Gail Peck Reads from 'Within Two Rooms' Sunday at Park Road Books

Gail Peck

Before Charlotte poet Gail Peck could give her first reading for her new chapbook, "Within Two Rooms" (Finishing Line Press), she learned that a full-length poetry manuscript, "The Braided Light," had won the Lena Shull Book Contest, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Her prize is $250 and a reading in March at Catawba College in Salisbury. Former poet laureate Fred Chappell calls "The Braided Light," about Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, "a poignant envisioning of visions, a look into the heart of light." Main Street Rag will publish this book in March.


Meanwhile, back at the chapbook ranch, Peck will read from "Within Two Rooms" at 2 p.m. Sunday at Park Road Books. Charlotte poet and essayist Rebecca McClanahan calls these  poems "a bittersweet litany of praise for the world the mother teaches us to notice, and to love."

WHAT: A poetry reading by Charlotte's Gail Peck
WHEN: 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 15.
WHERE: Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road, Charlotte 28209
COST: Free and open to the public

                                                                       

 

'Map of the World' author at Catawba College

Jane Hamilton, author of "A Map of the World," "The Book of Ruth" and "Laura Rider's Masterpiece," is this year's featured speaker at Catawba College's Brady Author's Symposium.

Hamilton will speak at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 29, at the Salisbury college's Robertson College-Community Center. For tickets, call 704-637-4393. They're $20 for the lecture, $20 for a 12:15 p.m. luncheon and $10 for a writing question-and-answer session at 2 p.m.
Check here for more information.

Hamilton's first novel, "The Book of Ruth," won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel. Both that novel and her second, "A Map of the World," were Oprah's Book Club selections.

National Book Award winner Colum McCann to visit Catawba College

Tickets are on sale now for a March 3 lecture, luncheon and writing Q & A at Salisbury's Catawba College with 2009 National Book Award winner Colum McCann.

McCann will lecture on his National Book Award-winning novel, "Let the Great World Spin," at 11 a.m. in Hedrick Little Theatre. He'll be a guest at a 12:15 p.m. luncheon in Peeler Crystal Lounge. Then, at 2 p.m., he'll answer questions about writing during a Q&A session at Hedrick Little Theatre.

McCann grew up in Ireland but lives in New York. When "Let the Great World Spin" was published in 2009, Esquire magazine hailed it as "The first great 9/11 novel." McCann's other works include "Zoli," "Dancer" and "Everything in This Country Must."

Tickets to the lecture only or the Q&A session only are $15 each. Tickets to the lecture and luncheon are $35. Tickets are $50 for all three events -- the lecture, luncheon and Q&A.

More information: 704-637-4393 or at Catawba College's website.