Oct. 27, 2005

Joseph Bathanti Wins 2006 Novello Literary Award

CHARLOTTE—Novello Festival Press (NFP) has named Joseph Bathanti the winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award. The announcement was made at Novello Press Night, Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Bathanti’s novel “Coventry” was chosen from more than 80 manuscripts submitted by writers from across the Carolinas. He will receive $1,000 and NFP will release his book in fall 2006.

Amy Rogers, executive editor of NFP, said “Coventry” was “a rare book – a literary page-turner. Joseph Bathanti is one of our region’s finest writers and we are thrilled to be publishing his latest work.”

Bathanti is a professor of creative writing and co-director of the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series at Appalachian State University. He also has published four books of poetry, including “This Metal,” which was nominated for the National Book Award. His first novel, “East Liberty,” won the Carolina Novel Award. Bathanti has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes in both short fiction and creative nonfiction. His work has been honored with a Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, the Linda Flowers Prize, and the 2002 Sherwood Anderson Award.

Bathanti first came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. “Coventry” is set partly inside a fictional North Carolina prison of the same name.

Novello Festival Press is the award-winning publishing project of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. For more information, call (704) 432-0153 or visit www.novellopress.org.

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