Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Wilmington, N.C. - Clyde Edgerton, University of North Carolina Wilmington professor of creative writing, had his first non-fiction book published this month. Solo: My Adventures in the Air is in bookstores now. Solo was favorably reviewed in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Edgerton has previously published eight novels, five of which were New York Times Notables.

In Solo’s introduction, Edgerton states, he “dreamed of coming home from a lone solo flight soon after I was old enough to look into the sky and see an airplane.” It was Edgerton’s “almost crazy love of flying” that led him “through Air Force pilot training, to an assignment in Japan, and on to a year of combat missions in Southeast Asia.” This same love would lead him years later to buy his own private plane, which he christened Annabelle.

Some noted praise for Solo includes:

“Solo is a fantastic book – spellbinding, exciting, funny, informative, moving, and beautifully, beautifully, beautifully written. Count me among the blessed legions of Clyde Edgerton fans.”

- Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried

“Anybody who has ever flown, or served in an air force, will find that Clyde Edgerton’s Solo brings back many memories, some of them pleasant, others terrifying. I found my years in the Royal Air Force coming back to me in one big gush, as exhilarating as one’s first ride in a military aircraft. If you like flying, you’ll love this book.”

- Michael Korda, author of Charmed Lives and Man to Man

Edgerton will be traveling throughout North Carolina and to Tennessee, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio promoting Solo’s release. He states that on stops along the book tour thus far, “pilots have been coming out of the woodwork,” and he has met many others who flew in Southeast Asia.

While at a recent Solo reading in Seattle, a man named Wolf with an F-104 patch stitched on his shirt came up to Edgerton and shared that he and his friend own two F-104s. Edgerton states, “When I was in high school I used to watch a film that played just before sign-off on a local TV station near Durham, NC. In the film was an F-104 in flight and in the background was a recitation of the famous poem, “High Flight.” Then the national anthem would play. The film made me want to fly a jet fighter — an F-104, somehow, at some time in my life. I never got the chance, though I did get to fly other fighters.”

Edgerton himself has not made a solo flight since 1991, the year he crashed Annabelle.

For more information on Solo, please see www.algonquin.com/catalog/ isbn=156512426X.

“Debra’s Flap and Snap,” a short story by Edgerton is included in Best of the South, From the Second Decade of New Stories from the South, 1996-2005, an anthology of short stories selected and introduced by Anne Tyler. Also, “Assembled Parts,” a non-fiction essay by Edgerton will be featured in an upcoming segment of The Funny Pages, a new feature in The New York Times Magazine.

Edgerton has a film project in the works. Killer Diller, a film based on his novel by the same name, was previewed last year at Wilmington’s Cucalorus Festival and the Tribeca Film Testival in New York. Kd Productions is scheduled to put the independent feature into limited release some time this winter. Edgerton has a cameo in the feature, playing a professor. Killer Diller is a sequel to Edgerton’s Walking Across Egypt, which was released as a feature film in 1999 starring Ellen Burstyn and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. More information about the film can be found at www.killerdillermovie.com.

Lunch at the Picadilly: A Musical is planned for March 2006 production at Cape Fear Regional Theatre in Fayetteville, NC. Edgerton is collaborating with Mike Craven on the musical, which is based on Edgerton’s best-selling 2003 novel. Three of Edgerton’s novels have been previously adapted to stage.

Edgerton was taped as a guest on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” a comedy quiz show. His appearance is set for Thanksgiving release. He is working on another fiction novel based on the lives of two con men. Edgerton has been a professor at UNCW since 1998.