Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill has launched a new reading series: “Voice Rising”:
“Voice Rising pairs a small slate of hand-picked, local writers, be they unpublished, lesser-known or on the brink of a bigger stage, with one of our area’s myriad renowned writers for a truly unique evening.
“With each writer reading unpublished work for ten minutes followed by a crowd Q&A, Voice Rising is putting a local spin on your beloved bookshop readings.”
The first event on Monday, January 29, at 7:00 pm, will feature local writers Diana Mellow, Heather Wilson, and Michael Ventuolo-Mantovani alongside renowned Chapel Hill author and chair of UNC’s Creative Writing Department Daniel Wallace.
Diana Mellow is the Thomas Wolfe Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill. She comes from Moscow and grew up in New York City. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s designing theater sets, painting murals, and putting on puppet shows.
Heather Wilson is recent graduate of the University of North Carolina’s creative writing program. Her essays have been published in Off Assignment, an international online magazine for non-traditional travel literature, as well as Full Grown People, an online essay anthology. She lives in Carrboro and works at UNC Family Medicine.
Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is, in partnership with the wonderful crew at Flyleaf, the creator of Voice Rising. He is a longtime musician and record industry veteran whose work has been published on Bandcamp Daily, Reverb.com, and Cuepoint Magazine. After far too many years in New York City, he recently relocated to Chapel Hill with his wife. He is currently working on his literary debut.
Daniel Wallace is the author of six novels, including Big Fish (1998), Ray in Reverse (2000), The Watermelon King (2003), Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (2007), The Kings and Queens of Roam (2013), and most recently Extraordinary Adventures (May 2017). His children’s book, published in 2014, and for which he did both the words and the pictures, is called The Cat’s Pajamas, and it is adorable. In 2003, Big Fish was adapted and released as a movie and then in 2013 the book and the movie were mish-mashed together and became a Broadway musical. His novels have been translated into over two-dozen languages.
Daniel Wallace is the J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater, where he directs the Creative Writing Program.
Flyleaf Books is located at 752 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., in Chapel Hill
For more information, click here.
Kazabo, a newish kind of start-up publisher that we highlighted here on our blog back in 2016, is offering an interesting gift option if you just don’t know what to get that book-lover on your holiday list:
On this #GivingTuesday, the North Carolina Writers’ Network welcomes and appreciates any donation, in any amount, that any lover of literature sees fit to give. All you have to do is visit our website, 
