continuation of my Hideki Smith series, YA novels about a mixed race Japanese American family (like mine) battling yokai (Japanese supernatural creatures) in their small North Carolina mountain town. The first book, Hideki Smith Demon Queller (shortlisted for the Dragon Award), was released in Japanese last summer as Hideki Smith To Nihon No Yokai. Book 2, Hideki Smith and the Omukade, is a bigger, more adult book, which gives more room for characters like Hideki’s British-born father Stephen, who is (self-evidently) my alter ego. An Omukade, incidentally, is the Japanese monster version of an all too real giant centipede.

I’m working on book 3 in the series now and will be visiting Japan (and my translator) next month for inspiration! Incidentally, since so much of my old YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@AndrewHartley) was Japan focused, I opted last year to move all my writing-related content to a new channel—AJ Hartley’s weird writing life: www.youtube.com/@ajhartleyauthor. Please subscribe for writing tales and tips.

The Hideki Smith stories are, of course, anchored by my sense of family and the specifics of living in North Carolina as a Brit with a Japanese American wife and son. The adventures are therefore shot through with questions of identity, belonging, and competing notions of Americanness. Since the novels are published by Charlotte based small press Falstaff Books, there’s an enhanced sense of the expressly local, of my embeddedness within a particular community whose sense of self is shifting, expanding. That is important to me and to the stories, as we—and the wider community—wrestle with ideas of who we are as a collective and—perhaps more importantly—who we want to be. Monster stories have always been great metaphors for questions of Otherness, of frightening things from outside our world which shine a light on what’s going on within it, and those questions feel especially urgent just now. I’m proud to work within that narrative tradition and—I hope—give readers some scares and maybe a few laughs along the way.

I congratulate AJ Hartley on the publication of these latest novels. While I miss seeing him on campus, I am pleased that he still an active member of the Storied Charlotte community.

Tags: AJ Hartley

Two New Poetry Chapbooks from Charlotte Lit Press  

January 17, 2026 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The history of chapbooks can be traced back to 16th-century Britain when itinerant peddlers called chapmen began selling inexpensive printed booklets to rural working-class readers who could not afford regular books. These booklets came to be known as chapbooks, and they helped democratize literacy in an age when reading was generally associated with the upper classes. Chapbooks often featured ballads, folk tales, and popular works of poetry.  In the 18th and 19th centuries, chapbooks took root in America where they helped popularize reading as a pastime. Chapbooks gradually evolved into dime novels and other types of inexpensive publications. The term chapbook fell out of use around the end of the 19th century.  In the mid-20th century, however, the term chapbook came back into circulation, and it is now generally applied to short collections of poetry published by small presses. 

Charlotte Lit Press is establishing itself as an important publisher of poetry chapbooks. It has brought out ten poetry chapbooks since 2023. Its two most recent poetry chapbooks are Snakeberry Mamas by Mary Alice Dixon and 174 Edgewood by Barbara (Bobbie) Campbell. Both Mary Alice and Bobbie are Charlotte poets.

Snakeberry Mamas features a collection of poems set in the Appalachian Mountains. Mary Alice spent much of her childhood in and around her grandmother’s farmhouse outside of Fairmont, West Virginia.  The poems in Snakeberry Mamas grew out of her childhood experiences with her grandmother and her other West Virginia relatives. In many ways, these poems celebrate the traditions and stories that Mary Alice absorbed during her interactions with these relatives. The Appalachian landscape also figures prominently in these poems.  Mary Alice has a M.A. in art history from Yale University, and her art background comes into play when she is writing about the visual elements associated with this landscape.

Like Snakeberry Mamas, Bobbie’s 174 Edgewood is tied to family history, but the poems in 174 Edgewood are not all based on happy childhood memories. The cover of 174 Edgewood depicts the front of a house. In these poems, however, Bobbie takes the reader through the front door and into the chaotic interior space of her childhood home. Her parents were both alcoholics, and their self-destructive behavior shaped her childhood experiences. In these poems, Bobbie explores the complexities of dysfunctional family dynamics and the power of family secrets. Many of these poems are heartbreaking, but they also have touches of humor. Despite their destructive behavior patterns, the family members portrayed in these poems are not devoid of love or moments of happiness.

For more information about Mary Alice’s and Bobbie’s poetry chapbooks, please click on the following link: https://charlottelit.org/press/chapbooks/

I congratulate Mary Alice and Bobbie on the publication of their poetry chapbooks. I also commend Charlote Lit Press for publishing such poetry chapbooks.  Charlotte Lit Press is but one of many ways in which Charlotte Lit contributes to the vitality of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Poetry Chapbooks

Earl G. Gulledge’s New Memoir about Growing Up in Charlotte During the Post-War Years

January 10, 2026 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

During my forty-two years in Charlotte, I have seen many changes in the city that I now call home, but the changes that I have witnessed are practically nothing compared to changes that Earl G. Gulledge has witnessed during his eighty years as a resident of Charlotte. Gulledge was born in Charlotte in 1945, and he has lived in the city his entire life. For years he worked for one of Charlotte’s leading architectural firms, and his background in construction and project management has contributed to his ongoing interest in the city’s built environment.  

Over the course of his career, Gulledge has often been asked about what the city was like back in the day, and these questions prompted him to record his memories in a book. He decided to focus his book on his growing-up years. Titled Charlotte: Haulin’ Around Town Streetside 1950-1963, his book came out in November 2025 with Redhawk Publications. The publisher describes the book as “part memoir, part historical commentary.” When I saw the announcement about the release of the book, I wanted to know more, so I contacted Gulledge and asked him for additional information about his memoir. Here is what he sent to me:

I am a native of Charlotte.  I grew up on the westside in the neighborhoods of Barringer (west of Wilmore) and Ashley Park.  My mother passed away when I was three and a half and, as you might presume, I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers.  My father was a city bus driver. As time passed, I spent a lot of time riding buses, both for transportation as about everyone did and to pass time after Saturday movies.  In those days boys my age could go “downtown'” by themselves and spend most of a day. I knew the city well. As it turns out I have a quite good memory – back to three years of age.  As I note in my book, I clearly remember the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950. 

As time went by, I found myself in countless conversations about “old” Charlotte.  In 2019 while attending a meeting uptown and in a conversation about an old railroad right of way, I decided to write about growing up in the city.  There are numerous books about Charlotte. Charlotte: Haulin’ Around Town Streetside 1950 – 1963 is not a then vs now comparative discussion of Charlotte. It is, in fact, a narrative memoir that encompasses, places, people, lifestyles, and vignettes. 

The years 1950 and 1963 offer a duality for my narrative.  In 1950 I was old enough to process happenings around me, and in 1963 I graduated from high school. The year 1950 was the front bookend of the Cold War years, and 1963 was the closing bookend at the transition point to the last half of the century. I believe I have offered a granularity of detail not found in any other single source including the first generation of theaters, our airport, railroads, and many other topics of interest.

The book is available from Redhawk (https://tinyurl.com/CharlotteEarlGulledge), Park Road Books, Barnes and Noble (Arboretum and Morrocroft), The Buttercup, The Mole Hole, Myers Park Methodist Gracious Gifts, Renfroe Hardware in Matthews, and Amazon.

While reading Gulledge’s memoir, I learned a lot about the history of our city. Gulledge provides keen insights into the history of Charlotte’s neighborhoods and landmark buildings, but he also includes commentary on the nature of life in Charlotte during these post-war years. I especially like his discussion of the impact of racial segregation on his childhood.  I also like the many photographs and other visual images that he includes. Gulledge’s memoir should appeal to anyone who is interested in reading about the history of Storied Charlotte as a lived experience. 

Tags: Earl G. Gulledgememoir

Shining a Light on moonShine review

January 03, 2026 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

A few weeks ago I received an email from my friend Marty Settle. The re message said, “Idea for Storied Charlotte.” Marty suggested that I write a blog post “about moonShine review, the local journal of prose. They’ve just come out with a special anniversary issue of 21 years of publication.” Well, I had heard of the moonShine review because a friend of mine who writes flash fiction had mentioned it to me, but I did not know that the journal is based in the Charlotte area. I thanked Marty and set out to learn more about the journal. 

I contacted Anne M. Kaylor, the founder of the journal and the owner of Moonshine Review Press, which publishes the journal. She informed me that moonShine review is a creative prose and photography journal that is published bi-annually in the spring and fall. She then provided me with the following write-up about the history and mission of the journal:

The goal of the publication is to provide a venue for unusual creative perspectives. When choosing from submissions, we strive to balance talent with a twist and look for peculiar, profound, relentless viewpoints. I’m always searching for the epiphany in a story, and in the photography, too.

I began publishing moonShine review more than twenty years ago. At the time, it seemed to me the Charlotte area had a thriving poetry community and a good number of poetry publications, but I couldn’t find many prose publishing opportunities.

The journal’s name and mission emerged one evening on the back deck of Thomas Street Tavern in Plaza-Midwood. Sitting with friends under the stars and a full moon, I saw a connection between writing and the night sky—how creative ideas spark in the safety of the mind’s inner darkness and surface when exposed to the light, thus moonShine review is about what speaks to us in the moonlight, in the darkness, where we feel safer, somehow, to expose our shadows and truths.

I am gratified by the many writers who have graced moonShine’s pages and then gone on to publish their own books, as well as the talented photographers who have made names for themselves. As the journal enters its twenty-second year, I continue to stress the importance of publishing both established writers and new, emerging talent.

Though the journal has published national and even international writers and photographers, many appearing in moonShine review have been local, several of whom are in the anniversary issue—M. Scott Douglass, publisher and managing editor at Main Street Rag; David E. Poston, former Kakalak editor and North Carolina Poetry Society board member; Leslie M. Rupracht, cofounder and host of Waterbean Poetry Night in Huntersville; and Mary Alice Dixon, widely published prose and poetry writer and multiple Pushcart nominee, to name a few.

In more recent years, given the nation’s climate, moonShine’s mission has evolved to include the need to speak out, to act for change. Believing in equality, in social justice, is no longer enough. Writers stand on the front lines and have the power to make a real difference. I want moonShine review to be a vehicle for this.

Here is some general information for readers who are interested in submitting to the journal:

  • No set theme
  • Anyone eligible to submit
  • Submissions accepted year-round; only read months immediately following deadlines
  • 2026 submission deadlines: March 15 and August 15
  • More information and all submission guidelines on website: http://moonshinereview.com

I thank Marty and Anne for their help with this blog post. As I see it, this post exemplifies what I mean when I say that the purpose of my blog is to celebrate Charlotte’s community of readers and writers. I usually focus on the readers and writers, but the value of community is just as important. Both Marty and Anne care about the Storied Charlotte community, and they both make valuable contributions to this community.

Tags: Anne KaylormoonShine review