Roxboro, NC is hosting a community read about To Kill a Mockingbird. Recently the Person County Public Library asked me to discuss the book as my work as a Road Scholar with the North Carolina Humanities Council. I shared how Harper Lee’s seminal novel set the standard for what we’ve come to expect not only in a child-narrated story, but …
My eyes on ‘Watchman’
July 14 marked one of the biggest literary events of the year: release of Harper Lee’s other book, Go Set a Watchman. “Discovery” and publication of this earlier-than-To Kill a Mockingbird novel has spun the reading world into a dither. Publishing is about money. Publishers exist to stay in business. That’s why it’s called the publishing “industry” instead of the publishing …
Faith in Southern stories
Southern stories became near and dear to my heart soon after coming to North Carolina. We transplants should ask questions to set down roots, and over the years I’ve asked plenty of them. Why is it done this way? Why do you prefer that? Why is this so important? Before long, patterns emerge and much of what we hear as …