Storied Charlotte

On the Road with Poet Angelina Oberdan Brooks

July 10, 2023 by Mark West

On the Road with Poet Angelina Oberdan Brooks – The poems in Angelina Oberdan Brooks’ new chapbook titled Heavy Bloom have their origins in two cross-country road trips that Angelina took with her three dogs a few years ago. When I first learned about the story behind her chapbook, I immediately flashed back to reading John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley when I was a teenager. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Steinbeck’s account of traveling across America with his French poodle, and ever since then I have had a fondness for road-trip books, especially ones that involve dogs. In the case of Angelina’s Heavy Bloom, she focuses on images and telling moments that she recalls from her travels. Intrigued by the Angelina’s approach to writing these poems, I contacted her and asked her for more information about how she came to write Heavy Bloom. Here is what she sent to me:

Since I moved to Charlotte in 2014, I’ve been working to support the literary community, so you may recognize my name or my face. I’ve worked with Charlotte Lit, the Betchler and Gantt Museums, and many amazing individuals. I was co-chair (with Amy Bagwell and then Colin Hickey) of CPCC’s Sensoria Literary Committee for five years—bringing the likes of Tracy K. Smith, Hanif Abdurraqib, Carolyn Forche, Eugene Scott, and Juan Felipe Herrera to Charlotte. Through this, I also helped honor the winners of the Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy and Lifetime Achievement Awards. I’m a proud East Charlotte homeowner. If you haven’t run into me at Book Buyers or Bart’s Mart, you probably will one day.

Heavy Bloom, my first chapbook and first collection of poetry, was written while living here. I amassed the originating images in these poems during what was a tumultuous time in my personal life. A formerly accurate and speedy typist, my hands largely stopped working in 2017, which led to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Around the same time, my dad’s cancer became terminal, and he slowly died at home in Clemson, SC—over months and then days. Through all of this, the relationship I was in didn’t hold up. In the summer of 2018, unable to continue the life I’d planned, I moved my three dogs into my SUV and solo-camped from the Blue Ridge in NC to the Uintas in UT and back. Then, we did it again the following summer. The first road trip brought clarity, and the second brought healing.

The poems in Heavy Bloom move from watching an 18-wheeler strike a blue heron to being stalked by a mountain lion in West Texas to considering the carelessness with which we humans harm each other and the world around us. Upon the advice of Morri Creech (my mentor and friend from the McNeese MFA Program, a Charlottean now, too), I fully embraced Robert Bly’s Leaping Poetry. In his book, Bly writes, “In many ancient works of art we notice a long floating leap at the center of the work. That leap can be described as a leap from the conscious to the unconscious and back again, a leap from the known part of the mind to the unknown part and back to the known.” So, my poems start as images or bits of language or memory fragments, and then I meditatively follow my brain wherever it goes. You’ll find that in many of the poems in this collection, I’ve abandoned linear trains of thought, allowing my mind to jump to whatever is stirring in my subconscious. I trust that these associative leaps will eventually make sense, and in this way, my writing is surprising to myself—as Robert Frost recommends it should be in “The Figure a Poem Makes.” These wild jumps are where I learn the most from my own writing—about myself, being human, and living in this universe. (Don’t worry; a workshop on this is in the works!)

Publishing this collection is a feat of which I am very proud. I went through my academic career quickly; I started teaching college at twenty-one and finished both my MA and an MFA in three years. While I published a lot of what I wrote in my twenties, I struggled to figure out what I had to add to the vast canon of poetry. I also had to make a lot of mistakes, repeatedly prioritizing the wrong things. While I think I got it right in this collection, many of the poems didn’t find their way until I participated in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project in November 2020. The same year, this collection found its cohesiveness during a Tupelo Press Manuscript Conference wherein I learned so much from Jeffrey Levine and Kristina Marie Darling. Notes from some beloved-Charlotte poets certainly helped, too—especially from Amy Bagwell and Lisa Zerkle.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the impact my UNC Charlotte creative writing students had on this chapbook. I began teaching part-time at UNCC in Fall 2021—as an attempt to combat post-pandemic burnout. Always happy to share my journey in ways that will help students navigate their own, I was impressed by the attentiveness my students gave to me and my lectures. Empowered by them and coming off the thrill of hosting Juan Felipe Herrera at CPCC’s Sensoria, I quietly left my associate professorship there to give more of my energy to my poems. At UNC Charlotte, I’ve had the opportunity to teach introductory-level technical and creative writing classes as well as liberal studies courses on travel and environmental writing. Teaching classes that allowed me to discuss the words and writing I find most important made a difference in the publication of my poems—which took off in the last year.

Through writing these poems, I learned what I already knew: America—its landscape and its people—is beautiful and horrifying. Indeed, death is more certain than life, and loss is more common than love. We want to turn towards our screens and away from any discomfort, but we can’t. Richard Wilbur wrote that “[o]ne of the jobs of poetry is to make the unbearable bearable, not by falsehood but clear, precise confrontation”; the poems in Heavy Bloom sit with the uncomfortable, look at loss directly, and make way for future joy.

If you’re in Charlotte this summer, please join me for Heavy Bloom’s Launch Party! I’ll be selling and signing books on July 20^th from 6-8 pm at Bart’s Mart (next door to Book Buyers), and I’ll read a few poems at 7 pm. Copies are also available here: https://bottlecap.press/products/bloom.

In the meantime, here is “Echo,” a finalist for the LitSouth Award and one of the poems from Heavy Bloom:

For more poetry, road trips, ruminations, and dogs, follow me on Instagram: @ab3dogride.

I thank Angelina for telling the story behind Heavy Bloom and for sharing “Echo.” I also thank her for all that she has done over the years to promote the reading and writing of poetry in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: poetry

Something New Out of Charlotte Lit

July 03, 2023 by Mark West

Something New Out of Charlotte Lit – The Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder once wrote, “There is always something new out of Africa.” Well, he actually wrote this sentence in Latin, but I have taken a liking to the English translation of it. I know that I am taking liberties with Pliny’s famous proclamation, but it seems to me that there is always something new coming out of Charlotte Lit, too. I just learned that Charlotte Lit recently published three poetry chapbooks. I contacted Paul Reali and Kathie Collins, the co-founders of Charlotte Lit, and asked them for more information about these poetry chapbooks. Here is what they sent to me:

Mark, thanks for asking us about the three new poetry chapbooks released by Charlotte Lit Press. This is a good example of how different Charlotte Lit programs come together to make something new.

We launched the imprint Charlotte Lit Press last year when we began publishing our literary journal, Litmosphere, knowing there would be more we’d want to publish in the future. After releasing our second issue in May, we were ready to entertain some new publications.

Meanwhile, we had eleven writers in our inaugural Poetry Chapbook Lab. It’s a year-long immersion for poets to take classes and work on their poems with two coaches and with each other. (The second cohort is forming now, in fact

http://www.charlottelit.org/chapbooklab/) The result is a publication-ready poetry chapbook, ready to be submitted to contests and presses.

Putting these two Lit programs together, we decided to expand Charlotte Lit Press into poetry chapbooks, beginning by opening to submissions from Chapbook Lab writers. We’re happy to say we’ve accepted five manuscripts so far, with the first three just released.

Into the Swirl is the debut collection from John Clark, a North Carolina native and former WDAV general manager. John says he “writes poems and composes music as a way to play,” and this collection demonstrates both musicality and playfulness.

I’ll Buy Flowers Again Tomorrow is Patricia Ann Joslin’s debut collection. Published on the five-year anniversary of her husband Roy’s death from pancreatic cancer, this deeply-felt chapbook pays homage to him while exploring grief, hope and healing.

Subjects Suitable for Poetry is the second collection from former Carrboro poet laureate Gary Phillips. He explores family, nature, and his rural upbringing, which prove to be interwoven and inseparable.

These three writers, and others whose books are in our pipeline, will read at Charlotte Lit on September 8 (details available in upcoming Charlotte Lit newsletters). To support the work of John, Patricia, Gary, and future Charlotte Lit Press writers, our books can be ordered from one’s favorite bookstore, any online retailer, or directly from us at https://www.charlottelit.org/press/

We’ll have more publications in the near future, both chapbooks and full collections—including the latest from renowned poet Lola Haskins. We’re not yet open to general submissions, but that will happen within the next year.

I thank Paul and Kathie for sharing this information about these poetry chapbooks and their plans for Charlotte Lit Press. All of us in Storied Charlotte are indebted to Charlotte Lit for always providing us with something new.

Visiting Discovery Place’s Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes Exhibit with Michael Kobre

June 26, 2023 by Mark West

Visiting Discovery Place’s Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes Exhibit with Michael Kobre – Charlotte has long been a hub for all things related to comic books. It’s the home to Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, which opened in 1980 and is now widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier comics shops. It’s the location of the annual Heroes Convention, which is organized every June by Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find. And now Charlotte’s Discovery Place Science Museum is hosting the blockbuster touring exhibit titled Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes. Charlotte is the exhibition’s only stop in the entire Southeast. After the exhibit closes on September 4, 2023, it will go on tour in Europe. For more detailed information about this exhibit, please click on the following link: https://my.discoveryplace.org/marvel/

When I first heard about the opening of the Marvel exhibit, I immediately thought of Dr. Michael Kobre. Mike is the Dana Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte. In addition to being the author of a scholarly book about Walker Percy’s novels, Mike is an expert on Marvel superheroes. His publications on this topic include an essay titled “Only Transform: The Monstrous Bodies of Superheroes,” which is about the transformative bodies of Marvel’s superheroes. I contacted Mike and asked him if he would be willing to provide me with his responses to the Marvel : Universe of Super Heroes exhibit, and he kindly agreed to do so. Here is what he sent to me:

In a panel at this year’s Heroes Convention on the “Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes” exhibition now on display at Discovery Place, one of the exhibition’s curators, the comics scholar Ben Saunders, explained how the exhibition was designed to tell a story about the history of Marvel in comics, film, and television and its enormous influence on our culture. And that’s exactly what you find when you step into the exhibition and you follow the history of a second-tier comics company that became over decades a media giant and a cultural phenomenon. Richly illustrated, the exhibition is filled with costumes and props from Marvel’s cinematic universe and a lavish display of original art from the comics, which are all featured in multi-media spaces that include a room designed to look like the surreal dimensions of Doctor Strange and another that lets you feel like you’re stepping into the suburban community conjured into existence by the Scarlet Witch in the Disney+ series WandaVision.

Framed throughout the exhibition in large display cases, the costumes show the extraordinary detail and craftsmanship of the filmmakers, including the Academy Award-winning designs of the Black Panther costumes created by Ruth E. Carter, the first Black artist to receive an Oscar for Best Costume Design. But for this longtime comics fan, whose imagination was forever transformed when I discovered Marvel Comics as a small child in the early 1960s, the real magic of the exhibition comes from all that original comics art. Seeing the pages that created this universe in this form is a revelation, since so much of the art’s detail and its bold, energetic lines were lost in the muddy reproduction of old comic books printed on cheap pulp paper. Among the work here is the only surviving page of original art from the very first Marvel comic book, Marvel Comics #1 from 1939: the last page of the Sub-Mariner story by Bill Everett, one of the greatest artists of the first wave of comic book creators, whose signature character, Prince Namor, would come to life on the screen in 2022 in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But all of the greats are here too, including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Marie Severin, Gene Colon, and so many others, along with contemporary creators like Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. In fact, a short visual essay on one of the exhibition’s media tables on Miller’s storytelling techniques in his groundbreaking run on Daredevil in the 1980s offers a superb overview of how comics work as a form. For those who want to learn about comics and comics history, this exhibition is a great place to start.

But the presentation of all this art highlights a problem too in the story that the exhibition tells. Because for decades artists like Kirby and Ditko toiled in what was seen as a junk industry, creating seemingly disposable pages at work-for-hire rates. Kirby, for instance, would work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, in a basement studio he called “the dungeon” to pay his bills and support his family, with no ownership of characters he at least co-created which would come to be worth billions of dollars. By contrast though, Stan Lee, who as editor was a salaried employee of his uncle Martin Goodman’s publishing company, enjoyed much greater financial security and, as the company’s public face, could claim greater credit for the characters’ creation. This inequity, which is baked into the history of the American comic book industry, is manifest in the exhibit too in the way it echoes the conventional—and inaccurate—story that Lee was the guiding hand in creating the Marvel universe and that artists like Kirby and Ditko worked to realize and develop Lee’s vision, rather than serving as principal architects of that universe themselves.

Not long after you walk into the exhibition, there’s a giant display filled with images of Lee and clips of his cameos from the movies, with a much smaller reproduction of Kirby’s drawing table right around the corner, in the shadow of Lee’s monument. But in what Lee would called “the Marvel method” of producing comic books, artists like Kirby, working from plot descriptions generated in loose conversations which may or may not have been written down, would create finished pages that Lee would add dialogue and captions to later. And given this method, which the exhibition does in fact detail, it’s hard to know who was responsible for the creative choices in almost any given issue. With all this in mind, as much as I enjoyed everything around me, I was bothered by what seemed like the insufficient credit in the exhibition given to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, Thor, The Hulk, the Black Panther, and so many others, and to Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man and almost surely solely created Doctor Strange.

Still, Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes lives up to its name. Walk past the costumes and the props and the art, through the swirling shapes of Doctor Strange’s Dark Dimension, past the life-size statues of Spider-Man, the Black Panther, and others, and you’ll feel like you’re in another universe. As Stan Lee, who was always a master promoter, might say on the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page in a 1960s comic, “Face Front, True Believer! This one’s for you!”

I thank Mike for sharing his responses to the Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes exhibit. I urge everyone who is interested in comics and superhero narratives to visit this Marvel exhibit while it is still in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Superheroes

Juneteenth Books Recommended by Janaka Bowman Lewis

June 19, 2023 by Mark West

Juneteenth is an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It is also, however, a teachable moment—an opportunity to learn more about Juneteenth and the history of the struggle to abolish slavery. I always turn to books when I want to learn about a topic, but there are lots of books about Juneteenth that have been published in recent years. In order to figure out where to start when selecting books on this topic, I contacted my friend and colleague Dr. Janaka Bowman Lewis and asked her if she would help me. Janaka teaches courses on African American literature in the English Department at UNC Charlotte and is the author of the recently published Light and Legacies: Stories of Black Girlhood and Liberation. Given her background, she is the perfect person to recommend some excellent books about Juneteenth. Here is what she sent to me:

For kids I recommend Juneteenth for Mazie, written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper (2016). In this picture book, young Mazie is tired of hearing “no”—to staying up late, to having another cookie, and to doing things she wants to do. Her father reminds her that her great-great-great grandpa Mose had to wait, too, but he was waiting for his freedom from the institution of slavery. He tells her about Grandpa Mose working in the fields, hard labor with no pay, until he hears the proclamation of his and other African Americans’ freedom from a balcony in Galveston, Texas (on June 19, 1865, when soldiers arrived more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation announced abolition of enslavement in states that had seceded from the United States).

The book describes Great-great-great grandpa Mose and his community dancing into the night after the proclamation, and then continuing to work, save the money they earned, and never forgetting the moment they heard of their freedom. They still struggled and weren’t treated as equals to white people but never gave up, and every year, on Juneteenth, they “celebrated and remembered,” as Mazie did when she woke up the next day. Juneteenth for Mazie is a reminder of the history of enslavement that led to Juneteenth and the celebration of endurance that continues even despite unequal treatment. It is also a reminder for families and communities to tell the story of freedom through generations.

For more experienced readers, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth (2021), uses memoir and history to provide a context for what led to the national holiday. American historian and professor Gordon-Reed, who is also a native Texan, begins with a preface that describes the surprise of hearing people outside of Texas celebrate the holiday out of a sense of possessiveness even with the positive nature of celebrating the turn in. history. She argues that Texans have been “at the forefront” of trying to make Juneteenth a national holiday (President Joe Biden signed a congressional bill to make it a federal holiday in 2021). In clarifying that it was not actually until December 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified that slavery legally ended (although General Granger’s order was issued in June), Gordon-Reed offers a view of the landscape of the United States and the difficulties in overcoming institutional, statewide, and national inequity and discrimination to get to recognition of humanity.

The essays in On Juneteenth examine Gordon-Reed’s own history, from both of her parents’ Texas roots in the 1820s and 1860s, the story of Texas and the road to freedom for those who lived there, and how the context shaped her and her family’s life in the state and beyond as she argues that “behind all the broad stereotypes about Texas (including stories of indigenous peoples, settler colonialists, Hispanic culture, slavery, race, and immigration), . . . It is the American story, told from this most American place.” Rather than a chronological narrative of Juneteenth, she offers a story of place and people therein, including the public imagination of Texas, and the stories that have been told to preserve what people want to believe about the narrative of the state and the nation. Having integrated her town’s schools in East Texas, Gordon-Reed is also well positioned to account for what she calls the “counter narratives” that circulate about statewide progress and what happens when we try to escape local and national truths.

I thank Janaka for recommending these Juneteenth books. I also thank her for always being willing to share her expertise on the history of Black literature and culture with everyone in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Juneteenth

Taking Readers to Another Place and Time

June 13, 2023 by Mark West

Writers of historical fiction are first and foremost storytellers, but they are also tour guides who take readers to other places and times. In most historical novels, the settings, both in terms of place and time, play integral roles in the unfolding of the plots. Such is the case with two recently published historical novels written by Joy Callaway and Nancy Northcott, both of whom are Charlotte writers.

Joy’s new novel is titled All the Pretty Places: A Novel of the Gilded Age. The story begins in Rye, New York, in April 1893. Like Joy’s previously published historical novels, All the Pretty Places features a determined heroine who strives to establish a career during a time when society often placed limitations on women’s career opportunities. In the case of All the Pretty Places, the central character is Sadie Fremd, the daughter of an entrepreneur who founded Rye Nurseries. Sadie shares her father’s passion for horticulture and longs to take over the family business when her father retires. He has other plans for her. Sadie’s predicament is nicely captured in the following blurb provided by the publisher:

Sadie Fremd’s dreams hinge on her family’s nursery, which has been the supplier of choice for respected landscape architects on the East Coast for decades. Now her small town is in a panic as the economy plummets into a depression, and Sadie’s father is pressuring her to secure her future by marrying a wealthy man among her peerage—but Sadie has never been one to play it safe. Besides, her heart is already spoken for.

Rather than seek potential suitors, Sadie pursues new business from her father’s most reliable and wealthy clients of the Gilded Age in an attempt to bolster the floundering nursery. But the more time Sadie spends in the secluded gardens of the elite, the more she notices the hopelessness in the eyes of those outside the mansions. The poor, the grieving, the weary. The people with no access to the restorative beauty of nature.

Sadie has always wanted her father to pass his business to her instead of to one of her brothers, but he seems oblivious to her desire and talent—and now to her passion for providing natural beauty to those who can’t afford it. When former employee, Sam, shows up unexpectedly, Sadie wonders if their love can be rekindled or if his presence will simply be another reminder of a life she longs for and cannot have.

Joy Callaway illuminates the life of her great-great-grandmother in this captivating story about a daring woman following her passion and finding her voice, while exploring natural beauty and its effect in the lives of those who need it most.

For more information about Joy and her novels, please click on the following link: https://www.joycallaway.com

Nancy’s new novel, The King’s Champion, concludes her Boar King’s Honor historical fantasy trilogy.The central premise of the trilogy, running through all three books, is that Richard III was framed for the murders of his nephews, who’re known as the Princes in the Tower, and the king was killed at Bosworth Field before the wizard who unwittingly assisted in the murders could name the true killer. Speaking up under the Tudors, who followed King Richard on the throne, would have cost the wizard his life. Tormented by guilt, he cursed all his heirs to not rest in life or death until they cleared the king’s name.

While the family’s quest to lift the curse runs through all three books, each centers on a bigger problem with higher, wider-ranging stakes. Everything wraps up in The King’s Champion. Here’s a description provided by the author:

Caught up in the desperate evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France in the summer of 1940, photojournalist Kate Shaw witnesses death and destruction that trigger disturbing visions. She doesn’t believe in magic and tries to pass them off as survivor guilt or an overactive imagination, but the increasingly intense visions force her to accept that she is not only magically Gifted but a seer.

In Dover, she meets her distant cousin Sebastian Mainwaring, Earl of Hawkstowe and an officer in the British Army. He’s also a seer and is desperate to recruit her rare Gift for the war effort. The fall of France leaves Britain standing alone as the full weight of Nazi military might threatens. Kate’s untrained Gift flares out of control, forcing her to accept Sebastian’s help in conquering it as her ethics compel her to use her ability for the cause that is right.

As this fledgling wizard comes into her own, her visions warn of an impending German invasion, Operation Sealion, which British intelligence confirms. At the same time, desire to help Sebastian, who’s doomed by a family curse arising from a centuries-old murder, leads Kate to a shadowy afterworld between life and death and the trapped, fading souls who are the roots of her family’s story. From the bloody battlefields of France to the salons of London, Kate and Sebastian race against time to free his family’s cursed souls and to stop an invasion that could doom the Allied cause.

For more information about the Boar King’s Honor trilogy and Nancy’s other work, please visit her website, www.NancyNorthcott.com.

Although Joy’s All the Pretty Places is a work of historical realism and Nancy’s The King’s Champion is a work of historical fantasy, these two novels have several points in common. They both feature strong female characters who take action and exercise agency. Both novels are grounded in careful historical research, and as a result, they provide readers with a sense of experiencing life in another place and time. Finally, both are written by authors who belong to Storied Charlotte’s cadre of talented historical novelists.

Tags: historical fiction

Charlotte Lit and the Magic of Summer

May 31, 2023 by Mark West

Jenny Han, the Korean American author of The Summer I Turned Pretty and many other popular novels, once wrote, “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” For me, part of the magic of summer involves the act of writing. Since I don’t usually teach during the summer, I spend the summer months in my quirky office working on a book or an article, all the while endlessly sipping coffee from my Wind in the Willows mug. I cannot seem to write without drinking coffee at the same time. My goal every summer is to finish the initial draft of whatever writing project I am working on at the time, and then I do my revisions during the school year. This approach has worked for me for many, many years. I attribute whatever success I have had as a writer to the magic of summer (with a little boost from the coffee).

Paul Reali and Kathie Collins, the co-founders of Charlotte Lit, know all about the magical relationship between the months of summer and the act of writing. Paul, Kathie and the other people involved with the running of Charlotte Lit have scheduled a wide range of summer programming for all kinds of writers. I contacted Paul and Kathie and asked them for more information about Charlotte Lit’s summer programs. Here is what they sent to me:

Mark, we’re excited to tell you about Charlotte Lit’s summer offerings!

Our community has been asking, so for the first time in our seven years we’ve decided to add a big selection of summer programming. At the risk of saying we have something for everyone, we do have a really good mix of topics and formats from which to choose.

“Everything, Really Everything…” is our newest concept. On three Wednesday nights, we’ll host a writer who will tell the audience everything they know about a certain topic. The evening starts at 5:30 and also includes social time and adult beverages. Here’s that list:

June 14: Everything, Really Everything, Kim Wright Knows and Writing Beach Reads

July 19: Everything, Really Everything, Dustin M. Hoffman Knows About Writing Short Stories

August 16: Everything, Really Everything, Emily Sage Knows About Songwriting

We’ll host two other writers for special events. Poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi joins us for the next Poetry Nightclub, June 22 at Starlight on 22nd. These are fun nights in a very cool atmosphere. Later in the summer, on August 11, novelist Abigail DeWitt will be at Charlotte Lit to read from and discuss her work.

Of course, Charlotte Lit will offer some writing classes, too—by Zoom to make it easy for anyone to attend from anywhere. Journalist and essayist Amy Paturel will join us from Los Angeles for Writing and Pitching the Reported Essay, two Sunday afternoons, July 30 and August 6. Writer Elizabeth Hanly comes to us from Mexico for four sessions beginning July 18, for what we think will be one of our most important offerings ever: Togetherness: Writing for Those Touched by Cancer and Other Serious Illness.

Every Tuesday morning at 9:30, a dozen or more writers gather on Zoom for our prompt-based writing hour, Pen to Paper. This continues all summer and is a great way to spark new ideas.

We’ll end the summer and kick off our full programming year at Rosie’s Wine Garden for our second annual Open Mic, with our friends at the North Carolina Writers’ Network, August 25.

Finally, there’s one more item of interest for poets: we’ll start taking applications for our Poetry Chapbook Lab on June 15. This is a year-long intensive with coaching and master classes that results in a publication-ready chapbook.

It’s a whole lot of things, so we’ve made a special web page with all this info and registration links, here: https://www.charlottelit.org/summer2023/

We hope to see many of your readers this summer!

I thank Paul and Kathie for sharing this information about Charlotte Lit’s summer offerings. I also thank Charlotte Lit for providing area writers with a spoonful of inspiration so that they, too, can have their own magical summer in the city of Storied Charlotte.

Going to ConCarolinas

May 22, 2023 by Mark West

Many Charlotte-area fans of fantasy and science fiction stories are eagerly anticipating the upcoming ConCarolinas convention. Scheduled to take place from June 2-4 near UNC Charlotte, ConCarolinas is expected to attract thousands of fans, authors, performers, gamers, game designers, and cosplayers. For more information about this year’s convention, please click on the following link: https://concarolinas.org

The Programming Director for this year’s convention is Charlotte writer and publisher John G. Hartness. John is the author several fantasy series, including The Black Knight Chronicles. He is also the driving force behind Falstaff Books, a Charlotte-based publisher of genre fiction. Given John’s role in coordinating the all of the programming for ConCarolinas, he is the perfect person to provide an overview of this year’s convention. I contacted John and asked him for more information about ConCarolinas 2023. Here is what he sent to me:

ConCarolinas is the largest and longest-running science fiction and fantasy convention in the Carolinas, held every year the weekend after Memorial Day. Taking place at the Hilton University Place and the Holiday Inn Charlotte University, ConCarolinas brings in writers, actors, filmmakers, costumers, paranormal investigators, scientists, and fans of all types for a fun-filled weekend. ConCarolinas celebrates fandom in all its flavors, to whether you’re a Trekkie or a Padawan, Team Edward or a Decepticon, you can find plenty to enjoy.

ConCarolinas showcases the talents of geeks from all over the Charlotte region and the Carolinas as a whole. With local publishers like Falstaff Books and Mocha Memoirs Press, fan groups like the 501^st Legion and Southern Belle Ghostbusters, and award-winning filmmakers like Dave Harlequin and Jaysen Buterin, there’s something for everyone, no matter what you’re into. The convention also brings in top-rated guests from all around the country, including this year’s Guests of Honor and Special Guests. The 2023 Media Guest of Honor is Ari Lehman, the first actor to portray Jason Voorhees in a Friday the 13^th film, and this year’s Writer Guest of Honor is Gabino Iglesias, a two-time Bram Stoker Award Nominated novelist and professor. Artist Guest of Honor Lynne Hansen’s work has appeared in Weird Tales magazine and on the covers of hundreds of books and magazines, and her husband, Writer Special Guest Jeff Strand is the Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of over fifty books, including Bring Her Back and Autumn Bleeds into Winter.

Expanding to two hotels in 2023, adding the Holiday Inn Charlotte University allows the convention to increase its dealer space while also growing its educational and workshop space. This year the convention will host hands-on workshops where participants can learn how to make puppets, work with leather, and craft basic armor. They can also watch short films submitted by filmmakers from around the world, and view the regional premiere of Shingles: The Movie, a comedy horror anthology film based on a series of books authored in part by local writer John G. Hartness. If fans don’t want to sit in a room and watch movies all night, there are roleplaying and tabletop games going all weekend, plus sing-alongs, karaoke, and dance parties!

Tickets are available now at www.concarolinas.org/attend/, but get ‘em quick, before they’re all gone!

Although reading is usually a solitary activity, participating in fandom is not. There seems to be some sort of paranormal, gravitational pull that brings fans of fantasy and science fiction together to celebrate their love of shared stories. In a sense, ConCarolinas is a big communal celebration. I always say that my blog is all about celebrating Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, so as I see it, Storied Charlotte and ConCarolinas are made for each other.

Megan Miranda’s New Thriller

May 16, 2023 by Mark West

A regular reader of my Storied Charlotte blog recently asked me how I find out about the new books that I feature on my blog. Well, in the case of Megan Miranda’s new thriller, The Only Survivors, I learned about the publication of the book from an announcement that I received from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library about their Around the World in 21 Branches Festival Tour: https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/events/around-the-world/

This year-long festival kicked off with an event on May 6, 2023, at the North County Regional Library, and Megan served as the featured author. During the event, she talked about The Only Survivors, which Simon & Schuster published on April 11, 2023. It seems fitting to me that Megan spoke at this event held at the North County Regional Library since she lives near this branch of the public library. For more information about Megan and her novels, please click on the following link: https://meganmiranda.com

After seeing the announcement, I decided to find out more information about The Only Survivors. I immediately became intrigued when I discovered that much of the novel takes place in and around a beach house located on the Outer Banks. I have visited the Outer Banks many times over the years, so the setting appealed to me. However, in Megan’s new novel, the Outer Banks is not a place to kick back and relax. It’s a place where the water surges ominously and danger lurks around every corner.

The novel focuses on a group of former high school classmates who survived a tragic event during their senior year. These students were participating on a school trip when their two vans crashed into a ravine, killing all but nine of the students. The survivors decide to have an annual reunion on the anniversary of the tragedy, and they always meet at the same beach house.

On the tenth anniversary, the reunion takes a frightening turn. The seven remaining survivors are isolated in the beach house because of terrible storm, which results in the roads being closed. As the survivors huddle together in the beach house, it gradually becomes clear that there are secrets related to the original tragedy that cause the survivors to mistrust one another. Things are made worse when one of the characters finds a washed-up cell phone on the beach. Once the phone is dried out, it starts working. The information retrieved from phone increases the tensions in the beach house.

As the novel progresses, the focus alternates between the events surrounding the original tragedy and the escalating tensions in the beach house. These two plot lines converge in an unexpected way. The Only Survivors is a fast-paced thriller, full of intriguing plot twists.

The setting plays an integral role in The Only Survivors. This is a story about the dark side of the Outer Banks, a side most tourists never see. Still, if you have ever spent time on the Outer Banks during a bad storm, Megan’s portrayal will resonate with you. I remember once arriving at our hotel in Nags Head at 2:00 in the morning in the middle of a drenching rain with high winds. It seemed so ominous that I had an impulse to get back in the car and drive back to Charlotte. The next day the sun came out and we had a great vacation, but I can still recall the sense of dread that I felt during that truly dark and stormy night.

For readers who enjoy thrillers, The Only Survivors is a great book to read while vacationing on the Outer Banks or anywhere else for that matter. Megan is one of Storied Charlotte’s bestselling authors, and the success of The Only Survivors helps explain why she is such a popular author.

Turning Pages with Andrew Hartley

May 08, 2023 by Mark West

Last Friday I attended a retirement luncheon for my friend and colleague Andrew James Hartley. Andrew has served as the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies at UNC Charlotte since 2005, but he is now retiring from his university position. Although he still loves Shakespeare’s plays, Andrew’s current plan is to focus on his own creative-writing endeavors.

A true renaissance man, Andrew achieved success as a bestselling novelist at the same time that he pursued his academic career as a Shakespearean scholar. While he uses his full name when writing scholarly books, he usually writes as A.J. Hartley when he is publishing novels. Given the fact that Andrew is about to become a full-time novelist, now is a fitting time to take a look back at the creative side of Andrew’s writing career.

Andrew published his first novel, The Mask of Atreus, in 2006, one year after he arrived in Charlotte. The Mask of Atreus is an archaeological thriller that revolves around an ancient and highly sought-after artifact that goes missing from an Atlanta museum. This novel received excellent reviews, and it launched Andrew’s career as a thriller writer. He soon published several other thrillers, including On the Fifth Day (2007) and What Time Devours (2009). At this early stage in his career, Andrew’s publisher billed him as a thriller writer, but Andrew soon broke this mold.

In 2009, Andrew published Act of Will, a young adult fantasy novel. This novel proved to be the first of many YA and middle-grades fantasy novels, including Will Power (2010), Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact (2011), Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck (2012), Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows (2013), Steeplejack (2016), Firebrand (2017), Guardian (2018), Cold Bath Street (2018) and Impervious (2020).

Andrew has also written historical fiction for adults, including two novels based on Shakespeare plays. He and David Hewson co-wrote Macbeth, a Novel (2010) and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a Novel (2014). Andrew also collaborated with Tom DeLonge on two historical thrillers: Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows (2016) and Sekret Machines: A Fire Within (2020).

For more information about Andrew and his many novels, please click on the following link: https://ajhartley.net

Given Andrew’s propensity to jump genres and break molds, I am not sure what sort of books he will write in the future. I do know, however, that he has a new mythological fantasy in the works titled Hideki Smith, Demon Queller. I can’t wait to read it.

I will miss running into Andrew on the UNC Charlotte campus, but I am glad that he intends to continue living in Charlotte. Andrew lived in many other places before he moved to Charlotte. He grew up in England, taught English in Japan, earned his graduate degrees from Boston University, and launched his academic career at the University of West Georgia. However, he started his career as a published novelist after he moved to Charlotte, and I think it is appropriate that he will pursue his career as a full-time novelist while living in Storied Charlotte.

Visiting the Carolina Lowcountry with Susan Diamond Riley

May 01, 2023 by Mark West

As a long-time English professor at UNC Charlotte, I always feel a sense of pride and satisfaction when my former students go on to achieve success in their chosen careers. Susan Diamond Riley is an example of such a student. About ten years ago, Susan started our graduate program in children’s literature, and she took several courses from me. Toward the end of her program, she wrote a creative thesis under my direction. For her thesis, she wrote a mystery novel for middle-grade readers, and a few years later a revised version of her thesis came out from Young Palmetto Books/The University of South Carolina Press under the title of The Sea Island’s Secret: A Delta & Jax Mystery (2019). Since then, she has published two more books in this series—The Sea Turtle’s Curse (Koehler Books, 2020) and The Sea Witch’s Revenge (Koehler Books, 2022). All of these books are set in the Carolina Lowcountry around Hilton Head Island. For more information about Susan and her books, please click on the following link: https://www.susandiamondriley.com/

I recently learned that The Sea Witch’s Revenge has won several awards. Children’s Book International declared the book their top winner in the categories of “Best Historical Fiction” and “Best Mystery” for 2023. Also, the BookFest Awards 2023 named the book a winner in the categories “Juvenile–Historical Fiction” and “Juvenile–People & Places.” When I heard this exciting news, I contacted Susan and asked her for an update on her writing career. She responded right away and informed me that she has just finished the fourth book in her series. Here is what she sent to me:

Titled The Sea Devil’s Demise, the latest installment in my award-winning middle-grade historical mystery series will find sibling sleuths Delta and Jax encountering a strange girl at a Savannah pirate festival. When the girl follows them back to Hilton Head Island, they suspect that time is playing tricks on them again. Who is this mysterious person, who is she fated to become, and how can they return her to her own era in history before she gets stuck in the 21st century forever? As in my previous Delta & Jax mysteries, this tale will include real history, a bit of magic, and a message about the Sea Island environment. This time the kids will learn about the dangers plastics pose to sea life, and what they (and readers) can do to help save our oceans.

While marketing my already-published books is an ongoing task, I also write a twice-monthly blog about Lowcountry history, nature, and culture called “Greetings from the Lowcountry!” I find this regular communication keeps me connected to my readers while they’re awaiting my next novel. As if that doesn’t keep me busy enough, I do continue editing professionally for others. In fact, some of my returning clients are contacts I formed while completing my master’s degree and working in the Writing Resources Center at UNC Charlotte. I regularly edit articles and books for UNCC instructors, and also am occasionally contacted by former clients from the WRC. Now graduates themselves, these folks have entered the workforce and seek my help to polish work-related speeches and presentations, as well as applications for grants and graduate programs.

One of my favorite aspects of being an author/editor is the opportunity to speak to schools and organizations about my books and the writing process. For example, a couple of months ago I was asked to lead an editing workshop for high school students who were competing for a prestigious writing prize. Also, last fall I was delighted to be invited to speak to a group of English master’s degree candidates at UNC Charlotte regarding the various career options available to them after graduation–many of which I have personally sampled! Several attendees of that event contacted me with additional questions afterwards, and I love the idea that I am now able to mentor these aspiring writers just as my UNC Charlotte professors (like you!) did for me during my time in Charlotte. Paying it forward is an honor!

I congratulate Susan on her recent awards and her continued success as a children’s author. Although Susan no longer lives in Charlotte, she is a graduate of our M.A. program, and as such, she is still very much a member of the community of readers and writers that make up Storied Charlotte.

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