Friday November 12, 7pm – Fiction
Zelda Lockhart author of Fifth Born 2: The Hundredth Turtle
Ms. Lockhart is the Piedmont Laureate for Literature in North Carolina. Her award winning novels Fifth Born and Cold Running Creek have won awards from the Zora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Legacy Foundation, from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and she has been a Barnes & Noble Discovery author.
“Zelda gives us an unflinching view of the human spirit surviving adversity, confronting despair with stubbornness and wry humor, and achieving levels of insight that display a genuine sense of compassion.” – Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
“Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle is a tough story and a captivating story that needs telling. It is a story of the earth and its people — the salt of the earth, the wicked, the wretched and the born-again. Lockhart captures the taste, smell, touch and sound of a certain type of African American life at a certain time, and she is a mighty impressive story teller indeed. Fifth Born II is a rich and important tale; it has a down-home feel with a Rhythm and Blues and Soul soundtrack and with a bit of Hip-hop thrown in, from Mississippi and Harlem to the AIDS epidemic to questions of What Will Happen to All that Beauty? Zelda Lockhart’s story breathes fire, but it does not scorch — it is the type of fire that warms and enlightens. Reading this book will enlarge your heart.” – Randall Kenan, author of A Visitation of Spirits
“Zelda Lockhart’s novel, Fifth-Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, is a beautifully written, unflinchingly honest account of the life of Odessa Blackburn, a memorable narrator born with all odds stacked against her. Lockhart is a masterful storyteller and this novel will hold her readers spellbound.”- Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes
