North Carolina produces some of the country’s best writers, receiving national acclaim for both its authors and the works they write.
To compile a list of the best North Carolina literature we went straight to the source, asking authors from around the state to share their own favorite works. For the duration of our N.C. writers series Tales From the Old North State will share the top picks from a different North Carolina author each installment.
Lawrence Naumoff
Our next crop of North Carolina book recommendations comes from Lawrence Naumoff, one of UNC-Chapel Hill’s most popular and quirky creative writing professors.
Naumoff was born in Charlotte and went to college at UNC-CH. Before becoming an author, he took on a diverse series of jobs, including stints as an organic farmer and carpenter. He drew on his experiences with rural life and working with the land to create the settings for many of his stories.
As a writer, Naumoff has published six novels and many short stories. Among his various awards, he received the New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1992 for his “Taller Women, a Cautionary Tale.” He won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for his novel “A Southern Tragedy, in Crimson and Yellow” about the 1991 chicken plant fire in Hamlet, N.C.
‘Seductively intellectual’
Naumoff’s first choice is “The Second Coming” by Walker Percy, whom Naumoff regards as one of his favorite writers of all time.
While Percy was born in Alabama, he completed college at UNC-CH with a chemistry degree. Percy also had a home in the North Carolina mountains, Naumoff said.
“The Second Coming” is a story of a man struggling with his faith who finds love with a woman who has escaped from a mental asylum. The novel is set in North Carolina.
“It is a seductively intellectual novel and, at the same time, a sweet and carnally innocent romantic novel,” Naumoff said. “I know that carnal and sweetly romantic do not usually go together, but in that novel he does it really beautifully.”
‘Like a glass of champagne’
Naumoff’s second choice is the short story collection “Jack of Diamonds and Other Short Stories” by Elizabeth Spencer.
Spencer was born in Mississippi but moved with her husband to Chapel Hill in 1986. She taught creative writing at UNC-CH until her retirement and she continues to live in the area.
The five stories in “Jack of Diamonds and Other Short Stories” feature memorable characters whose interactions highlight the mysteries and ambiguities of human relationships.
“Her stories are really smart and sophisticated, and her prose can be at times sort of elegant because it is quietly put together, smoothly written and inviting,” Naumoff said.
“I think of her prose kind of like a glass of champagne,” he said. “If you look at a glass of champagne in a flute, it’s clear, and it’s evanescent. You can kind of see the bubbles moving in it, and once you drink it, you feel a lot better. That is how I characterize her prose.”
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