Here's the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts newsletter prepared by Shawn Delgado:
Lee Zacharias Creative Nonfiction Reading: The Only Sounds We Make—Thursday, September 18th, 7:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Lee Zacharias is the author of a novel Lessons, and a book of short stories Helping Muriel Make It through the Night. She has published numerous essays, short stories, and photographs and is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. Her newest work is a collection of essays entitled The Only Sounds We Make. Of this work, Publishers Weekly says, “With grace, charm, and insight, Zacharias shares personal stories that explore how we make sense of memory, our histories, and our connections—to family, the past, and the wider world.…readers will be drawn into Zacharias's world, which she studies with candor and elegance.” Elaine Neil Orr, author of A Different Sun, says, “Zacharias pitches her tent at the crossroads of the natural world and the moral universe, and what she gives us is observation and insight to match the best of Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, and Diane Ackerman.” Zacharias lives in Greensboro and is faculty emeritus at UNC Greensboro.
Sponsored by the UNCG MFA Creative Writing Program and the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.
Andrew Meredith Alumni Creative Nonfiction Reading: The Removers—Thursday, October 2nd, 8:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Publisher’s Weekly review of The Removers : “In this potent memoir, Meredith begins a career as a handler of the dead following a scandal that shatters his family when his is only 14. His father, a professor of literature, is accused of sexual harassment and fired. Meredith's devastated mother withdraws, and Meredith and his sister are left floundering through the remainder of their youth. Flunking out of college, Meredith first works with his father removing the bodies of the deceased from their homes. He then gets a job at Brotherly Love Cremation, and describes the grim details of his work. During this period of his life, Meredith is numb, likening himself to a possum: ‘The possum is a coward. He avoids conflict by disengaging, by hiding behind his open eyes. He cleans up the dead. He eats carrion so we don't have to smell it, see it, catch its disease….’
Please join us to welcome Andrew back to campus to share his work.
Sponsored by the UNCG MFA Creative Writing Program and the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.
Presentation by Dr. Joy Kasson about author and illustrator Lois Lenski—Wednesday, October 8th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From her UNC-Chapel Hill professional bio: “Joy Kasson is particularly interested in the cultural history of art and literature. Trained in American Studies in both graduate and undergraduate programs, she values interdisciplinary inquiry combined with close analysis of visual and literary texts.
Her books include a study of American artists and writers in the first half of the nineteenth century,Artistic Voyagers (1982), an analysis of nineteenth-century American sculpture focusing on gender issues, Marble Queens and Captives (1990), and a book about celebrity and the popular understanding of history, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (2001). Articles and book chapters address subjects such as the murals of Thomas Hart Benton, the paintings of Thomas Cole, and the fiction of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper.”
Dr. Kasson will be a guest of the UNCG Libraries to talk with us about Lois Lenski, renowned children’s and young-adult author who is known for her many regional novels.
Fred Chappell Poetry Reading: The Familiars—Thursday, October 16th, 7:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Literary Trails of North Carolina: “North Carolina writer Lee Smith has called Fred Chappell ‘our resident genius, our shining light.’
A poet and author, Chappell went from farmhand to Duke Scholar. His sophisticated writing demonstrates his rigorous studies, yet his words reveal the realities he faced growing up on a farm and time spent with nature.
The Canton native earned graduate and undergraduate degrees at Duke University and taught in the department of English at UNC Greensboro for 40 years from 1964 to 2004, where he helped establish the M.F.A. writing program. He served as the N.C. Poet Laureate from 1997 until 2002, representing the state in 250 public engagements during his tenure.
In 1999, UNC Greensboro established the Fred Chappell Creative Writing Fellowship. In 1987, he received the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest teaching award bestowed by the University of North Carolina system, and in 1988 he was named the Burlington Industries Professor of English.
Chappell is the author of more than two dozen books of poetry, fiction and literary criticism. His recent works include Shadow Box, a collection of poetry, and Ancestors and Others, a volume of new and previously published short stories. His works of fiction include I Am One of You Forever and Brighten the Corner Where You Are. His work has been translated into many languages, including Finnish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese and Farsi.
Among the awards and honors Chappell has received over his long career are the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize (1973), the N.C. Award for Literature (1980), Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in poetry (1985), a literature award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters (1968), the best foreign book prize from the Academie Française (1972), and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry (1996). He was inducted into the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame inductee in 2006, and in 2010 he received the John Tyler Caldwell Award from the N.C. Humanities Council for his contribution as a writer and an educator.”
Sarah Rose Nordgren Alumni Poetry Reading—Friday, October 17th, 2:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From her official bio: “Sarah Rose Nordgren was raised in Durham, North Carolina, and has lived in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Ireland. Her poetry collection, Best Bones, won the 2013 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2014. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, Pleiades, The Harvard Review, The Literary Review, the Best New Poets anthology, and elsewhere. She has been the recipient of two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown as well as residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. She earned her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she held the Fred Chappell Fellowship. Currently, Sarah Rose lives in Cincinnati and teaches in the English Department at Miami University of Ohio in Middletown.”
Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion: In Defense of Food led by Anne Hershey of the Biology Department—Monday, October 20th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Publisher’s Weekly review of In Defense of Food: “In his hugely influential treatise The Omnivore’s Dilemma, [author Michael] Pollan traced a direct line between the industrialization of our food supply and the degradation of the environment. His new book takes up where the previous work left off. Examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health, this powerfully argued, thoroughly researched and elegant manifesto cuts straight to the chase with a maxim that is deceptively simple: ‘Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.’ But as Pollan explains, ‘food in a country that is driven by a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine is both a loaded term and, in its purest sense, a holy grail.’ The first section of his three-part essay refutes the authority of the diet bullies, pointing up the confluence of interests among manufacturers of processed foods, marketers and nutritional scientists, a cabal whose nutritional advice has given rise to ‘a notably unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet and the idea of eating healthily.’ The second portion vivisects the Western diet, questioning, among other sacred cows, the idea that dietary fat leads to chronic illness. A writer of great subtlety, Pollan doesn’t preach to the choir; in fact, rarely does he preach at all, preferring to lets the facts speak for themselves.”
Community Literary Events:
Monday Night Poetry—Monday, September 15th, 7:00 PM
Central Library, 219 N. Church Street, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro public libraries: “Celebrate rhythm and rhyme every third Monday with an open mic session for all area poets sponsored by the Friends of the Greensboro Public Library. Join us! For more information, visit the Triad Poetry Meet Up website. Questions? Contact Beth Sheffield at 336-373-3617.
Neither Rhyme Nor Reason Poetry Book Club: Clifton Gachagua’s Madmen at Kilifi—Monday, September 15th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
This poetry book club meets once a month. This month, they’ll be discussing Madmen at Kilifi.
Nancy Stancill: Saving Texas—Tuesday, September 16th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
From Scuppernong Books: “Nancy Stancill spent more than 30 years as a newspaper reporter and editor before she began writing fiction full-time. She was an award-winning investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle and the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and worked as a reporter and editor at other newspapers in Texas, Virginia and California.
She is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a graduate student in creative writing at the University of Tampa in Florida. She and her husband lived in London for three years before moving back to the United States in 2012.She has a son in Virginia and she lives in Charlotte, N.C. with her husband, Len Norman, and black cat, Spud.
Saving Texas is her first novel.”
Ann P. Saab: Bathsheba’s Book: A Woman’s Tale—Wednesday, September 17th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Event description from Scuppernong Books: “Bathsheba has been seen in some circles as a slut. In others, she is highly esteemed, a role model for motherhood as the successful mother and nurturer of King Solomon, who became the ruler at Israel's most glorious time. Starting as a simple country girl, she experienced the richness, intrigue and perplexities of life in David's palace before winning her way to be the Queen Mother in Solomon's kingdom. This book tells her story of that journey.”
Five by O. Henry Plays Matinee—Sunday, September 21st, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro, 27401
General Admission $16; Seniors and Students $15; Museum Members $13
From the Greensboro Public Libraries: “Five short stories on the museum stage, with live vintage music – enough to make Greensboro’s own O. Henry proud. This year’s playbill, created with flair by playwright Joseph Hoesl and artistic director Barbara Britton, features Proof of the Pudding, Elsie in New York, The Guilty Party, The Third Ingredient and The Girl and the Graft. You will leave happier than when you came and be delighted by the talent and surprises in store. Tickets are on sale in the Museum Shop, through the museum website and by calling 336-373-2949.”
Erik Shonkwiler Presents: Above All Men with Angie Turner Jeffries, Anna B. Sutton, and Valerie Neiman—Tuesday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Greensboro, North Carolina: Images of Modern America Series by Kevin Reid—Tuesday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Friendly Center, 3102 Northline Avenue, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
From Barnes & Noble: “Greensboro has reinvented itself in recent decades. In 1958, Greensboro was the second largest city in the state and home to the world's largest denim producer. Kevin Reid's new book, Greensboro, uses 160 photos to illustrate our town's modern history.”
Ashley Warner: The Year After: A Memoir—Wednesday, September 24th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Shelf Talk: An Evening on Thomas Merton with Stimp Hawkins—Thursday, September 25th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Women Speak Open Mic—Friday, September 26th, 8:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Women Speak Open Mic—Friday, September 26th, 8:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
African-American Author Festival—Saturday, September 27th, 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
Greensboro Central Library, 219 N. Church St., Greensboro, 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro Public Libraries “Book Clubs United for African American Literacy and the Greensboro Public Library present an African-American Author Festival. The featured authors are Altonya Washington, Beverly Jenkins, Cassandra Durham, Cheris Hodges, Iris Bolling, LaSheera Lee, Marissa Monteilh aka Pynk, Yolanda Johnson-Bryant, Vanessa Miller, La Jill Hunt, and Suzetta Perkins. There will be author presentations, book signings, arts, and prizes. Books by the authors will be available for sale. Refreshments will be provided by the Greensboro Public Library Foundation and North Carolina Library Paraprofessional Association.”
Raise Your Voice: 1000 Poets for Change Workshop and Open Mic—Saturday, September 27th, 12:00 PM-3:00 PM
Kathleen Clay Edwards Branch Library, 1420 Price Park Road, Greensboro 27410
Free and open to the public
From the Writers’ Group of the Triad: “WGOT, Triad Poetry Meetup, and Greensboro Public Library present ‘Raise Your Voice: A 100 Thousand Poets for Change Workshop and Open Mic Event.’ This program begins with a FREE writing workshop addressing the topic, ‘How can poetry change attitudes and facilitate societal change?’ led by Judith Behar and Diana Engel. Bring paper and pen to create your own piece of change-motivating writing. Workshop writers can, if they wish, read their poems at the beginning of the Open Mic which follows and which will be led by Alfred Harrell. Light refreshments will be provided. Feel free to bring your own brown bag lunch.”
StoryCorps' Leaving Home: Show, Tell and Sing—Saturday, September 27th, 3:00 PM
Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro, 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro Public Libraries: “This StoryCorps Project features dozens of people who will share powerful, poignant and even amusing stories of leaving home. Learn more at www.greensboro-nc.gov/
Bring an object that you took when you left home or something you would be sure to save if you had to leave your home and come sing along with performers as they share favorite 'leaving home' tunes.
For more information, visit the Triad Meet Up website. Questions? Contact Beth Sheffield at 336-373-3617.”
Eclectic Book Club—Wednesday, October 1st, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Friendly Center, 3102 Northline Avenue, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
From Barnes & Noble: “Join this fun but focused book group that reads from a wide variety of genres. This month we're reading Charlie Lovett's bestselling debut The Bookman's Tale. Next month our book is Lucinda Riley's The Orchid House.”
7 on the 7th Reading and Open Mic—Tuesday, October 7th, 7:00 PM
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.
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Induction—Sunday, October 12th, 2:00 PM
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E Connecticut Ave, Southern Pines, NC 28387
Free and open to the public
From the North Carolina Writers’ Network: “On Sunday, October 12, at 2:00 pm, four poets will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines.
Betty Adcock, Ronald H. Bayes, Jaki Shelton Green, and Shelby Stephenson will join the fifty-three inductees currently enshrined.
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature. Inductions are held every other year. A list of inductees, as well as samples of their work and video clips of past inductions, can be found online at www.nclhof.org.
Largely self-educated—she has no degrees—Betty Adcock studied and wrote poetry through early marriage, early motherhood, and more than a decade working in the business world. After her first book was published, she held a teaching residency for a semester at Duke University. Other residencies followed, culminating in an ongoing position as Writer-in-Residence at Meredith College in Raleigh, where she taught until 2006 and twice held the Mary Lynch Johnson Professorship. She is the author of six poetry collections and the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the North Carolina Medal for Literature, among many other honors and awards.
Ronald H. Bayes is the Writer-in-Residence and Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emeritus at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg. His collection Greatest Hits 1960-2002 was published by Pudding House Publications in 2003, following Chainsong for the Muse (Northern Lights Press, 1993). His poetry has appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Crucible, Northwest Review, Oyster Boy Review, Pembroke Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Prism International, Solo, and TriQuarterly.
Jaki Shelton Green is a writer and activist. She received the North Carolina Award for Poetry in 2003. She has published four books of poetry through Carolina Wren Press: Dead on Arrival (1977, and reprinted in 1983 and 1996), Conjure Blues (1996), singing a tree into dance (2003), and Breath of the Song: New and Selected Poems (2005). Her works have been choreographed and performed by many renowned dance companies. She is a lifelong human services advocate; she has worked with Legal Services, and on issues such as domestic violence. She is an advocate for women, children and the mentally ill. Additionally, she has used poetry and art as a healing and empowerment tool for disenfranchised populations such as the homeless, the newly literate, and incarcerated women. She was the 2009 Piedmont Laureate, and lives in Mebane.
Shelby Stephenson has published many collections of poems, plus the poetic documentary Plankhouse (with photos by Roger Manley). Shelby is former editor of Pembroke Magazine. His Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl won the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize, judged by Allen Grossman. Stephenson’s latest collection, The Hunger of Freedom (2014), is from Red Dashboard (www.reddashboard.com). Shelby's website is Shelbystephenson.com.
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame was founded in 1996, under the leadership of poet laureate Sam Ragan, and is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Since 2008, the Network and the Weymouth Center collaborate with the North Carolina Center for the Book, the North Carolina Humanities Council, and the North Carolina Collection of the Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill to produce the induction ceremony and to promote the NCLHOF and North Carolina’s literary heritage.
UNCG Literary Events:
Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion: The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited by Richard Florida—Monday, September 15th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Led by Keith Debbage of the Department of Geography & the Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism, this discussion will delve into The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited.
From the official website creativeclass.com: “Ten years ago, Richard Florida published a path-breaking book about the forces that were reshaping our economy, our geography, our work, and our whole way of life. Weaving story-telling with reams of original research, he traced a fundamental theme through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity. In the decade since, we have endured a series of world shattering events—from the collapse of the tech bubble and 9/11 to the economic meltdown of 2008—any one of which might have been sufficient to derail the trends he described. Instead, they have only become more deeply ensconced, both in the US and across the globe. In late 2011, the social media site LinkedIn reported that the word most used by its members to describe themselves was ‘Creative.’
In this newly revised and expanded edition of his now classic book, Florida has brought all of its statistics up to date (and provided a host of new ones), further refined his occupational, demographic, psychological, and economic profile of the Creative Class; incorporated a decade’s worth of his own and his colleagues’ quantitative and qualitative research; and addressed his major critics. Five completely new chapters cover the global effects of the Creative Class and explore the integral features and factors that shape “quality of place” in our rapidly changing cities and suburbs. Florida delves into the roles played by technology, race, and poverty in perpetuating and exacerbating income inequality and the pervasive influence of class throughout every aspect of society.”
Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion: The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited by Richard Florida—Monday, September 15th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Led by Keith Debbage of the Department of Geography & the Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism, this discussion will delve into The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited.
From the official website creativeclass.com: “Ten years ago, Richard Florida published a path-breaking book about the forces that were reshaping our economy, our geography, our work, and our whole way of life. Weaving story-telling with reams of original research, he traced a fundamental theme through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity. In the decade since, we have endured a series of world shattering events—from the collapse of the tech bubble and 9/11 to the economic meltdown of 2008—any one of which might have been sufficient to derail the trends he described. Instead, they have only become more deeply ensconced, both in the US and across the globe. In late 2011, the social media site LinkedIn reported that the word most used by its members to describe themselves was ‘Creative.’
In this newly revised and expanded edition of his now classic book, Florida has brought all of its statistics up to date (and provided a host of new ones), further refined his occupational, demographic, psychological, and economic profile of the Creative Class; incorporated a decade’s worth of his own and his colleagues’ quantitative and qualitative research; and addressed his major critics. Five completely new chapters cover the global effects of the Creative Class and explore the integral features and factors that shape “quality of place” in our rapidly changing cities and suburbs. Florida delves into the roles played by technology, race, and poverty in perpetuating and exacerbating income inequality and the pervasive influence of class throughout every aspect of society.”
Lee Zacharias Creative Nonfiction Reading: The Only Sounds We Make—Thursday, September 18th, 7:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
Lee Zacharias is the author of a novel Lessons, and a book of short stories Helping Muriel Make It through the Night. She has published numerous essays, short stories, and photographs and is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. Her newest work is a collection of essays entitled The Only Sounds We Make. Of this work, Publishers Weekly says, “With grace, charm, and insight, Zacharias shares personal stories that explore how we make sense of memory, our histories, and our connections—to family, the past, and the wider world.…readers will be drawn into Zacharias's world, which she studies with candor and elegance.” Elaine Neil Orr, author of A Different Sun, says, “Zacharias pitches her tent at the crossroads of the natural world and the moral universe, and what she gives us is observation and insight to match the best of Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, and Diane Ackerman.” Zacharias lives in Greensboro and is faculty emeritus at UNC Greensboro.
Sponsored by the UNCG MFA Creative Writing Program and the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.
Andrew Meredith Alumni Creative Nonfiction Reading: The Removers—Thursday, October 2nd, 8:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Publisher’s Weekly review of The Removers : “In this potent memoir, Meredith begins a career as a handler of the dead following a scandal that shatters his family when his is only 14. His father, a professor of literature, is accused of sexual harassment and fired. Meredith's devastated mother withdraws, and Meredith and his sister are left floundering through the remainder of their youth. Flunking out of college, Meredith first works with his father removing the bodies of the deceased from their homes. He then gets a job at Brotherly Love Cremation, and describes the grim details of his work. During this period of his life, Meredith is numb, likening himself to a possum: ‘The possum is a coward. He avoids conflict by disengaging, by hiding behind his open eyes. He cleans up the dead. He eats carrion so we don't have to smell it, see it, catch its disease….’
Please join us to welcome Andrew back to campus to share his work.
Sponsored by the UNCG MFA Creative Writing Program and the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.
Presentation by Dr. Joy Kasson about author and illustrator Lois Lenski—Wednesday, October 8th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From her UNC-Chapel Hill professional bio: “Joy Kasson is particularly interested in the cultural history of art and literature. Trained in American Studies in both graduate and undergraduate programs, she values interdisciplinary inquiry combined with close analysis of visual and literary texts.
Her books include a study of American artists and writers in the first half of the nineteenth century,Artistic Voyagers (1982), an analysis of nineteenth-century American sculpture focusing on gender issues, Marble Queens and Captives (1990), and a book about celebrity and the popular understanding of history, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (2001). Articles and book chapters address subjects such as the murals of Thomas Hart Benton, the paintings of Thomas Cole, and the fiction of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper.”
Dr. Kasson will be a guest of the UNCG Libraries to talk with us about Lois Lenski, renowned children’s and young-adult author who is known for her many regional novels.
Fred Chappell Poetry Reading: The Familiars—Thursday, October 16th, 7:00PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Literary Trails of North Carolina: “North Carolina writer Lee Smith has called Fred Chappell ‘our resident genius, our shining light.’
A poet and author, Chappell went from farmhand to Duke Scholar. His sophisticated writing demonstrates his rigorous studies, yet his words reveal the realities he faced growing up on a farm and time spent with nature.
The Canton native earned graduate and undergraduate degrees at Duke University and taught in the department of English at UNC Greensboro for 40 years from 1964 to 2004, where he helped establish the M.F.A. writing program. He served as the N.C. Poet Laureate from 1997 until 2002, representing the state in 250 public engagements during his tenure.
In 1999, UNC Greensboro established the Fred Chappell Creative Writing Fellowship. In 1987, he received the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest teaching award bestowed by the University of North Carolina system, and in 1988 he was named the Burlington Industries Professor of English.
Chappell is the author of more than two dozen books of poetry, fiction and literary criticism. His recent works include Shadow Box, a collection of poetry, and Ancestors and Others, a volume of new and previously published short stories. His works of fiction include I Am One of You Forever and Brighten the Corner Where You Are. His work has been translated into many languages, including Finnish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese and Farsi.
Among the awards and honors Chappell has received over his long career are the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize (1973), the N.C. Award for Literature (1980), Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in poetry (1985), a literature award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters (1968), the best foreign book prize from the Academie Française (1972), and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry (1996). He was inducted into the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame inductee in 2006, and in 2010 he received the John Tyler Caldwell Award from the N.C. Humanities Council for his contribution as a writer and an educator.”
Sarah Rose Nordgren Alumni Poetry Reading—Friday, October 17th, 2:00 PM
Faculty Center, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From her official bio: “Sarah Rose Nordgren was raised in Durham, North Carolina, and has lived in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Ireland. Her poetry collection, Best Bones, won the 2013 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2014. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, Pleiades, The Harvard Review, The Literary Review, the Best New Poets anthology, and elsewhere. She has been the recipient of two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown as well as residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. She earned her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she held the Fred Chappell Fellowship. Currently, Sarah Rose lives in Cincinnati and teaches in the English Department at Miami University of Ohio in Middletown.”
Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion: In Defense of Food led by Anne Hershey of the Biology Department—Monday, October 20th, 4:00 PM
Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd Floor, UNCG
Free and open to the public
From the Publisher’s Weekly review of In Defense of Food: “In his hugely influential treatise The Omnivore’s Dilemma, [author Michael] Pollan traced a direct line between the industrialization of our food supply and the degradation of the environment. His new book takes up where the previous work left off. Examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health, this powerfully argued, thoroughly researched and elegant manifesto cuts straight to the chase with a maxim that is deceptively simple: ‘Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.’ But as Pollan explains, ‘food in a country that is driven by a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine is both a loaded term and, in its purest sense, a holy grail.’ The first section of his three-part essay refutes the authority of the diet bullies, pointing up the confluence of interests among manufacturers of processed foods, marketers and nutritional scientists, a cabal whose nutritional advice has given rise to ‘a notably unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet and the idea of eating healthily.’ The second portion vivisects the Western diet, questioning, among other sacred cows, the idea that dietary fat leads to chronic illness. A writer of great subtlety, Pollan doesn’t preach to the choir; in fact, rarely does he preach at all, preferring to lets the facts speak for themselves.”
Community Literary Events:
Monday Night Poetry—Monday, September 15th, 7:00 PM
Central Library, 219 N. Church Street, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro public libraries: “Celebrate rhythm and rhyme every third Monday with an open mic session for all area poets sponsored by the Friends of the Greensboro Public Library. Join us! For more information, visit the Triad Poetry Meet Up website. Questions? Contact Beth Sheffield at 336-373-3617.
Neither Rhyme Nor Reason Poetry Book Club: Clifton Gachagua’s Madmen at Kilifi—Monday, September 15th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
This poetry book club meets once a month. This month, they’ll be discussing Madmen at Kilifi.
Nancy Stancill: Saving Texas—Tuesday, September 16th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
From Scuppernong Books: “Nancy Stancill spent more than 30 years as a newspaper reporter and editor before she began writing fiction full-time. She was an award-winning investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle and the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and worked as a reporter and editor at other newspapers in Texas, Virginia and California.
She is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a graduate student in creative writing at the University of Tampa in Florida. She and her husband lived in London for three years before moving back to the United States in 2012.She has a son in Virginia and she lives in Charlotte, N.C. with her husband, Len Norman, and black cat, Spud.
Saving Texas is her first novel.”
Ann P. Saab: Bathsheba’s Book: A Woman’s Tale—Wednesday, September 17th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Event description from Scuppernong Books: “Bathsheba has been seen in some circles as a slut. In others, she is highly esteemed, a role model for motherhood as the successful mother and nurturer of King Solomon, who became the ruler at Israel's most glorious time. Starting as a simple country girl, she experienced the richness, intrigue and perplexities of life in David's palace before winning her way to be the Queen Mother in Solomon's kingdom. This book tells her story of that journey.”
Five by O. Henry Plays Matinee—Sunday, September 21st, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro, 27401
General Admission $16; Seniors and Students $15; Museum Members $13
From the Greensboro Public Libraries: “Five short stories on the museum stage, with live vintage music – enough to make Greensboro’s own O. Henry proud. This year’s playbill, created with flair by playwright Joseph Hoesl and artistic director Barbara Britton, features Proof of the Pudding, Elsie in New York, The Guilty Party, The Third Ingredient and The Girl and the Graft. You will leave happier than when you came and be delighted by the talent and surprises in store. Tickets are on sale in the Museum Shop, through the museum website and by calling 336-373-2949.”
Erik Shonkwiler Presents: Above All Men with Angie Turner Jeffries, Anna B. Sutton, and Valerie Neiman—Tuesday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Greensboro, North Carolina: Images of Modern America Series by Kevin Reid—Tuesday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Friendly Center, 3102 Northline Avenue, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
From Barnes & Noble: “Greensboro has reinvented itself in recent decades. In 1958, Greensboro was the second largest city in the state and home to the world's largest denim producer. Kevin Reid's new book, Greensboro, uses 160 photos to illustrate our town's modern history.”
Ashley Warner: The Year After: A Memoir—Wednesday, September 24th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Shelf Talk: An Evening on Thomas Merton with Stimp Hawkins—Thursday, September 25th, 7:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Women Speak Open Mic—Friday, September 26th, 8:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
Women Speak Open Mic—Friday, September 26th, 8:00 PM
Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
Free and open to the public
African-American Author Festival—Saturday, September 27th, 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
Greensboro Central Library, 219 N. Church St., Greensboro, 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro Public Libraries “Book Clubs United for African American Literacy and the Greensboro Public Library present an African-American Author Festival. The featured authors are Altonya Washington, Beverly Jenkins, Cassandra Durham, Cheris Hodges, Iris Bolling, LaSheera Lee, Marissa Monteilh aka Pynk, Yolanda Johnson-Bryant, Vanessa Miller, La Jill Hunt, and Suzetta Perkins. There will be author presentations, book signings, arts, and prizes. Books by the authors will be available for sale. Refreshments will be provided by the Greensboro Public Library Foundation and North Carolina Library Paraprofessional Association.”
Raise Your Voice: 1000 Poets for Change Workshop and Open Mic—Saturday, September 27th, 12:00 PM-3:00 PM
Kathleen Clay Edwards Branch Library, 1420 Price Park Road, Greensboro 27410
Free and open to the public
From the Writers’ Group of the Triad: “WGOT, Triad Poetry Meetup, and Greensboro Public Library present ‘Raise Your Voice: A 100 Thousand Poets for Change Workshop and Open Mic Event.’ This program begins with a FREE writing workshop addressing the topic, ‘How can poetry change attitudes and facilitate societal change?’ led by Judith Behar and Diana Engel. Bring paper and pen to create your own piece of change-motivating writing. Workshop writers can, if they wish, read their poems at the beginning of the Open Mic which follows and which will be led by Alfred Harrell. Light refreshments will be provided. Feel free to bring your own brown bag lunch.”
StoryCorps' Leaving Home: Show, Tell and Sing—Saturday, September 27th, 3:00 PM
Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro, 27401
Free and open to the public
From the Greensboro Public Libraries: “This StoryCorps Project features dozens of people who will share powerful, poignant and even amusing stories of leaving home. Learn more at www.greensboro-nc.gov/
Bring an object that you took when you left home or something you would be sure to save if you had to leave your home and come sing along with performers as they share favorite 'leaving home' tunes.
For more information, visit the Triad Meet Up website. Questions? Contact Beth Sheffield at 336-373-3617.”
Eclectic Book Club—Wednesday, October 1st, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Friendly Center, 3102 Northline Avenue, Greensboro
Free and open to the public
From Barnes & Noble: “Join this fun but focused book group that reads from a wide variety of genres. This month we're reading Charlie Lovett's bestselling debut The Bookman's Tale. Next month our book is Lucinda Riley's The Orchid House.”
7 on the 7th Reading and Open Mic—Tuesday, October 7th, 7:00 PM
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.
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Induction—Sunday, October 12th, 2:00 PM
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, 555 E Connecticut Ave, Southern Pines, NC 28387
Free and open to the public
From the North Carolina Writers’ Network: “On Sunday, October 12, at 2:00 pm, four poets will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines.
Betty Adcock, Ronald H. Bayes, Jaki Shelton Green, and Shelby Stephenson will join the fifty-three inductees currently enshrined.
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature. Inductions are held every other year. A list of inductees, as well as samples of their work and video clips of past inductions, can be found online at www.nclhof.org.
Largely self-educated—she has no degrees—Betty Adcock studied and wrote poetry through early marriage, early motherhood, and more than a decade working in the business world. After her first book was published, she held a teaching residency for a semester at Duke University. Other residencies followed, culminating in an ongoing position as Writer-in-Residence at Meredith College in Raleigh, where she taught until 2006 and twice held the Mary Lynch Johnson Professorship. She is the author of six poetry collections and the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the North Carolina Medal for Literature, among many other honors and awards.
Ronald H. Bayes is the Writer-in-Residence and Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emeritus at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg. His collection Greatest Hits 1960-2002 was published by Pudding House Publications in 2003, following Chainsong for the Muse (Northern Lights Press, 1993). His poetry has appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Crucible, Northwest Review, Oyster Boy Review, Pembroke Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Prism International, Solo, and TriQuarterly.
Jaki Shelton Green is a writer and activist. She received the North Carolina Award for Poetry in 2003. She has published four books of poetry through Carolina Wren Press: Dead on Arrival (1977, and reprinted in 1983 and 1996), Conjure Blues (1996), singing a tree into dance (2003), and Breath of the Song: New and Selected Poems (2005). Her works have been choreographed and performed by many renowned dance companies. She is a lifelong human services advocate; she has worked with Legal Services, and on issues such as domestic violence. She is an advocate for women, children and the mentally ill. Additionally, she has used poetry and art as a healing and empowerment tool for disenfranchised populations such as the homeless, the newly literate, and incarcerated women. She was the 2009 Piedmont Laureate, and lives in Mebane.
Shelby Stephenson has published many collections of poems, plus the poetic documentary Plankhouse (with photos by Roger Manley). Shelby is former editor of Pembroke Magazine. His Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl won the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize, judged by Allen Grossman. Stephenson’s latest collection, The Hunger of Freedom (2014), is from Red Dashboard (www.reddashboard.com). Shelby's website is Shelbystephenson.com.
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame was founded in 1996, under the leadership of poet laureate Sam Ragan, and is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Since 2008, the Network and the Weymouth Center collaborate with the North Carolina Center for the Book, the North Carolina Humanities Council, and the North Carolina Collection of the Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill to produce the induction ceremony and to promote the NCLHOF and North Carolina’s literary heritage.
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