Chapel Hill publishers put local authors on bookshelves in 2023

In 2023, local writers across Chapel Hill and Carrboro have woven the real experiences of their lives and others' lives into their works.

Here are some authors who took advantage of the diverse selection of local publishers, which include Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill Press and the University of North Carolina Press.

"Silver Alert" by Lee Smith

Chapel Hill-based novelist Lee Smith incorporated elements from her own experiences into her recent release, “Silver Alert,” which was published in April by Algonquin Books.  

The novel follows the budding friendship between an older man and a manicurist as they drive out of Key West, Fla., to escape their personal struggles. As they pile into a Porsche, the older man grapples with his mortality and ailing wife, and the manicurist tries to escape her past as a victim of sex trafficking. 

Smith said she has been involved in facilities that help sex trafficking victims, and therefore, the characters' struggles were more personal. 

The novel’s premise was also based on a road trip that Smith and her husband took out of Key West. After seeing signs for a "Silver Alert" — an amber alert for an elderly person — the two began to create stories about the missing person.

She then worked backward to develop her characters from the plot she and her husband had imagined. 

“If it's working, they will take on a life of their own,” she said. “So some really surprising things happened on that trip up the Keys in the car. I was just very glad to be along for the ride.”

In the future, Smith said she hopes to write sets of short, yet interwoven, stories.

“I feel like writing has been a great gift, and I’ve enjoyed it so much, and it’s just a way for me to understand my life,” she said. "But also, it’s been a way for me to have more than one life, to have many lives — because you get to be a lot of people if you're writing fiction."

"A Book of Days: Haiku Gathered In a North Florida Garden" by Catherine Corlett Berg

Catherine Corlett Berg, a longtime poet, published her first poetry collection in July with Chapel Hill Press, titled “A Book of Days: Haiku Gathered In a North Florida Garden."

The collection was first written in 2006, when Berg made a New Year’s resolution to write a haiku that captured some aspect of her garden each day.

“It became a wonderful gratitude practice,” Berg said. “I was often out in my pajamas, barefoot in the dew, wandering around the garden early mornings. And so it was pleasant. It was a very fascinating commitment to find 365 things I hadn't written about before in my garden.”

The collection of poems remained unpublished until Berg’s husband encouraged her to share her work. 

Berg said it is gratifying and humbling for her to see people reading her poems.

“Several of my friends read my book and have reported that they have started reading one a day, which is exactly what I do — just focus intensely on one moment, and it becomes a lovely spiritual discipline,” she said.

Berg said she hopes to publish more of her poetry collections in the future as a means of sharing her essence and autobiography with generations of her family.

“A New History of the American South,” edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage

UNC history professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage's recent publication focused on representing the experiences of others. He served as an editor for “A New History of the American South,” which was published in March by UNC Press.

The volume details the history of the American South from pre-European contact to the present day, and 15 scholars in the American history field contributed work. Brundage said its purpose is to relay Southern history and reflect the explosion of scholarly works about the South over the last three decades.

“The history of the South really does look differently when the focal point is not the history of white Southerners, and I would say that's something that all of the contributors to the work are definitely committed to,” he said.

Brundage explained that he and the authors met a few times during the writing process to share ideas and create a consistent narrative. He compared his role to that of an orchestra conductor, ensuring that their pieces worked together in harmony.

“It's an interesting experience to look at the book as something that I'm proud to have edited, and I'm proud to have participated in,” he said. “But on the other hand, it's as though it almost stands by itself, independently of me.”

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