In-person events are back!
Scroll down for three exciting FREE events at Charlotte Lit

Tomorrow! March 4 at 6 p.m.

Poet Jessica Jacobs

A Poetry Reading & Conversation with Jessica Jacobs
Friday, March 4, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Charlotte Lit’s Studio Two (in-person)

Jessica Jacobs is a long-time Charlotte Lit faculty member, currently working with our Chapbook Lab, and has twice been a featured poet for 4X4CLT. She is the author of Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books), one of Library Journal’s Best Poetry Books of the Year, winner of the Goldie Award in Poetry from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for both the Brockman-Campbell and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and Julie Suk Award.

Free! Register Here

An avid long-distance runner, Jessica Jacobs has worked as a rock-climbing instructor, bartender, and professor, and now serves as the Chapbook Editor for Beloit Poetry Journal. She lives in Asheville, NC, with her wife, the poet Nickole Brown, with whom she co-authored Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire (Spruce Books / PenguinRandomHouse), and is at work on parallel collections of essays and poems exploring spirituality, Torah, and Midrash.

March 12: Special Saturday Happy Hour

What I Know Now, with Heather Newton

Saturday, March 12 — Author Heather Newton:
What I Know Now: Adventures & Misadventures in Writing & Publishing
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. in Charlotte Lit’s Studio Two (in-person)

"I've learned a lot," Heather Newton says, while writing four books (an anthology, two novels, and a novel in stories), published three ways (small, medium, and large press). In this community conversation at Charlotte Lit, Heather will share the most important things she's learned in writing and publishing — including seven things she wished she knew, then.

Free! Register Here

Heather Newton is the author of McMullen Circle, a novel in stories, and the novels Under the Mercy Trees and The Puppeteer’s Daughters (forthcoming from Turner Publishing July 2022). She's a co-founder of Flatiron Writers Room in Asheville.

March 16: A Community Read Conversation

Anna Jean Mayhew

Wednesdays@Lit: March 16 — Anna Jean Mayhew & Tomorrow's Bread
6:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Charlotte Lit’s Studio Two (in-person)

We're excited to welcome Anna Jean Mayhew to Charlotte Lit on March 16. Mayhew is the author of the featured title for this year's Library Community Read, Tomorrow's Bread. Mayhew will read from the novel, discuss its themes, and talk writing with the Charlotte Lit community.

Tomorrow's Bread is a richly-researched yet lyrical novel that explores the conflicts of gentrification — a moving story of loss, love, and resilience set in Charlotte's vibrant, predominantly-black Brooklyn neighborhood in 1961, just as the city plans to raze it. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses, but locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who's facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar.

Free! Register Here

PLEASE NOTE: Covid vaccination is REQUIRED for attendance at in-person Charlotte Lit events. If you haven’t already, please email a snap of your vaccination card to staff@charlottelit.org.

LIT/south Awards - Winners Announced!

Charlotte Lit this week announced the winners and finalists of our inaugural LIT/south Awards. $10,000 in prizes were awarded in four categories, with final judging by Ron Rash (fiction), Nikole Brown and Jessica Jacobs (poetry), Tara Campbell (flash) and Stephanie Elizondo Griest (nonfiction).

Special thank you & kudos to our members and faculty!

We received more than 450 entries, and we want to thank all the Charlotte Lit community who submitted their work. Here's a list of our members and faculty who won awards, or were recognized as a finalist or semi-finalist.

Dustin M. Hoffman — First Place, Fiction
Michael Banks — Third Place, Flash
Steve Cushman — Honorable Mention, Poetry

Finalists & Semi-finalists:
• Fiction — Mary Alice Dixon, Rebecca Jones, Tamela Rich, Jacqueline Parker, Michael Sadoff
• Poetry: Tina Barr, Barbara Campbell (twice), Jenny Hubbard, Richard Allen Taylor (twice), Lucinda Trew
• Flash: Rebeca Jones
• Nonfiction: Sue Goldstein, Virginia Ewing Hudson, Ashley Memory, Irma Quinn, Anne Schmitt, Kristin Sherman

Try These March Classes!

Novel Structures: Save the Cat, Hero’s Journey, & More

Tuesday, March 15, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. NOW VIA ZOOM

With Paul Reali. Every novel is a unique work, but there are a few common story structures that most novels follow. Humans have told stories for thousands of years, so it makes sense that we’ve come to like (and repeat) certain forms. In this session, you’ll learn: the simple five-part structure that underlies almost every story; the Hero’s Journey structure made famous by Joseph Campbell; and Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat,” with three acts and 15 “beats” that most films and novels share. And you’ll get to try these structures on your own novel project.

$45 members, $55 non-members • Six Spaces Left • Register

Flash 101: Fiction & Micro Essay

3 Sessions: Thursday, March 17, 24 and 31, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Virtual via Zoom

With Luke Whisnant. Flash is the genre for fast times, with hundreds of journals and websites publishing shorter and shorter work. In this three-week class we’ll look at some common misconceptions about flash (what it is, what it’s not); delve briefly into the history of short-form prose, including prose poetry and micro-essays; introduce six strategies for crafting short fictions; and end with suggestions for submitting your flashes for publication. We’ll read and analyze several model stories, learning to “steal like an artist,” and each meeting will include several prompts for new writing. Fiction writers, prose poets, and concise nonfiction writers are all welcome.

$135 members, $165 non-members • Four Spaces Left • Register

How to Read a Poem (and Maybe Write One)

2 Sessions: Tuesday, March 22 and 29, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m NOW VIA ZOOM

With Julie Funderburk. Explore the world of verse by learning to read poems with the eyes (and ears, nose, heart, and lungs) of a poet, and come away understanding what you missed in high school and college lit classes. Prose writers will gain a deeper appreciation of poetry and some inspiration—for ways to integrate poetic devices into their prose and to try out poetry for themselves. Poets will find their poetic vision sharpened and their founts replenished, and will be challenged to try some new creations.

$90 members, $110 non-members • Ten Spaces Left • Register

FIND ALL SPRING CLASSES HERE!

Tuesdays: Pen to Paper

Tuesdays we gather on Zoom for a writing prompt, community time, and sharing, led by Meg Rich, Kathie Collins, or Paul Reali. 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

More Lit Arts Action

Wing Haven Lecture Series 2022

Charlotte Lit is pleased to be a sponsor for Wing Haven's next lecture series, with 12 weekly events from January to March. Here's a selection of upcoming events featuring best-selling authors and their books. All are on a Thursday, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

TODAY! Mar. 3: Devotion: Diary of an Appalachian Garden, with Mignon Durham and Nancy Duffy

Mar. 24: Cultivating Place: The Earth Is In All of Our Hands, with Jennifer Jewell

Mar. 31: A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds, with Scott Weidensaul

Find the rest of the series here!

Charlotte Writers Club

A Century of Shared Passion: Coming to Know the Not-Known in Dialogue on the Page, with Larry Sorkin. March 5 & 12, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. via Zoom. This two-session workshop is part of CWC's 100th anniversary celebration. Free of charge for CWC members, $50 for non-members.

Monthly Meetings, 6:30 p.m., Tyvola Senior Center, 2225 Tyvola Road

• March 15: Jinna Kim: Inspiration, Creative Energy…They’re All Around You!
• April 19: Lea Graham: From the Outside In or the Inside Out: Organizing Your Book of Poems
• May 17: Judy Goldman: Conquering Self-Doubt When You Sit Down to Write

Find all CWC events at their website

Friends of Lit

Tonight: Sherry O’Neill, author of the memoir, Strong at the Broken Places, and an accomplished painter, will read and sign her book, and discuss the paintings that accompany it, at Sozo Fine Art Gallery, Thursday, March 3, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Meredith Ritchie in Conversation with Paula Martinac, Tuesday, March 8, 7:00 p.m. at Park Road Books. Ritchie is the author of the new novel Poster Girls, which had its origins in Charlotte Lit's Authors Lab. Martinac is a Charlotte Lit faculty member and was Ritchie's Authors Lab coach. She's the author of the new novel Dear Miss Cushman. Info

Queens University Friends of the Library welcome Jason Mott and Erica Ferencik to this year's Conversations with the Authors (Monday, March 7, 6:30 p.m.) and Book & Author Luncheon (Tuesday, March 8, 11:30 a.m.). Info

An Evening with Natasha Trethewey, former U.S. Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Thursday, March 17, 7 p.m., Elliott University Center Auditorium at UNC Greensboro. Hosted by the UNCG MFA Program in Creative Writing. Free and open to the public. Reading will be followed by a reception and book signing. Info

What's Lit

Things We Like This Week

WHAT TO CELEBRATE: Charlotte Lit members swept this year's Charlotte Writers Club Nonfiction Contest. First place: Lucinda Trew for "Mothers and Mirrors." Second place: Elizabeth Gaines for "Don't Go Changin'." And Third place: Lynn E. Williams for "Parallel Universe."

WHAT TO BLOG: This week's Storied Charlotte blog focuses on the public library's Community Read program.

WHAT TO POD: In episode 284 of Charlotte Readers Podcast, host Landis Wade visits with Tammy Euliano, author of Fatal Intent, a medical thriller. Charlotte's Kathy Reichs, New York Times best-selling author of the Temperance Brennan series, says: “Medical suspense as sharp as it gets. Euliano is off to a good, no, a brilliant start.”

Opportunities

Pedestal Magazine will be accepting submissions of poetry during a short open period. Five poems will be accepted and subsequently published along with 4-6 reviews in Pedestal 89.5. No restrictions on theme, style, length, or genre. Please submit up to 5 poems and include all work in a single file.
Open for submissions: February 28 – March 4. Info

2022 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction from Press 53 is now open. First Prize: $1,000 in each category, publication, and Pushcart Prize nomination. Judges: Poetry: Faith Shearin, Short Fiction: Jubal Tiner. Deadline March 31. Info

2022 Brockman-Campbell Book Award Competition, sponsored by the NC Poetry Society, is open. The contest is open to poets who published a book-length volume of poetry in 2021. Entrants must be native-born North Carolinians or current residents who have lived in North Carolina for at least three years at the time of their book’s publication. An entry must be a first edition by a single author. It must contain 20 or more pages of poetry, and it must have a 2021 copyright date. Poets may submit their own books, or publishers may submit books on behalf of the poets. Deadline May 1. Info

CHARLOTTE LIT'S MISSION is to celebrate the literary arts by educating and engaging writers and readers through classes, conversations, and community.

Charlotte Lit is a community, open to all. Through our programming and practices, we consciously reach out to non-majority and under-represented groups and individuals.

— Charlotte Lit's Statement of Inclusivity, adopted by our Board of Directors