Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
(This originally appeared in the Aug. 12 issue of The Nashville Graphic in Michael’s “The Soapbox” column.) My mama and I were both voracious readers when I was growing up. However, we never got to meet many writers — just two that I can recall. One was Roy Wilder Jr. of Spring Hope,…
“‘The Civil War is just as complicated now as the day it started.’ . . . Brantley deftly combines military and social history, a gripping narrative of one private soldier, and his personal struggle to make sense of a savage, fratricidal war and the morally fraught heritage that continues to haunt the South.” —Philip Gerard,…
By Michael K. Brantley I couldn’t get everything about eastern North Carolina into the story that makes up my forthcoming book about the Civil War in the area (Spring 2020). The research trail could have gone on for another decade and been incomplete. One thing I’ve run across is information about the Confederate hospital in…
I had my best meal of oysters ever just a few weeks ago, at a place I plan on writing about here soon. But I came across a piece to share that couldn’t wait. David Cecelski is one of my favorite North Carolina writers. I found him while working on a graduate degree at East…
By Michael K. Brantley On February 18, 1911, Nash County Representative J.L. Cornwell introduced a bill in the North Carolina General Assembly as “An Act to establish and provide for the organization of the County of Jarvis from the territory of Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Wake and Franklin Counties.” The bill was labeled H.B. 1229 and…
The North Carolina Writers Network refers to North Carolina as “the writingest state.” That is such a cool tagline. The state has a long history of great writers, from Thomas Wolfe to Ron Rash, O. Henry to Joseph Mitchell, James Boyd to Lee Smith … and on and on. I taught a class at N.C….