Overview

The 2018 issue of the North Carolina Literary Review features North Carolina "on the map and in the news." It opens with an essay by Margaret Maron reflecting upon how her research trips across North Carolina while writing her Deborah Knott series introduced her to many of the treasures that put our state "on the map." For this issue, Sally Lawrence interviewed award-winning chef, restaurant owner, and food writer Vivian Howard, who has introduced her little postage stamp of Eastern North Carolina to the rest of the country with her television show A Chef's Life. And Sheryl Cornett interviewed Therese Anne Fowler, author of the novel Z, which was adapted into a television series, inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, one of many celebrities drawn to Asheville, North Carolina. In an interview with Allan Gurganus, Zackary Vernon asks the writer about political events that put North Carolina "in the news." In his essay, Bland Simpson expresses his concern about the state's water resources and beaches in an era of over-population, deregulation, and climate change denial. To both of these writers, activism on behalf of the state they love is not a choice for any of us. They remind us to protect the places we and vacationers to our state enjoy from those who would selfishly exploit our treasures for immediate profit with little thought for future generations. Other essays in the issue examine the evolving ending of Paul Green's The Lost Colony, the first and longest-running outdoor drama in the country; the influence of the Transcendentalists on Elizabeth City newspaperman W.O. Saunders; and, in the Flashbacks section of the issue, former North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell's analyses of the internationally set novels of Angela Davis-Gardner and tributes to Allan Gurganus given at the 2017 North Carolina Writers Conference. Spread throughout the issue, readers will find the winners and finalists of NCLR's three creative writing contests, the Doris Betts Fiction Prize competition sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network, the James Applewhite Poetry Prize, and the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize.