The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2019 Fall Conference, November 8-10 in Asheville, is a weekend to celebrate the written word. We always say, only partly in jest, that you better bring an extra suitcase along, in order to cart home all the books and schwag you’re going to want to inevitably buy!
We’ve been introducing our exhibitors, five at a time, over the past week. (Here’s installment 1, and 2 is here.) Here are five more!
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe (www.malaprops.com)
Malaprop’s is the offical bookseller of the NCWN 2019 Fall Conference. An independent bookseller located in downtown Asheville, Malaprop’s carries a carefully curated selection of books for adults, children, and young adults, as well as a large array of gift items. Founded in 1982 by Emoke B’Racz, veteran staff-member Gretchen Horn became the majority owner in January, 2019. Malaprop’s maintains a lively events calendar featuring regional and national authors. Attendees of the NCWN 2019 Fall Conference will be able to buy books by conference faculty at the Malaprop’s table, on-site at the conference. Subscribe to Malaprop’s newsletter here. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and visit them on the web.
Morningstar Law Group (www.morningstarlawgroup.com)
Morningstar Law Group is a law firm with offices in Raleigh and Durham, NC that focuses on legal services for businesses and entrepreneurs. Attorney Mitch Tuchman has taught at several NCWN conferences. He focuses on three key areas: Dispute Resolution; Copywright Opinions; and Negotiations/Transactions. In May, 2018, Mitch and his team at Morningstar assisted Holloway Literary with the negotiation of a motion picture option for a novel, Not Her Daughter, by Rea Frey, one of the agency’s clients. Mitch understands copyright issues from the author’s perspective because he has been both a writer and publisher himself. Mitch writes and speaks frequently on copyright law, recently about the nine unsuccessful plaintiffs who sued James Cameron, claiming his motion picture Avatar infringed their works. Morningstar Law Group is on Facebook, Twitter, and the World Wide Web.
North Carolina Literary Map (www.library.uncg.edu/dp/nclitmap)
The mission of the North Carolina Literary Map is to highlight the literary heritage of the state by connecting the lives and creative work of authors to real (and imaginary) geographic locations. Through the development of a searchable and browseable data-driven online map, users are able to access a database, learning tools, and cultural resources, to deepen their understanding of specific authors as well as the cultural space that shaped these literary works. The NC Literary Map also offers apps for literary walking tours. There are three literary walking tours for Asheville, including one for Buncombe County; another for Zelda Fitzgerald; and a third focusing on Thomas Wolfe. The NC Literary Map is on Facebook, Twitter, and you can visit them on the web.
North Carolina Literary Review (www.nclr.ecu.edu)
Published since 1992 by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the North Carolina Literary Review facilitates the annual Doris Betts Fiction Prize for the North Carolina Writers’ Network and sponsors the annual James Applewhite Poetry Prize. The most-recent issue, 2019 (#28), spotlights North Carolina African-American Literature. Features include an interview with NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee Randall Kenan; an interview with Jason Mott, who has taught at a past NCWN Conference; an interview with Stephanie Powell Watts, who judged the 2018 Doris Betts Fiction Prize; and poems by L. Teresa Church, Kevin Dublin, Glenis Redmond, and many more. NCLR publishes interviews and literary criticism about North Carolina writers and high-quality poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction by North Carolina writers or set in North Carolina. Their definition of a North Carolina writer is anyone who currently lives in North Carolina, has lived in North Carolina, or uses North Carolina as subject matter. Follow them on Facebook and learn more on their website.
North Carolina Poetry Society (www.ncpoetrysociety.org)
The North Carolina Poetry Society was founded in 1932. With more than 350 members from North Carolina and beyond, NCPS is an all-volunteer organization devoted to poets and lovers of poetry. The Poetry Society holds regular meetings four times a year in Southern Pines at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities. In addition, NCPS sponsors annual contests for adults and students, which offer cash prizes and award certificates; the annual Poet Laureate Award, judged by the state’s poet laureate; the annual Brockman-Campbell Book Award, recognizing the best book published by a North Carolina poet; and the annual Lena M. Shull Book Award, selecting for publication the best full-length unpublished poetry manuscript by a poet living in North Carolina, where the wining manuscript is published by St. Andrews University Press, and the winning poet leads a workshop and gives a reading at Poetry Day Hickory in April. In 2003, the NCPS Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, where three distinguished North Carolina poets are selected annually to mentor student poets in the eastern, central, and western regions of the state. Now in its 9th year, this program is thriving as a significant expansion of NCPS outreach. They’re on Facebook, Twitter, and on the World Wide Web.
Pre-registration for the NCWN 2019 Fall Conference is open through November 1.