Storied Charlotte

Valentine’s Day is not just about candy, flowers, and jewelry.  It’s also about stories. For readers who enjoy relationship stories, I have two book recommendations that have Charlotte connections.  One is The Plus One by Sarah Archer, and the other is Love and Valentines at Caynham Castle, a collection of five Valentine’s Day-themed novellas.  Both books are perfect for Valentine’s Day.

I first got to know Sarah Archer in her role as a co-host of the Charlotte Readers Podcast.  I heard her talk about The Plus One on the podcast, and I was intrigued when she described the novel as a romance story involving a woman and a robot.  I contacted Sarah and asked her for more information about the book and how she came to write it.  Here is what she sent to me: 

I’ve always loved an off-kilter romance, so when I had the idea of a robotics engineer who builds the perfect boyfriend, I immediately began playing out scenarios in my head. At first, I envisioned the story as a female-led version of the 1980s comedy Weird Science, but I knew from the start that my engineer would spend more than one wacky day and night with her robot—I wanted to see where this pairing could go if given the time to truly develop as a relationship. And while my background up to that point was primarily in screenwriting, I had wanted to write a novel since childhood, and this seemed like a fun entry point, so I decided to give it a go.

This premise offered a playing field on which to explore issues around AI and robotics technology (the new ChatGPT bot is scarily similar to some of the mechanisms behind my robotic romantic interest, Ethan), but also allowed me really to explore my human characters: what they look for in relationships, how they define love. The protagonist, Kelly, balks at the traditional expectations for love and relationships that society—and especially her mother, who runs a bridal boutique—have placed upon her. When we meet her at the beginning of the novel, she would doubtless prefer to spend this Valentine’s time of year at home by herself in a Slanket, watching a favorite movie, “baking” a cake for one in the microwave. The heart of the book is really about Kelly finding not just who she wants to be with, but who she wants to be, and I hope we can all embrace that theme around Valentine’s Day.

I was fortunate to get traditionally published, and the process of writing and promoting this book has taught me so much about the fiction world, and created opportunities for me to meet many wonderful writers and readers who are now my critique partners, social media buddies, and friends. In particular, it’s been an excellent bridge into the local Charlotte writing community. When the book was released, I had only moved to the area a month before. But I made an effort to dive in and start connecting with organizations like the Charlotte Writers Club as soon as I got here, and when I gave a reading at Park Road Books right after the novel’s launch, I was so pleased to see the seats filled by some of my new literary friends. I knew already I had stepped into an engaged and supportive writerly scene.

Since publishing The Plus One, I’ve been working on other novels, as well as several screenwriting and poetry projects, and have more recently fallen in love with the short story form. While some of my newer works are more literary in bent, I continue to enjoy any writing that straddles some kind of boundary, whether it’s the intersection of rom-com and sci-fi in The Plus One, or the line between drama and comedy, or reality and the otherworldly. I’m excited to be part of an expansive writing community here in Charlotte that embraces writers of every stripe and genre.

For readers who want to know more about Sarah and her writing, please click on the following link:  https://saraharcherwrites.com/

Even though Love and Valentines at Caynham Castle is set in England, the collection has significant associations with Charlotte since three of the five contributors are current or past residents of Charlotte.  One of these writers is Nancy Northcott (who happens to be my wife). I asked her for more information about this collection, and here’s what she sent to me:

Love and Valentines at Caynham Castle is the fourth in a series of holiday-themed romance anthologies set around an ancient English castle that’s now a hotel. The authors in this collection of novellas include Charlotte’s Morgan Brice (pen name of Gail Z. Martin) and Nancy Northcott and former Charlotte resident Caren Crane. The anthology offers various types of romances. In addition to the stories referenced below, there’s a paranormal featuring Greek gods and an ancient pub and a romantic suspense tale centered on a racing stable and a set of cursed racing silks. 

The One Who Got Away (by Nancy Northcott) is a second-chance-at-love story. Hastings Whitney grew up driven not only to succeed but to be seen to succeed. His focus on success cost him two marriages and any number of relationships. Now he has a second chance with the woman he never forgot, jewelry designer Corinne Lanier. Has he changed enough to balance work with a relationship? Or will a business crisis bring old habits back to the fore? And is there a sinister side to his problem?

Fae-ted Mates (by Morgan Brice) is part of the Kings of the Mountain MM romance fantasy series featuring Dawson and Grady King.  Dawson and Grady King are honeymooning at Caynham Castle, hoping to take a break from monster hunting. They have one piece of family business to handle, involving a generations-long agreement with the Welsh Fae. However, things go wrong, and Dawson and Grady are in danger of being trapped in the Faerie realm forever.

Romance Sells Records (by Caren Crane) features a heroine who is not interested in relationships.  After watching her mother’s hope for a grand romance get dashed time after time, Hannah Evans grew into someone with no tolerance for romance. Callum Hughes’ parents had an enviable relationship, and he wanted the same for himself: if only he could he convince Hannah to trust what they could build together.

The relationship stories included in these two books vary in significant ways, which is fitting since they feature characters who are quite different from each other.   However, these tales all have Storied Charlotte connections, and they all are great stories to read on Valentine’s Day.

Junious “Jay” Ward is one of Charlotte’s best-known poets.  His slam poetry performances are legendary.  In fact, in 2019 he was named the Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.  In addition to performing his original poems, he has had great success publishing poems in various journals as well as in a chapbook titled Sing Me a Lesser Wound (2020).  One of his most important recognitions came in April 2022 when the City of Charlotte officially named him the Poet Laureate of Charlotte.  Next month, will see the publication of Ward’s first full-length poetry collection.  Titled Composition, this collection has an official release date of February 7, 2023, but the book is already available for pre-order from Button Poetry:  https://buttonpoetry.com/product/composition/

I recently contacted Ward and asked him for more information about how he came to write Composition.  Here is what he sent to me:

The original set of poems that would later become Composition was kind of an exploration of my own Blackness, what it meant. But I knew that wasn’t the whole story. Why did I want to write about Blackness? What meaning did that hold for me, why was it important I explore that theme, why should anyone care? As I asked myself those questions, I realized this manuscript wasn’t simply about Blackness, it was about identity. It was about how we look at race and identity through the lens of being multiracial. It was about how we choose to identify, and how, often, people make that choice for us. It was also about being from the South.

I was raised in a rural town in eastern North Carolina. My father died when I was 21 years old. The manuscript evolved to include sub themes of grief, life in the rural South, and self-discovery. 

I interact with form, documents, and visual elements throughout the book. For example, it was important for me to not only capture the ‘spirit of conversation’ around interracial marriages at the time that my parents got married, 1969, but also to find a way to enter those conversations, to ‘talk back’ to certain documents. Some poems are blackouts or erasures of documents like Senate Bill 219, and include footnotes or annotations. Other poems are in form (sonnet, ghazal, contrapuntal, etc.) or are combinations of forms, so that each poem becomes kind of a metaphor for the entire manuscript.

As Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate, I am keenly interested in bridging the perceived gap between “performance” poets and “literary” poets, as I’ve had a modicum of success in both arenas. I think this book is also a step in that direction; a blending of two mediums, a way to blur or solidify the lines, a way to ask ourselves what those lines even mean, or perhaps more importantly, a way to feel comfortable identifying oneself as being on either or neither side of those lines.

For readers who want to know more about Ward, please click on the following link:

https://jwardpoetry.com/home Charlotte is one of only a few cities that has its own Poet Laureate, and Charlotte is the only city that can claim Junious “Jay” Ward as a local poet.  In Japan, they call their gifted artists “Living National Treasures.” Well, as I see it, Ward is one of Storied Charlotte’s living treasures

In 2022, North Carolina Humanities celebrated its 50^th anniversary as the leading nonprofit organization charged with advancing public access to and support for the humanities across the state. North Carolina Humanities is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As part of its celebration, North Carolina Humanities launched North Carolina Reads, a statewide program in which participants read and discussed five books dealing with issues and concerns that face the residents of the state.  North Carolina Reads was so successful that North Carolina Humanities decided to bring back North Carolina Reads in 2023. 

The person who is coordinating this year’s North Carolina Reads program is Melissa Giblin.  She is the Director of the North Carolina Center for the Book, which is the North Carolina Humanities’ collection of literature and reading programs.  I reached out to Melissa and asked her for more information about North Carolina Reads.  Here is what she sent to me:

Building on the successes of the 2022 series, North Carolina Humanities has brought back its popular statewide book club, North Carolina Reads. In 2023 North Carolina Reads features five new books that explore issues of racial, social, and gender equality and the history and culture of North Carolina. The five selected books feature stories of American perseverance and diversity. The people, places, and events in the books also pose critical questions about how North Carolinians view their role in helping to form a more just and inclusive society.

At the heart of North Carolina Reads is NC Humanities’ desire to connect communities through shared reading experiences. Reading is important because it helps develop critical-thinking skills; strengthens minds, vocabulary, and mental health; and creates opportunities to empathize with others’ stories and experiences. North Carolina Reads uses books as a way to create space for talking about important, timely issues.

Starting in February 2023, NC Humanities will host virtual monthly book club events where participants will hear from guest speakers, including book authors and topic experts. Libraries, community groups, and individuals across North Carolina are encouraged to read along with NC Humanities and host community programs of their own to accompany NC Humanities’ virtual events.  The schedule for these events is listed below:

February 22, 2023 at 6:30 PM – Carolina Built an online conversation with author Kianna Alexander and Dr. Hilary Green

March 27, 2023 at 6:30 PM – Game Changers: Dean Smith, Charlie Scott, and the Era that Transformed a Southern College Town online conversation with author Art Chansky and Dr. Matt Andrews 

April 2023 – Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South – conversation with Pam Kelley. Other Book Club Details Forthcoming! 

May 23, 2023 at 6:30 PM – Under a Gilded Moon online conversation with author Joy Jordan-Lake and Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte

June 27, 2023 at 6:30 PM – Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music online conversation with author David Menconi and Dolphus Ramseur

North Carolina Reads is a unique book club. Not only is it one of the only statewide book clubs in North Carolina, but it is also an essential program resource for local, community-based book club groups and regional libraries. 

North Carolina Humanities encourages all North Carolinians to participate in North Carolina Reads. Watch our short video on how you can participate!  More information is available at https://nchumanities.org/program/north-carolina-reads  Please direct all North Carolina Reads-related questions to Melissa Giblin, Director of the North Carolina Center for the Book, at mgiblin@nchumanities.org or (704) 687-1526.

My appreciation goes to Melissa and the North Carolina Center for the Book for organizing this year’s North Carolina Reads program.  I understand that North Carolina Reads is a statewide program, but I take a certain amount of civic pride that the North Carolina Center for Book is headquartered in Charlotte.  As I see it, Storied Charlotte and the North Carolina Center for the Book are a perfect match.  

Over the past few years, I have been hearing a lot about Misha Lazzara.  I first heard her name from the creative writing professors in the English Department at UNC Charlotte.  They described Misha as a very talented graduate student who was studying fiction writing in our department.  I then heard that she had been accepted into the MFA program in creative writing at North Carolina State University.  Next, I heard that she had completed her MFA and had come back to our department to teach a creative writing course as a part-time faculty member.  Most recently, I heard that her debut novel, Manmade Constellations, had just been released by Blackstone Publishing.  Well, after hearing so much about her, I decided to check out her novel for myself.

Manmade Constellations is a road-trip story of sorts.  The novel begins when Lo Gunderson, an alienated young woman from a small town in Minnesota, responds to an ad for a “free car.” When she meets Blanche Peterson, the dying woman who is giving away the car, Lo learns that the free car comes with a condition.  Blanche wants Lo to find her estranged son.  Lo agrees to the deal, but first, she needs to get the car in running condition.  She gets help from a young car mechanic from North Carolina named John Blank, and he ends up joining Lo on her quest to find Blanche’s son. For much of the novel, Lo and John travel together, experiencing the American landscape and, in the process, learning a lot about each other.  The central characters become more and more complex as the story progresses.  They have secrets, difficult family histories, and longings that they don’t fully acknowledge or understand.  As a reader, you have a sense that you are traveling in the backseat with these characters, and they make for very memorable traveling companions. 

After reading Manmade Constellations, I contacted Misha and asked her how she came to write this novel.  Here is what she sent to me:

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was eight or nine my mom gifted me the children’s book The Lives of Writers by Kathleen Krull, which highlights the biographies of a dozen or two well-known writers including Murasaki Shikibu, who I happened to name a pet turtle after. There was also Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes, among others. Ostensibly, I had shown an interest in reading and writing as a young girl, but it was really with that book in my hand that I set my sights on the job title. 

However, as it does for many, life nuzzled in. It felt like I had only been handed my bachelor’s degree in English before I found myself married and starting a family. Later, when I entered UNC Charlotte to get my master’s degree eight years out of undergrad, I was pregnant with my third child while my husband traveled for work. With all those responsibilities, I applied to grad school with more “logical” intentions. The plan was to focus on English, so I might find a job teaching one day down the line, once my own kids were all set up in grade school. True, I had the unkempt and abandoned manuscript of Manmade Constellations, a novel I’d been working on through my twenties, in the proverbial drawer (a dusty computer file), but as I formed the Graduate School Masterplan with my husband, teaching English felt like the responsible thing to do.

That responsible thing lasted about a week into my first writing workshop with Dr. Aaron Gwyn, which happened to be the very first class I signed up for and the first graduate class I ever stepped foot into. I decided (bravely or naively, I can’t say) to switch my focus to creative writing. Still, I worked on a project that I deemed more serious–a wartime historical fiction that remains unfinished–up until the pandemic descended. 

By that time, I was almost halfway through my MFA at North Carolina State University. The work of homeschooling my kids, teaching Intro to Fiction for NCSU via Zoom, and taking my own course load made it clear to me that WWII research would not fit on the docket. So, I had an idea to rewrite that old story–Manmade Constellations–from scratch. 

For me, the book is largely a story about home. And for me, Minnesota is home. That’s where I grew up at least. When do we stop calling where we grew up ‘home?’ I don’t know if I’ll ever have an answer for that. I’ve lived here in Charlotte for almost fourteen years, and I only lived in Minnesota for eighteen. Time is catching up to me, I suppose, but still it was cathartic to revisit those old haunts–the lakes, the wood-paneled diners, and those flat stretches of highway broken up by even more lakes. 

Still, I knew that the South, and more precisely North Carolina, would have to fit into this story of home somehow. Since I first visited Marshall, a small railway town outside of Asheville, I’d been enthralled by the half-hidden settlement of “snake churches” in the area. In the book, John Blank, a good-natured Southern kid who trailed his way up to small-town Midwest, harbors secrets that connect to those enigmatic sanctuaries. 

So, if the question is how this novel came to be and how it relates to my life here in North Carolina, the answer is that I may have never written Manmade Constellations, or any book at all, if it hadn’t been for Dr. Lara Vetter encouraging me to apply at my first meeting at UNC Charlotte when I was unsure whether I was qualified for graduate school, or perhaps I’d never given it a shot if I hadn’t been so inspired by Dr. Gwyn’s writing workshop that first semester. 

Well, that, and also the snakes. 

For readers who want to know more about Misha, please click on the following link:  https://mishalazzara.com/?v=2e5df5aa3470

As a long-time member of UNC Charlotte’s English Department, I am always proud when our former students go on to do great things.  I am proud of Misha, and I highly recommend her debut novel.  There is a new star in Storied Charlotte’s literary galaxy, and it’s called Manmade Constellations.

With the end of each year, I always take a moment to look in the rear-view mirror before I step on the gas pedal and make my merge into the traffic of the new year.  For Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, 2022 turned out pretty well. The year saw the launching of Litmosphere: Journal of Charlotte Lit and the return of EpicFest, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s free literary festival for children and their families. The year also marked the return of the library’s Verse and Vino as an in-person event.  Numerous books by Charlotte writers came out in 2022.  Listed below are twelve of my favorites.  These books include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books:

FICTION

Burning Shakespeare by A. J. Hartley.  In this time-travel novel, an American businessman and Shakespeare hater travels back in time to Renaissance London on a mission to eradicate Shakespeare from history.  He is countered by three recently deceased people from our time who are given an opportunity to come back to life if they go back in time and stop the businessman from carrying out his mission.

Deadly Declarations by Landis Wade.  This mystery novel is set in a fictional retirement community located in Charlotte.  Three residents of the “Independence Retirement Community” join forces to solve a mystery related to the famous and controversial Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  The protagonists in this novel are anything but retiring.  They are feisty, independent, and fully engaged in the world around them.  They take on a powerful law firm, a corrupt politician, and a secret society and they prove that they are more than equal to the challenge. 

The Grand Design: A Novel of Dorothy Draper by Joy Callaway.  For the most part, this historical novel takes place in The Greenbrier, the famous resort in West Virginia.  The central character has much in common with Dorothy Draper, the pioneering interior designer who renovated The Greenbrier after it was used as a makeshift hospital during World War II.

Manmade Constellations by Misha Lazzara. This contemporary novel combines the pleasures of an American road-trip story with the emotional tug of a relationship story involving two traveling companions from quite different worlds.

Secret Lives by Mark de Castrique.  The central character in this thriller mystery is Ethel Fiona Crestwater, a 75-year-old retired FBI agent who runs a boardinghouse near Washington, D.C.  The reviewer from Publishers Weekly describes this character as “an elderly Nancy Drew” who is “ready to bend a few rules to achieve her goal of seeing justice done.”

Song of Redemption by Malika J. Stevely. Most of this historical novel takes place on a French and English-speaking plantation in Louisiana in the years just before the Civil War, but the opening chapter is set in 1932.  In this chapter, a group of construction workers are fixing up an abandoned plantation mansion when they discover the body of a woman behind one of the walls.  This event actually happened.  When Malika heard about it, she decided to write a novel based on the life of this woman.

NONFICTION

Child: A Memoir by Judy Goldman. In Child, Judy writes about her relationship with Mattie Culp, the Black woman who cared for Judy as a white Jewish girl growing up in Rock Hill, South Carolina, during the 1940s and ‘50s.  Judy examines how the racism of the Jim Crow South affected her relationship with Mattie.

Legacy:  Three Centuries of Black History in Charlotte, North Carolina by Pamela Grundy.  This book provides readers with a concise overview of the history of Black culture in Charlotte.  As Pamela documents in her book, African Americans have played important roles in the history of Charlotte from the origins of the city in the 1750s to the present day.

POETRY

The House Inside My Head by Chris Arvidson.  In this debut chapbook, Chris writes about specific places and her responses to these places.  Among the places she explores are Lake Michigan, Jerusalem, a bathroom at a rest stop, and the Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte.

The Metaphorist by Martin (Marty) Settle.  The poems in this collection look at nature through a metaphorical lens.  To quote Marty, “This book of poetry comes, first of all, from my unending love of plants and animals. Over the years, I have become quite familiar with the flora, fauna, and fungi of our region. But these poems are not just any nature poems, but nature poems that are in line with current, ecological discoveries and philosophies.”

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

All the Places We Call Home by Patric Gopo.  In the beginning of All the Places We Call Home, a young girl spins a globe on her bedside table and wonders about the various places that figure in her family history. Like Patrice, the girl lives in America but has family roots in multiple parts of the world.   The girl’s mother then shares bedtime stories about these special places.

The Talk by Alicia D. Williams. The Talk tells the story of Jay, a young Black boy who is growing up in an American city with his tight-knit family and his regular group of neighborhood friends. At first, Jay is more or less oblivious to the realities of racial prejudice, but as he matures, his parents and grandparents take him aside and talk to him about how to respond to racial profiling and other forms of prejudice that Black children, especially Black boys, often encounter when they make the transition from childhood to pre-adolescence. The Talk is a book about racism, but at its core, it is a celebration of a loving Black family.

THERE ARE MORE THAN TWELVE

The twelve books mentioned above are by no means the only books that Charlotte-area writers published in 2022.  I could mention many more books, including a number of excellent scholarly works written by professors I know at UNC Charlotte.  Still, this list provides a good sampling of the wide variety of books that came out of Storied Charlotte in 2022. 

One need not come from a Jewish background to be alarmed and appalled at the recent rise of anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions, but for those of us who do, this disturbing trend has personal connotations and connections. My ancestors on my father’s side of my family tree were Polish Jews, most of whom were from Warsaw.  My grandfather wanted me to know that some of these people fought and died in the famous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, resisting the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of Poland in World War Two.  When I hear contemporary Americans echoing the same anti-Semitic rhetoric that the Nazis used, I think about my Jewish ancestors, and I shudder. 

Although I feel repelled and deeply disappointed by the recent developments in the history of anti-Semitism in America, I feel a sense of pride in Charlotte’s history of supporting Jewish writers, such as Harry Golden. Golden spent most of his boyhood and young adult days in New York City, but in 1941 he settled permanently in Charlotte.  The next year he published a trial run of the Carolina Israelite, a newspaper intended primarily for North Carolina’s Jewish community.  It was a success, and in 1944 he began publishing the newspaper on a regular basis.  He continued to publish this paper until 1968. 

In addition to publishing his newspaper, Golden wrote numerous best-selling books, including Only in America (1958), For 2¢ Plain (1958), and Enjoy, Enjoy! (1960). These books became known for their folksy humor, but they had a serious side to them, too.  In many of his publications and public appearances, Golden spoke out against racial segregation and called for an end to the Jim Crow laws.  At the time of his death in 1981, Golden was Charlotte’s most famous writer. For Golden, Charlotte proved to be a supportive place where he could pursue his career as a writer.  One of the reasons behind Golden’s success as a Jewish writer is that he always emphasized what Jews have in common with people from other religious backgrounds.  He used his gifts as a writer to build bridges and unite people. 

Another Jewish writer from Charlotte who builds bridges is Judy Goldman. She is especially well known for her memoirs, including her recently published Child, which is about her childhood experiences as a Southern Jewish girl who was largely raised by a non-Jewish, African American woman. In many ways, Child is a true story about a relationship that transcends religious and racial divides. Judy, however, has also published books of poetry and fiction.  For more information about Judy Goldman and her books, please click on the following link:  http://judygoldman.com

The Slow Way Back, Judy Goldman’s first novel, came out in 1999, and it went on to win the Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award.  Thea McKee, the central character in this novel, has family roots in Charlotte’s Jewish community, but she knows little about her family history.  She is married to a non-Jewish man, and she does not think of herself as being religious.  However, when she acquires a series of eight letters written by her grandmother in the 1930s, she begins to delve into her Jewish heritage.  The letters are written in Yiddish, which she cannot read, so she arranges to have the letters translated.  In the process, she uncovers a series of family secrets that span three generations.  Although The Slow Way Back focuses on one Jewish family, it speaks to all families who harbor secrets.

I recently contacted Judy and asked her for her thoughts on being a Jewish writer.  She responded by sending me a few paragraphs, which she titled “Am I a Jewish Writer?”  Here is what she sent to me:

I suppose, since I was born into a Jewish family and I write books, I am a Jewish writer. I’m certainly not a Presbyterian writer. Or a Methodist writer. But if I’m a Jewish writer, doesn’t this mean I write about Jewish things?

What if my subject is family? Always, family. My books aim to fully and honestly examine how we connect (or disconnect, then re-connect). Does that mean I’m a Jewish writer?

The reason I’m unclear about the answer to this question is that my Jewishness is a small part of who I am. As a writer. And as a person. I don’t really identify myself as a white-haired person or a person with a Southern accent or a person who celebrates Hanukkah. That would ignore the totality of my identity.

When Mark asked me to write a little something about being a Jewish writer, I almost turned him down. But he’s Mark and his intentions are right-minded and he’s a really good guy. So I said yes. However, my yes was an equivocal yes. Because I so wish religion did not divide us, did not separate us into teams that can turn territorial. I wish nobody ever thought about whether a writer was Jewish or Presbyterian or Methodist.

I, too, wish that religion did not divide us.  As I see it, Harry Golden and Judy Goldman both teach us that we can respect religious diversity while still celebrating our common humanity.  I wish everyone in Storied Charlotte, whatever their religious background might be, a happy holiday season.

Every December I visit Park Road Books to buy books for children whom I have never met and will likely never meet. This annual ritual is tied to the Book Tree Initiative, a collaborative project involving Communities In Schools (CIS) and Park Road Books.   The CIS website includes the following description of the project:

Communities In Schools and Park Road Books in Park Road Shopping Center team up each year to give the joy of reading and books to CIS students.  A tree in Park Road Books’ store is decorated with ornaments created by our students, including the name, age, and “book wish” of a student.  Customers who select an ornament are given a 20% discount on a book purchased for the student.  It’s a wonderful way to give a new book to a child who may never have had a book of his or her own.

This week my son and I selected two ornaments from the Book Tree.  One of the ornaments was created by a girl who expressed a desire for a Sailor Moon book.  We checked out the manga section, and sure enough they had the first volume of Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.  I bought it.  The other ornament was created by a boy who said he would like any book about the American Revolution.  My son and I took a look at the store’s collection of history books for children, and we spotted Guts & Glory:  The American Revolution by Ben Thompson.  I bought it.  After I paid for these books, I left them with the helpful cashier.  The staff at Park Road Books will make sure that the books get into the hands of the children who requested them.

For readers who want to know more about the Book Tree, please click on the following link: https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book-tree-2022 

For readers who want to know more about Communities In Schools, please click on the following link:  https://www.cischarlotte.org/about/

I am a big believer in providing children with their own books, which is why I always take a trip to the Book Tree.  I like the fact that the children who participate in this program are given an opportunity to say what book or type of book they want.  I enjoy making their “book wishes” come true.  

I wish everyone in Storied Charlotte a wonderful holiday season, and I hope that everyone’s “book wishes” all come true.   

The Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, more commonly known as Charlotte Lit, is a nonprofit arts organization, but it is also a place.  Since its founding in 2015, Charlotte Lit has aspired to provide area writers with an inviting place to take writing classes and workshops, participate in conversations and readings, and write and reflect in a space that promotes creativity and conviviality.  For more information about Charlotte Lit, please click on the following link: https://www.charlottelit.org/about/

For a number of years, Charlotte Lit found rooms of its own (to paraphrase Virginia Wolfe) in the Midwood International and Cultural Center in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood.  Recently, however, Charlotte Lit learned that it needed to find a new place to call home.  I am pleased to report that it has just relocated to a new space not far from its original location. 

I recently contacted Paul Reali, Charlotte Lit’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, and asked him for more information about Charlotte Lit’s big move. Here is what he sent to me:

Have you heard the news? Charlotte Lit is moving on down the road! Our new digs at hygge coworking’s Belmont location are only a mile from our studios at the Midwood International and Cultural Center (MICC). It’s a bright, lively space with a creative vibe and lots of free parking. And, though we weren’t exactly eager to leave MICC, team hygge’s enthusiastic welcome has made the transition easy—dare I say, even a little fun.

Strangely, moving to hygge is a little like returning to our coworking roots. Shortly after finishing a PhD in mythology, Charlotte Lit cofounder Kathie Collins found herself longing for the kind of “synergetic” community she’d experienced in graduate school, so she set out to build one. After searching long and hard for affordable space, she lucked into a beautiful, light-filled re-purposed classroom at MICC and set out her shingle as August Moon Creative Co-op. The original plan was to recruit 6-8 people to share space, rent, and creative energy. Coworking was a relatively new concept in Charlotte at the time, however. Kathie had just one taker. Me.

Fortunately, we discovered a shared passion for writing and a desire to create a literary center focused on offering the kind of creative writing classes and literature-based programming largely missing from Charlotte’s arts landscape. In early 2016, August Moon went dark and Charlotte Lit was born. Since then, we’ve built a nonprofit organization that now offers more than 100 writing classes and two dozen special events each year. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve such a feat without the foundation MICC provided us in our first six years, and we’ll remain forever grateful for the center and all the friends we made there.

Alas, times change. Development comes for all, especially in Plaza Midwood. MICC was sold in 2021, with all tenant leases ending in June 2023. We searched far and wide for affordable studio/office space with adequate parking but quickly realized Charlotte’s commercial real estate market doesn’t exactly cater to nonprofit arts organizations with limited budgets. We also realized we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. We thrived in MICC’s collaborative environment during our first six years; perhaps coworking was the solution we had been gravitating toward all along.

At hygge coworking Belmont, we’ve found a new creative community in a central location that will allow us to continue serving a diverse cross-section of Charlotte—and all the features essential to Lit’s success: affordability, accessibility, parking, the right vibe. Best of all, we’ve found a management team dedicated to making us feel at home. When Kathie and I first met hygge owner Garrett Titchy, he said: we want you here and we’ll make it work. He and his staff have done just that!

Our staff began working at hygge in November. We’ll hold in-person classes in the new space beginning in January. Check the new space out beforehand at our annual holiday party on December 14. We’ll have music and mingling, drinks and snacks. We hope we’ll have you, too. Please let us know you’re coming, here: https://charlottelit.configio.com/pd/132/holiday-party. See you soon!

I know that I speak for everyone in Storied Charlotte in wishing Paul Reali, Kathie Collins, and everyone else associated with Charlotte Lit all the best as they settle into their new home.