On the cover of Rick Bragg’s Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, the titular pianist and early rock ‘n’ roll icon holds a cigar and peers into the distance, as if planning his next move. He wears an expression that’s neither a smile nor a smirk, yet has aspects of both, and there are the […]
Author, teacher and creativity coach Nina Hart has just released her first prose poetry collection, Somewhere In a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere. The book is equal parts engaging and absurdist, stretching the mind of the reader to connect emotionally with the likes of a waitress who lives inside an air conditioner (à la […]
Local author Michelle Baker writes poems that sometimes reach 15 or 20 pages in length. But when one hit the 40-page mark, “I thought, ‘This isn’t going to stop anytime soon,’” she says. That poem grew and morphed and eventually became The Canoe, a novel that weaves together two lives touched by the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Baker gives a reading and signing at Malaprop’s on Saturday, Nov. 15
A natural storyteller, Ron Rash has held audiences spellbound at many events across Western North Carolina — and around the country — over the past two decades. Not only do his works of poetry and prose speak to readers in the Carolinas, Hollywood has tapped two of his novels for big-screen adaptations. Serena (starring Jennifer […]
Beth Revis was having trouble getting her novel published. That may seem like an odd reversal for the author, who will be at Malaprop’s on Monday, Nov. 3, with a slate of other YA authors for the Compelling Reads Tour. She had just concluded her New York Times best-selling Across the Universe series. Her new […]
New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb, known for her Appalachian ballad novels, is based in Virginia. But she’s got ties to Western North Carolina — a theatrical version of her novel, Ghost Riders was staged at Parkway Playhouse in June. McCrumb returns to Asheville on Sunday, Oct. 26 with her new book, Nora Bonesteel’s […]
With her trace of a foothills accent and her cup of herbal tea, Beth Revis comes across as a down-to-earth person. A casual observer might not pick her out as the creator of a bestselling science fiction series. She is, though. Revis’s Across the Universe trilogy takes readers from a starship a couple of centuries […]
Halloween is just around the corner, which means it’s the perfect time to crack open a spooky read. But W. Scott Poole, author of Monsters in America, brings us no mere piece of werewolf or zombie fiction. His new work, Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror is a biography. It examines the story of actress, artist […]
Photos by Alicia Funderburk, taken at Robbins’ Malaprop’s Bookstore reading and book signing on Saturday, Sept. 13. According to author Tom Robbins, he didn’t hit his stride as a novelist until Jitterbug Perfume. It was his fourth novel, published in 1984; Robbins was 52. Not that there’s a right age to hit one’s stride as […]
This weekend Asheville hosts Booktopia, an author-reader retreat. One of the authors at that Malaprop’s event will be Raleigh-based novelist Kim Church.
Stephanie Perkins, the local author behind the nationally beloved YA books Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, returns with her third novel, Isla and the Happily Every After. Like Anna and Lola, Isla centers around a contemporary teen girl — a hopeless romantic with a crush on Josh, an […]
40 years after it was founded, The Farm Community, a commune in rural Tennessee, continues to thrive. In a recent visit to Malaprops Bookstore and Café, author Donald Stevenson, the community’s resident historian, told the story of how a group of visionaries continue to make it work.
“In high school, a friend developed a theory he called ‘the Pull,’” author Jeremy Jones writes in his debut memoir, Bearwallow. Like a giant magnet, this hypothetical phenomenon draws natives of rural Henderson County back to the mountains, whether they want to return or not: “Nothing was to be done about the Pull, if you […]
There’s nothing quite like the tastes of spring. And though the season slips away all too quickly, two local gardeners and writing partners are able to offer tips on preserving the garden’s bounty through beverages that capture the changing seasons.
Local author Sallie Bissell returns to her Mary Crow series Sallie Bissell describes herself as a “flatland Southerner,” and you can hear it in her voice. But this Nashville native who grew up reading Nancy Drew and the historical fiction of William O. Steele (now her touchstone for a good read), developed an ambition to […]
If you haven’t been paying attention to Bulgarian literary fiction lately, you will have an opportunity to set things right this weekend at Malaprop’s Celebrating Bulgarian Authors in Translation event. On Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m., Bulgarian authors Virginia Zaharieva (Nine Rabbits, Black Balloon) and Albena Stambolova (Everything Happens as it Does, Open Letter Books) will visit the bookstore […]
Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones, will visit Malaprop’s on Wednesday, March 26, at 7 p.m.
Man v. Liver is a book by Asheville native and illustrator Neil Hinson and author Paul Friedrich that centers around a simply drawn figure called “man” and his Dean Martin-esque one liners. Hinson describes the book as “a 100-page collection of sayings that we wish we remembered saying at the bar.”
Psychotherapist Bryan E. Robinson is a veteran author, having written 35 self-help and scholarly books on stress and workaholism over the years. His most recent such work is “The Smart Guide to Managing Stress.” Only now, however, is he unveiling his first work of fiction, 12 years in the making. “Limestone Gumption” launches with great fanfare on Friday, March 7, at Malaprop’s Bookstore. Photo by Jon Michael Riley
Decemberists frontman and author Colin Meloy and illustrator Carson Ellis will read from the newest in the Wildwood Chronicles series, Imperium, at a book signing hosted by Malaprops on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m.
Not only is Ann Patchett an acclaimed novelist, essayist, and nonfiction writer, she’s also an international spokesperson for the independent, locally-owned bookstore. At a reading hosted by Malaprop’s and staged at the Lipinski Auditorium at UNCA on Tuesday, Nov. 5, an impressive crowd gathered to hear Patchett present her latest literary offering. “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage” is a collection of thoughtful, beautifully written essays about life, love, writing and books. Photo by Kevin Mann.
