Post alum Ashley Mahoney makes her debut as an author

ASHLEY MAHONEY

Former Charlotte Post reporter Ashley Mahoney made her debut as an author with “Historic Maps of Charlotte: A History of the Queen City in Rare Maps” published by Reedy Press.

Ashley Mahoney always wanted to be a published author.

Mahoney, a former Post reporter, released her first book, “Historic Maps of Charlotte: A History of the Queen City in Rare Maps” published by Reedy Press. 

“I am not a Charlotte native. I feel like we’ve got to cover that from the jump,” said Mahoney, who is a reporter at Axios Charlotte, “but, I have called Charlotte home for over a decade. I love the city dearly. I love the city’s history. I studied English and history many moons ago in school, and an opportunity presented itself where a friend of mine published a book for Reedy Press — my publisher as well — and they said, ‘Hey, we are starting this new series about different cities and their history, specifically focused on maps. That seemed like the ideal opportunity to put my love of history and love of the city to good use. So, I described this as a love letter to Charlotte.”

The book can be purchased at Troubadour Booksellers and Park Road Books in Charlotte as well as Belmont Bookshop. You can order copies online at reedypress.com. 
Journalists are accustomed to turning stories around in relatively quick fashion. Mahoney found writing a book is different. 

“The process would start every weekday morning at 5 a.m. and I would try to work on it until I started my day job as a journalist,” she said. “Then, as soon as the day job came to an end, I’d pick back up and then work on it again until about 10 or 11 o’clock at night. That was the process on repeat for a very long time.”

Mahoney said she spent hours at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Carolina Room researching resources. She also spent time utilizing archives at UNC Charlotte as well as connections developed during seven years at The Post to chronicle Charlotte’s Black history.

“One of my early interviews was with Miss Mattie Marshall when I started at The Post, and she is just such a big champion of the neighborhood and community that she calls home,” Mahoney said. “A lot of that helps enhance my understanding and knowledge. Not only ‘yes, this is a historic community, but this is a community that is still very near and dear to the people who live there, who champion it.’ So, Washington Heights is another chapter in here.

“We also explored, of course, Johnson C. Smith [University] and Carver College. Carver College was brand new for me. Carver College became part of the eventual Central Piedmont Community College family, if you will. But initially, it started as a junior college for Black veterans post-World War II. It operated out of Second Ward High School, but there’s a lot you can ask my husband for the amount of time and attention and care that I tried to give to Charlotte's Black history in this process of just saying like it needs to be in here.”

Mahoney credited Post Editor-in-Chief Herb White for his guidance throughout this process. White, Mahoney said, hired her as a freelance reporter right out of college and in her words “took time to nurture a young journalist.”

“[White] was kind enough to write the foreword to this book, and his imparting years and years of knowledge not only about the craft that we do as journalists, but also about the city's history,” she said. “We sat next to each other at the Panthers playoff game earlier this year, and I’m just sitting there yammering off all of my dreams and ideas for this book. And he, in his sage wisdom, is like, ‘Yes, and don’t forget to look into this, and don’t forget to look into this,’ so he’s just a tremendous resource.”

Mahoney, who has been at Axios Charlotte since 2021, is applying those lessons in online publishing.

“Everything is about smart brevity, so it’s more of that 300- to 500-word story range, and trying to get people the information as quickly as possible,” she said. “And I love that. There’s definitely a time and a place for that, and sometimes there’s a time and a place to let your hair down and dive into a little bit more long form. The target range for each essay in the book was about 800 words, so not terribly longer, but there’s a lot you can do with those extra 300 words.”

Mahoney said there is a lot more history that can be shared, and if all goes to plan there’ll be more books. Right now, she is elated that a long-time dream has become reality. 

“It’s been a dream of mine forever to write my own book and see my name in print,” she said, “not only as a journalist, but also as a published author of a book, and that’s a very gratifying feeling. I was talking with a friend earlier today. I’m like, ‘I’m so happy I could cry.’ So it’s just been a long, long process. There’ve been countless people who’ve been supportive and encouraging, amazing people like Herb who took the time to nurture a young journalist fresh out of college and kind of send her on her way and say, ‘fly, baby bird, fly.’ So, it's just very gratifying to see it all come and come to fruition.”

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