Posting prepared by Shawn Delgado for the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at UNCG:
UNCG-Related Literary Events:
Front Porch Friday with the Galen Kipar Project—Friday, March 1st, 4:00PM
Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, 127 McIver St., UNCG
Free and open to the public
Front porch Fridays are designed to be intimate events wherein songwriters share their music as well as answer your questions about their composition processes, influences, ideas about writing, etc. This month, the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts is happy to welcome two members of the Galen Kipar Project, including Aaron Balance, a current poet in the MFA Creative Writing Program at UNCG.
Based in Asheville, NC, the Galen Kipar Project has been busy touring in support of their fourth album in five years, featuring the unique sonorous music that has become the band’s trademark. Effortlessly crafting a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, and blues, this Americana artist has been hailed as “complex yet accessible,” “cohesive and poignant,” “experimental folk masterpieces.”
The Digital Temple of George Herbert—Wednesday, March 6th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
When Robert Whalen of Northern Michigan University began to explore how he might apply emerging digital technology to the English poetry of Metaphysical master George Herbert (1593-1633), he thought with youthful optimism that such a project might take, oh, a year or two. After all, the complete printed works of Herbert fit into only one volume. How long could it take to transcribe, encode, and annotate the lyric poems of The Temple (1633)? Thirteen years later, he knows. The Digital Temple, more than a decade in the making, is now available from University of Virginia Press/Rotunda, America’s leading academic digital publisher, where it keeps company with the digital papers of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and is being hailed by advance reviewers as the state of the art in digital editions.
With his co-editor, UNCG’s Christopher Hodgkins, who joined the project in 2008, Whalen shared a 2010-11 NEH Digital Humanities Grant to finish building a born-digital documentary edition which makes instantly available not only exact transcriptions of the earliest known textual witnesses of The Temple, but also densely detailed digital captures of these three oldest witnesses: the Williams Manuscript of 1628, the Bodleian Manuscript of 1633, and the first printed edition of 1633. Herbert’s Temple has been compared to a “book of starres,” and the amazingly interactive search capacities of this electronic engine—which in digital parlance is called “the Versioning Machine”—include literally telescoping powers of textual magnification. These powers bring into startling focus many of Herbert's configurations that have previously been little noticed, and allow us to see his storied constellations in deep and brilliant new ways.
Come join Professors Whalen and Hodgkins at the March 6th, 4 pm book launch event in the Hodges Reading Room where they’ll demonstrate many of these features and discuss the practice and the power of digital editing. Their next project: The Digital Works of George Herbert, which will capture the manuscripts and first editions of every other Herbert book—most of which will come from UNCG’s own world-class Herbert archive in the Amy Charles Collection!
UNCG Friends of the Library Book Discussion: In the Garden of Beasts—Monday, March, 18th, 7:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Quoted from the Los Angeles Times review: "As the events leading up to World War II go, Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 appointment of a naïve history professor as ambassador to Germany — and the professor's decision to take his adventurous adult daughter with him — rank pretty low in importance. But in these lives, Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, finds a terrific storytelling vehicle, as William E. Dodd and his daughter, Martha, are initially taken with Adolf Hitler and his reinvigoration of Germany, and then slowly come to realize that nothing would stop Hitler from waging war and seeking to wipe out Europe's Jews." Dr. Karl Schleunes of the UNCG History Department will lead the discussion.
This event is limited to 35 people. If you are interested, please register @ http://library.uncg.edu/
UNCG Friends of the Library Present NC Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti—Wednesday, March 20th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Joseph Bathanti was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001. His latest novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007. Most recently, his collection of short stories, The High Heart, winner of the 2006 Spokane Prize, was published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2007. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council; The Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period; the Linda Flowers Prize; the Sherwood Anderson Award, the 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; and others. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. On August 30, 2012, Joseph was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina.
UNCG Fiction Reading, Faculty Emeritus Lee Zacharias—Thursday, March 21st, 8:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program, The Greensboro Review, and the UNCG Center for Creative Writing in the Arts will host a reading by Lee Zacharias in the UNCG Faculty Center on College Avenue. The reading will celebrate the release of Zacharias' latest novel, At Random. It is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
Lee Zacharias is the author of a short story collection, Helping Muriel Make It Through the Night, two novels, Lessons and the forthcoming At Random, and a collection of essays to be published by Hub City Press in 2014. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Southern Review, Shenandoah, storySouth, The Gettysburg Review, and The Best American Essays. Professor Emeritus of English at UNC Greensboro, she has completed another novel and is at work on a fourth.
3rd Annual MFA Fiction Showcase at Tate St. Coffee—Tuesday, March 26th, 8:00PM
Tate St. Coffee, 334 Tate St., Greensboro
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program is proud to host its third annual reading to feature current students enrolled in fiction. These fine emerging writers will be sharing selections from their work which will ultimately become a part of their creative graduate theses. Please feel free to come enjoy the fiction stylings of some talented young writers who are on their way to great things.
A. Van Jordan Poetry Reading—Thursday, April 4th, 7:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program, The Greensboro Review, and the UNCG Center for Creative Writing in the Arts will host a poetry reading by A. Van Jordan in the UNCG Faculty Center on College Avenue. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
A. Van Jordan was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. He earned a BA in English literature from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and an MA in communications from Howard University. After attending poetry readings in the Washington, D.C., area in his late 20s, Jordan became interested in writing poetry. He received an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College in 1998.
Jordan’s collections of poetry include Rise (2001), M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (2005), and Quantum Lyrics (2007). Music, film, and history have influenced his work. The poems in M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A concern the life of MacNolia Cox, the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Competition in 1936. Quantum Lyrics delves into physics, racism, history, and Albert Einstein’s work for human rights.
Rise won a PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award and was selected for the Book of the Month Club of the Academy of American Poets. M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A received the Anisfield-Wolf Award. Jordan has been the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and a Pushcart Prize. He has taught at a number of graduate writing programs, among them the University of Texas at Austin, Warren Wilson College, and the University of Michigan.
Kathryn Stripling Byer Alumni Poetry Reading—Wednesday, April 10th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
UNCG’s Friends of the Library and the MFA Writing Program are happy to welcome alum Kathryn Stripling Byer to read in the Jackson Library.
Kathryn Stripling Byer grew up in southwest Georgia, graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she studied with Allen Tate, Fred Chappell, and Robert Watson. Her books of poetry include Catching Light (Louisiana State University Press, 2002); Black Shawl (1998); Wildwood Flower (1992), which was the 1992 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets; and The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (1986), which was published in the Associated Writing Programs award series.
Kathryn Stripling Byer has received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. She is poet-in-residence at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
NCWN Spring Conference—Saturday, April 13th, 8:30AM-5:30PM
MHRA Building, UNCG
Variety of prices and packages, please visit www.ncwriters.org for more info.
The NCWN Spring Conference offers a full day of workshops, panel discussions, and more on the craft and business of writing. Writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome.
Conference-goers this year will need to pre-register for “Lunch with an Author,” as there will be no on-site registration available for this conference offering. Food will be provided, so that participants can spend less time waiting in line, and more time talking with the author of their choice. (Spaces in “Lunch with an Author” are limited, and are first-come, first-served.)
Community Literary Events:
Art Exhibit Culminating with a Fiction Reading: It’s All About the Story—Opens: Monday, February 18th –Reading: Sunday, March 24th, 2:00PM
Hillsborough Gallery of the Arts, 121 N. Churton St., Hillsboro, NC 27278
Free and open to the public
The artists of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts respond in their own mediums to a story by Hillsborough author Michael Malone from his story collection “Red Clay Blue Cadillac.”
Opening reception is 6:00PM to 9:00PM. Feb. 18th.
Reading by Michael Malone on March 24 at 2:00PM
A Discussion and Book Signing with Barbara Wright—Saturday, March 2nd, 3:00PM
International Civil Rights Museum, 134 S. Elm Street, Greensboro
$6.00 Adults; $4.00 Seniors and Students; Free to Museum Members
You’re invited to join author Barbara Wright for a discussion and signing of her new historical novel, Crow, based on the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina race riot.
“One generation away from slavery, a thriving African-American community—enfranchised and emancipated—suddenly and violently loses its freedom in turn of the century North Carolina when a group of local politicians stages the only successful coup d'état in US history. Crow follows the story of Moses, a 12 year-old boy in the summer of 1898. His father and his friends are finally getting the respect and positions of power they’ve earned in the Wilmington, North Carolina, community. But not everyone is happy with the political changes at play and some will do anything, including a violent plot against the government, to maintain the status quo.”
7 on the 7th Reading and Open Mic—Thursday, March 7th, 7:00PM
Glenwood Coffee and Books, 1310 Glenwood Avenue Greensboro, NC 27403
Free and open to the public
You’re invited to Glenwood Coffee and Books for this monthly reading series that always takes place at 7:00PM on the seventh day of every month. There will be a few featured readers before the reading opens up to an open mic. This event presents a lot of opportunities for the audience to share their work, so whether you’re interested in hearing local authors or sharing your own work, this is a great opportunity.
Lynn Salsi and Jim Young Reading and Book Signing—Tuesday, March 12th, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
Local author Lynn Salsi and artist Jim Young have partnered again for two new books: Jack and the Dragon and Jack and the Giants. They are both retelling of Appalachian Jack Tales and work hand-in-hand with folktales in the school curriculum.
The Writing Life with Holly Goddard Jones—Thursday, March 14th, 7:00PM
Community Arts Café, 411 West Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Season tickets are $30 for members of Winston-Salem Writers; $40 for non-member season tickets
Winston-Salem author Steve Mitchell will lead an informal conversation with the author about the vagaries of writing, the writing life, and the author's approach to it. After a brief introduction, authors will read from their work, followed by an interview/conversation with Steve Mitchell.
Holly Goddard Jones's debut novel, The Next Time You See Me, will be released from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster in February. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Girl Trouble (Harper Perennial 2009), and her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Epoch, Best American Mystery Stories, New Stories from the South and various journals. She was a 2007 recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, which honors six emerging women fiction writers annually. She teaches in the Master of Fine Arts creative writing program at UNCG.
Bebe & Friends: Tails of Rescue Reading and Book Signing—Thursday, March 21st, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
Retired Presbyterian minister, poet and author Jean Rodenbough will join readers at Barnes & Noble to read and sign copies of her new book. It is a collection of "tails" that will inspire, bring a smile or maybe a tear. They are stories of rescue and the unconditional love only an animal can give.
Open Mic Night with Poet.She—Friday, March 22nd, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
You’re invited to join Poet.She, an all-girl poetry group of spoken word artists. Each month they celebrate the spoken word with an open mic night. Come to listen or sign up to perform your own original work.
NC Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti Reading—Wednesday, April 3rd, 7:00PM
Academic Classroom Building Auditorium, NC A&T, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
Joseph Bathanti was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001. His latest novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007. Most recently, his collection of short stories, The High Heart, winner of the 2006 Spokane Prize, was published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2007. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council; The Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period; the Linda Flowers Prize; the Sherwood Anderson Award, the 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; and others. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. On August 30, 2012, Joseph was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina.
Gilbert-Chappell Poetry Reading Series featuring Catherine Stumberg and Ann Deagon—Sunday April 7th, 3:00PM
Tannenbaum-Sternberger Room, Greensboro Central Library, 219 N. Church St., Greensboro
Free and open to the public
Catherine Stumberg is a senior at St. Andrew’s University in Laurinburg, NC. She will graduate in May with a degree in Biology and a minor in Creative Writing. She is currently working under Dr. Ted Wojtasik as the student editor of the University’s literary magazine, Gravity Hill. In 2012 she was selected to participate in the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets series as a representative of St. Andrews, and has been working with Dr. Ann Deagon of Greensboro, North Carolina in order to build a portfolio and organize poetry readings. Catherine spends her spare time outside riding horses, hunting, and doing biological research, all of which are reflected in her writing.
Ann Deagon took her doctorate in Classics at UNC-Chapel Hill and served as Hege Professor of Humanities and Writer in Residence at Guilford College until her retirement in 1992. She edited The Guilford Review, directed Poetry Center Southeast, and helped establish the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Among her poetry collections are: Carbon 14, Poetics South, There Is No Balm in Birmingham, and The Polo Poems, plus several chapbooks. Her fiction includes short stories in Habitats and the novel The Diver’s Tomb. Her plays have received reader’s theatre production at various colleges and theatre conferences. Her awards include a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series originated in 2003 on the advice of then North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell. It is named after Chappell and former NCPS president Marie Gilbert. The North Carolina Poetry Society is proud to sponsor this program, in which poets in middle school, high school, college or university, and adults not currently enrolled in a curriculum are mentored by a Distinguished Poet in eastern, central or western North Carolina. Each Distinguished Poet will mentor up to four developing poets.
Students selected this year in the Central Region, which includes 32 counties, will have the opportunity to work with Distinguished Poet Ann Deagon. They will send their poetry to her for comments and suggestions, will meet with her to discuss the work, and will then read selected poems with her in their local public libraries in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Center for the Book.
Gilbert-Chappell Poetry Reading Series featuring Victoria Reynolds and Ann Deagon—Thursday, April 25th, 7:00PM
Durham County Library, 3605 Shannon Road, Durham, NC
Free and open to the public
Victoria Reynolds holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University and lives in Durham NC. She is a regular member of a Triangle-based poetry group, the Poet Fools. She has poems published in Sow’s Ear, Pinesong, and this year received a prize in the NC Poetry Society’s Gladys Owings Hughes Heritage Poetry Contest. She also has a poem in 27 Views of Durham published by Eno River Press. In 2012, she did a month-long residency for poetry at the Vermont Studio Center. She is delighted to have been chosen for the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series and to be mentored by Ann Deagon.
Ann Deagon took her doctorate in Classics at UNC-Chapel Hill and served as Hege Professor of Humanities and Writer in Residence at Guilford College until her retirement in 1992. She edited The Guilford Review, directed Poetry Center Southeast, and helped establish the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Among her poetry collections are: Carbon 14, Poetics South, There Is No Balm in Birmingham, and The Polo Poems, plus several chapbooks. Her fiction includes short stories in Habitats and the novel The Diver’s Tomb. Her plays have received reader’s theatre production at various colleges and theatre conferences. Her awards include a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series originated in 2003 on the advice of then North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell. It is named after Chappell and former NCPS president Marie Gilbert. The North Carolina Poetry Society is proud to sponsor this program, in which poets in middle school, high school, college or university, and adults not currently enrolled in a curriculum are mentored by a Distinguished Poet in eastern, central or western North Carolina. Each Distinguished Poet will mentor up to four developing poets.
Students selected this year in the Central Region, which includes 32 counties, will have the opportunity to work with Distinguished Poet Ann Deagon. They will send their poetry to her for comments and suggestions, will meet with her to discuss the work, and will then read selected poems with her in their local public libraries in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Center for the Book.
UNCG-Related Literary Events:
Front Porch Friday with the Galen Kipar Project—Friday, March 1st, 4:00PM
Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, 127 McIver St., UNCG
Free and open to the public
Front porch Fridays are designed to be intimate events wherein songwriters share their music as well as answer your questions about their composition processes, influences, ideas about writing, etc. This month, the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts is happy to welcome two members of the Galen Kipar Project, including Aaron Balance, a current poet in the MFA Creative Writing Program at UNCG.
Based in Asheville, NC, the Galen Kipar Project has been busy touring in support of their fourth album in five years, featuring the unique sonorous music that has become the band’s trademark. Effortlessly crafting a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, and blues, this Americana artist has been hailed as “complex yet accessible,” “cohesive and poignant,” “experimental folk masterpieces.”
The Digital Temple of George Herbert—Wednesday, March 6th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
When Robert Whalen of Northern Michigan University began to explore how he might apply emerging digital technology to the English poetry of Metaphysical master George Herbert (1593-1633), he thought with youthful optimism that such a project might take, oh, a year or two. After all, the complete printed works of Herbert fit into only one volume. How long could it take to transcribe, encode, and annotate the lyric poems of The Temple (1633)? Thirteen years later, he knows. The Digital Temple, more than a decade in the making, is now available from University of Virginia Press/Rotunda, America’s leading academic digital publisher, where it keeps company with the digital papers of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and is being hailed by advance reviewers as the state of the art in digital editions.
With his co-editor, UNCG’s Christopher Hodgkins, who joined the project in 2008, Whalen shared a 2010-11 NEH Digital Humanities Grant to finish building a born-digital documentary edition which makes instantly available not only exact transcriptions of the earliest known textual witnesses of The Temple, but also densely detailed digital captures of these three oldest witnesses: the Williams Manuscript of 1628, the Bodleian Manuscript of 1633, and the first printed edition of 1633. Herbert’s Temple has been compared to a “book of starres,” and the amazingly interactive search capacities of this electronic engine—which in digital parlance is called “the Versioning Machine”—include literally telescoping powers of textual magnification. These powers bring into startling focus many of Herbert's configurations that have previously been little noticed, and allow us to see his storied constellations in deep and brilliant new ways.
Come join Professors Whalen and Hodgkins at the March 6th, 4 pm book launch event in the Hodges Reading Room where they’ll demonstrate many of these features and discuss the practice and the power of digital editing. Their next project: The Digital Works of George Herbert, which will capture the manuscripts and first editions of every other Herbert book—most of which will come from UNCG’s own world-class Herbert archive in the Amy Charles Collection!
UNCG Friends of the Library Book Discussion: In the Garden of Beasts—Monday, March, 18th, 7:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Quoted from the Los Angeles Times review: "As the events leading up to World War II go, Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 appointment of a naïve history professor as ambassador to Germany — and the professor's decision to take his adventurous adult daughter with him — rank pretty low in importance. But in these lives, Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, finds a terrific storytelling vehicle, as William E. Dodd and his daughter, Martha, are initially taken with Adolf Hitler and his reinvigoration of Germany, and then slowly come to realize that nothing would stop Hitler from waging war and seeking to wipe out Europe's Jews." Dr. Karl Schleunes of the UNCG History Department will lead the discussion.
This event is limited to 35 people. If you are interested, please register @ http://library.uncg.edu/
UNCG Friends of the Library Present NC Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti—Wednesday, March 20th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Joseph Bathanti was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001. His latest novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007. Most recently, his collection of short stories, The High Heart, winner of the 2006 Spokane Prize, was published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2007. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council; The Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period; the Linda Flowers Prize; the Sherwood Anderson Award, the 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; and others. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. On August 30, 2012, Joseph was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina.
UNCG Fiction Reading, Faculty Emeritus Lee Zacharias—Thursday, March 21st, 8:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program, The Greensboro Review, and the UNCG Center for Creative Writing in the Arts will host a reading by Lee Zacharias in the UNCG Faculty Center on College Avenue. The reading will celebrate the release of Zacharias' latest novel, At Random. It is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
Lee Zacharias is the author of a short story collection, Helping Muriel Make It Through the Night, two novels, Lessons and the forthcoming At Random, and a collection of essays to be published by Hub City Press in 2014. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Southern Review, Shenandoah, storySouth, The Gettysburg Review, and The Best American Essays. Professor Emeritus of English at UNC Greensboro, she has completed another novel and is at work on a fourth.
3rd Annual MFA Fiction Showcase at Tate St. Coffee—Tuesday, March 26th, 8:00PM
Tate St. Coffee, 334 Tate St., Greensboro
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program is proud to host its third annual reading to feature current students enrolled in fiction. These fine emerging writers will be sharing selections from their work which will ultimately become a part of their creative graduate theses. Please feel free to come enjoy the fiction stylings of some talented young writers who are on their way to great things.
A. Van Jordan Poetry Reading—Thursday, April 4th, 7:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
The MFA Writing Program, The Greensboro Review, and the UNCG Center for Creative Writing in the Arts will host a poetry reading by A. Van Jordan in the UNCG Faculty Center on College Avenue. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
A. Van Jordan was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. He earned a BA in English literature from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and an MA in communications from Howard University. After attending poetry readings in the Washington, D.C., area in his late 20s, Jordan became interested in writing poetry. He received an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College in 1998.
Jordan’s collections of poetry include Rise (2001), M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (2005), and Quantum Lyrics (2007). Music, film, and history have influenced his work. The poems in M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A concern the life of MacNolia Cox, the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Competition in 1936. Quantum Lyrics delves into physics, racism, history, and Albert Einstein’s work for human rights.
Rise won a PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award and was selected for the Book of the Month Club of the Academy of American Poets. M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A received the Anisfield-Wolf Award. Jordan has been the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and a Pushcart Prize. He has taught at a number of graduate writing programs, among them the University of Texas at Austin, Warren Wilson College, and the University of Michigan.
Kathryn Stripling Byer Alumni Poetry Reading—Wednesday, April 10th, 4:00PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, UNCG
Free and open to the public
UNCG’s Friends of the Library and the MFA Writing Program are happy to welcome alum Kathryn Stripling Byer to read in the Jackson Library.
Kathryn Stripling Byer grew up in southwest Georgia, graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she studied with Allen Tate, Fred Chappell, and Robert Watson. Her books of poetry include Catching Light (Louisiana State University Press, 2002); Black Shawl (1998); Wildwood Flower (1992), which was the 1992 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets; and The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (1986), which was published in the Associated Writing Programs award series.
Kathryn Stripling Byer has received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. She is poet-in-residence at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
NCWN Spring Conference—Saturday, April 13th, 8:30AM-5:30PM
MHRA Building, UNCG
Variety of prices and packages, please visit www.ncwriters.org for more info.
The NCWN Spring Conference offers a full day of workshops, panel discussions, and more on the craft and business of writing. Writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome.
Conference-goers this year will need to pre-register for “Lunch with an Author,” as there will be no on-site registration available for this conference offering. Food will be provided, so that participants can spend less time waiting in line, and more time talking with the author of their choice. (Spaces in “Lunch with an Author” are limited, and are first-come, first-served.)
Courses include two all-day, two-session workshops: “Animating Fiction” with
Lee Zacharias, and Judy Goldman’s creative nonfiction workshop, “Writing
Personal Essays and Memoir.” One-session course offerings will be led by Quinn
Dalton and John McNally (fiction), Scott Huler and Cynthia Nearman (creative
nonfiction), and Carolyn Beard Whitlow and John Rybicki (poetry). Scott
Nicholson will teach a class on self-publishing e-books, while Terry L. Kennedy
and Ross White will lead a workshop for “Authors as Entrepreneurs.”
In addition, UNCG’s Creative Writing Program—a co-sponsor of the Spring Conference—will provide free parking for registrants in the adjacent Oakland Avenue Parking Deck.
In the afternoon, a Publishing Panel including Stephen Kirk of John F. Blair, Publisher, Robin Miura of Carolina Wren Press, and Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53, will answer questions about what they look for in a manuscript and the evolving realities of 21st Century publishing. After looking ahead to the future of books, Andrew Saulters of Greensboro’s Unicorn Press will close the day with a look back, leading a hands-on demonstration of traditional bookbinding, so that conference registrants can turn their well-crafted words into well-crafted objects.
Registration and additional information are available online at www.ncwriters.org or by calling 336-293-8844.
In addition, UNCG’s Creative Writing Program—a co-sponsor of the Spring Conference—will provide free parking for registrants in the adjacent Oakland Avenue Parking Deck.
In the afternoon, a Publishing Panel including Stephen Kirk of John F. Blair, Publisher, Robin Miura of Carolina Wren Press, and Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53, will answer questions about what they look for in a manuscript and the evolving realities of 21st Century publishing. After looking ahead to the future of books, Andrew Saulters of Greensboro’s Unicorn Press will close the day with a look back, leading a hands-on demonstration of traditional bookbinding, so that conference registrants can turn their well-crafted words into well-crafted objects.
Registration and additional information are available online at www.ncwriters.org or by calling 336-293-8844.
Community Literary Events:
Art Exhibit Culminating with a Fiction Reading: It’s All About the Story—Opens: Monday, February 18th –Reading: Sunday, March 24th, 2:00PM
Hillsborough Gallery of the Arts, 121 N. Churton St., Hillsboro, NC 27278
Free and open to the public
The artists of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts respond in their own mediums to a story by Hillsborough author Michael Malone from his story collection “Red Clay Blue Cadillac.”
Opening reception is 6:00PM to 9:00PM. Feb. 18th.
Reading by Michael Malone on March 24 at 2:00PM
A Discussion and Book Signing with Barbara Wright—Saturday, March 2nd, 3:00PM
International Civil Rights Museum, 134 S. Elm Street, Greensboro
$6.00 Adults; $4.00 Seniors and Students; Free to Museum Members
You’re invited to join author Barbara Wright for a discussion and signing of her new historical novel, Crow, based on the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina race riot.
“One generation away from slavery, a thriving African-American community—enfranchised and emancipated—suddenly and violently loses its freedom in turn of the century North Carolina when a group of local politicians stages the only successful coup d'état in US history. Crow follows the story of Moses, a 12 year-old boy in the summer of 1898. His father and his friends are finally getting the respect and positions of power they’ve earned in the Wilmington, North Carolina, community. But not everyone is happy with the political changes at play and some will do anything, including a violent plot against the government, to maintain the status quo.”
7 on the 7th Reading and Open Mic—Thursday, March 7th, 7:00PM
Glenwood Coffee and Books, 1310 Glenwood Avenue Greensboro, NC 27403
Free and open to the public
You’re invited to Glenwood Coffee and Books for this monthly reading series that always takes place at 7:00PM on the seventh day of every month. There will be a few featured readers before the reading opens up to an open mic. This event presents a lot of opportunities for the audience to share their work, so whether you’re interested in hearing local authors or sharing your own work, this is a great opportunity.
Lynn Salsi and Jim Young Reading and Book Signing—Tuesday, March 12th, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
Local author Lynn Salsi and artist Jim Young have partnered again for two new books: Jack and the Dragon and Jack and the Giants. They are both retelling of Appalachian Jack Tales and work hand-in-hand with folktales in the school curriculum.
The Writing Life with Holly Goddard Jones—Thursday, March 14th, 7:00PM
Community Arts Café, 411 West Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Season tickets are $30 for members of Winston-Salem Writers; $40 for non-member season tickets
Winston-Salem author Steve Mitchell will lead an informal conversation with the author about the vagaries of writing, the writing life, and the author's approach to it. After a brief introduction, authors will read from their work, followed by an interview/conversation with Steve Mitchell.
Holly Goddard Jones's debut novel, The Next Time You See Me, will be released from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster in February. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Girl Trouble (Harper Perennial 2009), and her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Epoch, Best American Mystery Stories, New Stories from the South and various journals. She was a 2007 recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, which honors six emerging women fiction writers annually. She teaches in the Master of Fine Arts creative writing program at UNCG.
Bebe & Friends: Tails of Rescue Reading and Book Signing—Thursday, March 21st, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
Retired Presbyterian minister, poet and author Jean Rodenbough will join readers at Barnes & Noble to read and sign copies of her new book. It is a collection of "tails" that will inspire, bring a smile or maybe a tear. They are stories of rescue and the unconditional love only an animal can give.
Open Mic Night with Poet.She—Friday, March 22nd, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble, 3102 Northline Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408
Free and open to the public
You’re invited to join Poet.She, an all-girl poetry group of spoken word artists. Each month they celebrate the spoken word with an open mic night. Come to listen or sign up to perform your own original work.
NC Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti Reading—Wednesday, April 3rd, 7:00PM
Academic Classroom Building Auditorium, NC A&T, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
Joseph Bathanti was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001. His latest novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007. Most recently, his collection of short stories, The High Heart, winner of the 2006 Spokane Prize, was published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2007. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council; The Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period; the Linda Flowers Prize; the Sherwood Anderson Award, the 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; and others. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. On August 30, 2012, Joseph was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina.
Gilbert-Chappell Poetry Reading Series featuring Catherine Stumberg and Ann Deagon—Sunday April 7th, 3:00PM
Tannenbaum-Sternberger Room, Greensboro Central Library, 219 N. Church St., Greensboro
Free and open to the public
Catherine Stumberg is a senior at St. Andrew’s University in Laurinburg, NC. She will graduate in May with a degree in Biology and a minor in Creative Writing. She is currently working under Dr. Ted Wojtasik as the student editor of the University’s literary magazine, Gravity Hill. In 2012 she was selected to participate in the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets series as a representative of St. Andrews, and has been working with Dr. Ann Deagon of Greensboro, North Carolina in order to build a portfolio and organize poetry readings. Catherine spends her spare time outside riding horses, hunting, and doing biological research, all of which are reflected in her writing.
Ann Deagon took her doctorate in Classics at UNC-Chapel Hill and served as Hege Professor of Humanities and Writer in Residence at Guilford College until her retirement in 1992. She edited The Guilford Review, directed Poetry Center Southeast, and helped establish the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Among her poetry collections are: Carbon 14, Poetics South, There Is No Balm in Birmingham, and The Polo Poems, plus several chapbooks. Her fiction includes short stories in Habitats and the novel The Diver’s Tomb. Her plays have received reader’s theatre production at various colleges and theatre conferences. Her awards include a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series originated in 2003 on the advice of then North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell. It is named after Chappell and former NCPS president Marie Gilbert. The North Carolina Poetry Society is proud to sponsor this program, in which poets in middle school, high school, college or university, and adults not currently enrolled in a curriculum are mentored by a Distinguished Poet in eastern, central or western North Carolina. Each Distinguished Poet will mentor up to four developing poets.
Students selected this year in the Central Region, which includes 32 counties, will have the opportunity to work with Distinguished Poet Ann Deagon. They will send their poetry to her for comments and suggestions, will meet with her to discuss the work, and will then read selected poems with her in their local public libraries in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Center for the Book.
Gilbert-Chappell Poetry Reading Series featuring Victoria Reynolds and Ann Deagon—Thursday, April 25th, 7:00PM
Durham County Library, 3605 Shannon Road, Durham, NC
Free and open to the public
Victoria Reynolds holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University and lives in Durham NC. She is a regular member of a Triangle-based poetry group, the Poet Fools. She has poems published in Sow’s Ear, Pinesong, and this year received a prize in the NC Poetry Society’s Gladys Owings Hughes Heritage Poetry Contest. She also has a poem in 27 Views of Durham published by Eno River Press. In 2012, she did a month-long residency for poetry at the Vermont Studio Center. She is delighted to have been chosen for the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series and to be mentored by Ann Deagon.
Ann Deagon took her doctorate in Classics at UNC-Chapel Hill and served as Hege Professor of Humanities and Writer in Residence at Guilford College until her retirement in 1992. She edited The Guilford Review, directed Poetry Center Southeast, and helped establish the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Among her poetry collections are: Carbon 14, Poetics South, There Is No Balm in Birmingham, and The Polo Poems, plus several chapbooks. Her fiction includes short stories in Habitats and the novel The Diver’s Tomb. Her plays have received reader’s theatre production at various colleges and theatre conferences. Her awards include a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series originated in 2003 on the advice of then North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell. It is named after Chappell and former NCPS president Marie Gilbert. The North Carolina Poetry Society is proud to sponsor this program, in which poets in middle school, high school, college or university, and adults not currently enrolled in a curriculum are mentored by a Distinguished Poet in eastern, central or western North Carolina. Each Distinguished Poet will mentor up to four developing poets.
Students selected this year in the Central Region, which includes 32 counties, will have the opportunity to work with Distinguished Poet Ann Deagon. They will send their poetry to her for comments and suggestions, will meet with her to discuss the work, and will then read selected poems with her in their local public libraries in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Center for the Book.
Comments
Post a Comment