This event is held each year in a historic Goldsboro location. Guests enjoy an intimate evening full of readings from noteworthy authors, poets and various other literary North Carolina authors. Live music is performed by local musicians, and the authors are available to autograph their books. 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
SPONSOR
Award Winner ............................................ $5,000 or More
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Brand recognition with all event PR
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Reserved table for up to eight at VIP reception at the Terrace Room
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Priority event seating at Paramount Theatre
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Opportunity to speak at event
Best Seller .................................................. $1,500 - $4,999
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Name recognition with all PR material
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Priority event seating at Paramount Theatre
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Reserved table for up to six at VIP reception at the Terrace Room
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Recognition at event
Classic .......................................................... $500 - $1,499
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Listing in event program
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Up to four complimentary tickets to VIP reception at the Terrace Room
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Priority event seating at Paramount Theatre
Other ....................................................................................
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Listing in event program
FOR CHECKS
Mail To:
Literacy Connections of Wayne County
2001 East Ash Street - Suite D
Goldsboro, NC 27530
*Checks payable to Literacy Connections of Wayne County
Your contribution may be tax deductible.
TAX ID #: 47-4594755
Thank You Sponsors
For Your Support
Previous Events
2024: Terrace Room and Paramount Theatre
Featured Guest
Musician, Educator & Author
Brendan Slocumb
Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Brendan started playing the violin at the age of nine and majored in music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His violin opened the door to opportunity, and he ran through it. Friends he grew up with are today sitting in jail; when they were out running the streets, he was in rehearsals. When they were breaking into people’s houses, he was practicing Dvorak and Mozart. Since then, Brendan has performed with the Washington Metropolitan Symphony, the McLean Symphony, the Prince George's Philharmonic, and the Alexandria Symphony.In addition to performing in orchestras, he also works as a teacher in kindergarten, elementary and junior high and high school music education.
The Violin Conspiracy is his debut work as a novelist, followed by Symphony of Secrets. Brendan is now at work on his third novel, Dark Maestro, to be published in early 2025.
Photo Gallery
2023: Terrace Room and Paramount Theatre
The Terrace Room at Waynesborough House
Hotel Goldsboro was built in 1924 in the center of downtown Goldsboro. It was the fifth hotel to stand on this site. Architect W.L. Stoddart also designed the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh, NC around the same time. The terrace was constructed in 1926 off of the hotel's dining room, which served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, to provide a cooler place to enjoy the days before air conditioning. It was used as an outdoor dining area for several years before being enclosed.
Paramount Theatre
Early in the morning on Saturday, February 19, 2005 a fire destroyed the Paramount Theatre. When it burned, citizens lined the streets and watched in disbelief. After some time of deliberation and fears that the theatre would not be rebuilt, construction started from the ground up thanks to the efforts of Mr. David Weil with the Paramount Theatre Foundation, the City of Goldsboro, and numerous citizens of Wayne County. The newly rebuilt Paramount Theatre officially reopened on February 15th, 2008. Dunn & Dalton served as architects and T.A. Loving Company was the general contractor. The new theatre had a construction time of just 14 months.
Featured Author
CLYDE EDGERTON
Clyde Edgerton, raised in the community of Bethesda, near Durham, NC, has published ten novels, a book of advice (Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers) and a memoir (Solo, My Adventures in the Air). The Night Train, his tenth novel, was published by Little, Brown in 2011 and received multiple starred reviews. Three of his novels have been made into movies: Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and Killer Diller. The latter two are now available on DVD. Stage adaptations have been made from Raney, Walking Across Egypt, The Floatplane Notebooks, Killer Diller, Where Trouble Sleeps, Lunch at the Piccadilly, and The Bible Salesman. Edgerton’s short stories and essays have been published in New York Times Magazine, Best American Short Stories, Southern Review, Oxford American, Garden & Gun and other publications. Edgerton is a musician and has performed with musicians including Jim Watson, Mike Craver, Jack King, and Matt Kendrick. Audio albums and CDs on which he has performed include most recently The Bible Salesman, music and story, with Mike Craver.
Edgerton is the Thomas S. Kenan III professor of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Kristina, and their children.
Event Photos
2022: Maxwell Family Equestrian Farm
Click the image below to view photo gallery.
Featured Speaker:
Wiley Cash
Wiley Cash is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Last Ballad, A Land More Kind than Home, This Dark Road to Mercy, and When Ghosts Come Home. He serves as the writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and lives in North Carolina with his wife, photographer Mallory Cash, and their two daughters.
PHOTO CREDIT:
Mallory Brady Cash
2020: Virtual Film Event
Viewers were treated to a special virtual film screening featuring North Carolina author, Georgann Eubanks who has written several books based on the joy of journeying across North Carolina and the south. Our film featured: The Literary Trails Series, The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods Through the Year, and her book, The Wild South: Lost and Found.
We traveled along with Georgann and some of her local friends as they explored notable sites and historical figures of Wayne County. Georgann and her friends were served a five course meal prepared by local chefs featuring several heritage foods mentioned in Georgann’s book, The Month of Their Ripening.
Featured Speaker:
Georgann Eubanks
STREAM NOW!
2019: Home of Jewel & Randy Sauls
Built in 1883, this elegant home contains Italiante influences with a polychrome slate roof. The exterior is painted in the original colors of Downing Straw, Rookwood Green, and Indian red. The downstairs interior has been largely restored using reproduction Victorian wallpapers. The current homeowners, Jewel and Randy Sauls, purchased this elegant structure in 2000.
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.
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
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:
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.
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
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.
(Former Cobb Family Residence)
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.
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:
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."
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
