Posted in Literature, tagged bright leaves, david shields, how literature saved my life, ross mcelwee, sherman's march on February 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“Ross McElwee‘s ‘Sherman’s March’ forever altered my writing life. By being as self-reflexive as it is, a heat-seeking missile destroying whatever it touches, the film becomes a thoroughgoing exploration of the interconnections between desire, filmmaking, nuclear weaponry and war, rather than being about only General Sherman…. “… The best nonfiction jumps the tracks, using its [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, Literature, tagged fairmont nc, joseph mitchell, nc writers, the new yorker, thomas kunkel on February 6, 2013 | 2 Comments »
“Several years ago… I began to be oppressed by a feeling that New York City had gone past me and that I didn’t belong here anymore. I sometimes went on from that to a feeling that I never had belonged here, and that could be especially painful. At first, these feelings were vague and sporadic, [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Literature, Tar Heelia, UNC History on December 11, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Hannukah, the Jewish festival of lights, offered pale competition for Christmas—puny candles against a dazzling tree, ‘Rock of Ages’ against the tyranny of carols and decorations that took over the stores, the radio, the schools, and the imagination of all my friends. Parents billed Hannukah as ‘better than Christmas,’ an unintentional error that placed a [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Literature, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on December 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Seen on the sea, no sign; no sign, no sign In the black firs and terraces of hills Ragged in mist. The cone narrows, snow Glares from the bleak walls of a crater. No. Again the houses jerk like paper, turn, And the surf streams by: a port of toys Is starred with its fires [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Literature, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Benjamin Filene’s curiosity about a children’s book in the North Carolina Collection led him in search of the story behind its creation and the individuals portrayed in it. And this weekend Filene, an historian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will share his discoveries during a presentation at the Orange County Public Library [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, Literature, New Books, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Congratulations to our library colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who are re-launching their website the North Carolina Literary Map today. The site includes 2,583 North Carolina authors and 4,808 titles set in real or fictional locations in North Carolina. The site’s creators note that their selection process was broad and inclusive. [...]
Posted in Literature, Tar Heelia on October 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Birthday Thomas Wolfe! The novelist was born in Asheville on this day in 1900. Though he left his native state after graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1920, his work was forever rooted in North Carolina and he remains one of our state’s most celebrated authors. Wolfe was a proud alumnus of [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, Literature, Tar Heelia on September 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
One-time Raleigh resident Tift Merritt is back in the Triangle today for a live performance at Carrboro’s Town Commons. And on October 2nd, she’ll release her fifth studio album. Merritt has already received some press attention in advance of the album’s release. And, in at least one interview, she’s talked about her love of writing. [...]
Posted in Literature, tagged bob dylan, bono, thomas wolfe on August 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Given [Jonah] Lehrer’s offenses, it is interesting that among the trickery in ‘Chronicles’ [Bob Dylan's 2004 memoir] are misattributions. In one section… Mr. Dylan appeared to take a phrase from the letters of Thomas Wolfe and put it in the mouth of U2’s Bono.” – From “Freewheelin’: Bob Dylan, Jonah Lehrer and the Truth,” an [...]
Literary pantheon: One Wolfe out, one Wolfe in?
Posted in Just A Bite, Literature, tagged andrew ferguson, commentary magazine, thomas wolfe, tom wolfe on March 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“I am old enough to remember when Thomas Wolfe seemed secure in the pantheon of 20th-century American writers, the equal, nearly, of Faulkner and Fitzgerald and Hemingway. He is gone from the pantheon today, and I doubt that Tom Wolfe gets asked about his kinship to Thomas Wolfe anymore. “The obscurity of Thomas is an [...]
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