Kathy Reichs, Charla Muller, Dot Jackson to gather at Mint Uptown

You don't want to miss this event.
It's the second-annual Charlotte Observer Authors for the Holidays, bringing together writers whose books are probably already on your gift-giving list.
The event is Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon Street, and writers selling their books include Kathy Reichs of the Bones series; Lisa Leake," 100 Days of Real Food;" Jason Mott, "The Wonder of All Things;" Dot Jackson, "Refuge;" and Charla Muller, "Pretty Takes Practice."
Your book purchase brings a one-day only 50 percent discount on museum general admission and a 10 percent discount at Halcyon restaurant in the  Mint complex.

Here's a complete list of the authors who'll be on hand to sign your books:

Kathy Reichs, “Bones Never Lie”
Dot Jackson, “Refuge”
Jason Mott, “The Wonder of All Things”
Joseph Bathanti, ""Half of What I Say is Meaningless" and "The Life of the World to Come"
Sarah Creech, "Season of the Dragon Flies"
Kim Wright, “The Unexpected Waltz”
Alan Michael Parker, "The Committee on Town Happiness"
Tony Abbott, “The Angel Dialogues”
Betsey Russell, "Other People's Money"
Mark de Castrique, "Risky Undertaking"
Karen Scioscia, "Kidnapped by the Cartel"
H.D. Kirkpatrick, "Alienation of Affection" and "Trafficking Death"

CHILDREN, TEEN FICTION
Christina Berkau Pope and Thomas Berkau, "ABC Charlotte Book"
Carrie Ryan and JP Davis, "The Map to Everywhere"
Dicey McCullough, "Tired" series for children
Laura Fox, "Snow Kingdom" series
Linda Vigen Phillips, "Crazy"
Karon Luddy, “A Bewilderment of Boys"
Brendan Reichs, Virals series
 
NON-FICTION
Lisa Leake, “100 Days of Real Food”
Charla Muller, "Pretty Takes Practice"
Rye Barcott, “27 Views of Charlotte” and "It Happened on the Way to War"
Cristina Wilson and Drew Humphries, “Carolina Bride: The Book”
Ken Garfield, “Billy Graham: A Life in Pictures”
Jonathan Stuhlman, “Connecting the World: The Panama Canal at 100” (Features original short fiction by NYT best seller Anthony Doerr.)
Scott Fowler, “100 Things Panthers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die”
Kathleen Purvis, “Pecans” and “Bourbon”
Jill Dahan, “Starting Fresh”
Roland Wilkerson, “I’m So Clever”
Sarah Crosland, "100 Things to Do in Charlotte Before You Die"
Glenn Proctor, "Kicking Bottles, News & Dust: An Autobiography - 50 Years of Poems"

Contact Observer Innovations Editor Jen Rothacker if you have questions.

NBA winner Louise Gluck talks about talent vs. hunger

Louise Gluck, Yale Daily News

In a late 2013 interview with the Yale Herald, poet Louise Gluck, who last week won the National Book Award for her latest collection, "Faithful and Virtuous Night," talks about talent vs. hunger.

YH: What is the extent to which you believe the writing of verse can really be taught?

LG: It’s impossible to know. Intelligence can be stimulated. Likewise a taste for the process. Usually the person who is going to develop into a writer is a sensitive reader and a good critic. When people are good critics, anything can happen. That means there is a deep alertness to syntax, to language. You work on individual poems, poem by poem and poem; you try to point out where the phrasing and structure are, in your view, alive. I think the question of who’s going to be a writer has more to do with intelligence and hunger than anything you would say was talent. There’s a ton of talent, first of all, and it takes you only so far. People with toughness and willingness to start over, combined with really remarkable minds and intense need, those are the people who can become anything.

http://yaleherald.com/voices/sitting-down-with-louise-gluck/

Ron Rash belongs in 'pantheon of great American writers'

It thrills me when a reviewer at the New York Times can see beyond a writer's locale and read the new work as if the author were from from New Haven or Poughkeepsie. So it was last week when Patricia Wall reviewed Ron Rash's latest collection, "Something Rich and Strange." Just listen:
   

Ron Rash occupies an odd place in the pantheon of great American writers, and you’d better believe he belongs there. He gets rapturous reviews that don’t mean to condescend but almost always call him a Southern or Appalachian writer, and Mr. Rash has said he can hear the silent, dismissive “just” in those descriptions. He also baffles anyone who thinks that great talent ought to be accompanied by great ambition. Mr. Rash has planted himself at Western Carolina University and eluded the limelight that his work absolutely warrants.

And she goes on:

It’s time for Mr. Rash’s standing to change. And here is the book to do it: “Something Rich and Strange,” a major short-story anthology that can introduce new readers to this author’s haunting talents and reaffirm what his established following already knows. In this case, faithful readers really have an idea what to expect, because “Something Rich and Strange” incorporates two recent smaller Rash anthologies: “Burning Bright” (2010) and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (2013). But, as with great music, it would be a mistake not to revisit this material because you’ve experienced it once.

Read the entire review: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/books/something-rich-and-strange-a-ron-rash-anthology.html

A visit with Harper Lee's sister Alice and the charming town of Maycomb