Bonnie E. Cone Professor in Civic Engagement Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

AUTHOR

Mark West

Webb Hubbell’s New Legal Thriller

March 22, 2025 by Mark West

A few months before she died, Dannye Powell sent me an email message in which she provided me with a tip for my Storied Charlotte blog. Over the years, she often contacted me when she had information about a new book by a Charlotte author, and I always followed up on her suggestions. In this particular email, she wrote, “I want to bring your attention to a man in my neighborhood—Webb Hubbell—whose new thriller novel is out. He served as Associate Attorney General under Clinton and also served as mayor of Little Rock, but now he lives in Dilworth and writes thrillers. His new novel is titled Light of Day, and it’s part of a series.”

Taking Dannye’s advice, I did a little research on Webb. I found out that he moved to Charlotte in 2010 after serving in high-level positions in government and industry. Drawing on his background as a lawyer, he started a new career as an author of legal thrillers. He launched his Jack Patterson series in 2014 with the publication of When Men Betray. The central character in this series, Jack Patterson, is a successful lawyer in Washington, DC, who often finds himself in the middle of complicated and dangerous cases. In Light of Day, he agrees to represent a young computer genius who happens to be the grandson of the head of the Louisiana crime syndicate. Almost immediately, Jack gets caught up in a life-threatening situation involving technology companies, the FBI, and Louisiana’s crime syndicate.

While researching Webb’s colorful life, I became curious about how an electrical engineering student at the University of Arkansas, turned college football player, turned high-powered attorney, turned politician ended up becoming a novelist in Charlotte. I contacted him and asked him about his decision to become a writer. Here is what he sent to me:

I am a bit nervous writing to an English professor. My high school English teacher is probably rolling in her grave at the thought that I’ve published seven books. As you might imagine, I was not her favorite student. Ironically, I studied engineering in college, where I didn’t write a single sentence for five years — perfect training for a lawyer and author. However, being a Southerner, storytelling comes naturally to me, and when my wife and I moved to Charlotte, I decided to write novels to keep myself out of trouble.

My first book, When Men Betray, begins with Jack driving to Davidson for Parents Weekend, but he ends up in Arkansas when his best friend murders a U.S. Senator. Each time I start a new Jack Patterson thriller, I consider setting it in Charlotte. However, after living here for fifteen years, I still don’t feel confident enough to accurately portray this wonderful city. My current project, following Light of Day, was originally set in Bat Cave, NC, but Hurricane Helene has forced me to reconsider.

That’s not to say the Carolinas haven’t influenced my writing. Every novel has been written at my desk in Dilworth, with occasional writing retreats to Little Switzerland or the Carolina beaches. Light of Day is a perfect example. During and after Covid, I was stuck. Finally, Suzy and I went to Pawleys Island to walk the beach and write. The sunrises and sunsets over the ocean and marshes provided the inspiration I needed to finish the novel I’d struggled with for two years.

In each of my novels I come up with a theme and setting, but I don’t outline. (I know, that’s not the right way to write.) Instead I put Jack and the other characters in a pickle and hope they will subconsciously help me figure out how to escape. I try to incorporate themes based on my experiences as a lawyer or at the Justice Department. Light of Dayexplores our loss of privacy, the cooperation between major tech companies, and the manipulation of justice. My oldest daughter lives in New Orleans, so our visits have introduced us to the city’s restaurants, the influence of organized crime, and the mysterious swamps and bayous.

A good trial lawyer, like an author, simplifies complex facts for an audience. I let Jack use some of my old courtroom techniques.

For more information about Webb and his novels, please click on the following link: https://webbhubbell.com

I thank Webb for sharing his thoughts on his writing career. I also thank Dannye for introducing me to Webb. Although Dannye is no longer with us in person, her spirit and her good advice continue to resonate in our Storied Charlotte community.

Tags: Legal Thriller Webb Hubbell

The Power of Stories to Bridge Differences

March 15, 2025 by Mark West

I recently learned that the second day of April is National Reconciliation Day. The history of National Reconciliation Day can be traced back to the 1980s when the advice columnist Ann Landers came up with the idea of devoting this day to mending strained relationships. For Landers, reconciliation always involves fostering understanding through improved communication.

In keeping with Landers’ idea, the Levine Museum of the New South is sponsoring an author panel discussion on April 2, 2025. Titled “Reconciliation Through Story,” this event will take place at the South Boulevard Library (4429 South Blvd.) from 6:00 to 7:30. The event is free, but registration is required. Here is the official description of the event:

Join Levine Museum on National Reconciliation Day at South Boulevard Library, for a panel discussion, moderated by Natisha Lance, with four local authors on the power of stories. Those with different perspectives can read the same book to spark conversations promoting understanding and communication which are necessary steps in reconciliation. Our panelists will speak about how their books are a part of that bridge-building process.

The author panel will include Carol Baldwin, debut author of Charlotte-based young-adult novel, Half-Truths, based in Charlotte in the 1950s; Kathleen Burkinshaw, the author of The Last Cherry Blossom, which is based on her mother’s life as a 12-year-old during the last year of WWII in Hiroshima; children’s book author Dorothy H. Price, author of the Jalen’s Big City Life series; and Daddy-Daughter Day; and Meredith Ritchie, author of Poster Girls, a women’s historical fiction novel set in Charlotte in WWII.

For more information about registering for this event, please click on the following link: https://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/lmns-events/reconciliation-through-story/

I commend the Levine Museum of the New South for sponsoring this panel discussion. All the authors on this panel are active members of the Storied Charlotte community, and they all have valuable points to make about the power of stories to bridge differences.

Tags: Charlotte Authors Levine Museum

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Community Read Program

March 09, 2025 by Mark West

During the month of March, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is once again sponsoring its Community Read program. The purpose of this month-long program is to encourage the members of the larger Charlotte community to read and discuss common texts that all deal with a central theme. For this year, the theme deals with our responses to art. The organizers are asking participants to complete the following statement: Art is …

For more information about the Community Read program, please click on the following link: https://www.cmlibrary.org/community-read

This year’s signature title is  Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. This novel focuses on a group of Chinese American college students who set out steal five priceless Chinese sculptures from Western art museums. These sculptures were all looted from Beijing centuries ago. On one level, the novel is an exciting heist story, but on a deeper level, it is a thought-provoking introduction to the role that colonization has played in the history of art.

In organizing this year’s Community Read program, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has reached out to many community partners, including Charlotte Lit. The folks at Charlotte Lit are providing participants with opportunities to write about this year’s theme. Intrigued, I contacted Paul Reali, the co-founder and Executive Director of Charlotte Lit, and I asked him for more information about their role in this year’s Community Read program. Here is what he sent to me:

Charlotte Lit has been a Community Read partner for several years. Beginning last year, we decided it would be fun to integrate the year’s theme into our most popular program, Pen to Paper.

P2P, as it’s commonly known, is Charlotte Lit’s free weekly writing session, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesdays, via Zoom. Each P2P includes a mini-lesson, a writing prompt, quiet writing time, and optional sharing—led by Kathie Collins, Paula Martinac, Meg Rich, or me. For March, each P2P session (4, 11, 18, and 25) will include a prompt that’s based on the Community Read’s “Art is…” theme or is inspired by the adult title.

We see about 20 people for P2P each week, mostly from this area but also from across the country. They’re fun, and not quite like any other prompt-based writing sessions we’ve encountered. It’s easy to sign up for our March sessions, or any P2P, here: https://charlottelit.configio.com/p2p. We’ll look forward to seeing some new faces!

I commend Charlotte Lit and all of the other community partners who are contributing to this year’s Community Read program. I always describe my Storied Charlotte blog as a celebration of Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, and the Community Read program is a perfect example of what I mean when I use this phrase.

Read Aloud Rodeo Returns to Park Road Books

March 01, 2025 by Mark West

Park Road Books and I are pleased to announce our second Read Aloud Rodeo, a read-aloud story-time event that will take place at Park Road Books (4139 Park Road) from 10:30 to 12:30 on Saturday, March 8, 2025. At the Read Aloud Rodeo, children’s authors, local educators and literacy advocates will participate in a two-hour marathon reading of picture books aloud to children. For more information about this event, please click on the following link: https://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/read-aloud-rodeo-celebrating-read-across-america-day

The Read Aloud Rodeo is tied to the National Education Association’s Read Across America Week, which traditionally kicks off on the second day of March in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Park Road Books and I previously collaborated on an annual event called the Seuss-a-Thon, which involved a marathon reading of picture books by Dr. Seuss. Like the previous Seuss-a-Thons, the Read Aloud Rodeo will include a marathon reading of picture books, but at this year’s event, not all the featured picture books are by Dr. Seuss.

My interest in organizing the Read Aloud Rodeo has a personal connection For me, the act of reading aloud to children relates to my own childhood. I went to a very small, rural school that did not have the resources that were generally available in larger schools at the time. As a result, my dyslexia went undiagnosed. My third-grade teacher told my parents that she thought I was “mildly retarded,” but the school did nothing to help me overcome my learning disability. Luckily for me, my father did. He read aloud to me practically every night, and this experience helped me develop my love of literature even though I initially found it difficult to read on my own. By cultivating my interest in books and stories, my father provided me with the incentive to persist in my efforts to become a proficient reader despite my dyslexia. I am sure that I would not be an English professor today if my father had not read to me during my childhood.

In recent years, researchers have studied the impact of reading aloud to children, and their research findings are consistent with my own experiences. Ralf Thiede, a colleague of mine at UNC Charlotte, summarizes these findings in his book Children’s Books, Brain Development, and Language Acquisition. As Ralf points out, the act of reading aloud to children plays a major role in helping children build their vocabularies and learn how language works.

While I believe there is a pedagogical value associated with reading aloud to children, the purpose of the Read Aloud Rodeo is just to have fun. I invite everyone in Storied Charlotte to bring their kids to Park Road Books next Saturday for a fun story-time event.

Tags: Reading Aloud

Bidding Farewell to the Main Street Rag Publishing Company

February 22, 2025 by Mark West

Back in March 2020 I wrote a Storied Charlotte blog post about Charlotte-area publishers, and I focused much of this post on the Main Street Rag Publishing Company. This business got its start as the publisher of The Main Street Rag, a quarterly literary magazine that began in 1996 under the editorship of M. Scott Douglass. Since then, the Main Street Rag Publishing Company has evolved into a well-regarded independent press known especially for poetry.

I recently visited the Main Street Rag’s website, and I was surprised to see the announcement that the business’s long-standing Mint Hill address would “change no later than January 1, 2025.” I did a bit more research, and I discovered that Scott and his business had just moved to Pennsylvania. Curious, I contacted Scott and asked him about this move. Here is what he sent to me:

For years my wife and I were looking for a second home in Western Pennsylvania to use as a place to stay while visiting family. She’s from Albion, I’m from Pittsburgh, but we both have strong ties to Erie. Her nephews live there. My son and granddaughter live there. My grandson lives not far away in Meadville. Edinboro is a small college town that put us closer to where we could play a bigger part with our families. We had lost both parents while living 500+ miles away. There is still a bitter scar among some members of my family because I hadn’t been there enough for my parents.

The problem with second home shopping was: We couldn’t find anything acceptable in our price range. So, we stopped shopping for a second home.

As owner of Main Street Rag, I can never fully retire, but Jill was nearing her time. We vacationed in Oregon in the spring of 2024. On the morning of June 25, we left Boise on our way to Salt Lake City. It was her birthday and she had finally conceded that she was ready to retire. I asked her what she wanted to do, where she wanted to go—thinking mostly of travel. She said she wanted to “move back home.”

It was a bit of a surprise, but not too much. I had other places in mind if we moved, but she’d always said she didn’t want to live where it was cold. Home was in the Pennsylvania snow belt, where it definitely gets cold. With that, the decision had been made. The following week we started house shopping. Three weeks later we bid on a house. September 6^th we closed on it.

It was time to prep our house and empty 25 years of nesting. This was right around the time Helene came through. An 80-year-old oak fell and crushed my barn and almost everything in it, The storm caused roof and internal damage which delayed getting our house on the market.

When the FOR SALE sign went up in our yard, our friends and neighbors did not take it well. One next door neighbor said he was mad at me for leaving, said I lied to him when I said this was our “forever home.” The neighbor on the other side put his house up for sale and moved before we managed to close on ours. Our closest friends acted as if we had abandoned them.

Some folks took it personally, but that’s not what it was about. It was about getting back, closer to our families.

From the business standpoint, Main Street Rag had cut a place in North Carolina history. We likely published more North Carolina poets and writers than any publisher previously. But the winds had shifted and, frankly, it was portable. I could put it on my back and take it with me.

When we started, it was because there was a limited number of publishing options for regional authors. For a while, we were at the top of many peoples’ list for book publication and for appearance in our literary journal. At one point, the subscription base for my magazine was about 30% North Carolina authors, but with the most recent issues, even those prior to announcing our move, the strength of my subscription base had shifted from the Carolinas to the northeast, specifically Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Moving back to Pennsylvania put Main Street Rag closer to what has become the center of our financial support.

We still have strong ties to the Charlotte area. Our books and magazine are still produced there, and most of our editors live in North Carolina. But our new location has several benefits that weren’t available there.

Since I work out of my house, our new house is benefit number one. Our money went further in Edinboro than it could have in the Charlotte market. Our new house has room to host as many as six overnight guests comfortably. It also has an addition I call my shop that has more than a thousand square feet. It’s large enough to fit my small office space, all of my “hobbies” and when I’m done unpacking and building it out, it’s large enough to fit a lending library of about 5000 small press books that are hard to find anywhere else along with seating space for about 50 people when it’s ready to host reading events.

We will always cherish our time in Charlotte and will return frequently. But family is our first obligation and in reconnecting to that, we’ve also discovered a whole new world of possibilities for Main Street Rag.

I thank Scott for sharing his reasons for moving to Pennsylvania. I bid him farewell, and I wish him all the best as he and his wife settle into their new home. Scott has played a major role in Storied Charlotte’s literary scene for many years, and he will be missed.

Tags: Main Street Rag

A Chance to Help Promising Pages Provide Children with Books

February 15, 2025 by Mark West

I recently received an email message from Anna Graham, one of my former graduate students. During her time at UNC Charlotte, Anna regularly volunteered with Promising Pages, a local nonprofit organization that provides area children with books of their own. Shortly after graduating with an M.A. in English in May 2024, Anna joined Promising Pages as their new Community Engagement Coordinator. I talked with her on the phone right after she accepted the position, and she was ecstatic that this role would enable her to share her love of reading and the magic of books with children in our Charlotte community who might otherwise not have access to books. That conversation took place several months ago, and I wondered what she had been up to since then. Well, in her email, she expressed how much she loved her new job, and she told me a little about her involvement with a fundraising event that she hoped I might help promote. I told her I would be happy to help, and I asked her for more information about her work with Promising Pages and their upcoming fundraising event. Here is what she sent to me:

As a child, I was lucky that I lived in a household with constant access to books. My mother shared her love of reading with me and had the resources to ensure I had a large home library of all my favorite titles. I genuinely believe that my access to books shaped me into the person I am today and prepared me for my future. I’m sure that many fellow book lovers can attest to similar stories – that their home libraries enabled their initial love of reading. However, home libraries are often seen as a luxury for under-resourced children and families in our community. All children need books in their homes to grow academically, and in turn succeed in life, but there are an estimated 60,000 children in the Charlotte area living in a book desert. The local nonprofit that I work for, Promising Pages: The Charlotte Area Book Bank, collects new and donated books and distributes them to students and organizations, with the goal of eliminating the book desert and providing a free resource to those who need it most.

To those who love books, like me, it was particularly upsetting to learn just how widespread the shortage of access to books is for so many people in our community. My work at Promising Pages addresses this by distributing books through a variety of programs, including our largest, Books on Break, which provides Title I schools with FREE book fairs for PreK-5th grade students. Each student chooses 5 free books to read over the summer, which helps students maintain their reading levels and sets them up for academic success in the following school year. 22 schools – 68,000+ books, 12,000+ students. Our goal is to provide free book fairs to all 64 title I schools in CMS. Some other plans of ours include expanding resources for our early childhood & healthcare partners and reaching our 2 million books distributed milestone!

Just like any nonprofit, Promising Pages relies on the generosity of supportive community members to fund our efforts. Everyone at Promising Pages acknowledges this, and that’s why we created our upcoming fundraiser, Novels & Nightcaps, as a “Bookfair for Grown-Ups” that celebrates our book-loving supporters. Bringing together locally owned bookstores, Novels & Nightcaps is a community event for attendees to shop, listen to comedy adult read-alouds, and visit our book-themed selfie booth. This year’s Novels & Nightcaps has a brand-new theme, “Flights of Fancy,” capturing the way books can whisk us away to fantastical worlds. Novels & Nightcaps takes place on Thursday, February 27th from 6 pm to 9 pm at The Union @ Station West: 919 Berryhill Rd suite 105, Charlotte, NC 28208. All ticket proceeds go directly to Promising Pages to support our efforts to increase literacy and eliminate barriers to book access for children in our Charlotte community. (Attendees must be 21+). The event has been a ton of fun to plan, and I hope to see you all there! For more information about this event, please click on the following link: https://promising-pages.org/novels-and-nightcaps/

I thank Anna for sending me this information, and I commend everyone associated with Promising Pages for providing so many Charlotte children with their own books. In so doing, Promising Pages is making an important contribution to countless children’s lives and to the continued vitality of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Promising Pages

Telling the Story of Women’s Basketball

February 09, 2025 by Mark West

Charlotte fans of women’s basketball might remember the Charlotte Sting, which was one of the original eight teams associated with the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Established in 1997 as a sister team to the Charlotte Hornets, the Charlotte Sting competed until 2007 when the team was dissolved. There are, however, recent news accounts that the team might be revived: https://www.wbtw.com/sports/we-need-this-charlotte-sting-could-return-to-wnba/

I saw the Charlotte Sting play on several occasions, and I remember being impressed with how the players supported each other and worked together as a cohesive team. They all did their part to make the WNBA a viable professional sports organization. I am not an obsessive sports fan, but I enjoyed rooting for the Charlotte Sting in part because they seemed to be having so much fun on the court.

I flashed back on the experience of going to Charlotte Sting games when I learned that the University of North Carolina Press will soon release the revised and expanded edition of Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball by Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford, both of whom are Charlotte writers. The official publication date is February 18, 2025. As they did in their original 2005 edition of the book, Pamela and Susan capture that special spirit—almost magic—that shapes the history of women’s basketball.

I contacted Pamela and Susan and asked them for more information about the revised edition of Shattering the Glass. Here is what they sent to me:

The expanded edition of Shattering the Glass is almost here!

The first edition, published by the New Press in 2005, was the most comprehensive account of American women’s basketball ever written. It became an integral part of sports history classes across the country. Readers raved.

Bust Magazine termed it “an indispensable resource.” Renowned sportswriter Robert Lipsyte described it as a “nonstop romp through hoops history” that offered “not only lively storytelling but a fascinating window on race, gender, and class on and off the court.” Historian Jacquelyn Hall called it a “sweeping, century-long story that places women’s sports at the heart of the fight for women’s rights.”

Twenty years later, the sport we’ve always loved has taken on new significance. Throughout its history, basketball has made it possible for players and coaches to challenge the limitations imposed on women by American culture and society. Our new chapters explore the factors that have contributed to the game’s recent growth, and the ways that players have used their new visibility to engage issues that include race, sexuality and opportunity. It’s such an important story—and it resonates more than ever today.

‘We’ve been so excited to watch the profile of women’s sports rise,” star player and four-time WNBA champion Seimone Augustus observed. “Doors are opening. People are able to see us; they’re able to hear us. We’re about to move light years ahead. We need to bring our history with us.”

We’ve been so excited to watch the profile of women’s sports rise. It’s been a privilege to be able to update our manuscript, and to explore the ways the history we’ve chronicled relates to an ever-changing present. Everlasting thanks to Mark Simpson-Vos and other supporters at UNC Press, who saw the potential in an updated/expanded edition and who have been great to work with.

For more information about the new edition, please click on the following links: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469674780/shattering-the-glass/ and shatteringtheglassbook.com.

Pamela and Susan will be at Park Road Books on February 19, signing copies of Shattering the Glass from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Also, they will be on Charlotte Talks on February 17.

I congratulate Pamela and Susan on their latest collaborative endeavor. Pamela and Susan live across the street from each other in Plaza Midwood, and they enjoy working together. They’ve also pursued plenty of their own projects in the past two decades, including Susan’s history of women’s basketball at Army West Point, and Pamela’s account of segregation, desegregation and resegregation at historically Black West Charlotte High School. All of us in Storied Charlotte are fortunate that Pamela and Susan enjoy writing together.

Tags: Women's Basketball

Aaron Gwyn’s Latest Story Set in the American West

February 01, 2025 by Mark West

Aaron Gwyn currently teaches creative writing and contemporary American literature in the English Department at UNC Charlotte, but his identity as a writer was forged in the American West. He grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma. His experiences on the ranch naturally led him to take an interest in the history of the American frontier.

Aaron’s familiarity with the history and landscape of the American Southwest is reflected in many of his stories. In 2020, for example, he published a novel titled All God’s Children: A Novel of the American West. Set largely in Texas between 1827 and 1847, All God’s Children braids together the stories of three characters who are drawn to the Texas frontier where they form a complex relationship. Their lives are shaped by the transformation of Texas from a province of Mexico to an independent republic to becoming the 28^th state in 1845.

Aaron returns to the Texas frontier in his latest story, a novella titled The Cannibal Owl. Loosely based on the childhood of a historical figure named Levi English, The Cannibal Owl tells the story of boy who runs away from an abusive home situation. In his wanderings, “he stumbled onto a band of Comanche out on the broken plains.” What follows is a stressful encounter, but eventually the Comanche decide to take him in.

In describing this novella, the publisher, Belle Point Press, discusses how the theme of belonging figures in The Cannibal Owl:

Drifting through the broken plains of 1820s Texas, Aaron Gwyn’s latest venture into the American frontier tells a riveting coming-of-age story. Inspired by the real-life figure Levi English, a settler who ran away to live with the Comanche (Nermernuh) People as a young boy, The Cannibal Owl follows his journey of not quite belonging within a community that is nevertheless kinder to him than his own family. When Levi is eventually forced to confront growing tensions among the tribal leaders, he must make difficult choices about loyalty and self-preservation amidst deep grief and unrelenting violence. A novella of cinematic prose steeped in Native culture, Levi’s story evokes reflections on the complexities of identity against a stunning Southern Plains landscape.

For readers who want to know more about The Cannibal Owl, please click on the following link: https://bellepointpress.com/products/the-cannibal-owl

I congratulate Arron on the publication The Cannibal Owl. As the publication of this novella demonstrates, Storied Charlotte extends far and wide, and there is plenty of room for the story of a boy growing up on the Texas frontier.

Tags: American West

Irene Blair Honeycutt’s New Poetry Collection

January 25, 2025 by Mark West

Irene Blair Honeycutt has played a major role in Charlotte’s literary circles for many years. During her tenure as a faculty member at Central Piedmont Community College, she taught creative writing to countless students. In 1993, she founded CPCC’s Spring Literary Festival and served as its director for fourteen years. This festival expanded into CPCC’s Sensoria Festival, a celebration of literature and the arts. Upon her retirement in 2006, CPCC established the Irene Blair Honeycutt Distinguished Lectureship in her honor.

Besides teaching and doing community engagement work, Irene has a long record as a published poet. Her first poetry collection, It Comes as a Dark Surprise, appeared in 2001. She then brought out Waiting for the Trout to Speak (2002), Before the Light Changes (2008), and Beneath the Bamboo Sky (2017). Her fifth and most recent poetry collection, Mountains of the Moon: Poems & Pieces, came out last month from Charlotte Lit Press. I contacted Irene and asked her for more information about her new poetry collection. Irene responded by sending me a reflective piece that she titled “Thoughts on Writing Mountains of the Moon.”

Poetry surprises us with its unexpectedness. We have a dream that haunts itself into becoming a poem. We honor a deceased friend. Our words keep the departed alive. Then we turn the page. Write a poem to honor a living person who has graced our lives in a special way. We write of moments that are already past. This moment is already past tense. One day, we receive a call that stops the clocks: that person we wrote about not long ago has died unexpectedly in his pickup truck. Frozen in the mountains. But unexpectedness is about more than the dying. Or the leaving.

As Annie Dillard says, “We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.” The heron’s wings opening to the Book of Ages. A melody pulsing beneath Serkin’s fingers and all those trout swimming. The moths. The moon. The echolocation. The orientation of stars.

A poem at a glance is like the tip of an iceberg. What is easily discernible remains on the surface. What lies beneath the layers of a poem ventures into the deep unknown. To scramble the metaphor for a moment, I said to my dentist not long ago, not thinking of poetry, but of a possible root canal: A lot of life has gone into that tooth!

The same is true of Mountains of the Moon. All the life that went into this book contains years of being taught by incredible teachers of literature that go all the way back to elementary school. It contains days of childhood when I sat inside my bamboo hut nurtured by nature and wrote tiny poems and hid them in the ground. Biblical stories and hymns—rich imagery was part of that childhood. In my professional life in Charlotte, opportunities to hear amazing poets came my way via CPCC’s Sensoria, including Robert Hass, Mary Oliver, Linda Pastan, Edward Hirsch, Mark Doty, Natasha Tretheway, Li Young-Lee, and Stephen Dunn. Too many to name. And marvelous years of mentoring students from whom I also learned came my way. The Charlotte Writers Club provided a welcoming place for leadership roles and fellowship for beginning and experienced writers.

We live in intervals. Each poem is never at the same place in the river of Time. Mountains of the Moon, my fifth, is a hybrid collection of Haibun, mini essays, dramatic, informal and experimental forms. Two of the poems were published in 2011 and 2012. The most recent in 2024. Sections vary: Motifs highlight living during the pandemic, relying on the human and the nonhuman for inspiration, joying in playing with language in new ways, mourning the loss of my dog. And the saving moon from childhood is a constant influence. I aimed to capture the unexpected, to allow intuition to lead. And then I learned anew how the poem, if we trust it, becomes wiser than the poet.

Poetry gives the breath of life to memory. I’m not the first to say that elegiac poetry is a celebration of life, not death. And I love that T. S. Eliot said “…every poem [is] an epitaph.”

I am grateful to Charlotte Lit, to all nonprofit independent presses, to the Charlotte Writers Club and Storied Charlotte for celebrating and preserving poetry for the good of us all.

For more about Mountains of the Moon, read Irene’s book page at https://www.charlottelit.org/press/mountains-of-the-moon Charlotte Lit is sponsoring a launch party for Mountains of the Moon. This event will take place on Sunday, February 16, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. at Charlotte Hygge Coworking, 933 Louise Avenue. Copies of Irene’s collection will be available at the event to buy and have signed, but you can also purchase it online from Charlotte Lit Press. The event is free, but seating is limited so please register here.

I congratulate Irene on the publication of Mountains of the Moon, and I thank her for her many contributions to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: poetry collection

Celebrating Our Freedom to Read

January 18, 2025 by Mark West

When Hurricane Helene swept through North Carolina this past September, Charlotte did not take a direct hit. However, the heavy rain and high wind forced the cancellation of many events in Charlotte including a much-anticipated Freedom to Read Panel Discussion organized by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The organizers intended for this panel discussion to coincide with the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, but book banning is not limited to one week—it’s a year-around problem. For this reason, the organizers decided to reschedule the panel discussion even though Banned Books Week has already come and gone. The rescheduled Freedom to Read Panel Discussion will take place on Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the SouthPark Regional Library (7015 Carnegie Boulevard).

I contacted Meghan Anderson, one of the organizers of the event, and asked her for more information. Here is what she sent to me:

Attempts to ban books from school and public libraries are rising at an unprecedented level across the country. Join the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library as we celebrate our freedom to read with an exceptional in-person panel of experts who will engage in open conversation about the dangers of book banning and censorship and the importance of free expression and first amendment rights.

The panel consists experts with varying perspectives. Providing the author point of view is Tameka Fryer Brown. She is a picture book author whose books prominently feature inclusivity. Providing the reader perspective is David Caldwell, an active member of the Park Road Books Banned Books Club. We round out the panel with two different librarian perspectives, Abby Moore, an education librarian at UNC Charlotte, and Megan Sanford, a CMS Media Coordinator. They both will provide us community and school perspectives of the current censorship landscape. And of course, Marcellus Turner, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s own CEO, will emcee the event and provide his public library point of view as well.

The goal of the event is to provide a space to learn about the dangers of censorship and book challenges as well as provide information on the current climate. Each panelist will have a chance to speak and then a question and answer session for further discussion will occur. All people curious about this topic are encouraged to attend!

The event will take place at South Park Regional branch at 6:00 pm on Thursday, February 6th, 2025. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free, but registration is required. The registration link for the event is here.

My thanks go to Meghan, the panelists, and everyone involved in making this event a reality despite the problems caused by Hurricane Helene. I urge everyone in Storied Charlotte to join the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in celebrating and exercising our precious freedom to read.

Tags: Book Banning

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