North Carolina Poet Laureate Kay Byer has selected Dr. Janice Moore Fuller’s third poetry collection, “Séance,” to feature during March on her segment of the N.C. Arts Council Web site. Fuller is professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Catawba College.
Fuller launched “Séance” at London’s Troubadour Club in the fall of 2007 when she was visiting professor of English at Harlaxton College, the British campus of the University of Evansville. 
Reading with Fuller was Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams. The Troubadour Club is a London institution where Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon all played in the ’60s.
In a recent review in Pedestal Magazine, JoSelle Vanderhooft writes that ” ‘Séance’ is a beautifully rendered book, and a necessary book in this age of photographic over-stimulation. Through the imagery of photography, Fuller provides not just a meditation upon memory and death, but a meditation upon how coming to terms with these things is essential in living a full life. Fans of the metaphysical poets will find much to like about ‘Séance,’ as will anyone who has ever resonated with Sontag’s famous statement about the nature of photography” that “All photographs are memento mori.”
In the latest issue of Review Revue, Phebe Davidson notes that “Fuller’s poems in ‘Séance’ insinuate themselves into the reader’s mind and mood, resurfacing at odd moments to send that reader scurrying back to the book. They explore with care and a certain deliberation life and (ah, yes!) the possibilities of afterlife that make the title ó ‘Séance’ ó resonate throughout.” 
Séance was published in 2007 by Iris Press.
Concord library speaker
Valerie Raleigh Yow, author of “Betty Smith: Life of the Author of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ ” will speak Sunday, April 6, 3 p.m. at Concord Public Library Auditorium, 27 Union St., Concord.
The event is sponsored by Concord Friends of the Library. Smith’s book captured the imagination of readers in 1943. Sixty years later, the character’s real-life stories are told in this biography of Smith, written by Yow.
Robert Anthony, curator of the N.C. Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills writes, “….Yow describes the struggles Smith faced in both her personal life and her writing career. …. A triumphant story of a talented, tenacious woman whose important place in American letters is more secure because of Yow’s excellent biography.”
Yow, a former history professor, is a psychologist and playwright who lives in Chapel Hill. Her first biography, “Bernice Kelly Harris: A Good Life Was Writing,” was described as “a wonderful biography that involves her reader in Harris’s life” by the Florida Historical Quarterly
For additional information, visit www.concord friendsofthelibrary.org.
National Library Week
The Stanly County Public Library will celebrate National Library Week April 10-18 with the semi-annual Friends of the Library book sale, book club, story times, open mic night and Food for Fines.
Open mic night will be Thursday, April 17, starting at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Albemarle library. Community members may come and read their original poetry or a favorite published poem. You must pre-register to read, by calling 704-986-3761.
Food for Fines is an opportunity to pay library fines and contribute to the community. For every non-perishable food item donated, the library will waive $1 of library fines, up to $10. All food will be donated to Stanly County Christian Ministries.
Visit any of the Stanly County libraries ó Albemarle, Badin, Norwood, Oakboro or Locust ó during National Library Week to get a special bookmark and pencil or tattoo.