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29 PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCAS CHURCH; COURTESY OF UNC PRESS
NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS ROOTED IN PLACE a review by Joanne Joy Marianne Gingher, ed. Amazing Place: What North Carolina Means to Writers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
JOANNE JOY is a native of Charlotte, NC, and teaches in the Honors College at UNC Charlotte. She is currently working on a project to document and preserve the cultural history of family recipes across North Carolina. MARIANNE GINGHER is the author of the novel Bobby Rex’s Greatest Hit (Atheneum, 1986), which received the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction in 1987 and was made into a television movie, and a short story collection, “Teen Angel” and Other Stories of Young Love (Atheneum, 1988). Both of these books received ALA Notable and Best Book awards. She is also the author of two memoirs, A Girl’s Life: Horses, Boys, Weddings and Luck (Louisiana State University Press, 2001; reviewed in NCLR 2002) and Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer’s Journey from Inklings to Ink (University of Missouri Press, 2008; reviewed in NCLR 2010). Gingher is the editor of another collection of North Carolina writing, Long Story Short: Flash Fiction by 65 of North Carolina’s Finest Writers (University of North Carolina Press, 2009). She is currently a professor at UNC Chapel Hill where she has been recognized for her teaching excellence. ABOVE RIGHT Marianne Gingher (standing) speaking at a book-launching event at the Motorco Music Hall in Durham; behind her on the stage, Michael McFee, Belle Boggs, Bland Simpson, Stephanie Griest, Michael Parker, Jill McCorkle, and Lee Smith
Marianne Gingher begins this collection of personal narratives by quoting Eudora Welty: “Place is where we put our roots, wherever birth, chance, fate, or our traveling selves set us down” (1). It is a fitting introduction, given North Carolina’s rich literary heritage, and reflects how the state offers the gift of place to writers, for both natives and those who are in the state for just a period of time. As Gingher points out, writers who have lived in North Carolina share “time spent soaking up the sensations of this place” (3), which inevitably finds a way from each one’s heart onto the page. In this new collection, twenty-one writers influenced by diverse experiences from across the state explain how their geographic roots have shaped their craft. Established writers along with relative newcomers contribute accounts that are as varied as the state’s geographic and cultural landscape. As a native North Carolinian, I especially appreciate the sincerity of the recollections as the writers share their profound experiences. The book is divided into three sections, each representing the regions of the state: “The Mountains,” “The Piedmont,” and “Down East and the Coast.”
Gingher explains that her goal was to find out why writers with ties to North Carolina think that the state produces so many writers. She wanted to know why their roots in this soil, temporary or permanent, were influential and everlasting, so much so that they provide a baseline for reference in writing. Welty’s belief that a writer’s experience fundamentally influences point of view is illustrated time and again in each of these stories. Contributors cite a wide variety of experiences through true stories that reflect each one’s unique voice. The pages are replete with details about influential educators, memories of family events, coming-of-age vignettes, the celebration of the power of nature, and homage paid to North Carolina writers who have come before. The timeline of these individual recollections span many decades, from Judy Goldman’s account of shopping in uptown Charlotte during the mid-twentieth century to newcomer Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s description of present-day Chapel Hill as a magical place. The writing is both entertaining and informative. Reading each narrative is like peering into a secret personal sphere of influence, yet they all