On Sept. 24, the series will honor three local writers who have published books of national significance.
Audrey Moriarty, the author of “Pinehurst: Golf, History, And The Good Life” (Sports Media Group, 207 pages) will begin the program. Moriarty is the executive director of the Given Memorial Library and the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst. Her work at the Tufts Archives has been invaluable to many Donald Ross courses throughout the country, and her insights on the history of the American “St. Andrews” are concise and fascinating. She’ll discuss many of the photographs included in her book.
Longtime photographer and golf writer Jim Moriarty will read from his mystery “Open Season” (Sports Media Group, 288 pages). Jim’s first novel is a love story/murder mystery set against the PGA touring circuit. The lead character, Nick Oliver, is a likeable character who draws the reader into the seedy underbelly of professional golf. And — thank God — Moriarty has a sense of humor.
Local attorney and mystery writer J.D. “Dusty” Rhoades will read from his most recent novel “Good Day in Hell” (St. Martin’s Minotaur Press, 288 pages). Rhoades is best known locally for enduring the slings and arrows of outraged Republicans via his weekly op-ed pieces in The Pilot. Love him or hate him, you’ll be unthawed by his energy-laced prose. Rhoades is also the author of the 2004 “The Devil’s Right Hand.”
Audrey and Jim Moriarty and J.D. Rhoades will read on Sept. 24, at 3 p.m.
On Saturday, Jan. 20, at 1 p.m,. poet Jaki Shelton Green will read from her work. Green is the 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as The Crucible, The African-American Review, Obsidian, Poets for Peace, Immigration, Emigration, and Diversity, Ms., and Essence. Her books include “Dead on Arrival” and “New Poems,” “Masks,” “Conjure Blues,” “singing a tree into dance,” and “New and Selected Poems.” She is the 2006 writer-in-residence at The Taller Portobelo Summer Art Colony in Portobelo, Panama.
On Sunday, March 18, Betsy Moyer will read from her books. Moyer lives by the Sudbury River in Wayland, Mass., and the river and its wildlife have been an inspiration since she began to photograph seriously in 1994
Her book, “Paul Green’s Plant Book: An Alphabet of Flower and Folklore” (Botanical Garden Foundation, 144 pages) combines text written by her father, Paul Green, noted North Carolina playwright, with photographs illustrating words in the text. The original book, written shortly before Paul Green’s death in 1981, is a lexicon of Southern folklore and includes about 300 entries of North Carolina wild flowers, bushes, and trees, together with herbal remedies associated with them.
Weymouth board member Marsha Warren is negotiating with Frances Mayes, author of “A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler,” “In Tuscany,” and the bestselling “Under the Tuscan Sun.”
Her work “The Discovery of Poetry: A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Poems” is widely used in college poetry classes. Formerly a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, where she directed The Poetry Center and chaired the Department of Creative Writing, Mayes now devotes herself full time to writing and to her At Home in Tuscany furniture and accessory lines. She and her husband divide their time between North Carolina and Cortona, Italy.
A date for Mayes’ reading has not been confirmed.
Stephen Smith can be reached at travisses@hotmail.com.
