White Cross School

Pam Kelley, Reading Life Editor of the Charlotte Observer (oh, that every newspaper still had a ‘reading life editor’), has written a fascinating article on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel The Help.

Stockett will speak at Queens University of Charlotte’s 39th annual Friends of the Library Book and Author luncheon on March 9 (sorry, the event is already sold out).  Her novel, set in Mississippi in the 1960s, is about “relationships between African-American maids and their white employers.”

Kelley’s article isn’t a review; rather, she looks at two broad discussions the novel provokes.  One involves the many Southerners – both white and African-American – who can remember that era, and how the book is prompting them to re-examine those memories.

The second is more contentious, and of more interest to a Network of writers.  As Kelley puts it, “Stockett is white. Her black characters speak in dialect. Some readers don’t believe the novel’s story is Stockett’s to tell.”

Hoo, boy.

As a writer, I can only speak from my own experience.  My first (and, so far, only published) work of fiction, Parlous Angels, charts a small piece of North Carolina’s path through the twentieth century, but except for a couple of characters, I largely ignored the African-American experience. For one thing, the African-American experience in the 20th-century South is such a momentous theme, I worried that telling it fully and fairly would swamp everything else I wanted to say.

For another, I didn’t quite trust myself to tell it fully, fairly, and artfully.  I didn’t (still don’t) have much confidence in my ability to write, well and at any length, in the voice of an African-American.  Or in the voice of a southern Californian, a New Yorker, a 12th-century English serf, for that matter.

My decision, though, had very little to do with sensitivity, and everything to do with my limitations as a writer.  If a writer feels comfortable writing in the voice of someone very different from themselves, should they refrain?  Is there such a thing as a story that should be off-limits to a writer who wants to tell it?  Or should writers be restricted only by their abilities?

Today’s Washington Post featured a column by Steven Pearlstein, with his take on the new technologies that are transforming publishing and bookselling.  He must be a brave man, if he’s willing to make predictions on where all this change will lead.

Cathy Smith Bowers, who led the poetry workshop at the Network’s 2009 Squire Summer Writing Residency, is North Carolina’s new Poet Laureate.

Cathy’s appointment was announced today by Governor Beverly Perdue.  “Cathy’s powerful poems open new avenues of thought, and are a reflection of the love of words and learning. She believes poetry inspires and instructs North Carolinians of all ages,” Gov. Perdue said.

Cathy teaches in UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program and in the M.F.A. program at Queens University of Charlotte, where she received the 2002 J.B. Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award. She also received the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Award given by the North Carolina Poetry Society in 2006 and 2007.

Cathy will be installed at a ceremony at 4:30 pm, Wednesday, February 10, at the State Capitol.

The Charlotte Observer has a nice article about Cathy and her appointment.  Congratulations, Cathy, from all your friends in the Network.

At long last, Writing the New South is back from hiatus with an essay by Bob McCarthy.  I hope you’ll all check it out soon.  Look for the next new WNS posting in about two weeks.

With Writing the New South back in action, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone about the purpose and guidelines for this program.

When we launched the program last year, I said, “We want our members to grapple with what’s going on in the state and in the world.   We are North Carolina writers living in a historic moment for North Carolina. We need to be writing about what’s happening around us, to us, to our families and friends and neighbors.”

I stand by those words.  After Writing the New South for the better part of a year, though, we find that some of our guidelines need small adjustments and slight clarifications:

- Authors must be current members of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.  (Ask us if you’re not sure.)

- Submissions must be no longer than 5,000 words.  (We’re flexible on this, but it can’t be much longer or everyone will get that eye twitch I developed last fall.)

- Submissions may be in any genre: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, journalism, etc.

- Submissions must deal with one (or both) of two themes: 1. Current or recent events of historical significance as they relate to life in present-day North Carolina; 2. Snapshots of life in a particular city or region of North Carolina, in 500 words or less.  (We mean it.  Chances are, what’s going on in your neighbor’s backyard isn’t really significant in any historical sense.  Ask yourself if a news story on your topic could appear in one of the state’s major newspapers.)

- Submissions do not have to be objective; however, submissions may not proselytize or attempt to convert readers to any particular viewpoint, political affiliation, or religion.  (We’re the N.C. Writers’ Network, not the N.C. Preachers’ Network, N.C. Professors’ Network, or N.C. Trojan Princes’ Network.  So don’t preach, lecture, or hector.)

- Submissions must be original and unpublished.  (If you submit a piece to WNS, but then have a chance at publication or prizes elsewhere, we’ll be delighted to take it out of the WNS queue, and we’ll root for you.)

- The Network reserves the right to reject any submission.  (As I’ve told several writers, we don’t really ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ submissions for WNS, in the traditional sense.  The only reasons we’d reject a submission are if it is gratuitously offensive, woefully off-topic, or embarrassingly awful.  Otherwise, we keep submissions in the queue for possible use in the future.)

-  Submissions will be considered for publication in a possible anthology.  By submitting their work to Writing the New South, authors agree to execute whatever steps are necessary in the event that their work is selected for such an anthology.  (This is still a very real possibility, so y’all keep submitting.)

I’ll say it again: Y’all keep submitting.  We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t want to read what y’all have to write about the time and place in which we live.  Writing the New South is, for the foreseeable future, an ongoing program, so there’s no deadline.  We have some outstanding submissions to choose from, but we’re always hungry for more.  If you have questions about Writing the New South, or have trouble uploading your work to the site, please e-mail me at ed@ncwriters.org.

Now quit reading, and get back to writing.

Due to the inclement weather affecting much of North Carolina (including my driveway; we could run Olympic bobsled trials on it), the postmark deadline for the 2010 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize has been extended to December 23.

Here again, for your reference, are the guidelines:

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The final judge for the 2010 award is novelist Sheri Reynolds. Reynolds graduated from Davidson College in 1989 and received her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992. She is the author of five novels. Her second novel, The Rapture of Canaan, was an Oprah Book Club selection. Her most recent novel is The Sweet In-Between (2008). She is professor of English and the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Eligibility and Guidelines

1. The Thomas Wolfe Fiction competition is open to all writers without regard to geographical region or previous publication.
2. Entrants should submit 2 copies of an unpublished fiction manuscript not to exceed 12 double-spaced pages.
3. Names should not appear on manuscripts but on a separate sheet along with address, phone number, e-mail address, and manuscript title.
4. Entries will not be returned.
5. An entry fee must accompany manuscripts: $15 for members of the NCWN, $25 for nonmembers. You may pay the member entry fee if you join the Network with your submission.

The winner is announced in April.

Send submissions, indicating name of competition, to:
Professor Tony Abbott
PO Box 7096
Davidson College
Davidson, NC 28035

Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.