by Patrick Dollar
Since the state has been quarantining in place for the last eleven months, the North Carolina Literary Map decided to take everyone on a virtual tour around N.C.
The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame (NCLHOF), the NC Literary Map, and the NC Literary Review are launching the online NC Quarantine Literary Tour: a Coast to Mountains journey to fictional locales imagined by some of our state’s most celebrated authors.
The tour encompasses nine places created by NCLHOF inductees:
- Wellington, from The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
- Fulton, from Life After Life and other works by Jill McCorkle
- Tims Creek, from A Visitation of Spirits and other works by Randall Kenan
- Falls, from Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and other works by Allan Gurganus
- Colleton County, from the Deborah Knott mystery series by Margaret Maron
- Listre, from Raney and other works by Clyde Edgerton
- Stone County, from Tall Houses in Winter and other works by Doris Betts
- Altamont, from Look Homeward, Angel and other works by Thomas Wolfe
- Thicketty Creek, from The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman
To celebrate the launch of the NC Quarantine Literary Tour, we worked with the NC Literary Review and North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame to highlight excerpts celebrating each fictional location. Readers, including many of the original authors, read excerpts from the works describing each “stop” of the tour.
In addition to McCorkle and Edgerton reading their own work, the event also featured 2020 NCLHOF inductees Bland Simpson and Carole Boston Weatherford reading excerpts by Betts and Chesnutt; Appalachian authors Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle and Leah Hampton reading Wolfe and Dykeman; Eastern NC authors Cindy Brookshire and Jason Mott reading Maron and Kenan; and NCWN executive director Ed Southern reading Gurganus.
To take the NC Literary Quarantine Tour, visit http://library.uncg.edu/dp/nclitmap/tours/details/NCLHOF.
Opened in 1996 at the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines, the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature. It is more than a museum housing photographs and archives. Overseen by the North Carolina Writers’ Network, the NCLHOF honors North Carolina writers through programs, services, and opportunities for children and adults.
Created by the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the mission of the North Carolina Literary Map is to highlight the literary heritage of the state by connecting the lives and creative work of authors to real (and imaginary) geographic locations. Through the development of a searchable and browseable data-driven online map, users are able to access a database, learning tools, and cultural resources, to deepen their understanding of specific authors as well as the cultural space that shaped these literary works.
The North Carolina Literary Review (NCLR) is produced at East Carolina University and published and distributed by the University of North Carolina Press. NCLR publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by and interviews with North Carolina writers and articles and essays about North Carolina writers and the rich literary history and culture of the Old North State. The print issue is published annually in the summer. It is available via subscription and in independent bookstores across the state. Since 2012, a separate, open access online issue is released in the winter.
