When people across Ashe County read Lee Smith's novel On Agate Hill in the county's first Community Read last year, the county library was in a temporary location in a shopping mall.
But even as construction workers were putting in new walls and floors during a renovation and expansion of the library's home on a hill above downtown West Jefferson, lovers of literature were planning an expanded literary festival to go with the new two-story library. The new library building opened this summer, offering twice as much space as the old one and views of the mountains out every window.
The second Community Read is going on this month and features author Jill McCorkle, the Lee Smith Professor in Creative Writing at N.C. State University. Adults are reading McCorkle's new short-story collection, Going Away Shoes, while youth are reading her novel Ferris Beach.
The new literary festival, On the Same Page, will be Wednesday through Saturday.
"This festival was born out of the realization that with a brand new gorgeous library, we wanted to make the most out of that space and encourage reading," Jane Lonon, the executive director of the Ashe County Arts Council, recently told county commissioners.
Included will be a reading by McCorkle at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Ashe Arts Center.
The festival's grand finale will be a catered luncheon at noon Saturday featuring a panel discussion by McCorkle and authors Pamela Duncan, Georgann Eubanks, and John and Dale Reed. A question-and-answer session will be moderated by author and Appalachian State University creative-writing professor Joseph Bathani.
The cost is $15, and registration is required by calling 846-ARTS. The luncheon will be in Hensley Hall at West Jefferson United Methodist Church.
The authors will make other appearances during the festival, at various sites. For a full lineup of events, which also include a program by Ashe County author Clint Johnson, as well as stage performances, visit www.onthesamepagefestival.org.
Beth Morrison has read both of the featured Community Read books.
She described the short-story collection as edgy, with some adult-themed content about relationships, including a story about a woman contemplating an affair. The title story is about a woman who cares for her elderly mother when her siblings won't. The last story, "Me and Bigfoot," involves an imagined relationship a single woman talks about when her friends nag her about finding a man.
"They all really have to do with people, women usually, in life transitions of some sort," Morrison said. "...One of the things that Jill McCorkle does in her writing is focus very tightly on the narrator. You're seeing things very tightly through the narrator's point of view."
She says the writing is good, and she'll be interested to see how people respond to the book.
As the new library building was taking shape, Ashe County Library director Jim McQueen and Lonon talked about how to make the best use of it. In the spring of 2008, a committee began planning for last year's Community Read.
They asked Smith, who is a part-time Ashe County resident, to lead a discussion of her book. An actress did a one-woman performance of scenes from the book last November.
Morrison, a community volunteer and friend of Smith's, said they passed out a survey to people who came to the performance.
"We asked them, ‘Do you have an interest in a literary festival?'" Morrison said. "They all said, ‘Yes, yes, yes.'"
Organizers say they hope to build on the success of this year's festival, and have bigger ones in the future.
The N.C. Humanities Council has provided a $7,580 grant to the Ashe County Arts Council for the festival.
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
336-667-5691
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