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.

Rewriting Southern Traditions

LAKE HARTWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA By Beth Gilstrap   It’s past lunch hour and Grandmother is still wearing her housecoat. Tings and sprays bounce from the stovetop. A glimmer of steam gathers on her upper lip, not sweat, mind you—not sweat. The peonies on the fabric are wide and heavy pink, like they’d fall over if […]

Five Steps Every Author Needs to Take Before Finishing a Manuscript

In 2016, after six years of writing, I finally finished my first manuscript. I truly believed that writing a book was the most difficult part of becoming an author. No one told me selling a book is tougher than writing one. It is almost as if I believed, “If I write it, they will come.” […]

That Fragile Moment

We are always at the beginning of things, in the fragile moment that holds the power of life….we are always at the morning of the world. I often think of this quotation by the Chinese-born French writer François Cheng, but especially in the morning. This is indeed the most “fragile moment” for me as a […]

Honoring the Craft

You might have heard the platitude “those who can’t do, teach.” Obviously, I don’t agree with that theory. I’m a teacher. Plus, I have several friends and acquaintances who defy that logic. And yet, I also recognize that teaching makes doing a lot more challenging. A former student, who is also a writer and professor, […]