Featuring Ariel Dorfman, Jim Wise, Katy Munger, Pierce Freelon, Barry Yeoman, & many more

27 VIEWS of DURHAM: The Bull City in Prose & Poetry is an anthology of the city known for tobacco, diversity, sports, and grit. 27 Views of Durham casts a wide net, capturing the city’s ethos. Journalists, novelists, poets, essayists, and a song writer offer readers a broad and varied picture of life, present and past, in the legendary Southern city—from a history of the city’s first mayor, re-elected seven times, to a deeply personal essay about African American movie-going experiences, to reflections on the city’s overwhelming opposition to Amendment One, to an anthem that celebrates the Bull City.

Authors appreciate Durham’s tolerance and diversity, tout its vibrant arts and food scenes, and downtown revitalization. Yet they don’t shy away from its ongoing struggles. As former Durham Mayor Steve Schewel writes in his introduction, “Notwithstanding the surprising emergence of Durham as a cool place to live, our writers know that just over the centerfield fence at the gorgeous Durham Bulls Athletic Park . . . looms the massive phalanx of the jail. . . . Juxtaposed with the cool is the persistent reality of poverty . . .”  The views create a literary montage of Durham, reflecting its social, historic, and creative fabric.

27 Views of Durham is the fourth book in Eno Publishers’s 27 Views series that features the literary communities of contemporary Southern towns. The series’s initial book was the award-winning 27 Views of Hillsborough, with an introduction by novelist Michael Malone, followed by 27 Views of Chapel Hill, published in 2011 with an introduction by Daniel Wallace, and 27 Views of Asheville.