for the Yancey Common Times Journal

by Ingrid Ringler (Mountain Heritage High School Senior)

 

In a few weeks, Burnsville, North Carolina will be flooded with creative genius as writers from throughout the mountains gather to exchange tips and share their ideas at the Carolina Mountain Literary Festival.

Chris Carpenter, the chief editor at Hard Way Studios, is one of the literary dignitaries who will be gathering in Burnsville this fall for the Carolina Mountain Literary Festival. Carpenter helps graphic novelists develop their ideas and get them drawn and published. In his own words, “I come up with the overall concept and then reinterpret the written story into a visual story. I am a storyteller through art.”

Carpenter chose to work with graphic novels because, quite simply, he loves comics, and that was easy to see when I asked him how graphic novels are unique. “The mesh of words and images is something that you cannot get in any other medium,” says Carpenter. “Movies and TV do not engage you as comics do. Novels and radio do not give you the wonderful awe-inspiring moments visually. There are just certain kinds of stories that can exist in no other medium.” His description of comics makes them sound like the gateway drug to reading; they are presented in an easy format, “with cool images that help to transport [readers] into the world and give them a concrete avatar to connect to. [Comics] give them heroes to love and villains to hate.”

I asked him what the difference between graphic novels, a phrase I think of as the PC term for comics, and actual comics were, and he explained that the difference is a little hazy, at least at first glance. “In a basic sense, graphic novels are long comic books. But graphic novels are usually more mature in their scope. They deal with issues that a serialized monthly comic cannot.” Superheroes are rare in graphic novels; they are more likely to be ‘slice-of-life’ stories, or any other genre that might be found in a short story. Although Carpenter explains that nothing is off limits, it sounds like graphic novels are the picture book form of short stories, making just as many points in a more readily accessible form.

In an artistic sense, graphic novels give the authors more freedom, as they can express themselves in the illustrations as well as the words, which allows them to give subtle hints to the readers. In Carpenter’s most recent production, Suicide Note, the lead receives an anonymous suicide note in the mail that slowly leads to her mental decay and her own contemplation of suicide; in this case, the illustrators were able to show her “crumbling mental foundation” by making subtle changes in her dress and upkeep,” changes that “drag the reader into the slide with her.”

 

The medium also, he admits, allows the team to slip in private jokes. “We are geeks at heart. We will slip in things that we like.” The discussions they have about what ought to go in the comic lead to some give-and-take; often there are scenes that are put in or taken out that various members feel ought to have gone the other way, but “we all want to create the best story we can and this usually leads to very good changes that make the story better.” Carpenter is looking forward to something similar at the upcoming festival. “Nothing,” he says, “recharges your batteries like being around those who know what you mean when you take out that blank piece of paper.”

 

* Please note that the sessions on graphic novels are recommended for high school students, not children of all ages. 

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This wall hanging, created by Corinne Shilling will be silent auctioned during the festival -- proceeds going to next year's festival.   

 

 

Parkway Playhouse Ends Season with Another New Play About Regional History

The Parkway Playhouse’s 63rd season will close with the North Carolina Premiere of Ron Osborn’stouching Southern play My River, My Valley. The production will open on September 3 and run Thursday, Friday andSaturday evenings through Sept 12. There will be a 2:00pm Matinee performance on September 5 at 2:00pm. Ticketsrange from $10 to $20 with discounts available for groups of 10 or more, senior citizens, students, and active military.To make reservations, call 828-682-4285 or visit the Parkway Playhouse website at www.parkwayplayhouse.com .

Inspired the events that led up to the relocation of mountain families to construct the Fontana Dam and the relocationof the residents in Butler, TN to build the Watagua dam, My River My Valley is set along the NorthCarolina/Tennessee/Virginia border in 1941. The central characters are two sisters who are in their 50’s and early 60’sand their future is uncertain. Over the course of the play the two women, played by local actresses Bunnie McIntoshand Brenda Sparks-Howell, argue, laugh, sing, dance, and eventually find their own paths. The cast also features RobStorrs, a Green Mountain resident, who has appeared regularly on the Parkway Playhouse stage since 2004, as the localsheriff. The winner of the Barter Theatre’s Appalachian Play festival in 2005, the show received its world premiere in 2006.Producing Artistic Director, Andrew Gall, who was working on a production at the Barter Theatre at the time, was thunderstruck by the characters and the play.

The Parkway Playhouse production is the first time award-winning andnationally produced writer Ron Osborn has given the rights to another theatre outside of the Barter.“I wanted to do this play because of its regional and local connection in addition to the fact that it had great opportunities for local performers” said Gall, who is directing the production. “The connection the characters have to their home and the land they live on is something we still relate to, even though we are a generation removed. This play is something that stuck with me from the staged reading I saw 4 years ago, and I am anxious to share it with our audience. We lucked out getting the cast we have and I hope people will make some time to come and see it.”

My River My Valley is the third new play that the Parkway Playhouse has produced this season. (The other two being thenew musical comedy Married Alive! and Esley which told the story of local musical prodigy Lesley Riddle.) In 2008, theParkway Playhouse presented Lunch At the Piccadilly which was a new musical and that show has gone on to be produced elsewhere as a result of the production in Burnsville.

“We have had good luck with new plays” said Gall. “I think our audience likes the fact that we are able to produce thestandards, like Oklahoma! and The Man Who Came to Dinner but the idea of seeing plays that get their start here andare based on stories about our community and our heritage is something that has tremendous appeal and it issomething that we can and will continue to devote time to. We will continue to produce audience favorites as well butthere are some great stories about this community that are just as exciting and are important to tell.”

The Parkway Playhouse’s 2009 Season is sponsored by Young & McQueen Grading Company, Carolina First Bank, theNorth Carolina Arts Council, and the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.

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from the August 9 edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times

 

Also, check out the info on his webcast of her session on The Read on WNC.

 

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PRESS RELEASE (so feel free to copy and use!)

 

“Mountain Mosaic” is the guiding theme for the 4^th annual Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

 

Burnsville, NC, May 13, 2009 – The fifty authors gathering in Burnsville this September 11 and 12 have been selected around the 2009 theme Mountain Mosaic.  "Almost all of us came from someplace else.  Our ancestors left their homes and came to build a new land.  Now that new land is our home," says Little Jim in Gloria Houston's children's book. 

Rather than a melting pot, the people and authors are a Mountain Mosaic created by the many vibrant colors and heritages that make up Western North Carolina.  Viewing this Mountain Mosaic up close, one can celebrate individual differences. Viewing it from afar, one can see how the individuality of each piece contributes to a more beautiful whole.

The weekend will be filled with simultaneous readings, workshops, book signings, panel discussions, performances, and Q&A sessions.  The keynote panel, We All Come from Someplace Else, will be moderated by Gloria Houston and include noted Cherokee historian Robert Conley;  children’s author Eleanora Tate; Melungeon scholar Wayne Winkler; and journalist Paul Cuadros.  Each of these authors, even though they are in the region now, will address how being from Someplace Else influenced their writing.  This panel, the focal point of the weekend, is on Friday morning and also features the commissioned choral piece by local composer Thom Koch.

The final event is the Saturday evening ticketed banquet with keynote talk by Ann Pancake.  A native of West Virginia, Pancake’s novel Strange as this Weather Has Been is set in a town polluted by mountain top removal.  She is an activist and critically acclaimed writer, having received the Weatherford Award for the best work of fiction about Appalachia published in 2007 given by the Appalachian Studies Association.

 “One thing that makes our festival different from others is that we’re geared to readers first,” says planning committee member Britt Kaufmann.  The festival is also unique since it is not held at an academic center, nor does it allow outside vendors to set up booths.  Only Malaprop’s is on site to sell the authors’ books.  “We do this to keep the emphasis on the ideas in the literature.  If people do want to buy remembrances from the weekend, other than books, we’d like them to do it in our local shops.  We want the festival to help our downtown.”

The mission of the festival is to bring together authors, readers of all ages, novice writers, listeners and learners in small, intimate settings.  The goal is that the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival will inspire people to read more, write more, and contribute positively to society through the literary arts.

To see a complete list of authors and a schedule for the weekend visit cmlitfest.org.

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 From the Yancey Common Times Journal

January 29, 2009