30
2012
NORTH CAROLINA L ITE R A R Y RE V IE W O N L INE
number 21
Flashbacks: Twenty Years of Echoes Margaret D. Bauer, Editor he plans an interview with Hart for the 2013 issue’s special feature section). Susan Laughter Meyers and Valerie Nieman, finalists in NCLR’s first James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition, have published poetry in earlier issues, too – and more of their poetry will appear in the forthcoming print issue. Announcing the award for the best new book by a children’s or young adult writer, given by North Carolina’s chapter of the American Association of University Women, reminds me each year of our 2006 issue’s special feature section on children’s and young adult literature, which I recommend to those of you with young readers around you to find out who – from somewhere right around the corner – your children might be reading. And finally, the other award story we have included in this section, the Hardee Rives Dramatic Arts Award, received by a Lost Colony “veteran,” reminds us that 2012 brings the seventyfifth anniversary of the 1937 premiere of Paul Green’s first symphonic outdoor drama, also discussed in NCLR’s 2009 drama issue. Tracing all of this Flashbacks section’s content to earlier appearances of the writers and subjects in our pages was made simple by the index section of our website, which NCLR’s staff likely uses more than anyone else, but which I am sure would be handy to our readers as well. The various indices, created and maintained by NCLR’s interns and editorial assistants, will tell you who has been interviewed, who is the subject of literary essays, whose books have been reviewed, what back issues you can find a writer’s poetry or fiction in, and a list of the writers included in the serialized “Dictionary of North Carolina Writers.” And if you notice from perusing these indices the absence of a favorite writer, from North Carolina’s literary past or present, we welcome you to alert us or, even better, to offer to fill in the gap. n
For the 1997 issue, interim editor Thomas Douglass invited several North Carolina writers to respond to works in the North Carolina Museum of Art. In 2010, NCLR Art Editor Diane Rodman arranged with the City Art Gallery here in Greenville to invite their artists to respond to poetry by James Applewhite. Read more about the resulting exhibit with the Applewhite poems appearing in this section. This collaboration with City Art Gallery is just one more in a long list of services Diane Rodman contributes as Art Editor, and I am certain the writers and artists whose work appears in our pages join me in feeling grateful for her generous contribution of time and talent. Finding art that complements the writing we publish has been a labor of love for Diane for four years now. She is such an astute reader that even as she reads the content in order to determine what images should complement it, she also helps me to edit the issue. This issue begins NCLR’s second decade, so it should be no surprise that the Flashbacks section is growing. More and more of the writers whose books are selected for review are return appearances to NCLR’s pages: Marjorie Hudson wrote for the first and tenth anniversary issues. Clyde Edgerton and Ron Rash have been interviewed, and their work has been discussed by literary critics. The 2011 Roberts Award winner announced in this section, Bland Simpson, has contributed to several issues – as has Jerry Leath Mills, who wrote the appreciation of Simpson for the award ceremony and NCLR. Minnie Bruce Pratt was discussed in the 2000 issue’s articles on the Feminary Collective, and another of her poetry collections was extensively reviewed (by regular NCLR book reviewer Christina Bucher) in 2006. Art Taylor reviewed John Hart’s three previous books in 2009 and returns to the subject in this issue (and
Photograph by Dawn Wainwright
Photograph by Alan Westmoreland; courtesy of the North Carolina State ARchives
Photograph by Dawn Wainwright