Book Report: news and events

• Sometimes big things come in small packages — like poems. Writer Elaine Bleakney (she’s the editor of Poem in Your Pocket: 200 Poems to Read and Carry) holds an Asheville-wide poetry contest in collaboration with Malaprop’s. “The contest (open to all ages) is to write a pocket-size poem. The winner will have their poem made into a letterpress broadside by artist Bridget Elmer of Flatbed Splendor, who will be up at Penland this spring teaching a workshop,” writes Bleakney. “Malaprop’s owner Emoke Racz will choose the winning poem.” Entries are due on Friday, March 22; the winner will be announced at the Thursday, April 18 reading event. More information of the contest and the Malaprop’s poetry reading is here.

• Local author SJ Byrne will be holding a book signing at the Battery Park Book Exchange on Wednesday, March 27, 6-9 p.m. for My Butterfly, a love story set in Scotland. The book is also available here. It comes with a warning that its subject matter is not for those of delicate sensibilities.

• Something for the kids: The Thomas Wolfe Memorial holds the the “Telling Our Tales” Student Writing Competition. Students in grades four-12 are asked to interview an elder and then write a narrative inspired by the conversation. Says the Memorial, “In 1937 Thomas Wolfe interviewed his then 95 year old great uncle, John Westall, about the older fellow’s experience in the Civil War. Especially inspired by the aged veteran’s memories of the 1862 Battle of Chickamauga, Wolfe composed a fictional short story based on the account. Accordingly, ‘Chickamauga’ became one of Wolfe’s most famous short narratives.” According to a press release, all student narratives should be dropped off at Thomas Wolfe Memorial, 52 North Market Street, Asheville, NC, 28801, no later than April 13.  Submissions should be 500 to 1,000 words and should present a suspenseful, emotionally engaging and climatic tale based on the elder’s experiences. First, second and third place winners in three age groups—grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12— will receive a cash prize and also present their stories on Saturday, April 27.

• Author Gabriel Fitzpatrick grew up in Asheville and has since emigrated to Prague. He’s the author of four books and, according to his bio, is “a hedonistic refugee with a passion for pleasures passive, active, prurient, and pure. I also write, when all else fails to stimulate, a kaleidoscope of genres apropos of nothing.” Fitzpatrick is set to release his latest novel, Mores, on Friday, March 29. About the book: “Mores is a story of progression and understanding told through the eyes of two characters thousands of years apart. It opens with the neolithic girl striving to find her place in the world as she struggles to understand her surroundings and fellows. The modern woman fights with an entirely different landscape as she steps outside of her bounds to discover parts of herself she never knew existed. Each must fight against all that they have ever known to forge a new path entirely their own. Freedom comes at a high price.”

• UNC Asheville’s Creative Writing Program and Literature Club host An Evening with N.C. Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti on Monday, March 25. Bathanti is a professor of creative writing, director of the Writing in the Field program and writer-in-residence in the Watauga Global Community at Appalachian State University. He received the Poet Laureate distinction during a ceremony at the North Carolina State Capitol last September. According to an AppState press release, his books of poetry include “This Metal (St. Andrews College Press, 1996 and Press 53, 2012), Restoring Sacred Art (Star Cloud Press, 2010), Land of Amnesia (Press 53, 2009), Anson County (Williams & Simpson, 1989 and Parkway Publishers, 2005), The Feast of All Saints (Nightshade press, 1994) and Communion Partners (Briarpatch Press, 1986). He has published two novels, Coventry (Novello Festival Press, 2006) and East Liberty (Banks Channel Books, 2001) along with a book of short stories, The High Heart (Eastern Washington University Press, 2007).” Bathanti’s appearance at UNCA is at 7 p.m., and is free and open to the public.