Schedule Schedule Schedule

There is a printable schedule now available on the website ww.cmlitfest.org (both on the home page and the schedule page.)

Also, your eyes do not deceive you. Bob Plott had been on Friday morning's schedule, but he is unable to attend because he's feeling under the weather. You can send him happy thoughts.

There are many other fine authors to hear Friday morning including young-adult author Monika Schroder, op-ed writer Zack Allen, poets Joseph Bathanti & Britt Kaufmann, novelists (and cousins somehow) Pamela Duncan and Charles F. Price, storyteller Sherry Lovett and Brenda Lunsford Lilly (who writes for both screen and stage). Yes, she's the one who wrote The Ballad of Tom Dooley and Along About Sundown which you may have seen at the Parkway Playhouse.

photo used with permission from MaryLee Yearick Photography

To read a recent review of Along About Sundown, click here.

Review of "Belonging" by Britt Kaufmann

Review written by Janice Willis Barnett, author of Unicoi and Limestone Cove.

I pick up Belonging by Britt Kaufmann and the book opens to “Hand-Me-Down Gift,” the poem on its center page. “Ahhh yes…,” I say to myself and re-relish reading this poem the narrator offers to her children: the gift of a childhood like her mother gave her, “refashioned” for them.

Giving to others via a refashioned life is one of the themes at the heart of Belonging. In “A Sturdy Weave,” a rag rug serves as the metaphor for the refashioned life of a grandmother “rolled out functional again” to “protect the next generation of toddling walkers from hardwood.” The poem speaks eloquently to an older woman’s sacrifice of time and a quiet life to care for her family.

“Mount Revelation” reveals other refashioned lives: the lives of mountain families driven off their land “to put soup in bellies” and the lives of the new landowners, who “have gated the way” to their second homes. Kaufmann uses the language of the King James Bible to guide the reader along the ridges of those who have “sold their own inheritance” to those who “failed to build an altar to God, so wend their way down Mount Revelation to sit in pews with their brothers and sisters.” The journey is unflinching, its end a revelation as the congregation

...joins the old quilter

who casts her eyes unto the hills,

sees those mansions through the eye

of her needle as she threads it to bind

together layers of a new comforter.

In this last stanza of “Mount Revelation,” there is a suggestion of reconciliation between the culture of the “old quilter” and that of the wealthy newcomers. The reconciling factor is the sacrament of faith. This same coming together of newcomer with the existing mountain culture is suggested in “These Lost Counties.”

It’s always hard hard hard work,

to make your way in here,

to live in these oldest mountains.

At the end of the poem, the narrator is “among kindred spirits of unlike minds.” The poem concludes with

Here, I find myself

in these Lost Counties,

and I am bound.

In “These Lost Counties,” the narrator has turned her life as a newcomer to western North Carolina’s mountains “into craft into art.” The result is reconciliation in this place “where kindred spirits of unlike minds . . . clear space to test our mettle against the isolation, set our own standards.”

This poet’s standards are measured by the heart; the spirit in her words like that in “Crocus Courage,” the first poem in Belonging. Take this short but spirited collection of poems to that place you go when you need your soul refreshed and let it renew you with the same courage as crocuses that “risk winter . . . and sleep through summer lazy, covertly plotting fresh color.”

Kicking off the Festival on Thursday at 7pm

On Thursday September 8, the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival will kick off the weekend with a locally produced documentary "The Day Carl Sandburg Died" about the important American poet. The free screening will be in the Community Room of the Yancey County Public Library at 7 p.m.

Carl Sandburg died in July of 1967, but director Paul Bonesteel finds his life story and his creative legacy as relevant and provocative as it was in 1916 when his "Chicago Poems" changed American poetry. “Labor unrest, global wars, socialism, immigration and race issues… this was the subject matter that fueled Sandburg for much of his poetry and writing that shocked the world,” comments Bonesteel. “The intensity of his work was over simplified later in his life. He was both an anarchist and a deeply patriotic American.”

"The Day Carl Sandburg Died" was more than six years in the making with a cast of more than twenty notable scholars, performers and Sandburg family members. Sandburg’s daughter Helga Sandburg Crile, Pete Seeger, Norman Corwin and the late Studs Terkel contribute to the film along with contemporary poets Marc Smith, Ted Kooser and others. Also contributing significantly to the film is Sandburg biographer and Winston Salem resident Penelope Niven.

This 84 minute film has been shown at the River Run International Film Festival, the Blue Wiskey Independent Film Festival, and received Honorable Mention at LA New Wave International Film Festival.

To see the entire weekend's schedule of events visit cmlitfest.org

For more about the film and its producers visit thedaycarlsandburgdied.com

Review of "Yancey County" by Elaine Dellinger and Kiesa Kay

Review by Janice Willis Barnett, author of Unicoi County and Limestone Cove.

Part of the appeal of an Images of America book lies in the unexpected photographs found amidst the usual family portraits and school groups. In this pictorial history by Elaine McAlister Dellinger and Kiesa Kay, one of my favorite such photographs is of three midwifes standing in front of a building with long rows of large windows. The brief caption beneath the picture tells us these women were sisters and the large white bag each one holds in her left hand contains the crochet hooks and other instruments they used to deliver babies. The building with the windows isn’t identified. This “appetizer” nature of the captions usually found in Arcadia pictorial histories is one of the things that make them so appealing. The more succinct the caption and provocative the picture, the more it stirs our imagination.

Dellinger and Kay’s book features photographs related to Yancey’s cultural history from the late 1800s to the present, including its legacy as a mountainous county rich in natural resources. Yancey’s relationship to its abundant waters is illustrated in pictures of its rivers and old bridges and mills. Images of mica mines, timber operations, and the old bowl factory from 1907 also help preserve the county’s resource history. Farm life from bygone days is pictured in the chapter titled, “Sweet Taters, Corn, and Tobacco.” The chapter titled “Down the Dirt Road” includes many photographs of families whose roots go way back in Yancey’s early history.

One of the distinctions of the book is the obvious care the authors took to include photographs portraying aspects of mountain religious life. The opening chapter features creek baptisms, old-time preachers, faith groups, and even Decoration Day celebrations.

Other features of Dellinger and Kay’s book that illustrate their efforts to include as many aspects of Yancey’s history as possible can be seen in images related to the Shirley Barnett Whiteside story. Whiteside’s admission to the school system ended segregation in the county before the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The book also contains a few images related to Celo, the alternative community founded by Arthur Morgan in 1937.

Dellinger and Kay have done well in their efforts to preserve in images and words this part of beautiful Yancey County’s history and heritage.

Dellinger will present her book and stories at the History Museum at 4:30 on Friday and Saturday.

Review of "Brooklyn Nine" by Alan Gratz

Reviewed by Luke Antinori, an 8th grader at Cane River Middle School who plays baseball and is an avid reader.

The Brooklyn Nine is a little untraditional in the way it’s written, because it’s told in 9 “innings.” Each inning tells the story of a generation in the same family’s history, starting in 1845, when a German boy stows away on a ship and goes to America to be with his uncle. The second generation is the

little German boy’s son, who is fighting in the Civil War. The seventh inning takes place in 1957, Brooklyn New York. A boy named Jimmy Flint gets into a fight over baseball cards with a bully who’s bigger than him. The eighth inning is dedicated to Michael Flint, who may or may not have thrown a perfect game on a warm summer day in 1981. The common line that prevails through time is each character’s love for America’s favorite pastime, baseball.

All throughout the book, someone from this family is connected to a piece of our nation’s history. Starting in the first generation, Felix Schneider helps stop the 1845 fire of Manhattan. His son is a Union soldier in the Civil War. In the fourth inning Walter Snider, a boy living in Coney Island, faces the issue of segregation. After that episode, the characters’ direct involvement in historic events become less and less until the 9th inning which has no tie-in to history.

Overall The Brooklyn Nine was an excellent book, and I would recommend it

to anyone over the age of 11 who enjoys the game of baseball. I really liked the fact that it had so many characters, and you got to learn all about them. I could see traits of their parents in them. The book made me feel like I had grown up with every single kid and I knew them very well. I read it cover to

cover in one sitting. That’s how good it is.

Gratz' most recent book is Fantasy Baseball.

Review of "Dogs" by Abigail DeWitt

Dogs a novel by Abigail DeWitt

Review by Joy Boothe

In the prologue DeWitt’s protagonist Molly tells us, “What breaks my heart is the begging, the shamelessness of a dog’s desire. A dog will follow you around, matching its pace to yours-only a little more eager-even after you’ve pushed it away. Say no like you mean it and it follows you with its eyes, whimpering, thumping its tale.” What breaks Molly’s heart about dogs will end up enlightening and breaking the reader’s heart about Molly.

Abigail DeWitt is a brave and as Lee Smith stated “extravagantly talented” writer. Like all really good stories Dogs has often startling layers of meaning along with humor that rings unfailingly true. Avoid gulping down this richly crafted novel. Sip slowly and much will be revealed. Molly Moore (self-proclaimed bad girl) is fourteen as the story begins. In Hebrew, Molly is the diminutive of Mary-also meaning wished for child-also meaning rebellion and bitter. The English meaning of Molly is “of the sea”. Dewitt indeed takes us diving as deeply as we are willing to go to look behind the many masks Molly puts on to survive emotionally unavailable, flawed and ultimately very human parents. Attempting to find her place amidst the chaos and often parallel struggles of her four siblings and best friend Becky-Molly while blessed with intelligence and what remains of her childhood innocence explores and escapes by playing in the yard with Buttercup her dog moving on heartbreakingly soon tothe escapes of her family and friends -sex, food, tobacco and alcohol amongst them. DeWitt’s strong narrative coupled with sensitivity and insight into her characters keeps Dogs from the stereotypes sometimes found in coming of age stories. Told in a series of flashbacks when as an adult and parent Molly begins to face the truths of her life she meets head on with one of her biggest challenges- how to come to terms with the knowledge that her father a highly respected judge has committed and kept hidden a heinous crime. “He’s dead himself now-he died in the crook of my arm this morning and now, if I want , I can prove what people only thought… .”

Set in the hot political and physical landscape of Texas in the 1970’s and ‘80s the heat generated byAbigail Dewitt’s Dogs will linger long after you put her book down.

The Secret Gardeners Critique Group

This critique group will present a panel discussion at the festival about how to form a critique group -- what they've learned from each other and how they support each other as they seek publication. This was first posted on Constance Lombardo's blog.

THE SECRET GARDENERS

Five years ago, I moved to Asheville, joined SCBWI and decided to form a critique group. I found another writer/illustrator with the same goal. We scheduled and advertised our first meeting. Asheville is full of artists and writers, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by the amount of people who showed up– ten, I think. A mix of picture book to YA writers and illustrators. Wow, I thought, this is going to be easy!

We worked out some logistics: we’d meet twice a month at our favorite local bookstore, Malaprops, we’d read our work and offer feedback at meetings, leaving the first 20 minutes for chatting (hopefully on book-related subjects!) And we would use the ‘sandwich’ rule - a positive statement about the writing first, then discuss what might need work, close with another positive statement.

Four years later, the last survivor from that first group to our current configuration is me. People moved away. One of us had twins. Someone else had surgery. Others decided they didn’t have time for the group. Change is part of life, right?

Over the years, we’ve had people show up once, after being told that a commitment was required to share work for feedback, and then never return. (We now have a rule that you must attend at least one meeting before you can share.)
We’ve had people show up only when they wanted to share their own work. (new rule: you must attend at least one of our twice a month meetings regularly to remain in the group)

We had one woman who left the group, saying we were all mean. (more conversation on keeping things positive)
We’ve had some intense chatters. (I’ve been guilty of this at times. Reminders about staying on-topic)
And we’ve had some serious personality clashes. New York personalities (myself and others) vs. Southern personalities. We’re still working on that one.

What have we done best over the years?

About a year ago, when our group hit eight committed writers and illustrators who attend and share regularly, we decided to close the group. Most of us are SCBWI members and it’s a requirement for any new members, when we do have an opening. We wrote down a list of Intentions and Rules, including some previously mentioned. We now post our work (especially longer YA or MG chapters) the week before we meet.

We’ve had local authors (Allan Wolf, Alan Gratz) and a local illustrator (Laura Bryant) speak to us about their journeys. A local editor (Joy Neaves) also spoke to our group. We’ve learned a lot from these meetings. And we picked a name. That was interesting. As we threw out ideas, I realized that I am attached to my concept of the group and that some of the names were just not acceptable to me. (New rule: any major change had to be ok’d by all members.) We made a list of potential names:

• Monkeys with Typewriters
• Make Way for Madeline
• Wonderlanders
• The Inksters
• The Secret Gardeners

We all voted and happily agreed. We are now The Secret Gardeners.

An illustrator from our group (Holly McGee) was pulled from the slush pile to illustrate her first picture book from Kane/Miller, Hush Little Beachcomber by Dianne Moritz. (Hooray!) Author/illustrator Kit Grady has a new book out, A Necklace for Jiggsy (Hooray!) Megan Shepherd’s YA novel The Madman’s Daughter helped her secure an excellent agent and will be published by Balzer & Bray in 2013, as the first of a three book deal (Yahoo!) And we recently had another published author join us, Karen Miller (Monsters and Water Beasts: Creatures of Fact or Fiction?) We’ve been published in our Carolinas chapter newsletter The Pen & Palette and in the SCBWI Bulletin, cheering each other on all the way. We celebrate each other through our successes and commiserate over our (numerous!) rejection letters. We share knowledge (agent lists) and ask questions (how to write an effective query?) We attend conferences together and hang out in the hotel bar talking late into the night. Sometimes we have pillow fights.
We’ve come to know each other, our work, our writing/illustrating styles, our strengths and weaknesses, and our dreams. We’ve come to appreciate each other, to understand what we’re each trying to accomplish, to be encouraging, and to offer the kind of feedback that makes us all work harder to deliver our best.

And we have fun! We went to see Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix together when it first came out. We’ve met for birthday celebration meetings at the Chocolate Lounge (which is as wonderful as it sounds!) We celebrated Megan’s recent three-book deal at a local Champagne bar.

The Secret Gardeners is more than a fabulous critique group. We are also a group of wonderfully supportive friends.