NCLR 2019 explores African American literature
The 2019 issue of the North Carolina Literary Review celebrates African American literature of the Old North State.
Readers will be introduced to some of North Carolina’s newer award-winning writers, like Stephanie Powell Watts, and learn more about Randall Kenan, a recent inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Poet Glenis Redmond, who began her writing career while living in Asheville, and novelist Jason Mott, who teaches at UNC Wilmington, are also interviewed. And the feature section includes poetry by Redmond, as well as Amber Flora Thomas, L. Teresa Church and Kevin Dublin, and essays on George Moses Horton, Harriet Jacobs, Charles Chesnutt and C. Eric Lincoln.
According to NCLR Editor Margaret Bauer, the special feature topic inspired more submissions of literary criticism than any previous topic and those essays selected for publication represent a range of critical perspectives: ecocritical, feminist, biographical, political, religious, cultural and reader response.
Bauer said NCLR is proud to publish an essay by renowned literary scholar Trudier Harris and to introduce new literary scholars like DeLisa Hawkes. “For Dr. Harris’ essay on Charles Chesnutt, original illustrations were commissioned from an ECU School of Art and Design 2018 graduate, Paula Jordan-Mayo, and NCLR obtained permission from the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington to use images of slave poet George Moses Horton illustrated by the esteemed North Carolina artist Claude Howell,” she said.
The issue’s cover, designed by NCLR Art Director Dana Ezzell Lovelace, features composites created by Chapel Hill fine art photographer Barbara Tyroler, inspired by photographs of North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green’s daughter Imani, who passed away in 2009.
Inside the issue, works by renowned African American artists, including John Biggers and Ivey Hayes, complement much of the content.
Other sections include the 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize winner by Nancy Werking Poling, the 2018 Linda Flowers Essay Prize winner by Jennifer Brown, and the 2018 James Applewhite Poetry Prize winner by Catherine Carter, as well as several finalists from the latter competition. New poems by Applewhite, and an essay on journalist/poet Zoe Kincaid Brockman by Rebecca Duncan, with Lyn Triplett, also are featured.
NCLR is produced at East Carolina University, which received funding from a North Carolina Arts Council grant for the 2019 print and online issues. Additional funding was provided by ECU, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, and the North Carolina Humanities Council.
NCLR is sold in independent bookstores across the state. For subscription information, visit www.nclr.ecu.edu/subscriptions. A two-year subscription will include the 2020 issue, which will feature North Carolina expatriate writers.
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Contact: Margaret Bauer, NCLR editor, bauerm@ecu.edu
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