Most-banned books & the state of libraries

The American Library Association’s 2013 State of America’s Libraries Report was released April 16, during National Library Week, April 14 – 20 and it included the Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books, compiled by …

Pulitzer Prizes awarded Mon., Apr. 15

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson won for fiction;  Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds for poetry; Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall for non-fiction; and The Black Count: Glory,…

THE WRITERS' WORKSHOP--Meets and classes

387 Beaucatcher Road, Asheville, NC 28805

Another slash--public libraries threatened

            The Fontana Regional Library has put out the word about a 4.8% in state spending on public libraries.  This plan is part of a trend to minimize the role of the arts, literature, and the humanities in our lives.  The reasons given are both false, I believe.  

            One is the focus on jobs: and by jobs, technical jobs are indicated.  A look at job growth trends in the…

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Schultz, at April 3 event for memoir about dyslexia

From press release

Philip Schultz will read from his memoir My Dyslexia on April 3 at 7 p.m. at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Center for Graduate Studies in the Chamber board room at 36 Montford Avenue. The event is …

Betty Cloer Wallace has shared this news on The Read's Facebook page

Lamar Marshall of Wildsouth has mapped over 1,000 miles of trails that existed prior to the mid-1800s in the Middle, Valley, and Out Town…

Local poets represented in new collection

Lisa Russ Spaar's The Hide-and-Seek Muse: Annotations of Contemporary Poetry  (2013, Drunken Boat Media) collects over fifty of her micro-essays written for the Chronicle of Higher Education Arts…

January 15, 2013 is the deadline for the prize sponsored by Asheville Poetry Review.  See full blog entry.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE …

John Urbain: No Ideas but in Things

January 18 - June 1, 2013; Opening reception: Friday, January 18, 2013

(from press release)

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is proud to announce John Urbain: No Ideas but in Things, an exhibition of collages and paintings by Black Mountain College alumnus John…

New book with WNC connection:

Disposable Assets by B.K. Lauren (CreateSpace trade paper, May 2012, 326 pages, $14.95).

Author event: 6 p.m., Fri., Dec. 7, 2012 at Accent on Books.

Young heiress stages her own death to pursue international criminal plot; written by local author.  See…

Chief Robert Youngdeer Presents New Book, The Memoirs of Robert Youngdeer: Marine, Chief, and Proud American

Date:              2 p.m., Sun., November 11, 2012

Location:      Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Ken Blankenship Education Wing, 589 Tsali Blvd. (Highway 441 North) Cherokee, NC.

Cost:              Free and open to the public.

Sponsors:    Museum of the Cherokee…

Gary Carden recognized for greatness

On Oct. 30, the NC Dept of Cultural Resources honored Gary Carden--author, storyteller, and playwright from Sylva--with its 2012 Award for Literature.

See NCDCR website.

See…

National Book Award Finalists Oct 2012

Fiction

Junot Diaz, This Is How You Lose Her (Riverhead)

Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King (McSweeney's)

Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper)

Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ecco)

Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds (Little,…

Event:             Book Release:  The Memoirs of Robert Youngdeer: Marine, Chief, and Proud  American

Date:               10 am on October 5, 2012

Location:        Acquoni Expo Center, Acquoni Rd., Cherokee NC.

Cost:               Free and open to the public.

Sponsor:        Museum of the Cherokee Indian

Description:

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press is releasing a new book, The Memoirs of Robert Youngdeer: Marine, Chief, and Proud…

The Asheville Poetry Review hosts the 2013 William Matthews Poetry Prize with final judge, Patricia Smith.  A poet, teacher, performance artist, and author, Smith has published 8 books, many of which are award-winning.  Her work has been featured in the 2011 editions of Best American Poetry and Best American Essays.  The Pushcart Prize winner and four-time National Poetry Slam champion will be the judge in the "blind" final round, in which all identifying information will be removed from the…

Be Part of an International Literary Event!

(press release)



Glenda Beall, Director of Writers Circle, and Robert S. King, Co-director of Future Cycle Press, invite all writers and poets to join us for an open microphone reading from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Saturday, September 29. The reading will be held at Bob Groves Enterprises building, 7540 Highway 64 West, Brasstown, NC 28902, located between Murphy and Hayesville, NC. The public is invited to read…

Novelist Ann Hite to Speak at Jackson County Public Library in Sylva

from press release

Novelist Ann Hite, discusses her debut novel Ghost on Black Mountain, at the Jackson County Public Library, Sylva, Thurs., June 28, 7 p.m.

Told in the voices of five women whose lives are bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ghost on Black Mountain spans generations and conjures Southern folklore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and…