Local author Sara Gruen pens an all-consuming new novel

Author Sara Gruen gets lost in her books. “I wasn’t able to immerse myself completely with Water for Elephants,” she says of her 2006 best-seller that became a film starring Reese Witherspoon. “The type of circus I was writing about no longer existed.” For her new book, Gruen spent a total of five weeks in the British Isles, researching, absorbing the culture and immersing herself — literally.

Michelle Baker publishes non-traditional novel The Canoe

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

Ann Patchett: A woman on a mission

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.