Storied Charlotte

Tommy Tomlinson on Dogs, Humans, and the Making of Dogland

April 29, 2024 by Mark West

When I read the news about the recent publication of Tommy Tomlinson’s Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show, I immediately took notice. I have been a fan of Tommy’s writing since his days at The Charlotte Observer. From 1997 to 2012, Tommy wrote a column that appeared in the paper three times a week. In 2005, he was named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist “for his provocative columns with a wide-ranging human touch.” Tommy’s ability to bring the “human touch” to the topics he writes about is very much in evidence in Dogland.

Ostensibly, Dogland is a behind-the-scenes account of the Westminster Dog Show and all the events leading up to this show, but it is also a thoughtful reflection of the special bond between humans and dogs. For much of the book, Tommy explores the relationships between show dogs and their handlers. However, he also writes about his relationship with a dog that he rescued named Fred. In my opinion, Tommy’s account of Fred’s final days is the most moving passage in the book.

In addition to writing about the world of show dogs, Tommy delves into the history of how humans and dogs first got together about 30,000 years ago. He argues that this bond between humans and dogs has had a transformative impact on both humans and dogs.

I reached out to Tommy and asked him for more information about how he came to write Dogland. Here is what he sent to me:

Years ago, I was watching a dog show on TV and a question popped into my head: Are those dogs happy? That was the start of a three-year journey into what I came to call Dogland–the traveling carnival of dog shows that criss-crosses the country, culminating in the Westminster Dog Show, the most prestigious dog show in America.

I set out to learn not only about the dog-show world, but about the 30,000-year history of dogs and their people. That included a lot of research, a lot of interviews, and a lot of time at dog shows. One of those shows was in Concord, where I talked to a dog owner and handler named Michelle Parris about the loss of one of her favorite Italian greyhounds while the chaos of the show swirled around us–including a giant Newfoundland who really, really needed to take a poop.

I hope that when people read Dogland they’ll end up with a better understanding of why dog-show devotees love what they do … and how it is that dogs and people have formed such an intense bond over the years. We invented dogs, and in a very real sense, they invented us.

For readers who are interested in hearing Tommy talk about Dogland, Park Road Books is holding an in-person discussion and book signing at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Tommy will be in conversation with author Joe Posnanski. For more information about this event, please click on the following link: https://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/tommy-tomlinson-discusses-his-new-book-dogland-joe-posnanski

I congratulate Tommy on the publicationof Dogland. I highly recommend Tommy’s latest book to anyone in Storied Charlotte who has an interest in the special relationship between humans and dogs.

Tags: Dog Books

JuliAnna Ávila’s New Book on Vaquero Horsemanship

April 20, 2024 by Mark West

Dr. JuliAnna Ávila often refers to herself as a horse person. I first met JuliAnna about fifteen years ago when she was interviewing for a position in English education at UNC Charlotte. Since I was on the search committee, we had several conversations about the possibility of her coming to Charlotte. Even then, she wanted to know if it would be possible for her to find a place outside of the city where she could keep a horse. She joined the English Department in 2010, and a few years later she acquired a horse named Angel.

Over the years, JuliAnna and I often talked about her horse. During these conversations, she mentioned her interest in Vaquero horsemanship, which is a traditional approach to training and caring for horses that emphasizes the importance of developing a bond between the rider and the horse. JuliAnna expressed a desire to write a book on this topic, and I encouraged her to pursue this idea. Well, I am pleased to report that she wrote the book and Purdue University Press just published it under the title Fine Horses and Fair-Minded Riders: Modern Vaquero Horsemanship as part of its New Directions in Human-Animal Bond series. For more information about the book, see here.

I recently contacted JuliAnna and asked her about how she came to write Fine Horses and Fair-Minded Riders. Here is what she sent to me:

In 2012, I found the horse who started me on the journey to researching Vaquero Horsemanship on a small farm about 30 miles southeast of Charlotte. I arrived at UNC Charlotte in 2010, and that was the first time that I really started venturing outside of the city. As soon as I started looking for a boarding barn for Angel, I learned quickly that you don’t need to travel far outside of Charlotte to find semi-rural and rural horse country (Waxhaw is probably the closest example of this but certainly not the only one). I grew up in Los Angeles and having horses there means that they are very often squeezed into human-sized spaces since land is so expensive and, overall, it is just terribly crowded—clearly far less than ideal for horses. Owning a horse while living in Charlotte meant that, a relatively short drive away, there were places where horses could live more like horses—outside 24/7 with grass and friends and some space to move around. I thought that that was a wonderful aspect of life in the Charlotte area–that there were so many beautiful farms and agricultural areas around it.

And the study that led to this book started in the Charlotte area since I began by talking to the horsepeople I knew; they then recommended others to talk to in expanding geographical circles that began in North and South Carolina and then the southeast and then the western U.S., as the final stage of my project included the teachers and mentors of my original group of study participants. After several years of interviewing and collecting the stories of riders who study and practice Vaquero Horsemanship, I’ve written this book; this all began with driving out to see a sweet, spirited, red mare on a lovely, ordinary spring day.

I congratulate JuliAnna on the publicationof Fine Horses and Fair-Minded Riders: Modern Vaquero Horsemanship. Although it is published by a university press, it is not a book that is intended exclusively for academics. As JuliAnna stated in a recent interview, “Even though I am an academic, I tried to write it for a general audience who are interested in horses and horsemanship.” In my opinion, JuliAnna’s book should appeal to anyone in Storied Charlotte who has an interest in the special relationship between horses and humans.

Tags: Vaquero Horsemanship

Alan Rauch, Sloths, and Earth Day

April 13, 2024 by Mark West

Since 1970, Earth Day has taken place on the 22^nd day of April. In thinking about the upcoming celebration of Earth Day, I am reminded that planet Earth is home not just to humans but to countless other animals as well. The relationship between humans and other animals is a topic of great concern to my friend and colleague Alan Rauch, who is a professor in the English Department at UNC Charlotte. In addition to publishing scholarship on Victorian literature and culture, Alan has written extensively in the field of animal studies, including his recently published Sloth. This book received a glowing review in Publishers Weekly. The reviewer writes, “in this amusing and informative entry in Reaktion’s Animal series, Rauch explores the behavior, anatomy, and evolution of sloths . . . Animal lovers will be entranced.” I reached out to Alan and asked him to comment on his interest in animal studies, his new book about sloths, and his thoughts on the importance of Earth Day. Here is what he sent to me:

We are all engaged with animals—to say nothing about the “environment” in general–in everything we do. On Earth Day, as on every day, if we don’t pay serious attention to what we are wearing, or eating, or fishing and hunting, or even exterminating we are simply not acting responsibly. Sometimes it’s easier to bring these issues to mind, but we often avoid addressing our own interconnections with the natural world.

I can’t trace back my initial fascination with animals to a specific period in my life; I don’t recall time when I didn’t want to know more about dogs, cats, horses, dinosaurs, marine mammals, and even sloths. The question of how animals influence any of us is, to say the least, complicated. I can say, with certitude, that growing up in Canada, where animals were always foregrounded, was critical to me. Animals were always, quite literally, in hand. A caribou has distinguished the Canadian quarter since time immemorial (except when, in 1967, a beautiful engraving of a Canada Lynx was featured). The beaver (Canada’s national animal) is almost synonymous with the nickel. And now, as virtually everyone knows, the dollar coin or “Loonie” honors the elegant and sonorous loon. Even the paper currency had a series that featured the birds of Canada. Everyone in Canada, a nation that honored its wildlife, touched a representation of an animal on a daily basis and that necessarily had a lasting impact on its citizenry.

To be sure, I was perhaps more smitten than most. Beyond dinosaurs and horses, I was fascinated by whales and dolphins and as one of the youngest members of the Montréal Zoological Society, I joined excursions to Tadoussac, a town halfway up St. Lawrence River, to see a gathering of whales at the mouth of Saguenay River where there were belugas by the score, as well as Minke, Sei, and even Blue whales. Those trips and others (e.g. to see thousands of snow geese preparing for migration) were exhilarating and life changing. But I was no less in awe of muskrats, porcupines, chipmunks, and even squirrels all of which remain enthralling to this day.

Of course, aside from giant ground sloths (which disappeared 13,000 years ago), Canada was a “sloth-free” nation. But fortunately for me there was a fossil of a giant ground sloth in the Redpath Museum, where I attended classes as a biology student at McGill University. That creature, a Megatherium, was a conundrum! How was it, I wondered, that a 19-foot-tall creature that roamed the Americas could be related to a group of very small and sluggish animals limited to Central and northern South America? Paleontologists have still not answered that question satisfactorily. But it is worth noting, as I did for years, that virtually every natural history museum features, often near the entrance, a replica of a giant sloth. Why? Oddly enough I tried to answer that question not as a zoologist, but as a scholar of Victorian Studies and published my theory on that topic in an essay called “The Sins of Sloth.”

But once captivated by sloths they won’t let go and I became determined to write about all sloths not merely as historical artifacts or the loveable subjects of children’s books, but as critical members of our environmental and cultural lives. I volunteered at a sloth rescue center in Costa Rica and worked with the Sloth Institute; I solicited dozens of images, and delved into years (perhaps slothfully) of research. The resultant book, Sloth (Reaktion Books, 2023) is, I hope, one of the most comprehensive works about an animal that is not only compelling but, like all other animals, essential to our lives.

The sloth’s status as a meme for “cuteness” or for casual indifference seems to the dominant theme of most representations of the sloth in Western culture. T-shirts abound with slogans like “Live slow” or “I’m not Lazy, I’m just energy efficient” abound, although the latter point about energy efficiency is well-taken. But T-shirts aside, we need a more nuanced understanding of the sloth as a well-adapted organism in a very complex environment. What makes that environment particularly complex and troubling, is the extent to which it is threatened by deforestation, pollution, and even eco-tourism. One can only hope that the many “attractions” of the sloth and its wonderful appeal in social media will eventually result in a more nuanced understanding of them as organisms rather than disembodied memes or living “toys” for human amusement. That point is as much a reason for Earth Day as any, and whether our awareness or responsibility begins with sloths, or dolphins, or even Canada’s haunting loon, we should all be motivated to environmental action.

As we celebrate Earth Day here in Storied Charlotte, I think that we should join Alan in remembering that we share our planet with many other living beings and act accordingly.

Tags: Earth Day

Jack Claiborne’s New Memoir about Growing Up in a Changing Charlotte

April 07, 2024 by Mark West

When I learned about the recent publication of Jack Claiborne’s Charlotte, the Slugger and Me: A Coming-of-Age Story of a Southern City and Two Tenacious Brothers, I immediately flashed back to my introduction to Claiborne’s writings about Charlotte. As soon as I moved to Charlotte in the summer of 1984, I subscribed to The Charlotte Observer, and that’s when started reading his weekly column. Titled “This Time and Place,” this column ran in the paper from 1970 to 1990. In this column, Claiborne wrote about the people and history of Charlotte, and his column helped me better understand the city that has since become my permanent home.

Charlotte, the Slugger, and Me: Coming-of-Age Story of a Southern City and Two Tenacious Brothers

In his new memoir, Claiborne tells the story of how he and his brother Jimmy (who came to be known as Slug) moved to Charlotte in 1936 following the death of their father. At the time he was just five and his brother was four. They grew up together in a city that was not yet known as a New South city, but it was already a city that was rapidly changing. Claiborne devotes much of his memoir to discussing how he and his brother were influenced by the development of the city. As he recalls, both brothers found opportunities in this fast-changing Charlotte. Claiborne built a career as a journalist with The Charlotte Observer while his brother became one of Charlotte’s leading restaurateurs.

Dannye Romine Powell recently interviewed Claiborne about his new memoir. This interview appeared in The Charlotte Observer on March 24, 2024. Toward the end of the interview, she asked the following question: “You describe Charlotte of the 1930s and 1940s as a ‘welcoming place where you didn’t need a fortune or a pedigree to make friends or find favor.” Does today’s Charlotte retain some of those features?” Here is his response:

Oh, yes. Charlotte is still an open and inviting city. Its leaders are still people who came here from elsewhere. There is no ruling class of “Old Charlotte” sachems managing things behind the scenes. District representation ensures that all parts of the city are heard from on vital issues.

For readers who are interested in hearing Claiborne talk about his memoir, the Myers Park Library is sponsoring an event called “An Evening with Jack Claiborne, Retired Charlotte Observer Associate Editor.” This event will take place on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Registration is required. For more information about this event, please click on the following link: https://cmlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/65f30279ad1be248855a33eb

Charlotte, the Slugger and Me is not Claiborne’s only book about Charlotte. He also wrote The Charlotte Observer: Its Time and Place, 1869-1986 (2012), Crown of the Queen City: The Charlotte Chamber from 1870 to 1999 (1999), and Jack Claiborne’s Charlotte (1974). Anyone who wants to know more about the history of Storied Charlotte should acquaint themselves with the writings of Jack Claiborne.

The Poets Are Coming, The Poets Are Coming

March 31, 2024 by Mark West

Given that April is National Poetry Month, I think it is fitting to focus this week’s Storied Charlotte blog post on the upcoming visits to Charlotte by two nationally known poets—Nathan McClain and Jericho Brown.

Nathan McClain will give a poetry reading on Thursday, April 4, from 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. in Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room on the main UNC Charlotte campus. McClain will read from his work, followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. One of the organizers of this event is Allison Hutchcraft, who is a creative writing professor at UNC Charlotte. I contacted Allison and asked her for more information about this event. Here is what she sent to me:

Acclaimed poet Nathan McClain will visit UNC Charlotte on Thursday, April 4, visiting Allison Hutchcraft’s Intermediate Poetry Writing class (who recently finished reading McClain’s latest book of poems) and give a campus reading of his work in Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room from 4:00 – 5:15 p.m.

Nathan McClain (he/him) is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He is a recipient of fellowships from The Frost Place, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a Cave Canem fellow. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. His poems and prose have appeared in Plume Poetry 10, The Common, Guesthouse, Poetry Northwest, and Zócalo Public Square, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.

Of Previously Owned, poet Diane Seuss has said, “The opening poem of Nathan McClain’s Previously Owned operates like the legend of a map, a key to the book’s existential topography. The poem’s presenting subject is a Roman sculpture of a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, or ‘not pulling / rather, about to pull.’ McClain addresses the self via the second person, and draws in the reader, too, as observer: ‘and here you / are, looking,’ witness to the boy’s ‘insistent grief.’ ‘And what // have you learned from / standing here so long examining pain?’ Previously Owned exists in this incremental space—the about to pull, the almost, the grief, the tenderness, the examination, and the distance. It’s a masterstroke in a masterful collection, in which a speaker of a nuanced intelligence and lush interiority reflects upon the American landscape, its pastoral and judicial and historical duplicity entwined with racial alienation and violence. McClain has written a collection of sculptural artfulness—through which the thorn of grief thrums still.”

The poet Tommye Blount has said, “In Previously Owned, America’s dark history is not quaintly rooted in the past, but dangerously ever-present. ‘And what / have you learned from / standing here so long / examining pain?’ Nathan McClain questions in the opening poem ‘Boy Pulling a Thorn from His Foot’—not just the reader—himself as witness. If Scale, his first collection, can be said to be anchored in domestic space, then Previously Owned expands the architecture of that domestic space to include Country and the country. The ways in which McClain troubles the pastoral and peripatetic traditions thrills me: ‘I’ve never actually seen a moose, / only signs warning of moose, / and NO PASSING ZONE signs’ (‘Where the View Was Clearer’); and of the fireflies in ‘Now that I live in this part of the country,’ ‘look, they / flash the way hazard / lights sometimes flash… / and I might have said, no, / don’t they seem to pulse / with the glow of old / grievances?’ This book is a triumph and will be talked about for years. Nathan McClain is one of the most daring poets I know.”

Jericho Brown will perform and discuss his poetry as part of Charlotte Lit’s annual Lit Up! celebration on Wednesday, May 1 from 6:00-8:30 at Not Just Coffee, 1026 Jay Street, in Charlotte. This is a ticketed event, and reservations are required. The following information about this event is from Charlotte’s Lit’s website:

Join Charlotte Lit and Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown on May 1 for Lit Up! 2024, as we celebrate eight years serving the literary arts community. Jericho performs his work, then joins Charlotte Lit Press author AE Hines and audience members in a thought-provoking conversation. Enjoy live music, a wide selection of beverages, and hors d’oeuvres by Something Classic. 6:00-8:30 pm, Not Just Coffee, Jay Street.

Ticket Options:

General admission tickets include light bites and libations | $100 Members & their Guests, $150 Non-members [Purchase Here]
Limited VIP tickets include light bites and libations, priority reserved seating, a signed copy of one of Jericho’s books, and a VIP lounge with our featured guests | $250 Members Only [Purchase Here]

Jericho Brown is author of the The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), which won the Pulitzer Prize, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (New Issues, 2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

His poems have appeared in The Bennington Review, Buzzfeed, Fence, jubilat, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME magazine, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry. He is the director of the Creative Writing Program and a professor at Emory University.

I am excited that Nathan McClain and Jericho Brown are coming to Charlotte, and I am sure that the many readers and writers of poetry who live in Storied Charlotte are just as excited as I am.

The Joy of Touring Bookstores

March 23, 2024 by Mark West

For the third year in a row, many of the independent bookstores located in the Charlotte area are working together during the month of April on a project that they call the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl. Their collaborative book crawl is timed to coincide with the Independent Bookstore Day, which will take place on April 27, 2024. These participating bookstores are encouraging area readers to visit each other’s businesses and get to know what makes each bookstore unique. For more information about the book crawl, please click on the following link: https://greatercharlottebookcrawl.com/

Beginning April 1, bookstore lovers can pick up Greater Charlotte Book Crawl (GCBC) passports at any of the nineteen participating bookstores. Each visit to one of the bookstores during the month of April earns the crawler a new stamp. The goal is for participants to visit all nineteen stores. Each “finisher” will earn a special edition 2024 GCBC tote bag. The finishers simply need to show a completed passport at any participating bookstore. Finishers can also submit a photo of their completed passport to be entered in a drawing for the Grand Prize: a collection of gift cards from each of the bookstores.

The Greater Charlotte Book Crawl is all about the joy of touring bookstores. As I see it, there is something magical about visiting bookstores. I love going to bookstores and perusing the shelves. Another way that I enjoy touring bookstores is by reading books about bookstores. For readers who share this interest of mine, here is a short list of great books that are either set in bookstores or are about bookstores.

One of my favorite novels that takes place in a bookstore is The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. A. J. Fikry, the central character in this novel, is a lonely widower who owns a quirky bookstore called Island Books. A. J. is a cantankerous man, but his love of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry and his deep knowledge of classic literature provide him with ways to connect with other booklovers.

One of my favorite nonfiction books about bookstores is Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins. This memoir recounts the author’s humorous experiences when he and his family move from San Francisco to Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town that is famous for its many used bookstores. He gets a job working in one of these bookstores where he tries to organize an American literature section. This book is full of eccentric bibliomaniacs and all sorts of odd and amusing information about book history.

One of my favorite ghost stories that is set in a bookstore is The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. The novel takes place in Birchbark Books, which is a real bookstore that Erdrich owns in Minneapolis. The main characters in the novel are Tookie, a Native American woman who works in the store, and Flora, the ghost of a white woman who used to patronize the store. Erdrich herself also shows up as a minor character in the novel.

One of my favorite fantasy books that takes place in a bookstore is The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. Often described as a work of magic realism, this novel deals with a magical bookshop in Dublin that functions as a sort of time-travel portal. Part of the novel is set in the 1920s, and part of the story is set in the present day. However, the timelines converge in intriguing ways.

One of my favorite children’s books about a bookstore is The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. This book is a work of fiction, but it is based on the real history of the National Memorial African Bookstore, which Lewis H. Michaux opened in Harlem in 1932. The store remained in business until 1974.

While I enjoy reading books about bookstores, I enjoy visiting real bookstores even more. I urge all my fellow bookstore lovers to participate in the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl. It has just been around for three years, but it has already established itself as a Storied Charlotte tradition.

Charlotte Lit’s Upcoming Spring Writing and Nature Retreat

March 16, 2024 by Mark West

I always read Charlotte Lit’s weekly newsletter, and that’s where I saw an announcement about their upcoming “spring writing and nature retreat.” It aroused my curiosity. I have long been familiar with Charlotte Lit’s many writing classes and workshops, but I had no idea that Charlotte Lit also runs writing retreats. Intrigued, I contacted Kathie Collins, the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Charlotte Lit, and I asked her for more information about this retreat. In response, she sent me the following piece, which she has titled “Seeking the Poetry in Nature.”

Mark, thanks so much for asking about Charlotte Lit’s upcoming two-day writing retreat. This is our first out-of-town offering since before the pandemic, and I’m excited to be able to host the event at my farm in East Bend, NC, an easy 90-minute drive from Charlotte. The focus of the weekend will be on deepening our writing practices by reconnecting with the natural world. I’ve listed event details below, but I wanted to first offer some background on the genesis of the venue—which is also my home.

Almost three years ago, a life-long friend, who happens to work in real estate, took me out to celebrate my 56^th birthday. While we sipped prosecco and munched crackers slathered with crab dip, her phone pinged relentlessly with inquiries about a property she’d just listed. After the fifth or sixth interruption, I asked to see photos—an act of idle curiosity, or so I thought.

I wasn’t in the market for a move, much less the purchase of a 32-acre farm in Yadkin County, NC. Or, I should say, my rational, goal-oriented, ego-bound personality, the part of me that usually runs the show, wasn’t in the market. Some other less conscious and apparently far more powerful parts must have been waiting a long time for such a left-field opportunity; before I could blink, much less think, they had my Jane Doe forged on a purchase contract with a closing date less than two months away.

To say this decision surprised my family and friends is an understatement. I astonished myself, which is something I don’t do very much. I do, however, try to stay in close communication with my inner world and the often-competing demands of the archetypal forces who make up that rich and varied continent. But, like everyone, I can get stuck in my head. So, the inner council gathered (without Ego) and ruled that a radical reconnection with the natural world was critical. I’d say I had no choice, but the truth is I’ve learned to trust this kind of deep knowing. Weirdly, the more out of leftfield a hit is, the fiercer its mandate, the more sure I am of its authenticity and rightness.

The fully-connected me, what C. G. Jung calls the “Self,” knew writer me needed to sink her feet into pasture grass, plant fields full of flowers, follow a trail through the woods and down to the river to watch the bald eagles build up their nest. Capital S-Self said, “Go, build a retreat; invite other writers to come and play.” And, so, I did.

Which brings us to today: Over the last three years, and with lots of help, I’ve renovated the property’s 1883 farmhouse, added gardens and two miles of hiking trails, and built a labyrinth on the property’s highest point. I call this place Innisfree after W.B. Yeats’ famous poem (with thanks to Erin Belieu for the suggestion). One day there’ll be classroom space and a lodge for hosting overnight guests, but the land is waiting—it always has been––and it’s calling your name.

Please join me and fellow guides Jessica Jacobs, CJ Lawing, and Rose McLarney May 18-19 for a weekend of retreat and recreation in beautiful Yadkin Valley. Together, we’ll learn to watch more closely and listen more deeply to what plants, animals, rocks, soil, and wind are showing and telling us. Through reading, writing, and wandering, we’ll wonder about the connections between nature’s lessons and the spiritual teachings found in religious texts. And we’ll practice listening for the soul’s deepest longings. You’ll return home with some nature-inspired writing, a clearer head, and a deeper connection to those wise, though oft-neglected, inner voices.

Saturday, May 18: The Natural & Spiritual

Join poets Jessica Jacobs and Rose McLarney for craft lessons focused on natural and spiritual explorations in poetry. We’ll discuss how to delve into texts such as the Torah and New Testament that may seem not only sacred but inaccessible and inviolate. And we’ll consider how to write about animals and other elements of the more-than-human world, trying to move beyond anthropomorphism by accepting the responsibilities and powers of our human perspectives. Activities will include discussion of exemplary poems and generative exercises. Expect to leave with the drafts of potential new poems and/or short prose.

Sunday, May 19: Landscape as Self

Join landscape designer & spiritual director CJ Lawing and poet & Charlotte Lit co-founder/creative director Kathie Collins for a day spent awakening our creative imaginations through deep reflection on the landscapes that stir and speak to our hearts. Through guided meditation, conversation, writing prompts, mindful wandering, and playful fashioning of found objects into symbols of Self, we’ll discover how our inner and outer worlds mirror one another and practice drawing creative inspiration from the relationship between the two.

Registration details and lodging suggestions: https://www.charlottelit.org/retreat/

I thank Kathie for the information about Charlotte Lit’s writing and nature retreat and for sharing the story of her deep connections to her farm in East Bend. I love the name East Bend. It reminds me of a book that I read as a boy titled The Owl Hoots Twice at Catfish Bend by Ben Lucien Burman. Burman’s novel is set on the banks of the Mississippi River, and it celebrates the natural world. Toward the beginning of the book, Doc Raccoon, the book’s narrator, recounts, “It was a day in June, one of those wonderful days when it’s good to be alive. I was lying on my back near the big live oak tree where I stayed, looking up at the clouds passing by, and the giggly rabbit was doing the same. And Judge Black, the blacksnake, was sitting in the sun near me, giving advice to some young raccoons that I’d invited to the Bend for a visit.”

I wouldn’t have to tweak this passage too much to make it apply to Kathie’s retreat. I would have to switch the place name from Catfish Bend to East Bend and switch the month from June to May. However, I am sure all the folks whom Kathie has “invited to the Bend for a visit” will have “one of these wonderful days when it’s good to be alive.”

Peg Robarchek’s Irreverent Faith Memoir

March 11, 2024 by Mark West

On the back cover of Peg Robarchek’s recently published faith memoir titled Welcome to the Church of I Don’t Have a Clue: My Irreverent, Post-Evangelical, Sacred Life there is a short blurb by my friend Frye Gaillard, the author of Southernization of America (with Cynthia Tucker) and many other books about the American South. Frye’s blurb reads, “In this page-turning memoir, Peg Robarchek writes of growing up in the segregated, Christ-haunted South, searching for God in all the wrong places.”

I think it is fitting that Frye is listed as one of the endorsers of this book, for he is an expert on the role that religion has played in the history of the South. As Frye has discussed in many of his books, Southern culture is steeped in conflicting religious traditions. In her memoir, Peg also writes about Southern religious traditions, but she focuses on her own personal responses to these traditions. The result is an irreverent yet deeply spiritual memoir.

For much of her adult life, Peg has lived in Charlotte, and Charlotte figures in the second half of her memoir. I recently contacted Peg and asked her about how her experiences in Charlotte relate to the themes that she explores in her memoir. Here is what she sent to me:

When I moved to Charlotte in 1980, I had no idea that the next couple of decades would change my life completely. Charlotte seemed friendly and progressive and like the perfect place to put down roots. It also came across as completely different from Birmingham, Alabama, the city where I’d grown up and escaped as soon as I was able.

I found like-minded people, including other journalists and writers. I also found, however, that Charlotte did have one thing in common with my hometown—a church on nearly every corner. And plenty of those like-minded people started inviting me to their churches. This wasn’t an invitation I welcomed or expected.

In my memoir, Welcome to the Church of I Don’t Have a Clue, I share a spiritual journey that started in childhood when I walked out on church and God—a journey that ultimately brought me to a different understanding of both the Divine and a life of faith. One of the experiences that set me on a different path took place when I attended a lecture and meditation event at Charlotte’s Spirit Square. The concert and event venue on North Tryon had been a prominent church in this city of churches. It sat empty for a while after its original congregation moved to a new location. Spirit Square turned out to be a favorite spot in my new city, a place where I was able to see some of my favorite performers over the years, from Allison Kraus to Lyle Lovett to jazz great Cleo Laine, and many more. Also, as it turned out, the evening when I sat in that former church sanctuary with hundreds of others and experienced a guided meditation became a turning point in my spiritual journey.

And ultimately, I found a community of seekers and clergy and others who became my companions on the journey to connect with the Divine, an outcome I never expected. Charlotte not only became my home in a way that my hometown never was, but it also became my spiritual home.

For readers who would like to meet Peg, Park Road Books will have a reading and book signing at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 21. For readers who are interested in purchasing Peg’s book on Amazon, here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Church-Dont-Have-Clue/dp/B0CNZRG4B9/ref

As Peg makes clear in her memoir, Charlotte’s faith community extends beyond the buildings and belief systems associated with traditional organized religion. Charlotte is sometimes known as a city of churches, bit it is also a city of stories. Peg’s memoir is one of Storied Charlotte’s most riveting and revealing accounts of a deeply personal faith journey.

Tags: memoir

Nathan Nicolau’s Debut Novel

March 03, 2024 by Mark West

I always like hearing from my former students, so I was pleased when an email message from Nathan Nicolau showed up in my inbox a month or two ago. Nathan is currently a full-time member of the English faculty at Central Piedmont Community College, but when I first met him, he was a graduate student in the English MA program at UNC Charlotte. I directed Nathan’s creative MA thesis, and I remember urging him to expand his thesis into a full-length novel. Well, in his email message, he informed me he had, in fact, revised and expanded his thesis and that it would be published in March under the title Two. I congratulated Nathan, and I let him know that I planned to feature his novel in my Storied Charlotte blog. With this goal in mind, I asked him for more information about his debut novel and its connections to Charlotte. Here is what he sent to me:

I’ve lived in the Charlotte area since I was nine years old. It’s truly my home and the only place I’ve ever known. Charlotte has been there for many incredible moments in my life, and I wanted to reflect that in my debut novel, Two. Two started as my master’s thesis with Dr. Mark West at UNC Charlotte, and I credit him for giving the novel its identity. While the novel follows two central characters, I remember distinctively how he suggested having a third character: Charlotte. I then incorporated real-life locations in the novel, such as Romare Bearden Park, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Book Buyers, Amélie’s French Bakery, and UNC Charlotte.

I made sure that these locations were not just background scenery, however. Charlotte plays a subtle, yet essential role in Two. The novel follows two college-aged lost souls, Howl and Ella, taking a journey across Charlotte to figure out the mystery of an unknown Italian opera that Ella can recite but does not understand. This journey through Charlotte is the catalyst for the two to discover themselves and each other while forming a strong, non-romantic bond that goes beyond friendship. Charlotte’s locations, history, and people serve as Howl and Ella’s guides through their ups and downs. For example, the novel opens with Ella reciting the Italian opera to a specific statue in Romare Bearden Park, the Spiral Odyssey. Later, Ella explains her fascination with the statue: it was created in tribute to her favorite artist, the person who inspired her to become one, Romare Bearden. However, it is revealed that she dropped out of art school for ethical reasons, and she doubts her artistic abilities. When she and Howl walk through the Bechtler Museum, however, they have deep conversations on the nature of art that fuels her passion and helps Howl better understand Ella.

Of course, Bearden is the face of Charlotte’s art history, and Two is partially a novel about art: how we view it, understand it, and discuss it. Charlotte has an incredible art scene that I am happy to be contributing to with Two. As brought to my attention by Dr. West, there have been many great novels set in Charlotte. I am honored to be part of this tradition!

For readers who want to know more about Nathan and his debut novel, please click on the following link: https://www.nathannicolau.com/

I am not alone in offering congratulations to Nathan on the publication of Two. All the UNC Charlotte faculty members who had the pleasure of working with Nathan while he was pursuing his MA degree in English are proud of him for publishing his novel. Moreover, within the broader context of Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, the publication of a new novel by a Charlotte writer is always a cause for celebration, especially when the novel is set right here in Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Coming-of-Age Novel

The Read-Aloud Rodeo Debuts at Park Road Books

February 25, 2024 by Mark West

Park Road Books and I are pleased to announce the debut of the 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 2, 2024. At the Read-Aloud Rodeo, local educators and literacy advocates will participate in a two-hour marathon of reading 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 coincides with the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day, which traditionally takes place 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.

The Read-Aloud Rodeo is just one of the many ways that Park Road Books contributes to the vitality of Charlotte’s literary community. Charlotte’s only independent, full-service bookstore, Park Road Books regularly partners with local cultural organizations to promote the reading of literature. Every year, for example, Park Road Books helps the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation with its Verse and Vino fundraising event. This high-profile event brings bestselling authors to Charlotte, and Park Road Books takes care of ordering and selling these authors’ books to the event’s attendees. The store also works with over thirty area book clubs by providing the members of these clubs with opportunities to purchase (at a discount) the books that they discuss at their meetings. In addition to working with these area book clubs, the store supports several book clubs that meet in the store. During the holiday season, Park Road Books partners with Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Communities in Schools on a project they call their Book Tree. This project provides area children with free books that they can keep.

The history of Park Road Books can be traced back to 1977, when John Barringer founded the bookstore under the name of Little Professor Book Center. In August of 1999, Sally Brewster joined the store, and they changed the name to Park Road Books. She bought the store from Barringer in 2003, and she has run it ever since. Over the years, Park Road Books has established itself as an integral part of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Reading Aloud

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