Season 7 – Engaging Line-Up of Talented Writers for Fall 2020
Season 7 of Charlotte Readers Podcast features 14 long-form episodes with 15 talented writers
Tune in every Tuesday from September 1st to December 1st, or whenever you like to listen to your podcasts after the release of each episode for the following engaging episodes:
Sept 1 Season Opener Dannye Romine Powell In the Sunroom with Raymond Carver
Award winning Charlotte poet and longtime book editor for the Charlotte Observer, Dannye Romine Powell, brings her many talents to the show with her fifth poetry book collection In the Room with Raymond Carver, published by Press 53.
Patricia Hooper, author of Wild Persistence calls the book “a treasure” and Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate and author of The 13th Sunday after Pentecost says that In the Sunroom with Raymond Carver, underscores Dannye Romine Powell’s “abiding reputation as a poet of breathtaking candor and precision, the consummate craftswoman, who painstakingly parses syllables into words as if sifting for gold.”
Sept 8 John Russell All the Right Circles
Prize-winning Raleigh novelist John Russell shares his latest novel, All the Right Circles, published by Rare Bird Books. Set in the 1990s in Raleigh, North Carolina, with action in Charlotte, too, the book explores themes of race, class, and money in a changing world of relations between men and women, society, business and politics across three generations.
Diana Spechler, novelist and New York Times columnist says: “All the Right Circles is reminiscent of an Updike novel, had Updike been southern — it reads like the best gossip, the kind relayed in hushed voices at the fanciest cocktail parties in North Carolina. It’s a compulsively readable, gorgeously written exploration of intimacy and of power.”
Sept 15 Rebecca McClanahan In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays
Award-winning Charlotte writer Rebecca McClanahan, author of eleven books, shares what life was like–what she saw, felt, heard, tasted and experienced–while living in New York City from 1998 through 2009. In the Key of New York City,published by Red Hen Press, covers everything from the sounds and wonders of the setting to events that changed the world and Rebecca’s own life.
Abigail Thomas, New York Times bestselling author, comments on Rebecca McClanahan’s powers of observation, saying: “Rebecca McClanahan has such an intensely curious, observant, and highly intelligent mind that her take on anything would be interesting,” and of the book, she says: “particularly absorbing.”
Sept 22 Kevin Winchester Sunflower Dog
Kevin Winchester, winner of the 2013 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and writing instructor at Wingate University, shares his novel, Sunflower Dog, published by SFK Press, an exploration of the many layers of life in a small, North Carolina town as residents try to find their place in the neo-gothic South.
New York Times best-selling author Ron Rash, compares Sunflower Dog to John Kennedy Tool’s masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, saying it is “a delightful novel by one of North Carolina’s best writers.”
Sept 29 Gail Peck 2020 Irene Blair Honeycutt Lifetime Award Winner
Gail Peck, the 2020 recipient of the Irene Blair Honeycutt Lifetime Achievement Award discusses her life’s work as a poet and shares readings from An Instant Out of Time, Within Two Rooms and other poetry collections.
Joseph Bathanti, former North Carolina Poet Laureate says he has “admired Gail Peck’s poems for thirty years—their precision and sensibility, gorgeous imagery, and taut, chiseled language that echoes long after the final syllable.”
Oct 6 Joe Mills Bleachers
Joseph Mills, author of six books of poetry and holder of a distinguished professorship chair in the Humanities at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, shares his book Bleachers: fifty-four linked fictions, published by Press 52, stories about what happens during youth soccer.
Jamie Rogers Southern, Bookmarks, says “I am not sure I have encountered a writer who can so completely, and continuously, blindside me with a smack of emotion as Joseph Mills always does. Reading several of these stories, I was nodding along, thinking yep, yep, yep . . . and then WHOA. I love the connections between the stories and how he perfectly captures life as a parent. This is simply fantastic.”
Oct 13 Lee Matalone Home Making
Lee Matalone, teacher of literature and creative writing at Clemson University, shares her debut novel, Home Making,published by Harper Perennial. It’s a story of three characters, woven together in a moving, beautiful narrative of home, identity, and belonging.
The New York Times Book Review calls the novel “[A] heady and somber debut” while author Scott McClanahan calls it “the debut novel of the year.” Weike Wang, author of Chemistry says that Home Making is “an intricate exploration of family and home, of mother and child, of friends, of women and written with both precision and style.”
Oct 20 Heather Bell Adams The Good Luck Stone
Award-winning novelist and Raleigh attorney, Heather Bell Adams, shares her second book The Good Luck Stone, published by Haywire Books. It’s a story that moves between the verdant jungles of the war-torn Philippines and the glitter of modern-day Savannah, where friendships new and old are tested. Along the way, the protagonist grapples with one of life’s heart-wrenching truths: You can only outrun your secrets for so long.
Julie Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author of “Perennial” calls “The Good Luck Stone” a “plot-perfect page turner…Adams has hit the sweet spot, mastering a literary tone with commercial pacing…a screen- worthy winner and a book club bullseye.”
Oct 27 Dixie Gamble Witch Hairs
Former Nashville music executive turned filmmaker and human rights activist, shares her true life story in Witch Hairs,published by Working Title Farm. Recording artist Pam Tillis says that “Dixie Gamble has never done a damn thing small and this memoir is no exception…brazenly admitting to experiences way, way past the realms of the everyday may make books about sex, drugs and rock and roll pale a little in comparison.”
Rodney Crowell, Recording Artist and Author of “Chinaberry Sidewalks” says that “Witch Hairs chronicles the soul journey of a childhood mystic, music business executive, extraterrestrial confidant, primitive culture documentarian, mental health and prison reform activist, adventurer, devoted mother, lover of one of the world’s finest musicians and published author. Dixie Gamble has been there, done that.”
Nov 3 Charlie Lovett Escaping Dreamland
New York Times bestselling novelist and playwright Charlie Lovett shares his recent novel, “Escaping Dreamland,” published by Blackstone Publishers. It’s a story set in the early 20th century in New York City, and explores historic New York and the lives of three young people writing series books for children (think The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew).
Liza Nash Taylor, author of “Etiquette for Runaways” says that “Lovett navigates skillfully between centuries while exploring interwoven themes of regret, unrequited love, loyalty, and ambition. Not since E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime has this era in New York been so beautifully captured.”
Nov 10 Kathleen Burkinshaw The Last Cherry Blossom
Award-winning Charlotte area writer Kathleen Burkinshaw shares her book, The Last Cherry Blossom,” a story that offers young readers insight into the Japanese culture, mindset, and daily life during WWII before the atomic bomb was dropped.
The book is based on Kathleen’s mother’s firsthand experience as a Hiroshima survivor and hopes to warn readers of the immense damage nuclear war can bring, while reminding us that the “enemy” in war is often not so different from ourselves. In 2018, Book Riot named the book one of “30 Fascinating Historical Fiction Books for Middle School Readers.”
Nov 17 Anthony Abbott 2020 Inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame
Award-winning Davidson NC poet and novelist Anthony “Tony” Abbott, a 2020 Inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, talks about his writing life and reads poetry from three of his award-winning chapbooks published by Lorimer Press: New and Selected Poems, If Words Could Save Us, and The Angel dialouges.
Of The Angel Dialogues, Joseph Bathanti, Poet Laureate of North Carolina 2012, says that “Abbott miters each poem into the next with the precision of a master carpenter, in language that moves seamlessly, often floating, from impressionism into a quirky vernacular narrative …” And Cathy Smith Bowers, Poet Laureate of North Carolina 2010-2012 says “this angel … is a double-tasking, sarcastic, Yeats-reading, quantum-leaping trickster …
Nov 24 Joy Callaway The Fifth Avenue Artists Society and Secret Sisters
Well-lauded Charlotte author Joy Callaway shares her women’s historical fiction books, The Fifth Avenue Artists Society and Secret Sisters.
The New York Daily News described The Fifth Avenue Artists Society as “the creative sisterhood of Little Women, the social scandal of Edith Wharton and the courtship mishaps of Jane Austen. . . . a delightful, and at times touching, tale of Gilded Age society and creative ambition with an inspiring heroine.” And RT Book Reviews calls Secret Sisters a “compulsive, feminist read…a rich drama showcasing the disparity between men and women, rich and poor, on a 19th century college campus.”
Dec 1 Christopher Davis Oath and Allison Hutchcraft Swale
Award-winning Charlotte poets Christopher Davis and Allison Hutchcraft, share their poetry books, Oath, published by Main Street Rag and Swale, published by New Issues Press.
David Trinidad says “there is a sharp, steel-like edge to the lines in Christopher Davis’s poems-so finely wrought are they, and attuned to ‘the brutality of fact,’ the limits of human interaction.”
Paisley Rekdal says “Hutchcraft examines the delicate balance between rapture and ravishment, in poems as ambitious as they are beautiful.”
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