Monthly Archives: August 2026

Honoring Dolly Parton and Her Imagination Library

August 29, 2026 by Mark West

As an admirer of Dolly Parton and a long-time supporter of her Imagination Library initiative, I was saddened when I heard that she had died on August 25, 2026, at the age of 80. Parton has left a lasting mark on our culture in many ways, but of all her accomplishments, the one that she saw as being the most significant was creating her Imagination Library. Launched in 1995, Parton’s Imagination Library mails free picture books to preschool-aged children on a monthly basis. Imagination Library started in Parton’s home state of Tennessee, but the program was such a hit that Parton decided to expand its reach, joining forces with literacy organizations around the country and elsewhere in the world in an effort to provide millions of children with free books. In the Charlotte area, the Imagination Library works with Smart Start of Mecklenburg County.

When I heard the news of Parton’s passing, I reached out to Mike Blackwelder, the Chief Executive Officer of Smart Start of Mecklenburg County. I asked him to comment on the Imagination Library and its connections to Charlotte. Here is what Mike sent to me:

Mike Blackwelder Standing Next to a Cutout of Dolly Parton

As a lifelong fan of Dolly Parton, this has been a tough week. The news of Dolly’s passing was a shock that I am still processing. I’ve listened to countless hours of her music, read books by and about her, seen her in concerts, traveled to see museum exhibits and performances, and was planning to see the Broadway debut of her new musical this winter. When I received the first of many media requests this week, I didn’t think I could do it without getting emotional. I have since learned that in addition to talking about Smart Start’s work, I will always accept an opportunity to talk about Dolly.

Smart Start of Mecklenburg County has been the local champion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library since 2014. The program first launched in Charlotte’s 28205 zip code through the efforts of local supporters – NoDa Brewing Company, Hearts Beat as One Foundation, and Twirl to the World Foundation. In 2017, the state of North Carolina began funding the program statewide, and we expanded to serve families across all of Mecklenburg County. Since that expansion, we have mailed more than 5.3 million free books to local children and families. At any given time, approximately 40,000 children throughout the county are enrolled, and we now deliver around 377,000 books annually.

The program works the way Dolly intended it to — simply. Any Mecklenburg County family with a child from birth to age five can register, and each month a new, age-appropriate book arrives in the mail addressed to that child. There are no income requirements and no cost to families. Research consistently shows that children who are read to regularly develop stronger language, literacy, and school readiness skills, and the first 2,000 days of a child’s life are a critical window for that kind of development. By putting books directly into homes, the Imagination Library helps families build reading routines during the years when the brain is growing fastest.

We have also been growing the program in ways that reflect the diversity of Charlotte’s families. Since June 2024, we have offered a bilingual book option, and about 10% of families have enrolled in it. We also established our “Little Libraries” initiative, repurposing old newspaper vending boxes to provide access to free books and the program throughout the community. The Imagination Library has distributed over 300 million books worldwide, with more than 3 million going out to registered children each month. Across North Carolina alone, nearly 25 million books have been mailed to families since the statewide expansion.

Dolly understood that a book can spark imagination, build vocabulary, strengthen family bonds, and set children on a path of lifelong learning. We see her legacy in the millions of books delivered, and in the quiet moments when parents and caregivers sit down to read with their children. We are proud and grateful to carry her vision forward in Mecklenburg County.

As it turns out, all of the media requests, emails, and conversations this week have been a healing process for me. While there have been tears, there hasn’t been one time that I’ve talked about Dolly without smiling; her energy and positivity are contagious even now. People keep asking what they can do in remembrance of Dolly, and the answer is simple – be more like Dolly. The world would be a better place if we all had even a small amount of the genuine love for humanity that radiated from Dolly Parton.

For more information about Smart Start of Mecklenburg County and its connections to Parton’s Imagination Library, please click of the following link: https://www.smartstartofmeck.org/news/2026-08/honoring-dolly-partons-legacy-right-here-mecklenburg-county.htm

I thank Mike and everyone at Smart Start of Mecklenburg County for bringing Parton’s Imagination Library to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Dolly Parton Imagination Library Mike Blackwelder Smart Start of Mecklenburg County

Erika Ferrari Lopez and Her New Children’s Book

August 22, 2026 by Mark West

Charlotte author Erika Ferrari Lopez burst on the children’s literature scene in 2023 with the publication of her debut children’s book, The Adventures of Amazing Grace. In a glowing review that appeared in Kirkus, the reviewer proclaimed, “This diverting, good-natured tale, like its indelible young hero, soars.” Encouraged by the positive response to her first book, Erika has written a sequel titled The Adventures of Amazing Grace: Secrets of the Time Machine, which just came out this month.

I contacted Erika and asked her about the story behind her Amazing Grace books. Here is what she sent to me:

My family moved to Charlotte in 2015 from Northern Virginia. We settled into the Dilworth neighborhood and love the walkability to restaurants and visiting Freedom Park. I began writing memoir and essays after hearing Kathy Izard speak at my church and subsequently meeting her for coffee. She has since become a mentor, and I even worked for her when she launched her children’s picture book, A Good Night for Mr. Coleman.

My writing group WordPlay, run by Maureen Ryan Griffin, has taught me so much about writing, story structure, pacing, and voice. The authors in the group write everything-poetry, fiction, memoir- and when I told them I was switching gears from essays to a 3^rd grade novel, they were all supportive and excited to help The Adventures of Amazing Grace fly into the world.

The inspiration for The Adventures of Amazing Grace came from a dream. A few years after my mother passed away from pancreatic cancer, I dreamt that I showed my mom that I could hover over a puddle. My mom responded, “That’s wonderful! Watch this!” and flew up to the ceiling of a great auditorium. Then she taught me how to fly higher and further than I ever thought possible.

The next evening, my eight-year-old daughter, Sophia, asked me to tell her a bedtime story. I began, “There once was a girl named…”, “Grace!” my daughter interrupted. “And Grace realized she could fly…” I continued.

Our bedtime story ended up lasting weeks, and at some point, Sophia begged me to write it all down. I would race to the computer every night after my daughter fell asleep to capture the story in writing. The next two years were spent writing and editing, sharing and receiving feedback from beta readers, and finally bringing the story to life in The Adventures of Amazing Grace.

The first book follows 3^rd grader Grace as she discovers that she has inherited the gift of flight from her female, Guatemalan ancestors. The book features Spanish words and phrases translated in the margins and is formatted in a dyslexic-friendly font and format for accessibility. Themes include overcoming fear to listen to your heart and using your gifts in the world.

The sequel, Secrets of the Time Machine, released on Friday, August 21, 2026. This book is an exciting time-travel adventure with the same lovable characters from the first book and more Spanish words and phrases translated throughout. Like the first book, it is formatted in a dyslexic-friendly font and format, but we also discover that Grace is dyslexic in this book. With real-life depictions of dyslexia in the classroom and at home, children can see themselves in the pages of the story and build empathy for others. Themes include learning from the past, cycle-breaking, and forgiveness.

Both books are geared toward 2^nd-4^th graders, but they can be enjoyed as a read aloud to younger children, or as a short read for anyone who loves stories of friendship, family, and magic.

In reading other books with my daughter, I noticed the lack of positive, exciting stories for middle grade readers that feature strong female protagonists and healthy friendships. I also realized how underrepresented children that had grown up in bilingual households are in children’s literature. As an author, I enjoyed incorporating elements from our own lives and culture into the books. Grace is bicultural—her dad is from Argentina and her mom is from Guatemala. Her family eats empanadas and tamales. Characters speak Spanish and English.

Learning that my own daughter is dyslexic led to the dyslexia depictions and formatting, because dyslexic children should see themselves in stories as well. Especially since my daughter co-created the first book! I use my author Instagram platform to highlight information about learning disabilities and bilingual and cultural information. Parents and educators can find ‘highlights’ about Dyslexia, ADHD, and other topics on my profile page as well as podcast episodes in my links.

My favorite part about this journey has been sharing about the books and the writing process in author visits to schools. Over the last three years, I have visited various schools in CMS, private schools, and dyslexia-focused schools in NC, SC, GA, and TX. I believe that representation is so important and bringing a book with a little Latina girl on the cover to schools with high Latin American populations, or a book that depicts dyslexia to schools that serve children with learning disabilities has been so powerful. I’ve received beautiful thank you notes from students that say “thank you for writing a book for kids like me,” and I will never get over that.

Local stores have been incredible to work with, especially Park Road Books, that hosted my first book’s launch in 2023 and will host the first talk and signing for this book on August 29^th at 3pm. CLT Find has been another great partner, carrying my books in both of their locations. I am attending Books on the House Bookapalooza at Truist Field for the first time this year and frequently participate in Front Paige book fairs at OMB and other locations in Charlotte.

I’m partnering with a wonderful non-profit called Generation WE to bring a writing workshop called “The Adventures of Amazing YOU” to Charlotte-area schools. I’m also working with Despierta, a Charlotte non-profit that serves Latina youth and women with empowerment and mental health support, to bring programming based on the inspirational messages from the books to their Bonita Rising participants.

For more information about Erika and her books, please click on the following link: https://www.erikaferrarilopez.com

For more information about Erika’s upcoming book signing at Park Road Books on August 29 from 3:00 to 4:00, please click on the following link: https://parkroadbooks.com/event/2026-08-29/erika-ferrari-lopez-discusses-her-new-book-secrets-time-machine

I congratulate Erika on the publication of Secrets of the Time Machine. Erika’s Amazing Grace books are welcomed additions to the amazing and diverse collection of children’s books by Storied Charlotte writers.

Tags: Erika Ferrari Lopez

Martin Settle’s New Poetry Chapbook

August 15, 2026 by Mark West

The Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, more commonly known as Charlotte Lit, regularly posts an online newsletter that they call Lit Weekly. I always read each issue, and that is where I saw the news about Charlotte Lit Press’s publication of Martin (Marty) Settle’s new poetry chapbook. Titled The Wild Garlic Manifesto, this chapbook has an official release date of August 18, 2026.

Marty and I go back many years. I have been following his writing career since he published his first book, a poetry collection titled The Teleology of Dunes, with Main Street Rag press in 2015. From his first book to his newest release, Marty has written about nature and humans’ interactions with the natural world. In The Wild Garlic Manifesto, Marty approaches nature with a sense of awe but also with an urgent sense of purpose as is reflected in his use of the word “manifesto” in the title of his collection. For Marty, developing an appreciation of the wonders of nature is a cause that has both individual and societal benefits. I contacted Marty and asked him for more information about The Wild Garlic Manifesto. Here is what he sent to me:

The Wild Garlic Manifesto is my ninth book and fourth book of poetry. I am proud to say that I am a Charlotte writer and that all my books have been written and published while I resided in Charlotte. I am equally proud to say that this particular book will be published by Charlotte Lit, an amazing organization in Charlotte for all things writerly.

In The Wild Garlic Manifesto, the central image is a shock of wild garlic leaves in the midst of a manicured grass lawn. The garlic has defied all the chemicals and human effort to exterminate it. The grass lawn represents the fascist orderliness demanded from a government. Since the 1960s when I thrived as a hippie, I have always identified with the wild garlic. I was part of the underground that opposed the violence and pollution that always goes together with a totalitarian regime.

While The Wild Garlic Manifesto has poems that represent my activism in opposing our present government, it has many more poems that try to soothe our present predicament with nature’s wonder. I find so many of the philosophies and religions of our times unable to do anything but create confusion. They offer little solid to the imagination – post modernism, social constructionism, deconstruction, Christianity, and mythology. But nature is real and solid. To get meaning out of it, all ye need to do is to observe and be in awe of living things.

There are poems where I am caught up in the other-than-human imagination. What kind of imagination goes into birds that can not only migrate using magnetic forces and constellations, but can do so with one eye open, so that they can sleep and be awake at the same time? What is it like to find the luminescent Jack-o’-Lantern mushrooms in a forest at night, radiating like a pot of gold? How many of us have been to the Parkway to view the awe of the mountains when right behind us is a vertical bog just as awesome? All these questions are addressed in poetry in The Wild Garlic Manifesto.

Finally, this chapbook is, using Rebecca Elson phrase, “a responsibility to awe.” It is not enough for me to experience awe; I find that I must respond to it with poems. My hope is that these poems will publicly fulfill this duty and allow others to ride this wave of this inspiration.

For more information about The Wild Garlic Manifesto, please click on the following link: https://charlottelit.org/press/chapbooks

I congratulate Marty on the publication of The Wild Garlic Manifesto, and I commend Charlote Lit Press for publishing such poetry chapbooks. Charlotte Lit Press has published several poetry chapbooks that celebrate the wonders of nature, so Marty’s chapbook is in good company here in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Martin Settle poetry collection

On the Writing of a Collaborative Mystery Novel

August 07, 2026 by Mark West

Earlier this summer, Sandra Warren contacted me about a new mystery novel that she and four other area authors had collaboratively written. Their novel, Auras of Deceit: A Trivolity Cozy Mystery, is set an “active adult community,” which is a phrase people use these days when referring to 55+ communities.

As a scholar, I often engage in collaborative projects, but collaborating on a scholarly work and collaborating on a novel are two entirely different enterprises. When I learned about the novel that Sandra and her collaborators had written, I was reminded of The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner collaboratively wrote in 1873. Twain and Warner were neighbors in Hartford, Connecticut, and they took on the project at the suggestion of their wives while they were all together at a dinner party. In the end, this satirical novel helped define the graft and excessive materialism associated with American culture during the late 19^th century, but the process of writing the novel did not go very smoothly.

If Twain and Warner had trouble melding their two different writing styles, I wondered how Sandra and her collaborators were able to meld the different writing styles of five writers. I contacted Sandra and asked her about how she and her collaborators were able to work together on a jointly written novel. Here is what she sent to me:

Writers tend to be solitary people, burrowed alone for hours each day at their desk, tapping out what they hope will become the next great novel; a classic for readers to enjoy until the end of time. So, it’s hard to imagine a collaboration of two writers ever agreeing on anything. Five writers working together sounds like a recipe for failure, fights and loss of friendship. But that didn’t happen with a group that now calls themselves the Lake Norman Writers Guild. In fact, if you listened at the door of their writing room you would have heard nothing but friendly conversation, amicable compromise and raucous laughter.

How did two poets, Annette Larkin and John Stickney, a sci-fi writer, James Salkeld, and two historical fiction writers, E. Jax Willoughby and Sandra Warren, meet, and what was their collaborative secret?

The writers all met at Trilogy Lake Norman, in Denver, one of several over-55 communities, in and around the greater Charlotte area. John came from Ohio, Sandra & Vicki from other parts of North Carolina, and James and Jax from Charlotte. Sandra, Vicki and John attend monthly meetings, workshops, open Mic nights and classes as members of the Charlotte Writers Club.

The secret to their successful collaboration was, first and foremost, respect. Even though not everyone was published, the writers respected each other’s imagination, creativity and writing skills. No one writer had more control than the other.

It began with the suggestion that it would be fun to write a murder mystery together. After the laughter died down, the big question was how? The writers started off hit and miss, and finally came up with a method that worked for them. It may not work for any other group.

In the beginning, everyone prepared a one-page murder mystery idea to be read and voted upon at the next meeting. The concept of a party where a ‘murder game’ is played, was chosen.

For the next meeting, character profiles were needed for the party hosts, the primary attendees, a victim, and the investigator of the crime. Each member created and developed a character profile to present. When the profiles were read, we were all amazed at the complexity of the characters, their physical descriptions, personalities and the secrets they held.

Our cozy crime novel was off to a great start!

The next challenge was to get each character to the party. Suggestions to think about included: their relationship to the hosts and to the other characters; what they wore; feelings about attending; did they go alone or with someone; how they got there; did they arrive early, on time, late. Each character’s role at the party was discussed and enhanced by the group.

The idea of where to start the novel and how it should proceed evolved from the in-depth character descriptions. At the next few meetings, various writers wrote a chapter or two and presented them to the group. Slowly, the framework of the crime, the plot, possible motives, and suspects emerged.

Critiquing the novel in progress, could have been the writers undoing, but it was agreed, right from the beginning, to put egos aside and work together with a “majority rules” mentality.

Chapter contributions were posted on Google Docs so each writer could read, critique and suggest changes via the comment feature. Punctuation and grammar were corrected immediately. Other concerns were brought to the next meeting for discussion and consensus.

One person in the group, James, used the Scrivener writing program to keep all the corrected versions of the novel together. Through Scrivener he was able to easily move chapters around, make changes, and eventually format the book and the eBook for publication.

The end result? A cozy crime mystery novel titled, Auras of Deceit: A Trivolity Cozy Mystery. The story marries a lighthearted look at life in an active adult community with daring and intrigue, when a “game of murder” goes horribly wrong.

In case you’re wondering, yes, a second cozy mystery is in process.

Auras of Deceit is available through Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats in English, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

The Lake Norman Writers Guild members are available for presentations and book discussions, in-person or via Zoom, individually or as a group. Contact: Sandra@arliebooks.com

The Lake Norman Writers Guild Members are:

Annette Larkin – Corporate escapee, life coach, world traveler, and aspiring poetess.

James Salkeld – a writer of a speculative fiction novel called The Empathy Circuit.

John Stickney – A poet. His poetry and short crime fiction has appeared in online and print magazines such as Tough,Needles, Thug Lit, and Demolition among others.

Sandra Warren – an award-winning author with publications in multiple genres. www.sandrawarren.com

E. Jax Willoughby –a writer of a historical fiction novel titled Comfort’s Rebellion. jaxwilloughby.com

I thank Sandra for reaching out to me and for providing the story behind the writing of Auras of Deceit, and I congratulate all the members of the Lake Norman Writers Guild on writing a murder mystery without murdering any of their fellow guild members in the process.

There is a famous line associated with the crime drama The Naked City, and the line goes “There are eight million stories in the naked city.” Well, I don’t know if there are eight million stories in Storied Charlotte, but our community has produced many good murder mysteries, including Auras of Deceit.

Tags: Lake Norman Writers Guild mystery novel

Frye Gaillard Channels His Inner Thomas Paine in New Book

August 01, 2026 by Mark West

Frye Gaillard, a former Charlotte Observer writer, and I communicated almost daily while we were co-editing The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter: Essays on the President’s Books (2025). Over the course of our communications, we discovered that we are interested in many of the same topics, such as the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the history of the 1960s, and the culture of the American South. However, it was not until this past month that we realized that both of us are admirers of Thomas Paine and his famous pamphlets in support of the American Revolution. We made this discovery after Frye sent me a signed copy of his new book titled A Republic If You Can Keep It: Reflections on an America in Crisis, which he co-wrote with Cynthia Tucker. As I was reading this book, it reminded me of Paine’s The American Crisis (1776). Both works are eloquent calls to action, and both are rooted in a love of America. I commented on this point when I sent Frye a thank-you email message, and he responded by saying, “I LOVE the Thomas Paine comparison. That’s actually who I was privately channeling, which sounds presumptuous, of course, but interesting that you picked that up.”

I invited Frye to send me the backstory of how he and Cynthia came to write A Republic If You Can Keep It. Here is what he sent to me:

Back in 2022, my colleague Cynthia Tucker and I published a book called The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance. Partly because of Cynthia’s standing as a Pulitzer Prize winner, the book got a good bit of national attention including a nice interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition and inclusion on the network’s list of notable books in 2022. It was our message of hope and warning about the state of things in the country, and having written it, we both moved on to other things.

But when Trump won reelection in 2024, and as we watched his wrecking-ball policies unfold in 2025, we decided we needed to write another book, much more urgent than the first. Around December of 2025, we began outlining A Republic If You Can Keep It, working with Black Belt Press in Montgomery, a small publisher with a concern for history and social justice that we knew could produce the book on an expedited timetable.

We wanted to write about the Trump regime in the context of the nation’s 250th birthday, evoking the shining ideals of equality and justice put forward in the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the U. S. Constitution. Yes, America’s founders were great flawed men, many of them enslavers of other human beings, and so of course our country has wrestled with the contradictions of its founding. But for most of our lives, as two journalists, one Black, one white, coming of age in the civil rights years, Cynthia and I thought the country was making progress, following the North Star of possibility bequeathed by Jefferson, Franklin, George Washington and the rest.

Now we are not so sure.

So, we wrote our book in five months—a still frame of a story in motion—so that it could be published as close as possible to July 4. I say half seriously that I was channeling my inner Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Because indeed they are.

But in the book, despite the urgency of the warning, we find hope in the deep, spontaneous, nonviolent resistance that has emerged in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, but also Charlotte, which we mention quite specifically.

Our conclusion is that the ending is still in doubt. We believe the damage to America can be repaired, though the restoration of what we have lost could be a generational project. Black Americans know this well. They lived through the terrible betrayal that came with the end of Reconstruction but kept on pushing. Perhaps we will manage to do the same. But darker possibilities exist as well.

I am happy for the chance to talk about all of this in Charlotte—a place where I lived for 30 years, and where, on the staff of The Charlotte Observer, I learned what it meant to be a journalist.

I left the city in 2005 to take a job as Writer in Residence at the University of South Alabama in my hometown of Mobile. My wife Nancy Gaillard, a former principal in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, found a welcoming home on the faculty of the College of Education at South Alabama. So, it was a happy homecoming. But I continue to miss my friends in Charlotte. On September 20, I’ll be talking about the book at Myers Park Covenant Church, formerly Myers Park Baptist. I look forward to it.

Again, Mark, I’m grateful for your interest.

For readers who want to know more about Frye and his books, please click on the following link: https://fryegaillardauthor.com/ I congratulate Frye and Cynthia on the publication of A Republic If You Can Keep It. It is a timely book, and its message resonates here in Storied Charlotte, which has long been known as a “hornet’s nest of rebellion” against the forces of tyranny.

Tags: A Republic If You Can Keep It Frye Gaillard