NC Literary Hall of Fame to induct 5 in 2024

Hall of Fame ceremony to be held on Oct. 6 in Southern Pines Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti, groundbreaking essayist and educator Anna Julia Cooper, poet and professor Lenard Moore, bestselling novelist Kaye Gibbons, and Appalachian bard Ron Rash will join the hall in a ceremony on Oct. 6 at the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines. The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature. Inductions are held every other year. A list of the 70 current inductees, as well as samples of their work and video clips of past inductions, can be found online at www.nclhof.org. *Joseph Bathanti was the poet laureate of North Carolina from 2012 to 2014, and has received both the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and criticism. Since 2001 he has taught at Appalachian State University in Boone. *Anna Julie Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born enslaved in Raleigh in...