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dedicated to the memory of Jerry Leath ("Jake") Mills
In November, 2012, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association and the Historical Book Club of North Carolina presented Charles Frazier his second Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, this one for his newest novel, Nightwoods. This North Carolina book award is presented each year during the evening event of the annual meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the organization that founded and co-publishes the North Carolina Literary Review. Charles Frazier received his first Raleigh Award at my very first "Lit & Hist" meeting, back in 1997, for, of course, Cold Mountain, which also received the National Book Award that year. At that meeting back in 1997, Frazier also gave a reading from Cold Mountain. I had not yet read the novel and during the question and answer period that followed his reading, somebody in the audience asked a question that gave away the novel's ending (spoiler alert - I'm about to do the same, but at this point, does anyone not know how this novel ends?). I don't remember the question, but we can imagine it: "Why did you have to kill Inman in the end?" - or something to that effect. There was a resounding group gasp as those who had already read the still-new novel realized what this person had done to those of us who had not yet read it.
Also in fall 1997, I took over the editorship of NCLR, and at the time of that November meeting, I had no idea what opportunities this part of my also-still-new position on the faculty of East Carolina University would lead to - most recently, the opportunity to interview Charles Frazier - twice. The interview published in the pages to follow is a compilation of both opportunities.1 The original script of questions that I prepared for an open interview with the writer as the keynote session of the 2012 Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming was, I knew, far too long to cover in the time allotted on the program, especially with the plan to have Frazier read from each of his books in the course of the interview and to allow audience members a chance to ask questions of the...