The North Carolina Poetry Society’s “Celebrating Poets” Fall Meeting will be on Saturday, Sept. 20, beginning at 9:15 a.m. at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities at 555 E. Connecticut Ave. in Southern Pines.
This free event is open to the public and features poetry readings by 2008 Brockman Campbell Book Award winner Becky Gould Gibson, honorable mention winners, winners of the NC Writers’ Network’s Randall Jarrell Poetry Contest and open mic participants.
The afternoon features an information/discussion session with N.C. press representatives M. Scott Douglass from Main Street Rag, Kevin Watson and Sheryl Monks from Press 53 and Tom Davis from Old Mountain Press.
The day concludes with a reception honoring the award-winning poets, book signings and the opportunity to mingle with poets, publishers, editors and lovers of poetry.
McCanless to sign books Sept. 20
Local author Janet McCanless will sign copies of her newest novel, “The Case of the Doomed Diplomat: A Beryl’s Cove Mystery,” on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2-4 p.m., at Literary Bookpost. This is McCanless’ second Beryl’s Cove mystery, following “Beryl’s Cove and the Elvis Man.” Both novels will be available at the signing. Literary Bookpost is at 119 S. Main St. in Salisbury. For additional information about this signing and future events call 704-630-9788.
Author at Stanly Library
The Friends of the Stanly County Public Library will feature Susan Gregg Gilmore, author of “Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen” at the annual author dinner Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Stanly Regional Medical Center’s Family Education Center. Tickets are $12 for friends and $15 for non-members.
There will be a dinner, a talk by Gilmore and a book-signing after the talk. Her book will be available for purchase.
Tickets can be bought at the main branch of the public library at 133 E. Main St. Albemarle. Please call 704-986-3755 for more information.
Tickets must be purchased by Sept. 22.
Gilmore has written for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. She lives in Nashville, Tenn., with her husband and three daughters. This is her first novel.
Two win honorary book awards
NEW YORK (AP) ó Barney Rosset, the publisher and First Amendment defender whose battles on behalf of Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer” and other explicit works helped overturn U.S. censorship laws, has won an honorary National Book Award for “Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.”
Maxine Hong Kingston, the Chinese-American author best known for “The Woman Warrior,” a fictionalized memoir that became a model for other immigrant writers and is taught on campuses nationwide, was awarded a medal for “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.”Rosset, 86, and Kingston, 67, will collect their prizes Nov. 19 at the 59th annual National Book Awards ceremony.
Rosset, a leading advocate of avant-garde and political writings, he also released work by Malcolm X, Che Guevara and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Kingston, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in Stockton, Calif., and has won a National Book Critics Circle and a National Book Award for the memoir “China Men.”
She has also written “The Fifth Book of Peace,” “Tripmaster Monkey” and “Through the Black Curtain.”
Previous winners of honorary National Book Awards include Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth.