R-rated lines net apology
RICHARD RUBIN Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

Charlotte-Mecklenburg public library director Robert Cannon apologized Tuesday for a sexually explicit reading at the publicly funded Novello Festival of Reading.

N.C. native Jim Grimsley read a 15-page excerpt of his book "Boulevard" last Wednesday at the Neighborhood Theatre, shortly after a speech by a children's author. The novel, Grimsley's fifth, tells the story of a young gay man who moves to late 1970s New Orleans and works in an adult bookstore.

Though not the most graphic part of "Boulevard," the excerpt Grimsley read is R-rated and then some, with coarse language, references to homosexual sex and descriptions of items in the store.

"We made a mistake," Cannon said. "We didn't know that he was going to read those particular passages."

Cannon said the library should have warned the audience of 450 about the content beforehand.

But Grimsley, who teaches at Emory University in Atlanta, said he wouldn't want to speak in a place so conservative that his work requires a warning label.

"This is the world their children are going to grow up in," he said, adding that he didn't recall seeing children in the audience. "They're going to hear dirty language. They're going to hear about sex."