Quick Snippets of N.C. Literary News…

…and neither item involves a book being published. Just catching up on things here, some of it a few days old.

First up, Amazon.com cut ties with North Carolina business and individuals taking part in its often controversial affiliate program — a proactive move to dodge changes in sales tax laws currently under consideration in the General Assembly. The Wall Street Journal weighed in here a couple of days ago — and just this afternoon covered a similarly unfolding situation in Hawaii. A story worth following and, obviously, continually developing.

Second, about ten days ago, Martha Waggoner, a Raleigh-based AP writer, reported on the recent legal and personal troubles of novelist Kaye Gibbons, author of the Oprah Book Club picks Ellen Foster and Charms for the Easy Life and not only an old friend of Metro Magazine (under whose aegis I write this blog) but also a friend of mine whom I’ve interviewed on more than one occasion. Gibbons is a gifted writer, no doubt about that, and we wish her the best during this dark  and difficult chapter.

Romantic Crime Films Part II In Mystery Scene

The new issue of Mystery Scene magazine has just been released, and I was pleased and honored that “Love Bites,” part two of my survey of top-twenty romantic crime films, not only stands as the main cover story but also earned the center-section spot within the magazine, featuring some beautiful full-color stills and poster images from films including Sunrise, Vertigo, Bonnie and Clyde, Basic Instinct and Slumdog Millionaire. And the issue offers great articles throughout, including Oline Cogdill on Tom Rob Smith, Ed Gorman interviewing The Rap Sheet‘s J. Kingston Pierce (one of the first stops on my own morning blog-reading agenda), Kevin Burton Smith with some recommendations from “mystery fiction’s second wave of feminism,” and Jon L. Breen reviewing, among other reference books, John Buchan: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction. A don’t-miss issue, even if I say so myself.

N.C. Events: Jenkins, Zellner, and Deaver, Plus The Dance Band from Deacontown

One of this weekend’s top literary events in North Carolina has already gotten a plug earlier this week, when an interview with Emyl Jenkins appeared on this site. Jenkins will kick off the tour of her new Sterling Glass mystery, The Big Steal, tonight — Friday, June 26 — at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. And for anyone who already has Friday evening plans, Jenkins will be reading again on Sunday at McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village.

But she’s not the only author worth catching over the next few days. Tonight she has stiff competition from Bob Zellner, discussing his book, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop. And on Wednesday, July 1, Jeffrey Deaver brings his latest crime novel, Roadside Crosses, to the Barnes and Noble at Brier Creek Commons in Raleigh.

On the lighter side, however, and with a local twist (or shag, more accurately), two bookstores will be hosting N.W. “Red” Pope this weekend The Dance Band from Deacontown, a memoir about the 12-piece orchestra The Southerners, formed at Wake Forest College in the 1950s and going on the road to perform for “college, high school and military dances, festivals, special occasions and ‘shag-dancing’ beachgoers.” Red was the drummer (and I think it’s a rule somewhere that the drummer always has the best stories). He’ll be at McIntyre’s Books on Saturday, July 27, and down in Wilmington at Pomegranate Books on Sunday the 28th. 

New Stories At SmokeLong Quarterly

On the heels of my own fiction publication earlier this week, I’m pleased also to celebrate and recommend two new flash pieces at SmokeLong Quarterly.

My wife, Tara Laskowski — the first time I’ve called her that in print! — continues her year as the Kathy Fish Fellow at SmokeLong with a story significantly different in style and approach from “The Hamster” (discussed here), her last piece for the journal. “A Minor Setback” draws on a fantastic element to explore the changing relationship between a man and his sister, both grown now and growing apart. In the same issue, Brandon Wicks — not only one of our best friends but also a groomsmen at our recent wedding — offers up a similarly surreal tale in “Northern Migration,” about a man slowly selling off his heritage bit by bit. Both pieces are provocative and, of course, highly recommended from these quarters. (Even without my own bias, I think you’ll agree that these are some fine stories.)

Festival News Across Two States

As part of my various jobs, I keep tabs on two literary festivals in the Carolinas and Virginia — and both have breaking news.

Jill McCorkle

The North Carolina Literary Festival has just announced a terrific addition to its line-up. Authors Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle will join musicians Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman for an evening celebrating the highly acclaimed musical Good Ol’ Girls, which debuted as a work-in-progress at the first NCLF in 1998 and recently made its television premiere on UNC-TV. Smith and McCorkle will read and discuss selections from their fiction, works which first inspired the show, and Berg and Chapman will perform songs from the musical itself. The September 12 event, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be sponsored by Metro Magazine, under whose aegis I write this blog. For more information on the event and on the entire festival, September 10-13, check out the NCLF website here. 

Rae Armantrout

Up in Virginia, Fall for the Book has announced a large slate of poets who will be appearing over the week-long festival, September 21-26 at George Mason University and at locations throughout Northern Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. Headlining the list are two seminal “language poets,” Rae Armantrout and Ron Silliman (the latter also the author of a tremendously successful blog on contemporary poetry), and nearly a dozen more poets are included so far — among them one of my own new favorites, Charles Jensen, a fascinating wordsmith and fine blogger in addition to his work directing The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. For more information on Fall for the Book, check out that festival’s website here.