Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features the first album by local band Hustle Souls, a new location for Urban Dharma, and Poetry Cabaret’s reflections on performing at Capital Fringe Festival.
Smart Bets: Leah Weiss
The North Carolina native will discuss her debut novel at Malaprop’s on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
Faces in the crowd: WNC crowdfunding initiatives
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features a sporty approach to mental health, a memorial scholarship for individuals in addiction recovery and a novel exploring the topic of prostitution in poor towns.
Asheville Bee Charmer launches a honey-themed cookbook
The downtown shop’s first cookbook features eight chapters of recipes both savory and sweet.
Smart Bets: Juniper Bends Reading Series
The quarterly readings series’ fall installment takes place Friday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. at Downtown Books & News.
The Wilma Dykeman Legacy honors women writers in new lecture series
Kathy Ackerman will be discussing Olive Tilford Dargan as part of a new female-author series sponsored by the Wilma Dykeman Legacy. The program features lectures on five writers — Dargan, Ellen Glasgow, Zora Neale Hurston, Julia Peterkin and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings — and three film showings.
Indie 500 flash fiction contest winners announced
There were more than 30 entries in Xpress’ second flash fiction contest, making for a lot of compelling reading and steep competition.
Smart Bets: Christopher Swann
The former Asheville resident will discuss his new thriller at Malaprop’s on Thursday, Aug. 10.
Smart bets: Lawrence Thackston
The Orangeburg, S.C.-based author reads from his new novel at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Friday, Aug. 4.
Local author Alexandra Duncan launches her next YA sci-fi novel
Her book event on Tuesday, Aug. 1, will take place at Spellbound Children’s Bookshop in Asheville, where she first discovered one of her callings.
Festival aims to boost Appalachian literature and literacy
On their honeymoon, New York Times bestselling novelist Amy Greene and her now-husband, Trent Thompson, rambled off the Appalachian Trail and onto the grounds of the Laughing Heart Lodge in Hot Springs. That serendipitous discovery led to the Laughing Heart Literary Project, which will hold its inaugural festival Tuesday, Aug. 1-Friday, Aug. 4.
Asheville writer Kyle James launches his travel memoir
Kyle James wrote on boats, planes and trains, and on the back seats of the hitchhiked rides (obtained through a mobile app) that they used to keep within their $150-a-day budget. Writing became a means of letting go.
Smart bets: If You Can’t Play, Get Off the Stage
Garret K. Woodward will read from his new book on Wednesday, July 12, at 7 p.m. at Malaprop’s.
Smart bets: MFA Program for Writers readings and lectures
The author events take place at Warren Wilson College from Wednesday, July 5, through Friday, July 14.
Local author chronicles a year of hiking in the Smokies
In 2016, local writer Ben Anderson decided to examine the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a fresh perspective. To mark the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service, he completed 40 day hikes, which he documented in his first book,
Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
KIDS Issue 2017: Moving to Asheville
We continue to share more of the engaging student art and writing from the 2017 Kids Issue. In this post, we feature contributions from students at Asheville School and Claxton Elementary School.
Comic artist Hope Larson returns to Asheville
Today’s author event, at Spellbound Children’s Bookshop, will be Hope Larson’s first book launch since moving back from Los Angeles earlier this year.
Kids Issue 2017: My life with friends
We are continuing to share student art and writing from the 2017 Kids Issue. In this post, we feature contributions from students at Asheville School and The Learning Community School.
On the road again: A Q&A with author John Grisham
In conjunction with the release of his new book, Grisham has taken to the road for the first time in 25 years, making appearances at independent bookstores from Vermont to Tennessee. Xpress caught up with the prolific author during his stop at Malaprop’s.
Film historian Frank Thompson uncovers Asheville’s storied movie past
Local movie expert Frank Thompson has resurrected a largely forgotten but important piece of Asheville history in his latest book, Asheville Movies, Volume 1: The Silent Era. “It’s definitely a subject that literally nobody has ever written about,” says Thompson. But Thompson’s book reveals a real tragedy – almost all of the dozens of movies […]
WNC writers vie for Southern Book Prizes
“Robert Morgan’s latest novel, recently out in paperback, is set in pre-Civil War times. It follows a crafty teenage runaway slave on a northward journey toward freedom. From the Carolina mountains all the way to Ithaca, N.Y., he finds dangers, adventures and comedy.”