THOMAS WOLFE PACK ON THE PORCH

If you don’t live in a state with a celebrated novelist, go to North Carolina and Thomas Wolfe.

This is dark suited Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward Angel, not white suited Tom Wolfe, author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Same neighborhood, North Carolina and Virginia, but different eras.

That Thomas Wolfe was such a heavy influence, and continues influencing today, might not be a surprise to good readers, but the embrace he gets in Asheville is a thing of dreams.

The house he grew up in AND a museum dedicated to his life and work sit side by side.

His autobiographical fiction may open to a world of interpretation, but his place is secure.

Step up on the porch to enter Thomas Wolfe-land. And you’re in good company.

Twelve dark rocking chairs in two rows greet you.

Sit in one of the chairs and share the view of Asheville.

Then check the plate on the back of the chair.

 

Click this for Mr. Bathanti’s author page on Amazon.

He’s a big deal, written lots, teaches lots, AND a former North Carolina Poet Laureate.

If you have fans, you want one like Joseph Bathanti. 

 

Robert Morgan’s official author website.

And Amazon. Lots of material on Amazon.

You don’t make it to the Thomas Wolfe porch if you don’t write a ton like he did.

 

Another former Poet Laureate for North Carolina, Fred Chappell fills the page.

From Poetry Foundation:

Together with only a handful of his American contemporaries, Chappell reminds us of the almost forgotten phrase ‘man of letters.’

 

Clyde Edgerton is not banned from Thomas Wolfe’s porch.

From The News and Observer:

As a novelist, Clyde Edgerton is best-known for his loving and satirical take on the North Carolina backwoods, novels that get celebrated from Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books to the pages of The New York Times. He teaches creative writing at UNC-Wilmington, a star professor with an armful of awards.

But Edgerton, 72, is also a parent in real life. Two of his three children attend Forest Hills Elementary in Wilmington, and if matters go unchanged, he will not be allowed on campus to watch graduation next week without permission from the principal. As it stands, Edgerton is banned from all public schools in New Hanover County.

Bet on Clyde Edgerton.

 

On Amazon.

From wiki:

Most of her books are realistic fiction novels that follow a character’s psychological and intellectual development, often based on themes taken from Godwin’s own life.

She wins Thomas Wolfe’s approval right there.

 

Ron Rash on Amazon.

From Wall Street Journal:

The poet, short-story writer and novelist has followed an untraditional path to literary fame, attracting his first major publisher near the age of 50 and honing a gothic sensibility that has Hollywood calling. His books—six novels, six short story collections and four poetry compilations with another coming out next year—have been translated into 14 languages. A relative recluse in the tell-all age of Twitter, Mr. Rash has spent his life in small towns in the Carolinas, relentlessly reading and writing far from publishing and media hot spots.

Part Two coming soon to a blog near you…this one.

Thomas Wolfe says, “Okay, high five. You’re not the first, you know.”