Yesterday in Caldwell lounge, McCorkle unveiled her new masterpiece of the deep psychological misgivings between a grandmother and her recently deceased son’s family. Students filled not only the seats but sat on the floor, leaned against windows and lined the vending machines in an effort to hear McCorkle’s southern drawl.
From Lumberton, N.C., the English department seduced the heavily in demand McCorkle to N.C. State as the first Lee Smith visiting professor.
“It is one of the best workshops I’ve had in a long time,” she said of her time so far teaching in the Master of Fine Arts program.
“Well I’ve taught at a lot of different places and what I’ve realized is in terms of actual talent, that doesn’t vary. Levels of privilege might change but the actual talent and ability to write is equal — it’s reassuring because you can’t buy that.”
State also possesses the certifiable expert on McCorkle’s literature, Barbara Bennett, who wrote “Understanding Jill McCorkle.”
“I love her short stories especially the ones in Crash Diet,” Bennett exclaimed. “What I find interesting about her work is that there is this level of humor, she really keeps you laughing. And then there will be a moment when it twists, and there is a really poignant moment when you realize this is a really funny story, but also a very serious story.”
Bennett teaches an adolescent literature class where the students read McCorkle’s Ferris Beach, a female coming-of age novel. Chris Titchner, an English with a Teaching Option major, who is currently enrolled in Bennett’s class said, “McCorkle does a good job of getting into a speaker’s head and balancing the characters and their dialogue with her running commentary.”
“I really enjoy hearing an author reading their own work, using the inflections they intended — delivering all the lines and thoughts how she wanted them to sound,” Titchner said.
McCorkle has written five novels and three short story compilations.
“I hate to get gender specific,” Bennett said about novel recommendations. “But girls would really like Cheerleader because it’s about all the pressures in college and how everything changes when you come to college. For either sex I would say either July 7 or Ferris Beach.”
McCorkle’s favorite of her own novels? “The closest thing at hand,” she said, laughing. “I really love Carolina Moon, though.”
The English department is attempting to keep McCorkle as a permanent fixture in the master’s program.
“We are honored to have her here,” Bennett said. “I think she would be a wonderful student draw since she is a North Carolina writer, and she writes about things they know.”
