Carteret Writers to Host Award Winning New Bern Author

Carteret Writers will host award winning writer Flora Ann Scearce at their January 8 luncheon meeting at 11:30 at Capt. Bill’s Waterfront Restaurant in Morehead City. Lunch is a la carte from the menu and there is no additional program fee. Anyone interested in writing is welcome to attend.

Although her high school yearbook named her class poet, North Carolina native Flora Ann Scearce did not begin writing in earnest until the mid 1980s. Following in the footsteps of her 1997 novel, “Singer of an Empty Day” which won the prestigious North Carolina Society of Historians’ Clark Cox Award, her latest novel, “Cotton Mill Girl,” also won that award in 2007. The award honors authors who publish a work of fiction based on historical events, places or individuals in North Carolina history.

Both novels are based on the life of Scearce's mother, Selena "Sippy" Wright. They chronicle the joys and hardships of a young girl's life begun in the North Carolina mountains in the early 20th century and her transition to the "boom town" of Gastonia and work in Loray Cotton Mill after the loss of her mother. Rich in history, they tell the story of a family's love, poverty, and struggle for survival.

A member of Carteret Writers and NC Writers’ Network, Ms. Scearce has also won numerous awards for her short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. She resides in Trent Woods.

Founded in 1984, Carteret Writers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating camaraderie between writers and promoting the art of writing. Besides monthly meetings held on the second Tuesday of each month at Capt. Bill's Restaurant in Morehead City, smaller genre critique group meetings are available to members.

For further information, call 252-247-7156.