The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host an evening of celebration with the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective (CAAWC) on Feb. 9 at 7:00 PM EST. Register here.

The event will include a reading of works in “All the Songs We Sing,” the new anthology that marks the CAAWC’s 25th anniversary. Two SILS graduates, L. Teresa Church (MSLS ’98, PhD ’08) and Mélina Mangal (MSLS ’94), are featured presenters. This celebration is co-sponsored by Blair Publishing and SILS.

CAAWC got its start with monthly meetings in poet Lenard D. Moore’s Raleigh home in August 1995. Over the years, this community has helped hone the skills of many celebrated writers, including Evie Shockley, 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry; Camille T. Dungy, a 2019 winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts; and Fred Joiner, the Carrboro poet laureate and winner of a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.

Teresa Church has been a member of the CAAWC since 1995. Her writings have appeared in publications including Simply Haiku; One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku; The Heron’s Nest; Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora; Solo Café; Nocturnes: (Re)view of the Literary Arts; African American Review; and North Carolina Literary Review. Her chapbooks include “Hand-Me-Down Calicos” and “Beyond the Water Dance.”

Mélina Mangal has authored short stories and biographies for youth, including The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, winner of the Carter G. Woodson Award. She works at the intersection of nature, literature and culture, highlighting those whose voices are rarely heard, and the people and places that inspire them to explore their world.

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