Ad Blocker Detected
It looks like you're using ad blocking technology. We are a local company, and our advertisers are local as well. Please consider allow listing our website in the future.
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Michael Palascak is a comedian who grew up in Indiana and now lives in LA. He performed on both The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the same year. He has over 1 million views on YouTube. In addition, his resume includes A Little Late with Lilly Singh, The Tonight Show, Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Conan, has a Comedy Central Half Hour special, and was a Top 5 Finalist on Last Comic Standing where one judge claimed, “My first impression of Michael was a great likability. This is a guy that could star in a sitcom.” Michael’s likability allows him to relate to his audiences in a real way which sets up the huge laughs he gets from his sharp, personal material. Consistently writing and performing, this summer Michael released both a new album— The Internet Live through 800 Pound Gorilla and a new stand-up special on the Dry Bar app— 1984. Available for free streaming. Drew Hunt of The Chicago Reader wrote about Michael, “In a lot of ways, he represents the ideal antidote to the sort of unbridled cynicism that pervades much of contemporary stand-up.” Michael’s optimism continues in the new National Lampoon series — The Bright Side where he takes a positive stance on a negative topic streaming on YouTube.
The Foodie Book Club is a club about food writing. The club meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM. Click here for details and monthly picks!
12/28 The Blackout Diaries is BACK!
What: The Blackout Blackout Diaries
When: December 28, 2022 show starts at 8p, doors at 7:30p
Where: The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement, Pulp Lounge 103 Hilliard Ave, Downtown Asheville
Age 21+
Tickets: $17 (available at door ot The Orange Peel website)
During this year’s holiday break, forget all the craziness and bring the whole (drinking age) family & friends out to hear tales of triumph (but mostly hilarious tragedy) while drinking heavily. Starting its roots in Chicago, and hosted by the hilarious Alex Joyce, The Blackout Diaries is an interactive comedy show were standup comedians, plus ‘regular’ people (cops, firefighters, teachers, etc) tell true drinking stories with photos from the events. Then you, the audience, can ask questions.
The Blackout Diaries has been selected as ‘Critics’ Choice in The Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times and more. Segments from the show have appeared on Comedy Central, NPR, Sirius Radio and more. A review once described the show as “a reverse AA meeting”. We still don’t know if that was a positive review or not, but we feel it sums the show up well.
Hosted by Alex Joyce. Alex has been performing stand up comedy for 12 years. After graduating from The University of Alabama he moved to Chicago where he studied at the Second City Training Center for Sketch Writing. He is co producer and performer in The Blackout Diaries, a weekly show at The Lincoln Lodge Theater where comedians tell wild drinking stories and the audience gets to ask questions. Joyce returns to Asheville regularly to visit family and perform. Joyce lives in Chicago.
The speakeasy inspired hideaway offers a cozy space for show-goers to relax and enjoy a beverage during the concert. Boasting over 200 different Bourbons and Whiskeys, alongside a myriad of other spirits, it is a must-visit for cocktail lovers and Bourbon sippers alike. Pulp will also open various other nights to feature local artists and “Slice of Life” open-mic comedy nights. To stay informed with the happenings at Pulp, visit the Orange Peel’s website, and follow @pulp_avl on Instagram.
For more info about this show contact Michele [email protected]
BlackOut Diaries Videos:
FB: https://fb.me/e/33BCJ3rg
12/28 The Blackout Diaries Comedy Show
What: The Blackout Blackout Diaries
When: December 28, 2022 show starts at 8p, doors at 7:30p
Where: The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement, Pulp Lounge 103 Hilliard Ave, Downtown Asheville
Age 21+
Tickets: $17 (available at door ot The Orange Peel website)
During this year’s holiday break, forget all the craziness and bring the whole (drinking age) family & friends out to hear tales of triumph (but mostly hilarious tragedy) while drinking heavily. Starting its roots in Chicago, and hosted by the hilarious Alex Joyce, The Blackout Diaries is an interactive comedy show were standup comedians, plus ‘regular’ people (cops, firefighters, teachers, etc) tell true drinking stories with photos from the events. Then you, the audience, can ask questions.
The Blackout Diaries has been selected as ‘Critics’ Choice in The Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times and more. Segments from the show have appeared on Comedy Central, NPR, Sirius Radio and more. A review once described the show as “a reverse AA meeting”. We still don’t know if that was a positive review or not, but we feel it sums the show up well.
Hosted by Alex Joyce. Alex has been performing stand up comedy for 12 years. After graduating from The University of Alabama he moved to Chicago where he studied at the Second City Training Center for Sketch Writing. He is co producer and performer in The Blackout Diaries, a weekly show at The Lincoln Lodge Theater where comedians tell wild drinking stories and the audience gets to ask questions. Joyce returns to Asheville regularly to visit family and perform. Joyce lives in Chicago.
The speakeasy inspired hideaway offers a cozy space for show-goers to relax and enjoy a beverage during the concert. Boasting over 200 different Bourbons and Whiskeys, alongside a myriad of other spirits, it is a must-visit for cocktail lovers and Bourbon sippers alike. Pulp will also open various other nights to feature local artists and “Slice of Life” open-mic comedy nights. To stay informed with the happenings at Pulp, visit the Orange Peel’s website, and follow @pulp_avl on Instagram.
For more info about this show contact Michele [email protected]
BlackOut Diaries Videos:
FB: https://fb.me/e/33BCJ3rg
Open mic comedy every Thursday from 6-8pm at Ginger’s Revenge Tasting Room.
Rotating hosts each week Clay Jones, James Burks and Katy Hudson
No cover
Signup starts at 5:30, and signup order will not necessarily be show order. Each comic gets 5 mins of stage time
MANDAL is a comedian out of Atlanta, Ga. He has been seen on Don’t Tell Comedy, Netflix is a Joke Radio, and adult swim
Featuring Khaled Elchoufi
ages 18+
doors at 7pm, show at 8pm
Be bold and sit up front because you might just be part of the show!
Cody Hughes and a few of Asheville’s best comedians will be telling jokes and taking shots this Friday night at GiGi’s Underground
Featuring: Mandal, Khaled Elchoufi and more!
ages 21+ (must have ID with you)
doors at 10pm, show at 10:30pm
Go into 2023 laughing with Caleb Synan!
Caleb Synan is one of the hottest young comics in the country. (Funny AND good looking!) His unique background as a preacher’s kid from a small southern town gives him the ability to relate to any and every crowd — even though he’s a big old millennial who lives in LA. Want proof? He’s performed on CONAN (twice!), Last Comic Standing (once!), Bill Burr’s stand up show “The Ringers” on Comedy Central, and his first Comedy Central special “30” in 2022 (You can watch it on YouTube!)
He’s also entertained our troops in South Korea and Japan. What a guy! It’s no wonder he won the title of “Wittiest” in Franklin County High School’s 2009 Yearbook. He even wrote this bio himself. And he’ll have a margarita with you if you play your cards right.
featuring Jenny Jennings
ages 21+ (must have ID with you)
Go into 2023 laughing with Caleb Synan!
Caleb Synan is one of the hottest young comics in the country. (Funny AND good looking!) His unique background as a preacher’s kid from a small southern town gives him the ability to relate to any and every crowd — even though he’s a big old millennial who lives in LA. Want proof? He’s performed on CONAN (twice!), Last Comic Standing (once!), Bill Burr’s stand up show “The Ringers” on Comedy Central, and his first Comedy Central special “30” in 2022 (You can watch it on YouTube!)
He’s also entertained our troops in South Korea and Japan. What a guy! It’s no wonder he won the title of “Wittiest” in Franklin County High School’s 2009 Yearbook. He even wrote this bio himself. And he’ll have a margarita with you if you play your cards right.
featuring Jenny Jennings
ages 21+ (must have ID with you)
Tickets $18 advance, $22 day of
Chat with other book lovers about this month’s book selection.
Interested in reading ahead? Here’s what we have coming up in the next few months!
– November- “Once Upon A River” Diane Setterfield
– December- “Dutch House” Ann Patchett
– January- “Mexican Gothic” Silvia Moreno-Garcia
– February- “The Rose Code” Kate Quinn
To reserve your copy of the book, visit buncombe.nccardinal.org or swing by the library to pick one up from the book clubs holds shelf.
To join the book club email [email protected] or call us at 250-4758.
Chaotic Comedy is a night of Improv, Sketch, Magic and Stand Up Comedy all in one show!!! Anything can happen
Lineup: Marlene Thompson, Joe Carroll, Christian Lee and more!!!
ages 21+ (must have ID with you)
Samantha Ruddy tells jokes, writes funny stuff, and has strong opinions on Mountain Dew iterations.
Until the show’s cancellation in July of 2022, Samantha was a full-time digital producer and copywriter at Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Samantha’s work at Full Frontal included writing straight to camera promos for Sam Bee, crafting funny copy for the show’s social media accounts, and contributing to scripts for web series including the Emmy Award-nominated Beeing At Home.
Samantha has performed standup on both The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She’s also been heard on NPR and appeared in videos for Comedy Central and Marvel. She has performed at comedy festivals like New York Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, and Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Her debut comedy album, Logging Out, was named one of the best comedy albums of 2020 by NPR and is the reason Paste Magazine referred to her as a “joke machine.”
Samantha is a skilled joke writer and her comedy is clever, disarming, and sly. Her writing can be read on Collegehumor, The Cut, and Reductress. She’s been nominated for both Shorty and Queerty awards for her online presence. Follow her on Twitter @Samlymatters. You’ll be glad you did. And she will too!
ages 21+ (must have ID with you)
doors at 6pm, show at 6:30pm
Children’s literature gives the young and young at heart permission to connect in the natural world in ways that are engaging and easily understood. Join Adult & Continuing Education Specialist Ann Kast, a former elementary school teacher and children’s literature enthusiast, in a discussion of how Wait, Rest, Pause: Dormancy in Nature aptly shares the natural process of rest and speaks to the child in each of us.
parking fees apply 16.00 +
After realizing that getting a decent SAT score wasn’t Kenyon’s true calling in life, he started stand up in high school and has gone on to open for Todd Glass, Tim Dillon, Ian Edwards, and Big Jay Oakerson. He has also appeared on Sirius XM. Kenyon is a regular at the Laugh Factory Chicago and Zanie’s. Growing up biracial with disabled parents, Kenyon brings a unique perspective to the stage that has left audiences at clubs and festivals in ruins all over the country.
featuring Harrison Tweed
ages 21+
doors at 7:30, show at 8pm
Let’s read Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom!
USE CODE: RORYPEEL w/ this link: Rory Scovel Tickets | Asheville, NC | The Orange Peel (etix.com)
Rory Scovel can currently be seen starring as Danny in Apple TV+’s hour-long series PHYSICAL, as well as in Paramount Picture’s BABYLON. Prior to that, he starred in I FEEL PRETTY opposite Amy Schumer and can be seen in New Line’s feature THE HOUSE, ABC’s MODERN FAMILY, and NBC’s SUPERSTORE, as well as in his Comedy Central series ROBBIE, which he also created. His hour stand-up special RORY SCOVEL TRIES STAND-UP FOR THE FIRST TIME is currently streaming on Netflix.
Please join us at The 2nd Act in Hendersonville, NC for our first monthly book club meeting that strives to read books that create a closer knit and more inclusive community! We will meet virtually and in person monthly to discuss a book, so read the book and then join in the discussion in person or online every third Thursday. All are welcome! At the end of each meeting we will vote on the next book! The virtual club meeting will be in Zoom format and will meet 2.5 hours after the in-person meeting (8:00pm EST). After the meeting there is live acoustic music so stay and enjoy the vibe with your new friends! Put us down on your calendar for every third Third Thursday!
The first book is going to be called Disability Visibility.
Synopsis from the back cover: One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.
From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love. Preview:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51456746-disability-visibility
Message me for the Zoom link to the online meetup. Thanks!
This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
A beautiful guided journal with 365 days of thought-provoking quotes and prompts to help you reflect on the past, examine the present, and work towards a more resilient future.
Everyone yearns to become more resilient. We all experience setbacks and problems on an individual level, and the state of the world doesn’t provide overarching reassurance. But resilience is much more than the ability to bounce back from a single catastrophe. You need to work at it, to strengthen it as you would a muscle in your body.
The Resilience Journal starts you on this path with an initial self-assessment using fifteen statements such as “I cope well with change.” Then, through completing the wide range of daily interactive prompts and exercises, you will discover ways to not only cope with difficulties but grow stronger from them. At the end of the journal there’s another self-assessment quiz. Fill it out to see how much your self-knowledge, compassion, patience, and resilience has improved.
Sandra E. Johnson, LMSW, is a licensed clinical social worker who has been practicing for over thirty years. She is also an author, freelance editor, and conference speaker. She has taught meditation and other stress reduction techniques to individual patients, social workers, counselors, and therapists. She has written for the Washington Post and The State, South Carolina’s most widely read newspaper, for which she covered topics ranging from education reform to race relations. Johnson is the author of Standing on Holy Ground: A Triumph over Hate Crime in the Deep South; a novel, Flowers for the Living, which was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award; and The Mind-Body Peace Journal: 366 Mindful Prompts for Serenity and Clarity.
This show contains ONE ingredient: Delighted Tobehere. No GMO’s, No Additives, No Gluten. Simply Delighted.
Delighted is thrilled to return to The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville, NC for this one night only event! This 7 foot tall, award winning southern queen will serve up charm, talent, and a heapin’ helpin’ of funny that is sure to satisfy your worst drag craving in her one-woman show SIMPLY DELIGHTED! Along with her celebrated appearance on America’s Got Talent, Delighted has performed to sold out houses from Hawaii to London, Alaska to Key West, Chicago, New York City, and even Budapest, Hungary! Featuring favorites from Disney to Country, and Pop to Broadway, Delighted will present an ADHD all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of live singing enjoyment that you don’t want to miss! Get your tickets TODAY! You’ll be SIMPLY DELIGHTED you did!
*Unofficial Health Notice: Watch Simply Delighted as a part of a well balanced diet and exercise regimen. Burn up to 200 calories from simply laughing!
Thursday, January 19, 2023
7:30pm
|
Land of the Sky 101 is a community learning circle for those who are interested in an introduction to the history of Asheville, Buncombe County and Western North Carolina. A nine -part series of readings and discussions is modeled after the themes of the exhibit “An Incomplete History of Buncombe County” mounted in the BCSC reading room. From October 2022 through July 2023 (with a break in December) participants will explore the history of our region focusing on themes ranging from ancient history to the late 20th century revitalization of the Downtown area. Read Learn Discuss Registration is limited and required. Sessions for the 2022-2023 cohort will be held at 10:30 am on the third Saturday of each month at Pack Memorial Library. Sessions run from October 2022 until July 2023. Your registration will reserve your place for all nine sessions, and we hope participants will plan to attend each meeting. If you cannot attend a session, please let us know in advance so we may allow those on the waiting list to participate.
|
|
Culley Holderfield discusses his debut novel, Hemlock Hollow, with fellow North Carolina writer Dale Neal, author of Appalachian Book of the Dead.
This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
Hemlock Hollow
“Past and present, love and loss intertwine in a magical mountain hollow. Holderfield’s love of place shines in his sensitive descriptions while his storytelling enthralls the reader.” —Vicki Lane, author of And the Crows Took Their Eyes
Caroline McAlister, college professor and life-long skeptic, is reeling from the loss of her father and her marriage. Her once promising career has come to a standstill. When her father bequeaths the family cabin to her, it comes with a ghost who haunted her childhood. When she discovers a century-old journal in the attic, she awakens the voice of Carson Quinn. The journal reveals Carson’s love for the same hollow that enthralled Caroline growing up. A little sleuthing uncovers rumors that the kind, curious boy in the journal grew up to murder his brother. Caroline plunges into the project of exonerating Carson, only to find herself in the throes of a personal past she’s spent her life trying to avoid. Hemlock Hollow is about how we forever haunt the places we love and how they haunt us in return.
Culley Holderfield learned to love storytelling on the porch of a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, he ventured to South America, Africa, and Europe. When not writing or working in community development finance, he spends his time hiking, paddling, and pondering in the outdoors. His short stories and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications. Hemlock Hollow is his debut novel. He lives in Durham, NC.
Dale Neal is the author of the novel Kings of Coweetsee, forthcoming from Regal House Publishing in 2024. His previous novels, Appalachian Book of the Dead, The Half-Life of Home, and Cow Across America, are each set in the storied Blue Ridge Mountains. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Arts & Letters, Carolina Quarterly, Marlboro Review, and Crescent Review, among others. Previously, he was a prize-winning writer for the Asheville Citizen-Times. A graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, he has been awarded fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center, and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He currently teaches fiction at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Graduate Center. A lifelong native of North Carolina, he now lives in Asheville.
Interested in joining a book club (or two) in the new year? This evening is for you!
This program will feature short presentations from representatives from a dozen local book clubs and some time to chat. Find the book club that best fits your interests and schedule.
Attend in-person at Pack Library or participate in an online viewing! No registration is required for the in-person session. To sign up for the online session, click here to register to receive the live stream link.
Featuring representatives from:
Asheville Art Museum
Buncombe County Public Libraries
Buncombe County Special Collections
Firestorm Bookstore & Cafe
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe
North Carolina Arboretum
Thomas Wolfe House
Wilma Dykeman Legacy
and more!
This live streamed virtual event is free but registration is required. Please click here to register. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
Decent People
In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina in 1976, enigmatic siblings Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills – on both sides of the canal that serves as the town’s color line – become swept up in gossip and accusations that have them taking a deeper look at their neighbors and loved ones. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don’t seem to have any interest in solving the case. As the case continues to go unsolved, questions swirl around the town: Why were the Harmons murdered? Was it about drugs, money or a romantic dispute? And most importantly, who killed them?
Ms. Jo Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus “Lymp” Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp’s half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills’ leading culprits, she sets out on a transformative mission to prove his innocence. As Jo begins to investigate those who might know the most about the Harmons’ deaths, she starts to discover darker secrets than she’d ever imagined, and a pattern of cover-ups of racism, homophobia, and medical misuse that could upend the reputations of many. With Decent People, Winslow has written another novel with the makings of a classic, crafting a remarkable story that covers difficult themes of shame, race, and money with compassion, insight, and grace, and making the community of West Mills come alive from the first page.
De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s first novel, In West Mills, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Lambda Literary Award, Publishing Triangle Award, and Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing. He has been featured as a “Writer to Watch” in The New York Times and one of the “Black Male Writers of Our Time” in T, The New York Times Style Magazine. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and now lives in Atlanta, GA.
Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a Los Angeles based novelist, screenwriter and journalist. His critically acclaimed debut novel, YES, DADDY, was named as one of the best queer books of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, The Advocate, Bustle, Lambda Literary, Goodreads, and more. The book is currently being adapted for television. His writing has been widely published in such outlets as VICE, Slate, OUT Magazine, W Magazine, Lit Hub, Atlas Obscura, Elle, Electric Literature and more. He is also an alumnus of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
A book club for home cooks, foodies, industry folks, and anyone in-between. We will be focusing on all sorts of food writing. Somethemes will be (but not limited to): food critics, chef memoirs, wine, food history, and food politics.
The Foodie group meets virtually on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. (EST), beginning in June 2022. Please email [email protected] for the Zoom meeting info.
The Book for January is ‘Bewilderment’ by Richard Powers
The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain…
With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son’s ferocious love, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers’s most intimate and moving novel. At its heart lies the question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/books/review-bewilderment-richard-powers.html
This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
The Kudzu Queen
Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu–claiming that it will improve the soil, feed cattle at almost no cost, even cure headaches–Mattie is ready. Mr. Cullowee is determined to sell the entire county on the future of kudzu, and organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant. Mattie is determined to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture the attentions of the Kudzu King. As she learns more about Cullowee, however, she discovers that he, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. When she finds she is not the only one threatened, she devises a plan to bring him down. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through the voice of an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.
Mimi Herman is the author of The Kudzu Queen, Logophilia and A Field Guide to Human Emotions. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review, The Hollins Critic, Prime Number, and other journals. She has performed her fiction and poetry at Why There are Words, Symphony Space, and Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. Mimi is a member of the AWP Board of Directors, a Warren Wilson MFA alumna, a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist and a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. She co-directs Writeaways writing workshops in France, Italy, Ireland and New Mexico.
Heather Newton’s short story collection McMullen Circle (Regal House 2022) was the finalist for the W.S. Porter prize. Her novel The Puppeteer’s Daughters was released by Turner Publishing in July 2022 and has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television. Her novel Under The Mercy Trees (HarperCollins 2011) won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, was chosen by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great Group Reads Selection and named an “Okra Pick” by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. A practicing attorney, she teaches creative writing for UNC-Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program and is co-founder and Program Manager for the Flatiron Writers Room writers’ center in Asheville.
Local comedians will take to the stage to share the lives of fictional people in whatever way that they see fit.
FEATURING…
Jillian Burfete
Tom Chalmers
Cameron Davis
Tim Hearn
Christian Lee
Carin Metzger
Stevie Ramirez
Mario Trevizo
JD Scranton is a regular at Goodnight’s Comedy Club in his hometown of Raleigh, NC but has performed all over the Southeast. His comedic musings wander through his life as a father and husband with long pauses to worry about getting old and managing his mental health. In 2021, he was crowned North Carolina’s Funniest Comic at the Goodnight’s Comedy competition.
Scranton has also worked a wide array of comics including Nick Mullen, Randy Feltface, Big Jay Oakerson, and Tom Mabe. He also hosts the award winning podcast Conspiracy Beer Me where comedians drink beer and wander through the weird world of conspiracies and the paranormal
Featuring TBA
ages 18+
doors at 7pm, show at 8pm
*** AGES 18+ ADULTS ONLY ~ NO KIDS ALLOWED ***
YOU HAVEN’T SEEN A COMEDY SHOW LIKE THIS!
A successful Asheville local has a fun interview on stage about his life & living in Asheville, then improv groups hilariously spin the answers into comedy gold!
THIS MONTH’S INTERVIEW IS WITH LOCAL SUPERSTAR REGGIE TIDWELL!
FULLY SEATED SHOW
This was originally scheduled for October 2, 2022. Previously purchased tickets will be honored.
Trevor Wallace is a 29-year-old stand-up comedian, writer & actor. Wallace can be seen just about everywhere on the internet and has collectively built a digital thumbprint of over 2.5 billion views across his social media channels with a following of over 16 Million fans collectively. Wallace has been featured on Comedy Central, MTV, Barstool Sports, E! News, The L.A. Times, The New York Times, Ad Age, Business Insider, Men’s Health, Buzzfeed, and Complex to name a few.
Wallace has worked with prestigious brands such as, Chipotle, Natural Light, BruMate, SeatGeek, G FUEL, OnePlus, Bumble, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Snickers, Monster Energy & many more. Wallace has also toured the U.S. performing at theaters, colleges and comedy clubs including the Netflix Is A Joke Festival, Moontower Comedy Festival and the New York Comedy Festival. Wallace was also voted as a finalist for “Best in Comedy” at the 2020 Shorty Awards.
