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All eyes on Chapel Hill

by Vicky Dickson

It was standing room only for the launch of Eno Publishers’ collection 27 Views of Chapel Hill at Flyleaf Books last Saturday, where attendees who’d braved the afternoon’s heavy rain showers were rewarded with an impressive display of local literary talent.

Host Daniel Wallace, writer of the book’s introduction and cover illustrator, opened things up by noting how sedate a group the assembled writers were, unlike those unruly authors who made a sport of insulting one another in days of yore. He quipped: “I would love to see Daphne [Athas] tackle Paul Jones, and watch “Erica [Eisdorfer] and Mama Dip in a little fistfight.” Which didn’t happen, of course – but the event was plenty lively all the same.

All eyes are on Mama Dip as she reads from 27 Views of Chapel Hill at Flyleaf Books on Saturday. Pictured, back to front, are authors Daniel Wallace, Alan Shapiro, Samia Serageldin, Elisabeth Spencer, Will McInerney and Mildred Council (Mama Dip). Photo by Robert Dickson

And plenty enlightening too. First to read an excerpt was restaurateur Mildred “Mama Dip” Council, who recounted how she opened her restaurant in 1976 with $64 – just enough to buy what she needed to cook the opening day’s breakfast, but not enough, she realized later, to have enabled her to make change if one of her first customers had handed her a $10 bill. The proceeds from breakfast bought lunch, and lunch paid for supper fixings … with the profits of the day coming to $135. And thus the famed Dip’s Country Kitchen was born.

Among the afternoon’s other highlights were readings from fiction set in Chapel Hill over the decades, with Athas evoking the town’s life in the ’40s, and Lawrence Naumoff and Elizabeth Spencer doing the same for the tumultuous times of the ’60’s and ’70s.

Charles Thompson offered a sobering reminiscence of an early ’60s sit-in off Franklin Street, while Paul Cuadros showed us, in his vignette about the Hispanics now working behind the counter at Sutton’s Drugstore, how much things have changed since those days.

Then there was Bill Smith and his tale of life (floral and otherwise) along the bike path that connects Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and Jock Lauterer describing the trepidation he felt after inviting the adolescent James Taylor to his house for a guitar lesson. Samia Serageldin described a Muslim woman’s trepidation about throwing a party less than a week after 9/11. Linnie Greene described coming to love the Nightlight, Eisdorfer told of moving to a verminous home (with indoor plumbing!) on Justice Street and D.G. Martin brought us the sisters who for decades have shared their Gimghoul Road garden with anyone who wishes to enter. The sisters, though they’re getting on in years, continue to maintain that beautiful garden because, “As long as we have the garden, we’ll never be lonely.”

Poetic talent was well represented too, with Alan Shapiro’s powerful verses about a singular basketball game, Paul Jones’ poignant lines about a used bookstore’s forgotten volumes and a riveting ending performance by Sacrificial Poet Will McInerney.

Daniel Wallace summed it up nicely: “This whole program is like being Tantalus – you just want more, and then they stop.”

But fortunately, there is more – all you have to do is buy 27 Views of Chapel Hill.

Not only will you get the full stories you’ve been tantalized with, you’ll get equally fascinating views of Chapel Hill by Wells Tower, Will Blythe, Bland Simpson, Sy Safransky, William Leuchtenburg and many others. Which will leave you, in all likelihood, just wanting more from 27 (well, actually 29 – or 30, counting Wallace’s intro) fine local writers.

Those who couldn’t make it to Flyleaf on Saturday will have another opportunity to meet Daniel Wallace and some of the 27 Views of Chapel Hill authors, at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, Oct. 11 at 7 pm.

Those impressed (and who wasn’t?) by Will McInerney’s reading might want to check out Sacrificial Poets Touchstone Open Mic night at Flyleaf, the first Wednesday of every month from 6:30 to 8:30.

The Hinge Literary Center will bring Alan Shapiro back to Flyleaf on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. for a lecture and discussion entitled “Why Write?” And if you’re having some trouble getting started, check out “How to get past the first chapter and finish your novel,” which will be presented by writer James Maxey at the Orange County Main Library in Hillsborough on Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. Aspiring novelists should register for the free event at the library’s information desk, by calling 245-2536 or online at the Orange County Library site, www.co.orange.nc.us/library/adultevents.asp