Charlotte Lit’s Blog

Welcome to Charlotte Lit’s literary arts blog. What you’ll find here: reviews, interviews, craft essays, previews of literary arts events, and anything else that catches our attention.

Just Put On the Mouse Ears, Already: Wildacres Writing Workshop

Special thanks to the Arts and Science Council, which awarded me a Regional Artist Project Grant to attend the Wildacres Writing Workshop this year. The warnings go something like this: “You’re thinking about Wildacres? It’s amazing, but you need to know about the Gong Show.” For more than 30 summers, writer and writing enthusiast Judi […]

The Writer’s Hustle

Editor’s note: The following piece began as a Facebook post written by novelist Wiley Cash (The Last Ballad and others). Since it first appeared on June 29, it’s been shared 53 times and is now posted on Cash’s website. We asked to reprint the post here because it’s an important and thoughtful consideration on what […]

The Collegeville Institute: A Place to Belong

On the first evening of a workshop entitled, “Exploring Identity and (Dis)belonging through the Personal Essay” at the Collegeville Institute, we gather around a rectangle formed from four long tables pushed together. We are primarily people of color. We are strangers to one another. We are not sure what the days ahead will hold. Enuma […]

Memoir: The Struggle is Real

After more than 30 years of writing advertising copy for unabashedly snarky clients, I thought I had bulletproof skin. But when my agent sent me the notes that accompanied rejections of our book proposal from 28 publishers, I realized that the durability of my epidermis was more akin to that of a neonate than a […]