Amy Butcher: 'A Memoir of Friendship and Murder' due in April

Amy Butcher by Carmen Machado

You have a treat (of sorts) in store for spring. A treat, that is, if you like a tautly-written memoir about something almost unthinkable. Amy Butcher, the author and a graduate of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Program, and Kevin were friends as undergraduates at Gettysburg College. Nothing romantic. But best buds. Then, a few weeks before graduation, Kevin walks Amy home and an hour later, murders his ex-girlfriend. He is arrested, sentenced to prison. That's when Amy becomes obsessed with him. Her memoir, "Visiting Hours: A Memoir of Friendship and Murder," will be out from Penguin in April. I am reading an advance review copy. I am mesmerized. Here's an excerpt.  
 

Kevin followed me first from that Pennsylvania town to a larger town in Iowa. Then New York; New Hampshire; Ohio. He lived at first inside my heart and then my mind and then my closet. I wrote to Kevin as if he were merely away at camp, or boarding school, or a semester at sea, and while my intention, early on, was pure, somehow, over time, our letters became a testament to my life. They were an official record of my vitality, proof that I was still thinking and breathing and existing, moving from one town to the next, one lifestyle to another, living the life not taken from me. What began as a loving communication—Do you remember playing video games on projectors? Do you remember drinking sake with that famous poet?—had become an act of retribution.

Allan Gurganus to give keynote address at NC Writers' conference

I've been driving around town these golden October days listening to the audio recording of Ann Patchett's delightful collection of essays, "This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage," just out in paperback.

In the first chapter, "The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life," she talks about switching from poetry writing to fiction writing as an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College. Her first fiction writing teacher was none other than North Carolina's own Allan Gurganus. Here's what she says:

Most of what I know about writing I learned from Allan, and it is a testament to my great good luck (heart-stopping, in retrospect, such dumb luck)that it was his classroom I turned up in when I first started to write stories. Bad habits are easy to acquire and excruciating to break. I came to him a blank slate, drained of all confidence I had brought with me to that first poetry class. I knew I still wanted to be a writer, but now I wasn't sure what that even meant. I needed someone to tell me how to go forward. The course that Allan set me on was one that has guided my life ever since. It was the course of hard work. But he also managed, and may God bless him forever for this, to make the work appear to be a thing of beauty.

Believe it or not, that very same Allan Gurganus, who wrote the classic, "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," will be giving the keynote address when the North Carolina Writers Network Fall Conference convenes at the Charlotte Sheraton Nov. 21-23. You can register for the conference here: Pre-registration for NCWN’s 2014 Fall Conference closes Friday, November 14. Register now!

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.

U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn to sign books at Harvey Gantt Center

James E. Clyburn

U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn will sign copies of his new memoir, "Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black" (University of South Carolina Press, $34.95), about his journey as a civil rights leader from the Jim Crow-era South to the Washington Beltway from 5:30-9 p.m., on Thursday at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture.

Admission to the signing is free, and proceeds from the sale of the books will benefit the alumni of the Charlotte Chapter of South Carolina State University.

From his beginnings in Sumter, S.C., to his prominence on the Washington, D.C., political scene as the third highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, Clyburn has lived an eventful life. He has represented South Carolina's sixth district since 1993 and currently serves as Assistant Democratic Leader of the House.

In "Blessed Experiences," Clyburn explains how an African American boy was able to beat the odds to become, as President Barack Obama describes him, "one of a handful of people who, when they speak, the entire Congress listens."