Linda Flowers Literary Award 2017

The Linda Flowers Literary Award is open for submissions until June 16!

Linda Flowers was a trustee of the North Carolina Humanities Council from 1992-1998.  After her death in 2000, this award was set up in her honor.  The recipient will be awarded $1500 and a stipend for a Writer's Residency at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, NC.  Submissions should be original and unpublished works of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry that relate to our state in a tangible way.  For further details, please visit here.  Happy writing!

http://www.nchumanities.org/content/2017-linda-flowers-award-details-and-guidelines

Us at NC Writers' Network Spring Conference!

Greetings!  On Saturday, April 22, the North Carolina Literary Map had a wonderful time hanging out at the Spring 2017 NC Writers' Network Conference held in Greensboro, NC.  What fun it was to speak with NC authors!  We enjoyed seeing plenty of awesome faces both old and new.  A great time was had by all!  📕📗📘📙📚📖

National Poetry Month 2017

This week, April 9-15, is National Library Week!  This annual event is sponsored by the American Library Association and is observed by libraries across the United States.  The entire month of April is also known as National Poetry Month, which was started by the Academy of American Poets.

The NC Literary Map maintains a specific genre just for North Carolina Poetry, which includes well over one hundred titles.  Our oldest-known work is "The Head of Medusa", published in 1827 by Robert Potter.  Robert Morgan holds the most recent spot with "Dark Energy", published in 2015.  In between are dozens upon dozens of fascinating poems such as "Possum", published in 2004, and "The New Day", published in 1964, by current and former NC Poet Laureates, Shelby Stephenson and Samuel Ragan, respectively.

Interested in learning more?  Then please check out these books at your local library or bookstore!  Be sure to thank and recognize your local librarians and libraries!  Enjoy your reading!  Happy Library Week and National Poetry Month!

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-Ragan-Marsha-Warren/dp/0932662943/ref=la_B000APFVJU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491410203&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Energy-Poems-Penguin-Poets/dp/014312806X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491410485&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+morgan+dark+energy

https://www.amazon.com/Possum-Bright-Press-Poetry-Chapbook/dp/1892471221

The Airlie Gardens

Spring is here!  Flowers are in bloom and trees are budding.  Our gardens and roadsides are ablaze with color.  The 70th annual NC Azalea Festival is happening this weekend, April 5-9, in Wilmington.  North Carolina has several historic, maintained public gardens across the state, including the Airlie Gardens, which are also located in Wilmington.  These famous gardens have been the site of weddings, television and movie settings, and visitors from around the world.

Wilmington native and local historian Susan Taylor Block wrote about the history of these gardens in the aptly-titled, "Airlie: The Garden of Wilmington".  Kids young and old will enjoy a picture book full of paintings from places within the gardens written by Anne Russell.  The book's title captures a child's sense of wonder: "The Mystical Magical Amazing Fantastical Gardens of Airlie".

Do you want to know more?  Then please check out these books at your local library or bookstore!  Happy reading (and sightseeing)!

  

https://www.amazon.com/Airlie-Wilmington-Susan-Taylor-Block/dp/0971711208

http://www.chapelhillpress.com/product/the-mystical-magical-amazing-fantastical-gardens-of-airlie/

http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20160504/years-of-love-go-into-childrens-book-about-airlie-gardens

NC Writers' Network 2017 Spring Conference

The North Carolina Writers' Network 2017 Spring Conference is coming up on April 22!  Fred Chappell, a North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee, as well as an award-winning novelist and poet, will give the keynote address.  Other writers and professors will teach and lead various classes in this all-day event held in the MHRA building on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro campus.  For more information, please check out the NC Writers' Network website.  Preregistration is currently open until April 16.  Spaces are filling up fast so sign up now if you are interested in attending!  We hope to see you there!

http://ncwriters.org/a%20href=http:/ncwriters.org/programs-and-services/conferences/8425-sc17

Ray Suarez Coming to UNCG!

Critically-acclaimed author and journalist Ray Suarez is coming to the Elliott University Center at the UNC-Greensboro campus! The author will be the guest speaker at the Friends of the UNCG Libraries' annual dinner on the evening of March 29. Please visit the Friends of the UNCG Libraries' webpage for more information, including how to purchase tickets for the event. Do not miss your chance to meet this thought-provoking writer!

http://uncgfol.blogspot.com/2017/02/politics-media-and-information-evening.html

NC Bluegrass Connections

Bluegrass music.  Banjos and fiddles.  Clogging and swing dances.  What do all of these aspects have in common?  The mountains of Western North Carolina.

For generations, music and dance has been a part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of NC.  Folklorist Fred C. Fussell details many of these traditions, including specific locations, in "Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina".  Author Patricia A. McAfee focuses more on highlighting the musicians, both well-known and under-recognized, who performed in churches, barns, and many other places in "Western North Carolina Musical Legacies".

Interested in discovering even more about the musical heritage and history of our state?  Then please check out these books and more at your local library or bookstore!  Happy reading (and listening)!

 

http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=3258

https://www.amazon.com/Western-North-Carolina-Musical-Legacies/dp/1681977141