NCLR hits milestone with 20th issue in 2011
The North Carolina Literary Review (NCLR) celebrates a significant milestone – its 20th issue – this summer when the literary magazine makes its way to subscribers and independent bookstores across the state.
Pictured above is the cover of the 20th issue of NCLR. (Contributed photo)
Published by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, NCLR has won numerous awards in its 20 years—most recently from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals in 2010 for Best Journal Design.
The 2011 special feature section focuses on environmental writing in North Carolina and features essays by award-winning writers such as David Cecelski, Jan DeBlieu, and Bland Simpson; poetry by James Applewhite, Gerald Barrax, and Allison Hedge Coke, among others; and interviews with environmental writers David Gessner and George Ellison. Each piece is complemented – in color for this special milestone issue – with art and photography from North Carolina artists.
“The environment is something that pulls all the diverse regions of our state together,” said NCLR Art Editor Diane Rodman. “Each region has its own challenges and threats, but also its own beauty – beauty that needs to be protected.”
In her introduction, NCLR Editor Margaret Bauer notes that the Gulf oil spill convinced her that featuring writing about the environment is crucial and timely. Contributors to the special feature section focus on the changing environment of North Carolina and the impact upon the lives and livelihoods of the state’s residents. Complex issues such as industrial and residential development, population growth, and forces of nature are covered in this 20th issue. Bauer is also professor of English at ECU.
Following the special feature section of the issue, the Flashbacks section includes several book reviews, including a review of new collections of poet A.R. Ammons, whose poetry appeared regularly in the early issues of NCLR; a review of three new anthologies of North Carolina writing; and reviews of novels by Charles Dodd White and Warren Rochelle.
In the issue’s North Carolina Miscellany section, Thomas Douglass examines the writing life of Chapel Hill author Richard McKenna, and McKenna’s short story “The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench” is reprinted in full. An interview with novelist Michael Malone by Art Taylor; the winning story of the 2010 Doris Betts Fiction Prize, “As Breaks the Waves Upon the Sea,” by Robert Wallace; and more poetry also appear in this section of the issue. More book reviews are included in this section, including a review of a reprint edition of Guy Owen’s novel “Journey for Joedel,” winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh award in 1970, and a review of the 2010 Raleigh award winner, “By Accident,” by Susan Kelly.
The cover art for the 2011 issue is by Joan Mansfield, a professor in the ECU School of Art and Design. More of Mansfield’s art appears within the issue. NCLR’s Art Director Dana Ezzell Gay, professor of art at Meredith College, designed the cover. Gay, along with Pamela Cox and Stephanie Whitlock Dicken, designed the content of the issue.
For a complete table of contents for this issue, subscription and purchase information, and to find out about upcoming publication events, including the 2011 Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming, which will feature several of the writers whose work appears in this issue, go to www.nclr.ecu.edu.
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For additional information contact Margaret Bauer at (252) 328-1537 or bauerm@ecu.edu.