North Carolina Humanities’ award-winning statewide book club, North Carolina Reads, is returning for its fifth year starting next February 2026. North Carolina Reads annually features five books that explore the history and culture of North Carolina.
From February – June 2026, NC Humanities will host free, virtual, monthly book club discussion events where participants will hear from guest speakers, including book authors and topic experts. Libraries, community groups, and individuals across North Carolina are encouraged to read along with NC Humanities, attend NC Reads book club discussion events, and then host their own local book discussions to further conversation, camaraderie, and community.
North Carolina Humanities is pleased to announce the following titles for North Carolina Reads 2026:
February 2026 – Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City’s Soul by Aran Shetterly
Nonfiction
On November 3, 1979, as activist Nelson Johnson assembled people for a march adjacent to Morningside Homes in Greensboro, North Carolina, gunshots rang out. A caravan of Klansmen and Neo-Nazis sped from the scene, leaving behind five dead. Known as the “Greensboro Massacre,” the event and its aftermath encapsulate the racial conflict, economic anxiety, clash of ideologies, and toxic mix of corruption and conspiracy that roiled American democracy then—and threaten it today. In 88 seconds, one Southern city shattered over irreconcilable visions of America’s past and future. When the shooters are acquitted in the courts, Reverend Johnson, his wife Joyce, and their allies, at odds with the police and the Greensboro establishment, sought alternative forms of justice. As the Johnsons rebuilt their lives after 1979, they found inspiration in Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Martin Luther King Jr’s concept of Beloved Community and insist that only by facing history’s hardest truths can healing come to the city they refuse to give up on. This intimate, deeply researched, and heart-stopping account draws upon survivor interviews, court documents, and the files from one of the largest investigations in FBI history. The persistent mysteries of the case touch deep cultural insecurities and contradictions about race and class. A quintessentially American story, Morningside explores the courage required to make change and the evolving pursuit of a more inclusive and equal future.
March 2026 – Daughters of Green Mountain Gap by Teri M. Brown
Fiction
An Appalachian granny woman. A daughter on a crusade. A granddaughter caught between the two.
Maggie McCoury, a generational healer woman, relies on family traditions, folklore, and beliefs gleaned from a local Cherokee tribe. Her daughter, Carrie Ann, believes her university training holds the answers. As they clash over the use of roots, herbs, and a dash of mountain magic versus the medicine available in the town’s apothecary, Josie Mae doesn’t know whom to follow. But what happens when neither family traditions nor science can save the ones you love most?
Daughters of Green Mountain Gap weaves a compelling tale of Maggie, Carrie Ann, and Josie Mae, three generations of remarkable North Carolina women living at the turn of the twentieth century, shedding light on racism, fear of change, loss of traditions, and the intricate dynamics within a family. Author Teri M. Brown skillfully navigates the complexities of their lives, revealing that some questions are not as easy to answer as one might think.
April 2026 – The Devil’s Done Come Back: New Ghost Tales from North Carolina edited by Ed Southern
Nonfiction
North Carolina ain’t what it once was: forests and fields have given way to suburbs and vacation homes, textile mills to high tech, tobacco farms to tourism. That doesn’t mean, though, that the ghosts of the Old North State have gone away.
In this anthology, readers might glimpse some of the ghostly apparitions, headless fiends, and creepy hollers they heard about around their childhood campfires. Now, fifteen of the state’s finest contemporary prose writers and poets have reimagined these stories—bringing us fresh tales that are bound to scare the living daylights out of us all over again.
The Devil’s Done Come Back reclaims these old ghost tales as living stories, told and retold to frighten and delight.
May 2026 – The Caretaker by Ron Rash
Fiction
Blowing Rock, North Carolina, 1951. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interactions with the living. But when his only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well. Jacob and Naomi’s elopement has scandalized the community and angered Jacob’s parents. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home from the war, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer, even as a stunning betrayal shatters familial bonds.A profound examination of friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting story of unfolding deceit, The Caretaker brilliantly depicts the human capacity for empathetic compassion and selfish destruction, all justified as acts of love.
June 2026 – Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark by Leigh Ann Henion
Nonfiction
In this glorious celebration of the night, New York Times bestselling nature writer Leigh Ann Henion invites us to leave our well-lit homes, step outside, and embrace the dark as a profoundly beautiful part of the world we inhabit. Because no matter where we live, we are surrounded by animals that rise with the moon, and blooms that reveal themselves as light fades. Henion explores her home region of Appalachia, where she attends a synchronous firefly event in Tennessee, a bat outing in Alabama, and a moth festival in Ohio. In North Carolina, she finds forests alight with bioluminescent mushrooms, neighborhood trees full of screech owls, and valleys teeming with migratory salamanders. Along the way, Henion encounters naturalists, biologists, primitive-skills experts, and others who’ve dedicated their lives to cultivating relationships with darkness. Every page of this lyrical book feels like an opportunity to ask: How did I not know about this before? For example, we learn that it can take hours, not minutes, for human eyes to reach full night vision capacity. And that there are thousands of firefly species on earth, many with flash patterns as unique as fingerprints. In an age of increasing artificial light, Night Magic focuses on the amazing biodiversity that still surrounds us after sunset. We do not need to stargaze into the distant cosmos or dive into the depths of oceans to find awe in the dark. There are dazzling wonders in our own backyards. And readers of World of Wonders, Entangled Life, and The Hidden Life of Trees will discover joy in Night Magic.
*Book descriptions are from publishers*
NC Humanities encourages readers to get a head start on their reading by checking with their local library or bookstore to find book copies. North Carolina Reads book club discussion details and online registration information will be available later this year at nchumanities.org. Please note, you do not have to read the books to participate in North Carolina Reads discussions.
To broaden access to books across North Carolina, NC Humanities will once again offer a limited number of North Carolina Reads books to readers. Discussion guides and program planning guides will also be available for free download in winter 2026 at nchumanities.org. Details on how to request a book box will be released before the end of 2025 at nchumanities.org. To receive updates about North Carolina Reads, please sign up for our e-newsletter at nchumanities.org.
NC Humanities thanks the hundreds of individuals who provided their feedback by completing NC Humanities’ North Carolina Reads 2026 Book Selection Survey this summer. Learn more about NC Reads book criteria and how you can suggest a book for future programs at nchumanities.org.
Now in its fifth year, North Carolina Reads has connected public audiences to over 25 professional and award-winning authors and topic experts. In 2023, North Carolina Reads received a national Schwartz Prize for excellence in humanities programming. All previous North Carolina Reads book club discussions are available on YouTube. Please note that selected North Carolina Reads books are intended for readers 18 and over and may not be suitable for some audiences.
Press Contact: nch@nchumanities.org
About North Carolina Humanities: Through grantmaking and public humanities programs, North Carolina Humanities connects North Carolinians with cultural experiences that spur dialogue, deepen human connections, and inspire community. North Carolina Humanities is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The North Carolina Center for the Book, the state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library Congress, is a program of North Carolina Humanities that promotes books, libraries, literacy, and reading around the state. To learn more visit www.nchumanities.org.