{"id":4907,"date":"2026-04-12T15:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=4907"},"modified":"2026-04-12T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:48:11","slug":"joseph-bathanti-writes-home-with-news-and-reminiscences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2026\/04\/12\/joseph-bathanti-writes-home-with-news-and-reminiscences\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Bathanti Writes Home with News and Reminiscences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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April is National Poetry Month, so now is an especially apropos time to touch base with Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate and a 2024 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Joseph began his career as a poet while living in Charlotte. He has long thought of Charlotte as a second home even though he no longer resides in the Queen City. As he said to me in a recent email, \u201cI really do consider myself, among other things, a Charlotte writer, since in truth Charlotte is where I got my start all the way back in 1976 – 50 years ago this August.\u201d  When I found out that Joseph recently published several new books, I contacted him and asked him about his latest news. In his response, he provided me with the details about his new publications, but he mostly reminisced about his Charlotte years.  Here is what he sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past eighteen months, I\u2019ve had four new books appear: <\/em>Sempre Fidele and Other Poems (a bilingual edition of my Pittsburgh Italian American poems translated into Italian by Roman translators, Marina Morbiducci and Darcy Di Mona): <\/em>https:\/\/asterismbooks.com\/product\/sempre-fidele-and-other-poems<\/em><\/a>; a coedited volume, <\/em>The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry: <\/em>https:\/\/uncpress.org\/978146964<\/em><\/a>1133\/the-anthology-of-black-mountain-college-poetry\/<\/em><\/a>; a novella, <\/em>Too Glorious to Even Long for on Certain Days: <\/em>https:\/\/regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com\/too-glorious-to-even-long-for-on-certain-days\/<\/em><\/a>; and, just this past February, <\/em>Steady Daylight, a collection of poems, from Louisiana State University Press: <\/em>https:\/\/lsupress.org\/9780807185858\/steady-daylight\/<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I\u2019m happy, proud and humbled by these publications. But this blog post is called Storied Charlotte and Charlotte has remained a \u201cstoried\u201d place to me. So, apart from announcing those aforementioned books, what follows is a bit of a love letter, certainly homage, to Charlotte where, as I\u2019ve declared any time I have the opportunity, my life as a writer and teacher began back in 1976, about a half-century ago, when I arrived in North Carolina from my hometown in Pittsburgh, fresh out of grad school, as a brand-new VISTA Volunteer assigned to the North Carolina Department of Correction to work with incarcerated men at Huntersville Prison. Big-time-foremost (understatement), however, Charlotte remains Joan\u2019s and my very first home together, where we hatched our romance and lived in Elizabeth, after marrying.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first arrived in North Carolina, I was burning to write \u2013 though I knew nothing about writing except that it took a lot of longing \u2014 which I\u2019ve always been good at. The very first place I barged into on my unlikely quest was the newsroom of <\/em>The Charlotte Observer on Tryon Street downtown and presented myself to Danny Romine Powell, then Book Editor for <\/em>The Observer, and offered my services as a book reviewer, something in which I had zero experience. My ultimate goal was to see my name in print and grab a free book or two in the bargain. What might I have said to Dannye that hot summer day? I must have sheepishly confided my desires. What I do remember is that she didn\u2019t laugh and she didn\u2019t send me packing or school me in proper etiquette as other book editors at major U.S. newspapers might have. She didn\u2019t ask for a CV or any kind of credentials; she merely flashed a beautiful smile and welcomed me. She was decidedly bemused, but ever so warm, so friendly, and I like to think that my extra-apparent lack of knowing what the heck I was doing \u2013 unwashed and passionate upstart that I was, and Yankee to boot \u2013 instantly endeared her to me. She told me to sit, continued to smile, and asked me all about myself. The charity, generosity and affection Dannye treated me with that day exemplifies the treatment I early-on received from all the established writers in Charlotte.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well before I owned a North Carolina driver\u2019s license, I scored a library card at the uptown public library on Tryon Street where I first became acquainted with the magazines and periodicals I would one day publish in, though at the time nothing seemed more remote: <\/em>Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Carolina Quarterly, South Carolina Review. To actually see and touch those magazines, copy their editors\u2019 names and addresses into the little pocket notebook that surely all writers carry to accommodate the capricious muse, made me feel like a writer. It wasn\u2019t long before those rejection slips started pouring in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After VISTA, my first job teaching was at Central Piedmont Community College. I was so green that one day in 1977, I waltzed into the office of the Chair of the English Department, Mitchell Hagler, and asked \u2013 as one might a foreman on a construction site \u2013 if he had any work. Mitchell \u2013 a powerfully kind man, now an old and cherished friend, someone who literally gave me my first break as a teacher \u2013 patiently and good-naturedly explained how one sets about snagging a job as a college teacher: the realities of CVs, letters of application, recommendations, etc., not to mention scheduling an appointment with one\u2019s prospective employer. I can never thank Mitchell, my first academic foreman, enough.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, I owe a prodigious debt to amazing Irene Honeycutt, founder of Sensoria, and the undisputed, beloved master creative writing teacher at CPCC, a formidable poet well-known throughout Charlotte, across the state of North Carolina, and beyond. At any rate, Irene, another magnanimous long-time friend, put an arm around me, permitted and encouraged me to teach Creative Writing shortly after I arrived on campus. Her faith in me simply meant everything. What\u2019s more, I loved and looked up to that blazing English Department at CPCC \u2013 such dedicated, brilliant, witty teachers who welcomed me instantly into their ranks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also in Charlotte, during those years that Joan and I lived there (1976-1985) that I met so many other prominent writers (in addition to those already mentioned), many of whom became lifelong friends, encouraged me and invited into their circles: Tony Abbott, Julie Suk, Judy Goldman, Rebecca McClanahan, Gail Peck, Diana Pinckney, Ruth Moose, Gilda Morena Syverson, Frye Gaillard, Lew Powell, Doug Marlette, Susan Ludvigson, Dot Jackson, Mary Kratt, Dede Wilson, and so many others. I still remember the first time I heard Chuck Sullivan read his iconic poem, \u201cSurvival,\u201d and my contemplating that liminal interstice: \u201cup in the air \/ alive and well \/ saved in the blessed \/ space between \/ the ceiling \/ and the floor.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first found out about the Charlotte Writers Club in my religious Sunday perusal of <\/em>The Observer Book Page. If you remember, it was a full two pages, with a lead book review and at least a half-dozen more of additional books, often by local writers and\/or writers with ties to North Carolina. And there was also a digest of opportunities for writers. Prominent among those announcements was the list of Charlotte Writers Club activities as well as the glorious compendium of competitions \u2013 in every genre \u2013 offered by the Club. I pored over those announcements and mailed off my entry and entry-fee, regardless of the genre, then waited for results. The Charlotte Writers Club, for over a century, has been monumental in helping so very many writers launch careers and, more than anything, has created a sustaining community for so many others, those just getting a foothold in the literary world, and those still battling to do so.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By then, I had begun writing in earnest, again right there in Charlotte; and many a first draft, in my tiny hieroglyphic penmanship \u2013 which these days I can only vaguely make out with a magnifying glass \u2013 was completed on a legal pad in Jimmie\u2019s Restaurant on Elizabeth Street across from CPCC, draining cup after cup of no-nonsense working-class coffee, indulging some of the most joyous, dreamy moments of writing in my life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please, never underestimate what it means to young people dreaming of, and clawing for, a foothold as a writer, the kind of smiling encouragement and validation from the likes of writers as charitable, socially engaged, humble and quietly luminous as Dannye Romine Powell and the roster of wonderful writers, the loveliest folks, I was so blessed to cross paths with when I arrived in Charlotte all those years back. I was admitted to a writing community without having to flash credentials. In fact, Charlotte was where I learned the meaning of community in all of its valence. My gratitude is endless. My life as a writer could not have happened elsewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I congratulate Joseph on his recent publications, and I thank him for sharing his memories of his days in Charlotte.  As far as I am concerned, Joseph will always be a valued member of the Storied Charlotte community of writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April is National Poetry Month, so now is an especially apropos time to touch base with Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate and a 2024 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Joseph began his career as a poet while living in Charlotte. He has long thought of Charlotte as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[388],"class_list":["post-4907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-joseph-bathanti"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4907"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}