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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2026
MAKING HISTORY: ANOTHER FIRST FOR CAROLE BOSTON WEATHERFORD award presentation remarks by Lorraine Hale Robinson There is always much to celebrate at the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association’s Annual Meeting and Awards ceremony. But 2025 marks the celebratory inauguration of a new “Lit and Hist” achievement award: the George Moses Horton Memorial Award for Significant Contributions to North Carolina Literature. The poet Horton (1798–1883) is also the central character in the forthcoming North Carolina film industry’s The Bard, a historical drama that mines North Carolina talent, has created jobs, and inspired new storytellers. Lit and Hist’s own Marjorie Hudson was an early consultant on the script. This new George Moses Horton award honors those who have made important literary contributions to the state and is presented to either individuals or organizations that exemplify the highest levels of literary achievement. The award promotes awareness of our state’s rich literary heritage and celebrates diverse voices and genres in the state’s literary community. Horton’s own poetry invites, frees, and inspires writers and audiences:
Author Award and North Carolina’s 2024 RoanokeChowan Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the prestigious Caldecott Medal. Weatherford’s substantial and lasting contributions to children’s literature are also recognized in this year’s Children’s Literature Legacy Award from the Association for Library Service to Children. How does Weatherford accomplish all this? She “mine[s] the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles that center on African American resistance, resilience, remarkability, rejoicing, and remembrance.” It is with sincere rejoicing that I announce Carole Michele Boston Weatherford as the inaugural recipient of Lit and Hist’s 2025 George Moses Horton Memorial Award for Significant Contributions to North Carolina Literature. n n n
Come Liberty, thou cheerful sound, Roll through my ravished ears! . . . Soar on the pinions of that dove Which long has cooed for thee, And breathed her notes from Afric’s grove, The sound of Liberty.
Those “cheerful sounds of liberty” certainly resonate in the literary works of the George Moses Horton award’s first recipient: Carole Boston Weatherford. Born in Baltimore, MD, Weatherford holds degrees from American University, the University of Baltimore, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her works include children’s and adult nonfiction, historical fiction, poetry, and poetic novels. She received the 2022 Coretta Scott King Illustrator and
LORRAINE HALE ROBINSON served as Senior Associate Editor of NCLR from 1998 to 2013, during which time she compiled the serialized Dictionary of North Carolina Writers and wrote numerous reviews, award stories, and sidebars. She continues to serve North Carolina’s literary (and historical) community via membership on the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association Executive Board.
ABOVE Title page and AND OPPOSITE cover of
two of Weatherford’s North Carolina-inspired picture books for children