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‘Big Fish’ author pens guide
Carrboro officials
requested article
BY LAURA OLENIACZ
SENIOR WRITER
UNC professor Daniel Wallace
spends most of his time making
stuff up writing fiction, that is.
His first published piece came out
in “Cellar Door." In 1998 he wrote
“Big Fish,” a story about a young boy
and his imaginative father, which
was adapted to film in 2003.
But now he’s getting back to
his roots with“( Jetting to Know
Carrboro —a Step-by-Step Guide,”
a piece he wrote in July about the
ins and outs of the town.
Laurie Paolicelli, executive
director of the Chapel Hill Orange
County Visitors Bureau, asked
Wallace to write the article as a
publicity stunt to bring in tourists.
Wallace had written a similar
article about Chapel Hill for “Delta-
Sky Magazine,” the airline’s in
flight magazine. Paolicelli thought
Wallace’s big name and writing
ability would bring national atten
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tion to the town.
Paolicelli is shopping the 2,700-
plus-word article around to similar
publications while Wallace is await
ing the summer 2007 publication
of his newest novel, ‘Mr. Sebastian
and the Negro Magician.”
“We’re in the process of pitch
ing this Carrboro story to national
media,” Paolicelli said in an e-mail.
“Because of Daniel’s name, peo
ple are biting.”
And while Wallace spends most
of his time writing fiction, the arti
cle about Carrboro is all fact.
For example, Wallace points
out that “opposites exist together
in Carrboro.”
He writes, “New Age crystal-pack
ing spinach eating sandal wearing
peaceniks share the sidewalks with
tobacco chewing coverall wearing
Sunday go to meeting farmers.”
And when these ideas seem a
little extreme, he owns up to it
“I wish I knew if this were true,”
he writes about Carrboro’s foreign
policy. “It sounds true.”
Using his clever wit and sound
knowledge of the town, Wallace
covers everything from Carrboro’s
i
Author and
UNC professor
Daniel Wallace
wrote a step
by-step guide
to the town of
Carrboro.
restaurant scene to its love of arts
to its history.
The point Wallace makes about
Carrboro’s past, as well as its up
and-coming future, is perhaps one
of the more important aspects of
the piece, he said.
It started as a railroad depot in
1882 and went through a string of
names that just highlighted its near
ness to its sister city, Chapel Hill.
Wallace’s own history with
Carrboro goes way back he first
moved to the area in 1982 as a stu
dent at UNC, transferring from
Emory University in Atlanta.
Wallace grew up in Birmingham,
Ala., but he said going into any of his
childhood would require a “Special
Daniel Wallace Edition” that would
take up all of The Daily Tar Heel.
After living in the Chapel Hill-
News
Carrboro area on and off for about
20 years, he’s been here to watch
Carrboro grow and change.
His second house in Carrboro
was on Main Street two houses
down from the PTA Thrift Shop.
Eventually, he said, it was tinned
into a business, forcing him to leave.
Later when he was looking for a job
he got one in that same building,
working in his old room as an office.
Wallace said his experience liv
ing in Carrboro was key to the writ
ing process for the article.
For him, getting to know the
town was like learning a foreign
language: You can only really learn
from the people who speak it.
“Just from being a part of it, it’s the
only real way you can learn about it”
And students can learn to speak
Carrboro too.
It’s a great place for students
to live because of the freedom of
expression, Wallace said.
“The spirit of Carrboro, even
more so than Chapel Hill, is much
more open to students.”
Contact the Arts Editor
at artsdesk@unc.edu.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006
MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?
DTH/TIMOTHY REESE
"l ’Sreshmen Jason Needham and Morgan Edwards attend
| the free dance lesson night of the Ball Room Dance Club
> and Team in the Women’s Gym. The club meets every
Monday night from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and is hosting a free
salsa dance at 8 p.m. Friday in the Carmichael Ball Room.
5