Thank You 2019 Sponsors

 The proceeds from this event support Literacy Connections in its mission to help adult learners in Wayne County learn the literacy skills to succeed in our community. 

The Ellen and Munroe Best 

Family Foundation

Gary & Carol Smithwick

AccuCopy of Goldsboro

The Borden Foundation

The Buzz Around Wayne County

John Best

Crown Screening

Friends of the Steel

Memorial Library

Geoff & Lee Hulse

Goldsboro News Argus

Goldsboro Wayne Travel & Tourism

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InJoy Thrift Store

Randy and Jewel Sauls

KS Bank

O'berry & Lewis

Pat Preston

Tiffany Creech

WGTV

Featured Speaker:

D.G Martin 

D.G. Martin is host of UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Bookwatch,”

the state’s premier literary series. 

Want to eat like the locals?

 D. G. Martin has spent years traveling the major roadways of North Carolina, on the lookout for community, local history, and, of course, a good home-cooked meal. In North Carolina's Roadside Eateries, D. G. is your personal tour guide to more than 100 notable local roadway haunts that serve not only as places to eat but also as fixtures of their communities. 

Source: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EGL00MQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

A graduate of Davidson College and Yale Law School and a former Green Beret, Martin practiced law in Charlotte for 20 years before joining the University of North Carolina, where he served as Vice President for Public Affairs and chief legislative liaison. Since his retirement he has served in interim leadership positions at UNC-Pembroke, North Carolina Central University, Trust for Public Land, Triangle Land Conservancy, North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and as President of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Fund. About 40 North Carolina newspapers carry his weekly newspaper column that features books, politics, and related topics. In May 2008 Wingate University awarded him an honorary degree.  He and Harriet have two children and four grandchildren. His son Grier Martin serves in the North Carolina House of Representative.

2018: Former Home of Conway and Lew Rose

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Designed in 1961 by the visionary of the Walnut Creek community, Mr. Rose decommissioned and repurposed two plantation homes to include old charm and history in their home on the point.  From 100 year old hardwood floors to winding staircases, a library overlooking the rose garden and lake, and formals with fireplaces, this 8,000 square foot stately, gabled home has an old soul and a story of its own to tell. (Sold in 2006 to George and Dawn McNamara)

Featured Speakers:

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Therese Anne Fowler 

Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and 2018 novel, A Well Behaved Woman: A Vanderbilt Novel.

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John Kessel

Renowned science fiction author and creative writing professor at NC State, Kessel is the author of  the novels: Pride and Prometheus, The Moon and the Other, Good News from Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, and in collaboration with James Patrick Kelly, Freedom Beach.

2017: Home of Dawn and Michael McDonald

(Former Cobb Family Residence)

 Featured Speaker: 

 Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of 25 novels published in more than twenty languages. Influenced by her former career as a social worker and psychotherapist, she writes suspenseful stories that touch both heart and mind. 

2016: Home of Jim and Barbara Ann Vinson

 Featured Speaker: 

 Marjorie Hudson

Hudson’s stories, essays, and poems explore themes of loss, conflict,

and a yearning for community deeply threaded through American history and contemporary life.

2015: Home of David and Bethany Perry

 Featured Speakers: 

John Hart

Hart, a native of North Carolina, is best known for his thrilling legal novels featuring various North Carolina cities. 

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Leonard D. Moore  

 An accomplished poet, essayist, writer and playwright, Mr. Moore is also a respected English professor at the University of Mount Olive. Also, he  founded the Carolina African American Writers Collective, and was co-founder of Washington Street Writers Group.

2014: Faison-Thomas Home of Betty Duncan and Dave Ham

Featured Speakers: 

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Michael Malone

Mr. Malone is a native of Durham who is best known for his novels and his work on the ABC Daytime drama "One LIfe to Live." 

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Ruth Moose

Originally from Albemarle, North Carolina, Ms. Moose brings an authentic Southern voice to her characters. The humor and tragedy of everyday life resonates in the characters and tales she presents to readers. 

2013: Home of Judith McMillen

Featured Speakers: 

North Carolina Poet Laureate, 

Joseph Bathanti

Known for both his fiction and nonfiction works Bathanti demonstrates his brilliance and love of people, places and things by weaving across literary lines to create memorable tales.    

Wiley Cash

Cash breathes life into his characters by combining elements of beauty and tragedy, innocence and evil within his entrawling stories inspired by his experiences of growing up in North Carolina. 

2012: The Farm at Salem Church

Featured Speakers: 

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Margaret Maron

Inspired by her love of her native state and a desire to write about current experiences, Maron has created works feartured in various courses in contemporary Southern literature in North Carolina.  

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 North Carolina Poet and Musician,

Shelby Stephenson

Stephenson's poetic voice resonates both in his poetry and music. He captures the brilliance of his experiences and those around him through tales of farm life. 

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North Carolina and Goldsboro native,

Emily Weil 

Ms. Weil, an avid historian, is inspired by the community around her and strives to preserve that history for future generations.