Join Us for LIT UP! Charlotte Lit’s Annual Celebration

LitUp! 2023 was a great success! Click the button to view event photos by Amy Hart Studios.

Charlotte Lit’s annual celebration is Lit Up! Join us on Wednesday evening, April 5, 2023 at 6:00 p.m., for a members-only appreciation event, featuring:

  • A reading, conversation, and book signing with acclaimed nonfiction writer Melissa Febos
  • The release of Litmosphere: Journal of Charlotte Lit
  • Recognition of the winners and finalists of the second annual Lit/South Awards

Join us for the celebration! Hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages will be provided, with Melissa Febos’ books and Litmosphere journals available for sale and signing. Pre-registration is required, here!

Lit Up! is free for Charlotte Lit members (plus one guest). (Not a current member? You can join or renew your membership here.)

Event Details

An Evening with Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos is the author of four books, including the nationally bestselling essay collection, Girlhood, which is a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and named a notable book of 2021 by NPR, Time, The Washington Post, and others. Her craft book, Body Work (2022), is also a national bestseller, an LA Times Bestseller, and an Indie Next Pick.The recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary, Melissa’s work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle, and Vogue. Her essays have won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly, The Sewanee Review, and The Center for Women Writers at Salem College. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.

Litmosphere Release Party

We’re celebrating the second annual issue of Litmosphere: Journal of Charlotte Lit, which will be officially released in May.

The debut issue includes the 2023 Lit/South Award winners, alongside the work of our contest judges: A. Von Jordan, Bryn Chancellor, and Melissa Febos. (To pre-order one or more copies of Litmosphere — $15, shipped — go here.)

Lit/South Award Recognition

At the Lit Up! celebration, we’ll honor and recognize the 30+ winners of the 2023 Lit/South Awards.

Charlotte Lit received over 450 submissions to our inaugural Lit/south Awards. Current and past residents North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia were invited to enter their work into four categories (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and flash) for a share of $10,000 in prizes plus publication in Litmosphere: Journal of Charlotte Lit.