This is an exciting opportunity for the library to take a leading role in supporting local authors. It is also an exciting opportunity for the many wonderful writers in our region, who now have another resource both for themselves and readers. I'm happy to be part of this important project. With Novello Festival Press, we can do even more through publications and outreach programs. Works to be published by Novello Festival Press will be selected by the editors in consultation with an advisory committee made up of local writers, editors, librarians, teachers and others connected to the literary world.
Plans also call for an annual competition, with the winning selection being published.
There is a real drive to put Charlotte and Charlotte-area writers in the spotlight and to nurture local talent. I expect that drive to continue, and I'm confident we will see some fantastic literary accomplishments as a result of the work Novello Festival Press is doing. Tentatively titled Fire in the Rock, the book is a story of three young friends who come of age in the segregated South and struggle to define their lives against the tumultuous events that surround them.