Monday, June 28, 2010

Charlotte Observer Editorial Board Laments the Passing of the Novello Festival of Reading


Link to June 28 Charlotte Observer editorial, "No Novello? What a sad 20th anniversary. Popular, monthlong reading event enriched this community."

Excerpt: One of those great service programs, the Novello Festival of Reading, will be among the first to disappear this fall. That's a sad note for the extraordinarily popular event as it hits its 20th anniversary. The monthlong festival has gained so much national praise that one year a critic dubbed Charlotte a "literary hotbed" when the festival lured such participating authors as John Grisham, Joyce Carol Oates, Stuart Woods, Alice Sebold, Robert Morgan and Frances Mayes.

The festival features WordPlay and other events for children and families. It arranges for children's authors to visit local schools and sponsors workshops for aspiring writers.

One outgrowth of the festival was the award-winning Novello Festival Press which for the last 10 years has recognized and published works by Carolinas authors. The books have included fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's books, with all proceeds going to the library. Some authors, such as Ron Rash, have gone on to national acclaim. He was the 2002 Novello Literary Award winner for his book, "One Foot in Eden." Last year, he was a finalist for a PEN/Faulkner Award, one of the foremost literary prizes in the nation
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