Hell of a State: North Carolina’s Literary Fire

*All events are FREE, but we do ask that you please register so that we can monitor attendance and venue capacity.*

2021 National Book Award winner and North Carolina native JASON MOTT  is joined by award-winning author and Greensboro’s own HOLLY GODDARD JONES as they talk about their recent work and writing from the Old North State. North Carolina Writers Network director ED SOUTHERN will moderate the conversation.  With a pre-conversation performance by COLIN CUTLER of songs inspired by the short stories of Flannery O’Connor.

JASON MOTT Bestselling author, National Book Award Winner, Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction Winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, and Carnegie Medals For Excellence Longlist nominee, Jason Mott has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He is the author of two poetry collections and four novels. The Returned, Jason’s debut novel, was adapted for television and aired on the ABC network under the title “Resurrection.” Jason’s fourth novel, Hell Of A Book, released in June 2021, was a Jenna Bush Hager “Read With Jenna” Book Club pick, Carnegie Medals For Excellence in Fiction Longlist selection, a 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist selection, a Joyce Carol Oates Prize Longlist selection, the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Prize for Fiction winner, and the winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

HOLLY GODDARD JONES is the author of three previous books of fiction, including THE SALT LINE, THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME, and GIRL TROUBLE. She teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at UNCG.

ED SOUTHERN is the executive director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the author of ‘Fight Songs: A Story of Love & Sports in a Complicated South,’ a finalist for the 2022 SIBA Southern Book Prize. His work has appeared in The Bitter Southerner, storySouth, the North Carolina Literary Review, and elsewhere.

COLIN CUTLER is a Greensboro-based singer-songwriter, short story writer, and poet toting a banjo, guitar, and harmonicas, with his musical roots drawing from the breadth of Americana—from Appalachian oldtime to gospel to country to roots rock. He holds an MA in English from UNC-Greensboro, an MA in creative writing from York St. John University, has taken a NC Poetry Society Gilbert-Chappell mentorship and had short stories and poetry published in The York Journal, The Catholic Poetry Room, with honorable mention from NC’s poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green. He is currently working on an expansion of his Peacock Feathers EP into an album of songs based on Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, and has performed for the International Flannery O’Connor Society and Andalusia Farm.