North Carolina Literature in a Global Context
N C L R ONLINE
125
established May 18, 1996
A GREAT DAY FOR POETRY IN NORTH CAROLINA: FOUR “GLOBAL NORTH CAROLINA” POETS INDUCTED INTO THE NORTH CAROLINA LITERARY HALL OF FAME
2014 Induction Ceremony October 12, 2014
Evalynn Halsey
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities Southern Pines, North Carolina
by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAN G. HENSLEY
All four of the 2014 inductees into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame are poets, and all four are, by the definition that NCLR is using for this issue’s special feature section, “global” North Carolina writers. Two have, like so many of the writers in this issue (and the editor), moved to North Carolina from other states and made it their (our) home. The other two were born here, but have lived and traveled beyond the state’s borders. We are glad they decided that one can, indeed, come home again. Expressing her pleasure with being “inducted into this group of incredible North Carolina writers,” Betty Adcock reminded the induction ceremony audience, “You know I’m from Texas,” but quickly added, “originally. I’m pretty much pure Tar Heel now.”* This Texas native married Donald Adcock and moved to his native state, North Carolina, in 1957. “It looked enough like home to be very, very comfortable,” she told her audience. “I have found my place here, and I thank everyone in this state for what it has done for me,
*
Quotations are from remarks made at the North Carolina Literary
Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Southern PInes, NC, 12 Oct. 2014. Watch this ceremony online and read more about these and the earlier inductees on the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame website. ABOVE New inductee Betty Adcock at the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Southern PInes, NC, 12 Oct. 2014
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame
this ‘goodliest land.’” The induction ceremony took place outside of Weymouth Center where, Adcock noted, she had been one of “the first three writers ever to have a residency” (in 1979). She also remarked 2014 Inductees upon being mentored by Betty Adcock Guy Owen and supported RonAld H. BAyes by the Nor th Carolina JAki sHelton GReen sHelBy stepHenson editors who published her work, including Tar River Poetr y Founding Editor Peter Makuck and fellow inductees Ronald Bayes and Shelby Stephenson. In the years since Adcock’s first poetry collection, Walking Out (Louisiana State UP, 1975), was published, she has taught in several North Carolina colleges and universities, including Meredith College and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Duke University in Durham, Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, and Warren Wilson College in Asheville. Her awards include two Pushcart Prizes, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Hanes Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Roanoke-Chowan Award, the Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award, the Raleigh Fine Arts Award, a Fellowship in Poetry from the National
Evalynn Halsey
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame is a program of The North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Louisiana native MARGARET D. BAUER moved to North Carolina in 1996 and has been editor of NCLR since 1997. Her latest books are A Study of Scarletts: Scarlett O’Hara and Her Literary Daughters (University of South Carolina Press, 2014), which includes chapters on North Carolina novels Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and The Invented Life of Kitty Duncan by Kat Meads, and Paul Green’s The House of Connelly: A Critical Edition (McFarland, 2014).
COURTESY OF NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS’ NETWORK
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame