Lovett, Charlie 1962- (Charles Candler Lovett)

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Lovett, Charlie 1962- (Charles Candler Lovett)

PERSONAL:

Born August 24, 1962, in Winston-Salem, NC; married; wife's name Janice; children: Jordan, Lucy. Education: Davidson College, B.A. (cum laude), 1984; Vermont College of Norwich University, M.F.A., 1997.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Winston-Salem, NC.

CAREER:

Writer, educator, and playwright. Worked as a rare-book seller in the mid-1980s; Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, extension program writing instructor, 1995-97; Writer's Place, Kansas City, MO, writing instructor, 1998; Summit School, Winston-Salem, NC, writer-in-residence, 2002—; founder of the Lovett Foundation.

MEMBER:

Lewis Carroll Society of North America (president, 1990-94).

WRITINGS:

Alice on Stage: A History of the Early Theatrical Productions of "Alice in Wonderland" together with a Checklist of Dramatic Adaptations of Charles Dodgson's Works, Meckler (Westport, CT), 1990.

Everybody's Guide to Book Collecting, pictures by Jonathan Dixon, Write Brain (Overland Park, KS), 1993.

Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games' Most Storied Race, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1997.

Lewis Carroll's England: An Illustrated Guide for the Literary Tourist, White Stone (London, England), 1998.

Lewis Carroll and the Press: An Annotated Bibliography of Charles Dodgson's Contributions to Periodicals, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 1999.

(As Charles Candler Lovett) Love, Ruth: A Son's Memoir, Callanwolde Guild (Atlanta, GA), 1999.

Sparrow through the Hall: A Pilgrimage through British Christianity, Kingham Tree Press, 2002.

Lewis Carroll among His Books: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Private Library of Charles L. Dodgson, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 2005.

Onward & Upward: A History of Summit School, Summit School (Winston-Salem, NC), 2007.

The Program (novel), Pearlsong Press (Nashville, TN), 2008.

PLAYS

Twinderella, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2004.

Wooing Wed Widing Hood, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2004.

Romeo and Winifred: A Tragical Comedy in Two and a Half Acts, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2005.

Snew White, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2005.

Unwrapped, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2005.

A Hairy Tale, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2006.

A Nose for the News, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2006.

Romeo and Harriet: A Musical Tragical Comedy in Two and a Half Acts, music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2006.

Omelette: Chef of Denmark, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2006.

Porridgegate, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2007.

Supercomics, Pioneer Drama Service (Englewood, CO), 2007.

Also author of the blog Pioneer Drama; series editor of the The Complete Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll, of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America since 1994.

SIDELIGHTS:

Charlie Lovett is an American writer, educator, and playwright. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 24, 1962, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in theatrical studies in 1984 from Davidson College. He later pursued graduate studies at Vermont College of Norwich University, earning a master of fine arts in 1997. After earning his master's degree, he worked as an extension program writing instructor at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. Since 2002 he has served as a writer-in-residence at Winston-Salem's Summit School. Lovett is the founder of the Lovett Foundation and additionally served as president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America from 1990 to 1994.

Lovett published his first book, Alice on Stage: A History of the Early Theatrical Productions of "Alice in Wonderland" together with a Checklist of Dramatic Adaptations of Charles Dodgson's Works, in 1990. This was followed in 1993 with Everybody's Guide to Book Collecting, including pictures by Jonathan Dixon. In 1997 Lovett published Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games' Most Storied Race. The account looks into the general facts about the origins of the Greek marathon and the lives of some of its legendary sportsmen.

Scott G. Martyn, writing in the LA84 Foundation Web site, pointed out that Lovett covers legends of the marathon and its general history. Martyn pointed out that "the book's treatment of these facets of Olympic history demonstrate Lovett's general lack of in-depth knowledge of the scholarly literature that undergirds our understanding of them." Martyn noted: "Despite my general applause for Lovett's historical narrative surrounding the Olympic marathon and the sequence of events within each race, there are some shortcomings, errors, and highly debatable statements that need correction if the book is to progress to a second edition." Martyn concluded that "the real strength of Lovett's book is in its recounting of each Olympic marathon, rather than in the depth of contextual Olympic history. As a reference book for those interested in who participated, who won which marathon, when, where, and in what fashion, this book should be very useful."

Lovett published Lewis Carroll and the Press: An Annotated Bibliography of Charles Dodgson's Contributions to Periodicals in 1999. Lovett covers the articles that Lewis Carroll published in periodicals, ranging from poetry and short stories to word and mathematical puzzles and political commentary.

A contributor to the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada summarized that "Lovett has gathered together material from a wide variety of sources and has enriched it with fascinating facts about Carroll and his world, providing much new information about an area of publishing history that has been little documented previously. This bibliography will be an asset to anyone who is interested in the study of Lewis Carroll and will serve as an invaluable reference source for librarians, scholars, students, book collectors, and booksellers."

Lovett told CA: "I began to seriously pursue a career as a writer in my late twenties, but I have always been interested in writing. Most of my nonfiction works grew out of specific interests of mine such as Lewis Carroll, rare books, and the Olympic marathon. Though most of my published works have been nonfiction, I've been writing fiction seriously for about fifteen years. I began writing short stories for writing classes, and then wrote my first novel in the mid-1990s. I hope no one ever sees that work, but I did learn a lot from writing it. Most importantly, I proved to myself that I can write a 250-page work of fiction. I continued writing short stories while in graduate school, and have published a few stories in small journals. In the early 2000s, however, I decided I was ready to try a novel again. Unlike my first attempt at novel-writing, when I began The Program, I had a good idea of what the book was about and what would happen, though I did not work from an outline, and did enjoy making discoveries about the characters as we moved through the story together.

"To me a novel is something that builds up inside me over a period of months, or even years. I got the initial idea for my current novel-in-progress while walking in the English countryside two years before I ever started writing. Similarly, the central idea for The Program had been in the back of mind for some time before I started writing. I made notes on old credit card receipts and on the backs of envelopes (my wife kindly never throws away anything with my nearly illegible scrawl on it) and eventually I just knew it was time to start to write. I also find in writing a novel that it's helpful to have a stretch of time during which I can devote at least one to three hours a day to writing for three to four months in a row. It's much easier to get through a first draft this way, so that I don't lose track of what's happened in the story and I stay enthusiastic about the novel. In the case of The Program, I had a few months between projects, so I decided the time was right to put that novel that had been percolating in my head for some time down on paper.

"On the surface, The Program is a novel about weight loss and body image and it is a condemnation of our society's obsession with slimness, but in a broader sense, I think The Program is about two things. First, it's about temptation and the various ways we meet temptation and react to it. Second, it's about the ways we falsely present ourselves to the world and the reasons we do so. On reading The Program several months after I wrote the first draft, I discovered that many of the characters put on ‘costumes,’ dressing to present themselves as something other than they actually are. In a way that's no different from trying to change body shape. I think this theme of our struggle to reshape our identities into something less than true re-echoes throughout The Program."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Lovett, Charlie, Love, Ruth: A Son's Memoir, Callanwolde Guild (Atlanta, GA), 1999.

Lovett, Charlie, Sparrow through the Hall: A Pilgrimage through British Christianity, Kingham Tree Press, 2002.

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, January 1, 1998, review of Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games' Most Storied Race, p. 860.

Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, fall, 2000, review of Lewis Carroll and the Press: An Annotated Bibliography of Charles Dodgson's Contributions to Periodicals, pp. 133-136.

Reference & Research Book News, August 1, 2005, review of Lewis Carroll among His Books: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Private Library of Charles L. Dodgson, p. 266.