Bland Simpson (Red Clay Ramblers) and Clyde Edgerton (Lunch at the Piccadilly)
This weekend event at Joyner Library on the beautiful ECU campus in Greenville, NC really did feel like a homecoming and a big family reunion both. It was a gathering of probably under 200 people — large enough for nice variety, yet intimate enough that presenters and readers could interact freely.
In Joyner Library with Susan McCammon and Marsha Ironwood of the ECU Psychology Department.)
The highlight of the weekend was Friday night when Doris Betts (Heading West, Souls Raised from the Dead, etc.) was honored yet again with the Roberts Award for Literary Inspiration. Now retired from the English Department at UNC-Chapel Hill, she is a novelist, essayist, short story master, and a much beloved teacher. Among the tributes to her that night was a charming remembrance by former student Randall Kenan (Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.) (In the photo below, Bland Simpson and Doris Betts listen intently to Bob Anthony.)
Bland Simpson spoke of occupying the office next to hers for many years and finished his amusing, heartfelt tribute with a song composed for her.
On Saturday (yesterday), Wanda Canada (Cape Fear Murders) and I did a panel on “Environmental Concerns in Mystery Novels.”
And true to the Homecoming’s made-in-NC tradition, Krispy Kreme doughnuts were served at the breaks!
