On October 21, I'll be on a panel about writing diverse characters with Jason Mott and Chris Ledbetter for the NC Writers' Network. We will be waiting for you at 11:30am in the Masonboro Room at the downtown branch of the New Hanover County Library.
Contributor copies, and a launch date.
27 Views of Wilmington: The Port City in Prose & Poetry came in the post the other day, along with news of our slam-style, 1 paragraph-each reading and launch at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, NC on October 24th at 2pm. With thanks to Eno Publishers and Elizabeth Woodman for including me.
Here's the star-studded list of local writers in this anthology:
John Jeremiah Sullivan
Wendy Brenner
Dana Sachs
Jason Frye
Karen E. Bender
Daniel Norris
Jean Jones
James Leutze
Emily A. Colin
Emily Louise Smith
Michael White
Bertha Boykin Todd
Robert Anthony Siegel
Virginia Holman
Ashley Wahl
Kevin Maurer
Jason Mott
Rhonda Bellamy
Wiley Cash
Melodie Homer
Gwenyfar
Susan T. Block
Philip Gerard
Marlon Moore
Nan Graham
Sheila Webster Boneham
Celia Rivenbark
Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams
New Poetry at storySouth, and remembering Steinbeck's Letters.
A friend asked me to give him something I'd written down. I said, Do I have to write something new, or can it be some words from a while back? My friend just shrugged and was very easy and patient about it. When I hunted through all my scraps of paper, though, nothing seemed right. And then I wrote down a new thing, which had in it ballet and Mary, the circus elephant who was tragically hung in Tennessee, and the baffling psychology of infidelity.
You can read my new thing, "Choreography for Brief Flight," over here but do wander around. There are stunners in this issue of storySouth.
I was riffing a little earlier off of one of Steinbeck's Letters to Pascal "Pat" Covici, the one included in East of Eden (although The Journal of a Novel is the collection of those letters). Sometimes I think that the best way to write--and maybe, for me, the only way--is in response to someone's request for it. But there's a lot of hubris in that. Who can ever expect to be asked? But I was this time. Thank you, Terry.
One of Steinbeck's letters to his friend and editor, Pat.
Latino Book Club Reading at Pomegranate Books, Feb 28th
Happily scheduled to give a reading this coming weekend in Wilmington. The event is hosted by the Latino Book Club and will be held at Pomegranate Books. So, on Saturday, February 28th from 3-4pm, come support Latino/a writers and browse a local bookstore and say hi to me, too, while you're at it.
Thanks to Dr. Amrita Das for the invitation and to Kathleen Jewell for providing the space (again!). Also, I'm pretty sure their new coffee shop is open.
The Latino Book Club fosters literacy and the increased representation of Latino culture in the U.S. You can be a part of that effort! The readings are in English.
I'm grateful to the North Carolina Writers' Network for keeping us "the writingest state." Become a member to keep up on readings in NC and to bolster the outstanding group of writers who call this state home. Let's fight the good fight against the creeps who are trying to run us all aground.