{"id":440,"date":"2014-04-28T16:24:38","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T16:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/?page_id=440"},"modified":"2026-08-06T15:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:08:41","slug":"latest-news","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/latest-news\/","title":{"rendered":"News"},"content":{"rendered":"

8\/6\/26: <\/b>In the new Lit Caf\u00e9<\/a>, thoughts from Joseph Heller, Barbara Presnell, Tommy Hays and me on taking our time.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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5\/20\/26: <\/b>In this month’s Lit Caf\u00e9<\/a>, Jerry Gabriel, author of the new novel Deserters<\/em>, reflects on his writing career and lets us in on his works in progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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4\/21\/26:<\/b> The new Lit Caf\u00e9<\/a>, a memorial tribute to Angela Davis-Gardner, includes an unbelievable story Angela told me that I believed.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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3\/10\/26:\u00a0<\/b>This month’s Lit Caf\u00e9<\/a> celebrates the life and work of Patricia Henley, my mentor, author of the new story collection Apple & Palm<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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2\/7\/26:<\/strong> In the Lit Caf\u00e9<\/a>, readers Marty Church Hargrave and Shelley Smith Irwin talk about their favorite writers and what they would feed them if they came to dinner.<\/p>\n

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1\/1\/26: <\/b>My Substack newsletter, <\/span><\/span>Lit Caf\u00e9 with Kim Church<\/a>, is now online — a gathering place for readers and writers, with conversations, book news, and this-&-thats from the lit life.<\/p>\n

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My mother’s caf\u00e9 curtains over the kitchen table in our homeplace.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

9\/15\/25: <\/b>Sad news. <\/span><\/span>Dan Wickett, co-founder of Dzanc Books, my publisher, has died at 59. Dan and Steve Gillis launched Dzanc in 2006, searching out \u201cdaring, original, and innovative\u201d fiction and nonfiction. Over twenty years they built Dzanc into one of the country’s most highly regarded literary presses. Dan was as kind as he was brilliant, a tireless champion for writers. I am forever grateful for his generosity and support. I will miss him.<\/p>\n

7\/19\/25:<\/b> At this year’s North Carolina Writers Conference honoring Clyde Edgerton, I teamed up with writer\/musicians Jim Clark, Bland Simpson, Daniel Ayers, and Steve Mitchell to talk about how the two disciplines connect. And played a little.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Granny & me<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

7\/2\/25: <\/strong>In 2027, one hundred and twenty-seven years after my granny came into the world, so will the novel she inspired.

In LENA AND RAE<\/strong>, two women raised as sisters leave their family farm in Burke County, North Carolina, to work in cotton mills on the eve of the textile strikes of the 1920s and 30s \u2014 strikes that set off a brutal class war and land the sisters on opposite sides of the picket line. Part fictional retelling of the strike at Gastonia\u2019s Loray Mill in 1929 and the General Textile Strike of 1934, part family saga, this is a story of work and faith and song and struggle and, above all, the ties of sisterhood that endure after heartbreak.

The novel has been a long labor of love, and I\u2019m deeply thankful to Emma Patterson,<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0my agent, and Michelle Dotter<\/span><\/span><\/span> and the team at Dzanc Books<\/span><\/span><\/span>, my publisher, for their confidence and support. We’ll be sharing more news along the way.<\/p>\n

2\/20\/25: <\/strong>The\u00a0North Carolina Literary Review remembers Dannye Powell<\/a> in its winter issue, now online. Dannye was one of our brightest literary lights and a dear friend. When we honored her at the 2019 NC Writers Conference, we had no inkling how soon she would leave us. Thanks to NCLR for this memorial, which includes remarks from Joseph Bathanti and me.<\/p>\n

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Morning at Weymouth<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

9\/13\/24:<\/strong> I’ll be off to the Weymouth Center in October to revise my novel-in-progress — historical fiction years in the making. More news soon, I hope.<\/p>\n

3\/14\/24:<\/strong> Happy birthday to Byrd<\/em>, and thanks to Abigail DeWitt for reminding me! I spent the day quietly laboring away on my new book.<\/p>\n

6\/8\/23:<\/strong> Byrd<\/em> is on Julia Franks’ recommended reading list<\/a> of books on motherhood and adoption in the new LitHub. Thanks, Julia, and congratulations on The Say So<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Leaving VCCA<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

4\/30\/23:\u00a0<\/strong>Goodbye to VCCA, and thanks for the magic.<\/p>\n

3\/8\/23:<\/strong>\u00a0Dzanc Books, publisher of Byrd<\/em>, has won the 2023\u00a0AWP Small Press Publisher Award, a prize given each year to honor the labor, creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation of small publishers. Congratulations to Michelle Dotter, Editor-in-Chief, and everyone at Dzanc!<\/p>\n

2\/12\/23: <\/strong>Thanks to the Weymouth Center for time and space to work, to The Country Bookshop for keeping Byrd<\/em> on the shelf, to The Ice Cream Parlor for making orangeade the way I like it, and to everyone who stopped to talk while I was sitting on a bench outside reading the new issue of PineStraw<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Pin oak, Nancy Enloe<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

12\/5\/22:\u00a0<\/strong>Honored to be guest speaker at today’s meeting of the Capital Oaks Book Club. One member proposed that Byrd<\/em> be required reading for every high school student. Yes please.<\/p>\n

10\/18\/22:\u00a0<\/strong>Byrd<\/em>\u00a0is on a list of the best novels on the families we have & the families we make<\/a>. Thanks to Caitlin Hamilton Summie, author of Geographies of the Heart.<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/14\/22:<\/strong> Byrd<\/em> is listed on Bookclubs.com’s The Best Books from Small Presses Winter 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Weymouth gardens<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

7\/26\/21:\u00a0<\/strong>Home from a summer residency at Weymouth: solitude for writing, woods and gardens for walking, and kindred spirits for company.<\/p>\n

5\/1\/21: <\/strong>Oh, the joys of an in-person writing group: Joyce’s new cat, Pat’s deviled eggs, Nora’s pimento cheese.<\/p>\n

11\/15\/20:<\/strong> Goodbye to The State of Things<\/em>. <\/em>Our local NPR station has announced that the show will end when host Frank Stasio retires at the end of the year. Congratulations to Frank on a long and brilliant career, and thanks for having me.<\/p>\n

9\/1\/20:<\/strong> As guest author in Joseph Bathanti\u2019s \u201cStories Can Save Us\u201d class I got to revisit Watauga College, Appalachian State University\u2019s interdisciplinary residential college, where I was a student in the ’70s. It was a great homecoming, the students sharp and thoughtful as always. Our Zoom shirts were clean, our hair long. Most surprising question: \u201cHow do you deal with procrastination?\u201d Let me get back to you.<\/p>\n

8\/25\/20: <\/strong>A sad goodbye: the pandemic has closed our K&W, “the hangout of choice for writers in Raleigh” featured in Georgann Eubanks’ Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina<\/em>\u00a0and the inspiration for my short story, “Cafeteria Lady<\/a>.” I shared many a meal there with Angela Davis-Gardner, Peggy Payne, Carrie Knowles — our own Algonquin in the heart of Cameron Village.<\/p>\n

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Cameron Village K&W, 1968-2020<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

1\/27\/20: <\/strong>I talk with\u00a0Patricia Henley about the\u00a020th anniversary reissue of her\u00a0acclaimed debut novel <\/span>Hummingbird House<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in the new\u00a0<\/span>Fiction Writers Review<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/strong>10\/31\/19: <\/strong>Fall residency in Southern Pines, perfect Halloween town. Thanks to Katrina Denza and the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7\/27\/19:<\/strong> Delighted\u00a0to pay tribute to the amazing <\/span>Dannye Powell <\/a>at the North Carolina Writers Conference, held for the first time this year in my hometown, Lexington.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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4\/12\/19: <\/strong>Home after a spring residency at\u00a0the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts<\/a>, where I got\u00a0to pretend for a while I was living a hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

2\/26\/19: <\/strong>On Saturday, March 23, the N.C. Arts Council will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its fellowship program with free day-long writing workshops at Cary Arts Center. Angela Davis-Gardner and I will lead the fiction workshop. Lunch is included and you’ll have an opportunity to present your work.\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0me if you’d like a registration form.<\/p>\n

1\/29\/19: <\/strong>Thanks to Darrell Laurant for featuring Byrd<\/em> on his\u00a0blog,\u00a0Snowflakes in a Blizzard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

12\/21\/18: <\/strong>Hot off the press!\u00a0Issue #37 of INCH Magazine<\/a> includes my shortest story so far, “The Residence at Cedar Crest,” written on\u00a0the train after my last\u00a0visit with a dying friend. I hope he would laugh over it, his muttery little laugh.<\/p>\n

11\/18\/18: <\/strong>“What conditions best help you hear and respond to the tapping of a story? What interferes?” — moderator Nancy Peacock’s opening question to our panel on social media and its effects on\u00a0creativity. Thanks to Nancy, co-panelists Charles Fiore, Anna Jean Mayhew, Michele Berger, and Ralph Hardy, host Quail Ridge Books, and all the writers in the\u00a0audience for a spirited conversation.<\/p>\n

10\/19\/18: <\/strong>Honored to introduce\u00a0Abigail DeWitt at Quail Ridge Books, reading from\u00a0her gorgeous new novel, News of Our Loved Ones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Byrd & <\/em>Loved Ones<\/p><\/div>\n

9\/29\/18: <\/strong>Fun with\u00a0the Sip ‘n’ Sign Book Club at Pedaler Wine & Beer: drinks, snacks, Byrd<\/em> talk, & pinball.<\/p>\n

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Sip ‘n’ Sign<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

9\/11\/18: <\/strong>On the eve of Hurricane Florence, a\u00a0delicious\u00a0afternoon\u00a0with the Tea and Tattered Pages Book Club, where we talked\u00a0about things other than the storm. And I still made it home\u00a0in time to bring in the laundry ahead of the rain.<\/p>\n

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End of summer: lemonade, red fingernails, storm blowing in.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

6\/30\/18: <\/strong>INCH, the Bull City Press magazine devoted to\u00a0compressed literary work, will publish my new short-short story, “The Residence at Cedar Crest.” I’m so happy. I love this magazine. I do a little dance every time the new one comes. Then I\u00a0sit down and read it, sometimes twice. Then I get up and do another little dance.<\/p>\n

5\/15\/18: <\/strong>Variety night with Steve Mitchell at Quail Ridge Books, talking about his\u00a0novel Cloud Diary <\/em>and playing songs from\u00a0the Cloud Diary Music Project: my\u00a0country waltz “Use the Back Door,”<\/a> with Steve Sollod helping out\u00a0on lap steel, and sax player\u00a0Laurent Estoppey’s\u00a0otherworldly\u00a0“Away Is Never Far Enough.”<\/a><\/p>\n

4\/30\/18: <\/strong>A week alone at Weymouth\u00a0pretending to be Henry David Thoreau:\u00a0read, write, walk into town and back, take nap, repeat.<\/p>\n

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View from desk, Thomas Wolfe room<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

3\/27\/18:<\/strong> The sweetest gift: a first edition of Byrd<\/em>, passed around, read, and inscribed by friends from Watauga College. Thanks to Craig Stokes, who hatched the plot, Mike and Noel McLaughlin, who delivered the book to me,\u00a0and all the Wataugans who conspired. What a treasure.<\/p>\n

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Watauga College yearbook<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

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3\/25\/18: <\/strong>Thanks to JoAnn Harrington,\u00a0Jewel Tolan, and the\u00a0SearStone Retirement Community Book Club for\u00a0a\u00a0warm welcome,\u00a0tasty lunch,\u00a0lively discussion, and\u00a0sunny room\u00a0where we\u00a0could\u00a0bask\u00a0in spring despite the cold.<\/p>\n

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With Anna Quindlen at Quail Ridge Books. Photo by Ren\u00e9 Martin.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

3\/23\/18: <\/strong>Fun with Anna Quindlen.\u00a0Me:\u00a0Your\u00a0New York Times column was “Life in the 30s.” Later you said\u00a0if you wrote a fifties version you’d\u00a0call it\u00a0“Where The Hell Are My Keys?”. What would you call a sixties version? Anna: “What Keys?” Me: Or\u00a0just, “What?” Thanks to Ren\u00e9 Martin of Quail Ridge Books for bringing us together.<\/p>\n

2\/16\/18: <\/strong>Just finished scoring stories for the\u00a0Raleigh Fine Arts Society’s annual high school literary contest<\/a>.\u00a0I do this every year, and every year I read something that surprises me and sharpens my notions about what can make a story jump off the page. Congratulations to all the contestants, and may the jumpingest story win.<\/p>\n

12\/11\/17: <\/strong>Darren DeFrain\u2019s graduate fiction class at Wichita State University devoted this semester to in-depth readings of Dzanc titles, complemented by Skype visits with the authors. I was one of the lucky authors. Several students made trailers for Byrd<\/em> as their final projects\u2014very different interpretations, and I love them all. Thanks to Darren,\u00a0Michelle Dotter at Dzanc,\u00a0and student filmmakers Annmarie Woods, Josh Zimmerer, Victoria Hendricks, and Abigail Rogers.<\/p>\n

By Annmarie Woods and Josh Zimmerer:<\/p>\n