Storied Charlotte

Michael A. Almond’s The Tannery: A Tale of Mystery, Courtroom Drama, and North Carolina History

September 13, 2021 by Mark West

Michael A. Almond’s debut novel, The Tannery, pairs up perfectly with Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Both are historical novels set in the South during the Jim Crow era. Both deal with the impact of racial prejudice on the court system. Both include highly principled lawyers who fight for justice even though the odds are stacked against them. And both provide readers with insider depictions of life in small Southern communities. It might not seem fair to compare The Tannery to Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird since Lee’s novel is recognized as one of the most important novels in the history of Southern literature, but The Tannery stands up to the comparison. Michael has created a riveting novel that combines the excitement of a legal thriller with the complexities of a well-researched work of historical fiction. Michael’s depiction of North Carolina’s bigoted past is unflinching and disturbing, but his portrait of his native state is not entirely negative. His story has its bigots, but it also has its heroes.

In writing The Tannery, Michael drew on his experience and contacts as a long-time Charlotte resident. He moved to Charlotte in 1976, a year after he graduated from the law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spent many years with the Charlotte law firm of Parker Poe, and because of this background, he has a deep understanding of the intricacies of the legal system. This background helped him when writing the courtroom scenes in The Tannery. His many Charlotte contacts also helped him when he decided to try his hand at writing a novel. As he was writing The Tannery and preparing to submit it to publishers, he sought feedback from the writing community in Charlotte, and he readily acknowledges the help that he received from these writers. For more information about his career and his debut novel, please click on the following link: www.michaelalmondbooks.com

I recently contacted Michael and asked him for more background about his decision to write The Tannery. Here is what he sent to me:

My debut novel, The Tannery, will be released by Koehler Books on October 19, 2021. The book is a work of historical fiction, a murder mystery/legal thriller set in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in the pivotal year of 1900 amidst the turbulent world of post-Reconstruction political, social, and racial conditions in the South at the dawn of the Jim Crow era. When I began researching and outlining the novel back in 2007, I had no idea that the themes of Black voter suppression and intimidation, vigilante “justice,” and White Supremacy that drive the story would resonate so vividly in today’s polarized environment.

I am a lifelong resident of North Carolina, raised in the small town of Pilot Mountain in the Piedmont foothills, and I came of age during the Civil Rights upheavals of the 1960s.

My decades-long career as an international business lawyer was entirely spent in Charlotte. Back in 1976, I turned down offers from law firms in larger cities, convinced that Charlotte was about to make its case and stake its claim as a leader in global trade, business, finance, and investment. It turns out that this was the right idea, at the right time, in just the right place.

I am a voracious reader, getting through 40-50 books a year, and somewhere along the way I began to wonder…perhaps there is a book in me? I am not a historian, but I am a huge fan of Southern history and historical fiction, so the genre appealed to me as I began thinking about what sort of story I wanted to tell.

Budding authors are always told to “Write what you know.” So in researching and outlining The Tannery, I drew heavily from my own personal background and experience. I grew up in Surry County, next door to Wilkes, and I was generally aware of Wilkes’ rich and compelling history: Daniel Boone, the Overmountain Men, Tom “Dooley,” the Fort Hamby Gang, Eng and Chang Bunker (the original “Siamese Twins”), the C.C. Smoot & Sons Tannery (the largest steam leather tannery in the Southeast), the devastating Yadkin River floods, and of course, moonshine! Maybe I could build a story around that?

Last April, after 13 years of historical research, plotting, and outlining, I proudly presented my wife, Helen Ruth, with what I thought was the final outline for the book. Exasperated, she looked me in the eye and said, “Listen, Michael, all of your friends and I are tired of hearing about your research and outlining. We are stuck at home in the middle of a pandemic, so you have no excuse. Either go upstairs and write the book or be quiet about it!” So, I did. Overcoming the terrifying image of a blank computer screen before me, I began to write. And five months and 125,000 words later, The Tannery was complete.

In my experience, readers of historical fiction always want to learn something new, but they are also interested in just where the “historical” ends and the “fiction” begins, the line between reality and imagination. My goal was to write a fast-paced, suspenseful, compelling, and, most of all entertaining story with lots of twists, turns, and surprises, all the while weaving in the historical details that hopefully enrich the narrative. The keys to successful historical fiction, I believe, are authenticity and context. In a sense, then, The Tannery is a sort of “time machine,” transporting readers to a different time and place, aiming for a deeper understanding of the post-Reconstruction South and exposing some of the darker, more shameful forces and personalities at work in 1900 North Carolina.

The Tannery is by no means autobiographical, but the book does draw upon my own personal and professional experiences as an international attorney and long-time resident of Charlotte. Local venues in the book include Wilkes County, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Charlotte, but many scenes take place in such far-off places as Oxford, London, Alsace, Baden-Baden, and Argentina. My international travels over the years also suggested many of the fictional characters (and the languages they speak, as well as many of the meals they consume!) who appear in the book alongside such historical personalities as Charles B. Aycock, Cameron Morrison, and Josephus Daniels. I expect that many of my Charlotte friends, who have patiently listened to my stories and anecdotes over the years, will smile and recognize much of the Michael Almond they know in The Tannery!

Once the novel was completed, I faced the challenge of getting the thing published. And here I must salute the incredible community of local Charlotte authors and others in our local Book World who so generously contributed their time, wisdom, and resources to help me, as a novice, navigate what is an always challenging and sometimes bewildering publication and marketing process. Kudos and much appreciation to Mark Ethridge, Mark de Castrique, Millie and Tom Cox, Kim Wright, Kimmery Martin, Tracy Curtis, Tommy Tomlinson, Leslie Hooten, Bess Kercher, Frye Gaillard, Frances and Bill Thompson, Landis Wade, Judy Goldman, Karen Beach, and Judith Sutton!”

Since retiring from his career as an attorney, Michael and his wife divide their time between their farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Charlotte. However, he still considers himself a Charlotte writer, and so do I. As the keeper of Storied Charlotte’s ever-expanding library, I am pleased to add The Tannery to the collection of historical novels by Charlotte authors.

North Carolina Poets Respond to 9/11

September 07, 2021 by Mark West

The Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston once wrote, “In a time of destruction, create something.” I thought about Kingston’s words of advice as I was reading the poems included in Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath, a new anthology co-edited by Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate, and David Potorti, a co-founder of September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. The anthology includes works by 116 poets from across North Carolina, including many poets from the Charlotte area. The contributors to this anthology all responded to the destruction associated with 9/11 by creating poetry. Some of their poems are about loss—the loss of loved ones, the loss of landmarks, the loss of a sense of security. Some of their poems are about the personal experiences of the poets on that tragic day. Some of the poems are reflections on how the events of 9/11 have changed our lives, beliefs, and values. All of the poems are moving in their own way. For more information about this anthology, please click on this link: https://www.press53.com/anthologies/1w771a3bujbgbwgm9ki563j09zpbs7

I first found out about this anthology from Joseph Bathanti. He contacted me at the beginning of July and informed me that Press 53 would be publishing this anthology on the 20^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers, and we have been corresponding since then. I agreed to feature the anthology in my Storied Charlotte blog, and he agreed to send me more background information about the anthology and its Charlotte connections. Here is what Joseph sent to me:

Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath had its genesis in September of 2010, just prior to the ninth anniversary of 9/11. David Potorti, then the Arts Tourism Manager at the North Carolina Arts Council (NCAC), and I agreed to assemble a complement of poems to memorialize the tenth anniversary of 9/11. By June of 2011, we had concrete plans; and, in August of 2011, we sent out the call to poets across North Carolina: “to commemorate and acknowledge in poetry the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 … a poem that in some way [touched] directly on the events of 9/11 or [reflected] associated themes of peace, hope, reconciliation, loss, etc.” The harvested poems were posted, in the order they arrived, each day leading up to 9/11, on the Poet Laureate section of NCAC’s blog.

In early January of 2021, David and I decided to revive and radically expand our earlier 9/11 project into a print anthology. The twentieth anniversary of 9/11 was approximately eight months off, so we had to move with dispatch. A few days later, we contacted Kevin Watson, editor and publisher of the brilliant Press 53 in Winston-Salem, and secured his enthusiastic pledge to publish the book. On January 31, David and I sent out the call to North Carolina poets requesting poems for the proposed anthology centered upon the original thrust of its much smaller digital predecessor, but that also took into account the exponential collateral fallout spawned by 9/11 over the past twenty years: Islamophobia, the vilification of immigrants and the undocumented, ramped-up xenophobia, nationalism and isolationism, two wars and supercharged military budgets that continue to impoverish our nation, as well as concurrent rises in homophobia, transphobia, virulent racism, and domestic terrorism. It was our hope that the invited poets would craft poems with those themes in mind and through the lenses of their experiences and lived lives, and in inimitable ways. The poems, from 116 poets, poured in from all over North Carolina and from extraordinarily diverse vantages and voices. The yield was extraordinary, wildly varied, uniformly moving.

A number of the contributors in Crossing the Rift are from Charlotte and those precincts surrounding it (including a robust cohort from Davidson): Tony Abbott, Peter Blair, Ann Campanella, Christopher Davis, M Scott Douglass, Brenda Flanagan, Irene Honeycutt, Stephen Knauth, Rebecca McClanahan, Tootsie O’Hara, Alan Michael Parker, Gail Peck, Diana Pinckney, Dannye Romine Powell, Gretchen Pratt, Julie Suk, Chuck Sullivan, Gilda Morena Syverson, Richard Taylor, Dede Wilson, and Lisa Zerkle.

I still number myself among these wonderful writers, since Charlotte, from 1976 to 1985, is where I cut my teeth as a writer. In 1976, newly arrived in Charlotte from my hometown in Pittsburgh, 23 years old – a brand new VISTA Volunteer with the North Carolina Prison System – I barged into the newsroom of The Charlotte Observer on Tryon Street downtown and presented myself to Dannye Romine, the then Book Editor for the Observer. I dreamt of a foothold as a writer, clawing for any kind of smiling encouragement and validation from the likes of writers as charitable, humble, and quietly luminous as Dannye. She delivered it in spades and has remained a powerful influence all these years. Central Piedmont Community College is where I first taught, and where Irene Honeycutt was its acknowledged virtuoso poet who taught creative writing. She magnanimously made space for me, a complete rookie, and eventually and so graciously allowed me to teach creative writing. I was in awe of Chuck Sullivan, a tough, gritty poet, a Northeast Catholic boy like me, who read his work so inimitably. Tony Abbott invited me to teach a prison literature course with him at Davidson College, encouraged me to keep writing, and advocated for me for the rest of his storied life.

Charlotte is where I had my first successes as a writer, where I was allowed to claim that mantle and not feel pretentiously unworthy (though I often felt unworthy), where I would go on to meet so many of the esteemed and kind poets mentioned above and call them my friends. Charlotte is where I initially discovered the glorious community of writers that exemplify the elegance and generosity that characterize the literary community of North Carolina.

I thank Joseph for providing the readers of my Storied Charlotte blog with his inside story about the editing of Crossing the Rift and for sharing his experiences as a young writer in Charlotte. Today Joseph is the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. However, in my mind, he belongs to Storied Charlotte’s pantheon of poets.

Tags: 9/11 anthology poetry

The Founding of a New Charlotte-Based Literary Journal

August 30, 2021 by Mark West

The Southern Literary Messenger, one of the first literary journals associated with the American South, made its debut in August 1834 in the city of Richmond, Virginia. A year later, a young Edgar Allan Poe signed on as an assistant editor and regular contributor. Many of Poe’s most famous works originally appeared in The Southern Literary Messenger, including his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which first came out in installments in the Messenger. Poe is but one of many Southern writers who have established their reputations and credentials by contributing to literary journals. Such literary journals and magazines have played significant roles in the history of Southern literature.

Over the years, Charlotte has served as the home for several notable literary journals, such as that Southern Poetry Review, which was based in Charlotte for many years. The list of literary journals that are currently published in Charlotte include The Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine (a UNC Charlotte student-run magazine that made its debut in 1970), The Main Street Rag (a print magazine that has been publishing poetry, short fiction, essays, interviews and other features since 1996), and Qu: A Literary Magazine (a publication of the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte that has been releasing issues since 2015). Soon, however, a new Charlotte-based literary journal will join this list.

This new journal is a project of the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, more commonly known as Charlotte Lit. In just five years, Charlotte Lit has carved a unique spot in the Charlotte arts scene, hosting more than fifty classes annually and bringing big-time writers like poet Terrance Hayes to town for special events and classes. They’re entering new territory now with a major writing contest and journal. I asked co-founders Kathie Collins and Paul Reali for the details.

“We’re thrilled to announce the launch of an annual writing contest and journal, both called Writers/South,” wrote Collins. “With prizes totaling $10,000, plus publication, the contest and journal will be game-changers not only for Charlotte Lit but also for North Carolina and the surrounding region. Our mission is to be the premier creative writing center in this pocket of the southeast. To achieve that, we really needed to expand our reach.”

“We’re fortunate,” added Reali. “It’s very difficult for regional journals to attract big-name judges and offer significant cash prizes. Thanks to a generous Charlotte Lit patron, a good friend who wishes to remain anonymous, we’re able to enter the contest market with a splash. This patron has been actively supporting our mission for several years and understands how essential it is to our growth for us to ‘spread the words’ beyond Charlotte.”

Writers/South will award a first-place prize of $1,500 in each of four categories—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and flash. Attractive cash prizes also go to second place, third place, and honorable mention winners. The judging panel is filled with familiar names and rising stars: Ron Rash for fiction, Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs for poetry, Tara Campbell for Flash, and Stephanie Elizondo Griest for nonfiction. Poet and University of South Carolina professor Michael Dowdy rounds out this dream team as journal editor. All winners will have their entries published alongside writing by this year’s judges in the inaugural issue of Writers/South: Journal of Charlotte Lit, to be published May 1, 2022.

In keeping with Charlotte Lit’s regional ambitions, the contest is open to writers in North Carolina and its four border states: Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Submissions are open from September 1 to December 1. Winners will be announced March 1. Contest winners will be honored and have an opportunity to read at a May event that also honors the first inductees into the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Literary Hall of Fame (which is a story for another day).

Writers should stop by https://www.charlottelit.org/ to learn more about the Writers/South Awards and how to enter. Collins said, “We can’t wait to read what you’re writing!”

In my role as the writer of the Storied Charlotte blog, I thank Kathie Collins and Paul Reali for their inside scoop on the founding of Writers/South. Just as The Southern Literary Messenger played a major role in the writing career of Edgar Allan Poe and other nineteenth-century writers from the South, I am sure Writers/South will soon play a major role in the careers of many contemporary writers who call Storied Charlotte home.

My Friend Bill Hill Has Roller Derby Stories

August 20, 2021 by Mark West

Bill Hill and I go way back. We arrived at UNC Charlotte within two years of each other. Bill came in 1982 as a communications studies professor and debate coach, and I came in 1984 as an English professor with a specialty in children’s literature. Shortly after we met, we discovered that we both liked to play ping pong. Nearly every week we played fast-and-furious ping pong games during our lunch breaks, and we’ve been friends ever since. Over the years, our careers followed along similar paths. We both served as program directors, department chairs, and associate deans. Bill retired a few years ago, but we still stay in touch on a regular basis.

Another point Bill and I have in common is that we both pursued unusual careers before we entered academia. During the 1970s and early ‘80s, I worked as a professional puppeteer, and around the same time period, Bill pursued a career in the professional roller derby world. I’ve long enjoyed hearing Bill’s inside stories from his roller derby years, and I’ve often thought that these stories would be of interest to a wide audience. Well, I am pleased to report that Bill’s roller derby stories are included in Jim Fitzpatrick’s new book titled Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!: The True Story of Professional Roller Derby.

One of the chapters in Fitzpatrick’s book is titled “Bill Hill: The Debater and the Skater.” This chapter traces Bill’s involvement in roller derby, from watching roller derby on television with his father, to skating with the Chicago Pioneers and other teams, to working as a commentator for ESPN’s coverage of roller derby. This chapter is chockfull of stories from Bill’s roller derby days. I especially enjoyed the stories about how Bill entered the world of professional roller derby, including a story about hitchhiking to San Francisco so that he could participate in a roller derby training program. The chapter concludes with a reflection from Bill about his skating career:

Needless to say, Roller Derby changed my life. I have often said that I learned as much or more being on the road skating as I did in school. I grew quickly when I joined Roller Derby; it was an experience and a prerequisite for getting along. … I constantly think about the places, the people, the feel of the track, the sounds of the audience. Yes, I miss all the night drives, … I miss the bumps and the bruises, I miss the people, … I miss doing the TV. It may sound strange, but nothing can replace those things because there is simply nothing else like life in Derby.

Of course, Ad-Lib to the Blow Off! is not just about Bill’s connections to roller derby. Jim Fitzpatrick covers the entire history of roller derby in his book. In writing this book, Jim turned to Bill for research and editorial help. Bill also provided the foreword to the book. I contacted Jim and asked him for more information about the book and Bill’s role in making this book a reality. Here is what Jim sent to me:

I fell in love with Roller Derby and the San Francisco Bay Bombers as a small boy in 1968 and had a childhood dream to become a professional skater. Fast forward a number of years and I was able to live out my dream which ended up lasting 36 years (in a variety of roles which included skater, referee, track crew member, trainer, assisting in promotion, coach/general manager)! Things didn’t quite pan out as I had envisioned but it was a wild roller coaster ride that I would definitely take again if I had it to do over.

Over the years I became a collector and historian of the sport and a little over a decade ago began writing my book in order to preserve its history before it was too late. I reached out to Bill Hill for his insights into his time as a professional skater, from rookie to one of the top player coaches. Bill also gave me valuable assistance with editing and organizing the book.

As for my book, I feel one doesn’t need to be a fan of Roller Derby to enjoy it. It offers something(s) for a wide variety of audiences. The original Roller Derby’s rich history began during the Great Depression and survived through three wars (WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War), as well as decades of radical changes in society. Just when Roller Derby reached its peak in popularity and its future looked bright, in the blink of an eye it shut down. For years the fans, participants, and media were led to believe the sport succumbed to the oil crisis and gas rationing of the early 70s. In reality, the actions of a member of the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone’s Mob) were what actually led to the league’s demise. Since then, countless attempts to revive the sport have come and gone. Many were poorly executed or run. A few were totally bizarre reinterpretations of the game involving huge money and major TV deals but stood absolutely no chance of succeeding since those in charge lacked the understanding of what made the original sport so successful. Many of the attempts “muddied the water” as to what the original Roller Derby was and tarnished its reputation.

The book also gives an unprecedented look inside the sport, from not only the business end but the skaters’ point of view. In order to do that, I had to shatter kayfabe (a term that was used in professional wrestling in which events were portrayed as “real” even though they were staged) and be the first to expose what really went on and how much of the sport was legitimate and how much was “set.” Numerous personal and touching insights are included which expose the hazards, hardships, and sacrifices skaters and personnel endured for the honor of being a part of Roller Derby. The allure of performing in an amazingly entertaining but extremely dangerous spectacle, in front of huge crowds and on television, was so powerful that most look back upon it as the best time in their life.

Barnes & Noble Press published Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!, and they have more information about the book on their website: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ad-lib-to-the-blow-off-jim-fitzpatrick/1139822756 Fitzpatrick includes the stories of many skaters in his book, and I enjoyed reading about these other skaters. Nevertheless, the skater’s story that interests me the most is Bill’s story. In a sense, this book captures a side of Bill that most of his professional colleagues at UNC Charlotte never saw during his long career as an administrator. I think of Bill’s skater self as his alter-ego. In his role as a Senior Associate Dean, Bill represented the interests of the university and behaved as one would expect an upper-level university administrator to behave. However, having played ping pong with him many times, I saw another side of Bill—a more rebellious, go-for-broke side. In a way, the multiple sides of Bill are like the multiple sides of Charlotte. The Chamber-of-Commerce side of Charlotte is all business, but the Storied Charlotte side of the city is far more interesting.

Depicting the Lives of Civil Rights Leaders

August 16, 2021 by Mark West

Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Shirley Chisholm both played leading roles in the Civil Rights Movement, and both are celebrated in new picture books that have important Charlotte connections. We Wait for the Sun, a picture book co-authored by Roundtree and Katie McCabe and illustrated by Raissa Figueroa, focuses on a story from Roundtree’s childhood in Charlotte. Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress, a picture book written by Charlotte author Alicia D. Williams and illustrated by April Harrison, tells the story of Shirley Chisholm’s life. These picture books provide contemporary readers with insights into the lives of two remarkable African American women.

Dovey Johnson Roundtree was born in Charlotte in 1914. After her father’s death in the 1919 influenza epidemic, Roundtree, her mother, and her three sisters all moved into her maternal grandmother’s home in Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Her grandmother fostered Roundtree’s curiosity and determination to succeed. We Wait for the Sun depicts the special relationship that Roundtree had with her grandmother. In the book, the two of them venture into the woods in the middle of the night to pick blackberries together, and in the process, they share a special moment of beauty. The memory of this nighttime adventure stuck with Roundtree throughout her long career as a pioneering civil rights lawyer and ordained minister. After Roundtree retired and returned to Charlotte, she shared this story with Katie McCabe when the two of them were writing Roundtree’s autobiography, which came out in 2009 under the title of Justice Older than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree. The blackberry story is included in the final chapter of this autobiography, but Roundtree and McCabe decided to rewrite the story for a child audience. They set to work on We Wait for the Sun, but Roundtree’s death in 2018 meant that McCabe had to finish the project on her own. In addition to telling Roundtree’s blackberry story, McCabe provides the details of Roundtree’s groundbreaking career in the “Author’s Note” at the end of the book. Although Roundtree did not live to see the publication of this picture book, her spirit lives on in the book’s colorful pages.

Shirley Chisholm Dares: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress is Alicia D. Williams’s third children’s book in as many years. In 2019, her debut novel, Genesis Begins Again, came out to great acclaim. She received both a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for this children’s novel. In 2020, her picture book biography of folklorist and writer Zora Neale Hurston came out under the title of Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston. This year, Williams has a new picture book biography, and this time her focus is on Shirley Chisholm. Williams covers Chisholm’s growing-up years in Brooklyn, New York, and Barbados, her education at Brooklyn College and Columbia University Teachers College, and her entrance into the world New York politics. Williams shows how Chisholm’s formative years helped her become such an effective political leader. Williams does not go into the details of Chisholm’s political career, but she does cover the values and beliefs that motivated Chisholm over the course of her career in Congress. In writing this book, Williams draws on her experience as a teacher and storyteller in Charlotte. She clearly knows how to hold the attention of a child audience.

For readers who want to know more about Katie McCabe and her collaborations with Dovey Johnson Roundtree, please click on the following link: https://www.katiemccabeauthor.com/ For readers who want to know more about Alicia D. Williams and her children’s books, please click on this link: https://www.aliciadwilliams.com/my-books

We Wait for the Sun and Shirley Chisholm Dared make a perfect pair. They both tell the stories of pioneering African American women who helped change America. Although these books are written for children, they should appeal to anyone who wants to know more about how the childhood experiences of these women helped shape their careers. I think these books should be shelved together in the ever-expanding library that is Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Civil Rights Movement picture books

Salvation: A Charlotte Story from 1971

August 09, 2021 by Mark West

Leslie Rindoks, who writes under the pen name of Avery Caswell, has a history of bringing other people’s stories to light. As the driving force behind Lorimer Press, she has published the work of numerous local writers, including Anthony Abbott, Mary Kratt, and Ed Williams. Lorimer Press has recently evolved into Better Books, an author services company that Leslie runs, and in this role, she works as a writing coach with many area writers. Writing as Avery Caswell, in her novel titled Salvation, she brings to light a story of two African American girls who were abducted by a traveling evangelist from their home in the Druid Hills neighborhood in Charlotte in 1971.

Although written in the form of a novel, Salvation is based on a true story from Earthell Latta’s childhood. For Earthell, the experience of being abducted and spending several months traveling through Georgia and Florida with a preacher known as Mother Franklin was harrowing. Rather than repress the memory of this experience, she felt that it would be better to bring her story out into the open. She knew Caswell because both of their daughters went to the Davidson-Cornelius Day Care Center, and she knew about Caswell’s background as a writer, so she decided to approach her with an idea. In a recent interview, Caswell recounted what happened next:

Seventeen years ago, when we were both picking up our daughters at daycare, Earthell, whom I’d met before, approached me with a question. Her aunt had mentioned to her that I’d left my advertising job to write full time so Earthell asked if I would write about what happened to her and her sister in 1971. When she shared what had happened, I was floored. When they were seven and nine, she and her sister were kidnapped by a traveling evangelist. For decades, no one in her family had ever talked about it. Earthell wanted her story told.

So much has changed since Earthell first asked me to write her story. Seventeen years ago it was less remarkable that we might team up to tackle this project. She had a story and needed a writer; I was the writer she knew. Both of us, regardless of the task in front of us, are the type of person who strives to do what is right; we give everything our best effort. Neither of us, in Earthell’s words, “never knew all this was coming with it.” We naively started down the path and just kept taking the next step and then the next one.

By trusting me with her story, Earthell gave me an incredible gift. It forced me to become a serious writer, a better writer, a better person.

Though this is a work of fiction, at its heart is her story, told so that others will know what happened in 1971—what can still happen today, when religion seeks to justify a multitude of sins; when others choose to look away, to remain silent, to claim that being poor, or black, or small, means you matter less.

The official publication launch date for Salvation is September 15^th, but the book is already available for pre-orders. For readers who want to know more about the novel, please click on the following link: http://averycaswell.com/2021/07/a-story-about-a-story/

Salvation is this writer’s first novel, and it is an impressive debut. However, Salvation is not the work of a beginning writer. She has many years of experience as a publisher, editor, writing coach, and author of short stories and works of nonfiction. She has long been a player in Storied Charlotte, and this background has provided her with the perfect preparation to write Salvation.

Tags: kidnapping novel true story

Telling Charlotte’s Stories of COVID-19

August 02, 2021 by Mark West

I am sure that most of us have read news accounts about the impact of the COVID-19 on the residents of Charlotte. For the most part, these accounts focus on statistical information, such as the latest trends related to the number and severity of COVID-19 cases reported in the Charlotte area. Statistics, however, only tell part of the story. Behind the statistics are real people with personal and often gut-wrenching stories about their experiences with COVID-19. These personal stories are the focus of a new book titled PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID-19.

A joint project of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative and BOOM Charlotte, PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID 19 has the look of a graphic novel. Each of the stories is told by a Charlotte journalist and illustrated by a Charlotte artist, and each of the stories is told in both English and Spanish. Most of the stories are about individual Charlotte residents and their particular experiences with the pandemic. Chapter 1, for example, is about Cedric Meekins, a Charlotte music teacher who contracted COVID-19 while attending a music conference in Cincinnati in March 2020. The story tells about his harrowing experience in the hospital and his long struggle to regain his strength and relearn how to do basic activities, such as walking and holding a pen.

Many people contributed to PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID-19, but the project was coordinated by Chris Rudisill, the Director of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative. Chris’s Charlotte connections extend beyond his work as a journalist. He grew up in the Charlotte area, graduated from UNC Charlotte, and founded a Charlotte company called Artstreet Creative. I contacted Chris and asked him for more information about how this project came to be. Here is what he sent to me:

In October 2020, the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative (CJC) launched PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID-19, an innovative project that brought together Charlotte’s art and local news communities to share stories of COVID-19. The CJC was formed in 2019 as a partnership of six major media companies and other local institutions focusing on issues of major importance to the Charlotte region. It has been focused primarily on the topic of affordable housing and modeled on the Solutions Journalism Network method of investigating and reporting news with a primary focus on solutions to community problems.

When the pandemic surge occurred in Charlotte, the collaborative (whose members include The Charlotte Observer, WCNC-TV, WFAE 90.7, QCityMetro.com, Qnotes, La Noticia, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Queens University and Free Press) saw the importance of producing stories that would keep citizens informed and safe. Chris Rudisill, the director of CJC, told The Charlotte Observer’s Liz Rothaus that they “wanted a creative way to get relevant, reliable information to people who might not be reading or tuning into traditional news sources … something that combined the visual punch of a 1950s-style monster movie poster with the integrity of solid news reporting.”

The answer was a graphic novel and in the spirit of collaboration CJC found a partner in local arts organization BOOM Charlotte. PANDEM!C brought together eight local artists and reporters from each news outlet to translate news stories into a comic book form. With new installments every two weeks the project tackled the challenges of contact tracing, wearing masks, homelessness and the pandemic’s impact on minority communities. These stories were published online in both English and Spanish on https://digitalbranch.cmlibrary.org/cjc/graphic-novel/, on the organization’s Instagram @CLTJournalism and through an app called WebToon. Participating artist Wolly McNair described the collaboration as a “game changer and hopefully will be something others use to model ways they can tell stories.” Each artist worked directly with a journalist to produce a graphic version of the published news stories.

Those installments are now part of a print edition that will be distributed through the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library this month. With support from a Cultural Vision Grant from Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council (ASC), the CJC will distribute over 2,000 free copies to local residents and has produced a series of programming that highlighted the experience, including an online forum with reporters Nate Morabito and David Boraks and artists Marcus Kiser, Makayla Binter and McNair. As the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative continues to grow, it remains focused on bridging the gap between the local news ecosystem and the community to tackle important issues. The group just released its 2021-2022 Strategic Plan which outlines its future development and the creation of a $1.5 million sustainability fund to support the local news ecosystem.

For readers who want to know more about the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, please click on the following link: www.charlottejournalism.org For readers who want to know more about Charlotte BOOM Charlotte, please click on the following link: www.boomcharlotte.org For readers who want to know more about Artstreet Creative, please click on the following link: www.artstcreative.com

While reading PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID-19, I was reminded of the following quotation by Daniel Kahneman: “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” The individual stories included in this book transcend all of the numbers associated with the pandemic. In the face of the current pandemic, all of us have to make decisions about getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing. The stories in this book help readers make better-informed decisions about their own responses to the pandemic. In so doing, this book makes an important contribution to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: COVID-19 graphic novel

Two New YA Novels by Charlotte Authors

July 25, 2021 by Mark West

Since I regularly include young adult novels in the literature courses that I teach at UNC Charlotte, I am always on the lookout for new YA novels by Charlotte authors. In recent weeks, I discovered two such novels: List of Ten by Halli Gomez and Phoebe Unfired by Amalie Jahn. These novels pair together perfectly. They are both about sixteen-year-old protagonists who are struggling with mental health issues. Troy Hayes, the central character in List of Ten, suffers from both Tourette Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Phoebe Benson, the central character in Phoebe Unfired, wrestles with germophobia and depression. Although these characters have serious problems, their personalities are not defined entirely by their problems. Troy and Phoebe are fully developed and sympathetic characters, and both forge meaningful and complex relationships with other characters. In the end, it’s these relationships that make List of Ten and Phoebe Unfired such powerful stories.

I recently contacted Halli Gomez and Amalie Jahn, and I asked both about their new novels and their experiences as Charlotte writers.

Here is what Halli sent to me:

List of Ten, a young adult novel about a teen with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), is a story I’ve been trying to tell most of my life. It is one that explains what having these disorders feels like on the inside. This book follows Troy Hayes who is tired of the pain and humiliation that frequently accompanies TS and OCD, and, despite his new friendships, is planning to end his life. Troy’s story isn’t my story, but as someone with these disorders, I do admit there is a lot of me wrapped in those pages. Deciding to write this novel has been a priority since I began writing ten years ago, but I couldn’t find the right plot or character. Until one day as I walked the beautiful tree-lined paths of one of Charlotte’s many greenways, the details came to me.

I was fortunate to have had a friend (a local literary agent and fellow martial artist) recommend joining the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), an association with an incredible Carolinas chapter. At their yearly conferences (always held in Charlotte) I met wonderful local writers and was quickly welcomed into their group. I also met the woman who would become my agent and sell List of Ten. I’m happy to say the story doesn’t end there. While working with Park Road Books for my book launch and pre-order campaign, I was told about an open bookseller position. One of the many things writers and booksellers have in common is reading. Well, it just so happens I’ve been in love with books my entire life. I got the job and as a writer and Park Road Books bookseller and events coordinator, I am deeply involved with the Charlotte literary community. A place that feels right at home.

Here is what Amalie Jahn sent to me:

The major underlying theme in each of my YA books is that no one is ever alone. Adolescents spend an unfathomable amount of time worrying that they aren’t going to fit in or that no one has ever experienced what they’re going through. I like to show teenagers, through my stories, that their experiences and feelings are largely universal and regardless of what they’re feeling, they’re not alone. To that end, I developed severe germaphobia after my first child was born. The trauma of a difficult pregnancy and her premature birth triggered severe anxiety, and it took years of suffering and therapy to learn how to navigate the world from inside my diagnosis. Like my pregnancy, I recognized the recent stress of living through a global pandemic was going to be extremely triggering for a lot of people, especially kids, and I wanted them to know they’re not alone, it’s okay if it takes time to figure things out, and they shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help. I wrote Phoebe Unfired to show readers that when it comes to mental health, sometimes the only way around is through, and even though “normalcy” might seem impossible, there is always, always hope.

Writing is often a solitary endeavor that can be quite isolating. After several years of toiling away on my own here in Charlotte, I began searching for other local YA authors to commiserate with over publishing’s many ups and downs. I conducted a quick Twitter search, discovered several names, and after working up the courage to ‘slip into their DMs,’ a group of us ultimately started the Charlotte Area YA Writer’s Group. At the moment, we have thirty-three members, and although I would like to say we get together frequently to write, we mostly just hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Truly, though, one of the best parts about having author friends who write in your genre living in your city is knowing someone will always show up to your latest event!

Halli and Amalie each has her own website. For readers who want to know more about Halli, please click on the following link: https://halligomez.com/ For readers who want to know more about Amalie, please click on the following link: https://www.amaliejahn.com/

Halli’s List of Ten and Amalie’s Phoebe Unfired are welcomed additions to my ever-expanding list of YA novels by authors who call Storied Charlotte home.

Tags: germaphobia books obsessive-compulsive disorder books tourette syndrome books YA novels

Abbigail Glen and her Pop-Up Bookstore

July 13, 2021 by Mark West

There was a time when Charlotte supported lots of bookstores, but nowadays the Queen City has only a handful of bookstores that are still in business. However, not all of the news is bad. Two years ago, Abbigail Glen launched a pop-up bookstore called Shelves, a black-owned business that is finding success by making books available where people already congregate.

A native of Philadelphia, Abbigail is an avid reader and for years she had a dream of owning her own bookstore. After moving to Charlotte following a road trip to the Queen City 6 months earlier, she secured an HR position at a small technology company where she worked for 3 years supporting their employees. She eventually resigned from that role and launched Shelves as a Pop-Up Bookstore at Queen City Grounds in Uptown shortly thereafter. She realized early on that the key to making her pop-up bookstore work was partnering with other small businesses like Enderly Coffee Co. and Mint Hill Roasting Company.

Continue reading to learn more about Abbigail’s mission for Shelves.

I launched Shelves in June of 2019 and have been serving as Charlotte’s friendly neighborhood bookseller ever since. In addition to being a dream come true, Shelves is both an online and mobile pop-up bookstore that partners with other small businesses that have a brick & mortar presence in the Charlotte Metro area. We are committed to educating families and celebrating the joy that reading books brings to people all over the world because we believe that reading is freedom. We are on a quest to not only provide our supporters with great books, but also create amazing lifestyle products made exclusively with readers, writers, and dreamers in mind. It’s been quite a journey so far and continues to surprise me along the way.

Shelves has two upcoming Pop-Up Bookstores hosted by Enderly Coffee Co., which is located at 2620 Tuckaseegee Road in West Charlotte. The first will take place on Saturday, July 17th from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm EST, and the second will take place on Saturday, July 24th from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm EST. These events provide Mecklenburg County readers with a chance to discover and purchase new books, while enjoying a cup of coffee made from coffee beans roasted locally by Enderly. If you are unable to attend their Pop-Up Bookstore, you can always shop with them online at shelvesbookstore.com. In addition to USPS shipping, Shelves also offers Local Pickup and Friday Home Delivery options to Mecklenburg County residents. In my opinion, the combination of books and coffee has the makings for a perfect day in Storied Charlotte.

Christopher S. Lawing’s Photographs of Charlotte’s Disappearing Landmarks

July 06, 2021 by Mark West

Like many long-time residents of Charlotte, I am saddened by the recent closing of Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers. I especially miss Mr. K’s since its location is just a few blocks from my home. Our dog misses Mr. K’s, too. Nearly every day the two of us would walk by Mr. K’s, and often the owner, George Dizes, would give our dog a piece of a hotdog bun. Mr. K’s closed in March, but our dog is still on the lookout for more hotdog buns. Just as Mr. K’s played a role in our daily life and the life of my neighborhood, Price’s Chicken Coop and Zack’s Hamburgers played important roles in the neighborhoods where they did business for so many years. These three businesses were not just places where one could get a quick meal. Each of them had a distinct character and colorful history. They were Charlotte landmarks.

Charlotte photographer Christopher S. Lawing has a passion for preserving the history of such Charlotte landmarks. I have a copy of his book Charlotte: The Signs of the Times—A History Told Through the Queen City’s Classic Roadside Signage, and I recently thumbed through it. I am pleased to report that it includes photographs of the signs associated with Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers. As Christopher sees it, photographing these signs is part of a larger, ongoing project. For readers who want to know more about his Charlotte Signs Project, please click on the following link: https://www.cltsignsproject.com/

Looking at Christopher’s beautiful photographs of the signs for these landmarks brought back good memories for me. I am grateful that Christopher had the foresight to photograph these places while they were still in business, serving their customers and participating in their local communities. I decided to contact Christopher and ask him for more information about his efforts to preserve the history of such Charlotte landmarks. Here is what he sent to me:

When I first started photographing iconic Charlotte signs back in 2010 for a darkroom photography class at Myers Park High School, all I had was an analog Nikon FM SLR 35mm film camera and rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 100 slide transparency film. A few years later, after I’d moved on to college, I was able to make the investment in a Nikon D3200 DSLR digital camera, but by that point I’d already photographed some of the Queen City’s most well-known, locally (but also regionally!) famous, and of course beloved landmarks. Signs representing this ‘film period’ of my ongoing Charlotte Signs Project, included none other than Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers – places most recently in the news due to their bemoaned and too-soon closures.

Each spot represented an incredible array of diversity, welcoming people from all walks of life, and while the delicious ice cream, fried chicken, and hamburgers will be sincerely missed, the true loss of these businesses will be in losing the salt-of-the-earth, humble, easily-approachable, and simple nature of these places. The shared collective experience and sense of community is what made them significant, meaningful, and profound!

I am thankful to have two sets of specific memories from each of these places: one being the repeat enjoyment of these places from a patron’s point of view, and the second being the Sunday afternoon drives my parents and I would take to these places for me to photograph their respective signs for my project. Many times over the course of the project, I have been able to interact with the owners of these businesses I photographed, and that has certainly been true with these three icons. The families and faces behind each one of these spots are exactly as you imagine them to be – friendly, smiling, and enthusiastic.

Fortunately, I was able to be on-scene the last day of business for both Price’s Chicken Coop (I waited 6 hours, but it was worth it!) and most recently Zack’s Hamburgers (this line moved quicker, and I waited only 1.5 hours). In my own way through my simple food orders, I was paying tribute to the greater legacy that each business has given to me, my family, and to Charlotte overall. And while I didn’t bring either of my Nikon cameras or film or memory cards to mark the occasion, I did take plenty of pictures on my smartphone.

With a combined 159 years of dedicated service to the Charlotte community, these 3 places exist now in our memories, our stories, and our photographs. We owe it to our friends, families, and future Charlotteans, to tell them of the storied past that these places were, while also supporting our remaining classic eateries, places that make our community a community!

The photographs in Christopher’s Charlotte: The Signs of the Times remind me of Rod Stewart’s 1971 hit song, “Every Picture Tells a Story.” Each of the photographs in Christopher’s book has a story associated with it. When viewed together, these photographs add an important visual dimension to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Charlotte landmarks Charlotte signs

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