Cheryl Whitehead is both a gifted poet and a gifted storyteller—and these can be two distinct, albeit complimentary talents. In Distant Relations (Loblolly Press 2025), Whitehead weaves these dual talents together into an always engaging, often uncanny collection of poetry rich with family, nature, culture, and transcendency. Her verses reverberate with turmoil and grace, all […]
December Read of the Month: “Wofford’s Blood” by Donna Coffey Little
December 4, 2024 by 1 Comment
Wofford’s Blood (Mercer University Press 2024) is a stunning work of historical fiction based on the life of James Daugherty (J. D.) Wofford, a half White, half Cherokee, who became a conductor and interpreter on the Trail of Tears. Author Donna Coffey Little tells readers in an “Author’s Note” at the beginning that the interviews […]
“All We Have Loved” by Julia Nunnally Duncan
August 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Julia Nunnally Duncan’s latest collection of essays, All We Have Loved (Finishing Line Press 2023) tells stories of her childhood, growing up the daughter of textile workers in the mountains of western North Carolina, as well as the childhoods of her loved ones. In these short vignettes, Duncan describes holidays in her rural neighborhood in […]
“Feral, North Carolina, 1965,” by June Sylvester Saraceno
October 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Feral, North Carolina, 1965 (Southern Fried Karma, 2019) is a powerful gem. Told with wit and verve, the novel unfolds in vignettes that read like short stories, and in fact, many chapters were previously published as short stories. Feral captures a time and place with impeccable world building, astute observations, […]
The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2019 Fall Conference
August 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Enjoy Mountains of Literary Riches at NCWN’s Fall Conference ASHEVILLE—The North Carolina Writers’ Network calls this “The Writingest State”—all of it, Manteo to Murphy, Calabash to Crumpler. We find and welcome writers from all parts of North Carolina, with no city or region holding a monopoly on literary talent or output. But we have to […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Kimmery Martin, Author of “The Queen of Hearts”
March 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Thanks for the interview, Kimmery. You’re a medical doctor by training, correct? What kind of practice? And how did you manage to find the time to pen this novel, which, given its plot that involves medical school and residency, as well as its hospital settings, could only have been written, I think, by someone […]