Calendar of Events
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.

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month.
Stand Up Comedy is back in the Asheville Pizza Gameroom with the hottest comics in town. Hosted by Cary Goff, featuring Ryan Cox, Cameron Davis, John Hawley & Julia Macias
8p, $13
Comedy Open Mic sign up at door, performers get free entry & pizza 3-5m
contact Michele at [email protected] for more info
Stand Up Comedy is back in the Asheville Pizza Gameroom with the hottest comics in town. Hosted by Cary Goff, featuring Cameron Davis, John Hawley & Julia Macias
Comedy Open Mic sign up at door, free entry & pizza 3-5m
contact Michele at [email protected] for more info

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!
Acorns’ Annual Season of Trunk Shows highlights the talented creators of fine art, designer jewelry, and home goods.
Nancy’s appreciation of nature, and love of horses and other animals began in her early childhood. She loved watching the animals interact with each other, as she rode through the pastures. The seasonal beauty of the pastures and surrounding mountains made a lasting impression on Nancy. This is what she has tried to capture in her drawings. Nancy’s oil paintings feature horses, dogs, and rural landscapes.

Influenced by the work of Booker T. Washington, in the 1900s, the Julius Rosenwald Fund helped create schools across the American South for African American students. Between 1929-1930, this funding helped construct one such school in Mars Hill, in Madison County, where dozens of Black students attended classes in a two-room building until integration in 1964. In 2009, a group of community and alumni members came together in hopes of restoring this historic schoolhouse, and have worked tirelessly to open it to the public once again. Today, it is the only Rosenwald school building still standing in WNC. Join us as we tour the school and learn more about those who attended and saved this building. Our hosts will include the chair of the planning committee, as well as various school alumni. We will also visit the nearby marker for Joseph Anderson, an enslaved man (and namesake of the Rosenwald school) who was used by a trustee of Mars Hill College as collateral on a loan for the college in 1859. Learn more here.
Meet: 11AM @ Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School, Long Ridge Rd, Mars Hill, NC 28754.
Second Stop: 12:30PM @ Mars Hill University (Joseph Anderson grave) – 3 miles away
Note: Afterwards, guests may wish to eat lunch in Mars Hill. There are several restaurants near the university, but guests are encouraged to check their hours/status in advance.
Tickets: This is a free event, though donations are accepted. Donations are shared with the Anderson Rosenwald School. Registration is required.
Rain Date: In the event of inclement weather, we will reschedule to Saturday, August 13. Participants will be notified no later than 8PM the evening before the event.
LINK for Aug. 20 tour: https://www.wnchistory.org/event/wncha-hidden-history-hikes-and-tours-mars-hill-anderson-rosenwald-school-second-tour/

oin the Western North Carolina Historical Association (WNCHA) Saturday, August 6 at 11AM. This event is free and open to the public.
Influenced by the work of Booker T. Washington, in the 1900s, the Julius Rosenwald Fund helped create schools across the American South for African American students. Between 1929-1930, this funding helped construct one such school in Mars Hill, in Madison County, where dozens of Black students attended classes in a two-room building until integration in 1964. In 2009, a group of community and alumni members came together in hopes of restoring this historic schoolhouse, and have worked tirelessly to open it to the public once again. Today, it is the only Rosenwald school building still standing in WNC. Join us as we tour the school and learn more about those who attended and saved this building. Our hosts will include the chair of the planning committee, as well as various school alumni. We will also visit the nearby marker for Joseph Anderson, an enslaved man (and namesake of the Rosenwald school) who was used by a trustee of Mars Hill College as collateral on a loan for the college in 1859. Learn more here.
Meet: 11AM @ Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School, Long Ridge Rd, Mars Hill, NC 28754.
Second Stop: 12:30PM @ Mars Hill University (Joseph Anderson grave) – 3 miles away
Note: Afterwards, guests may wish to eat lunch in Mars Hill. There are several restaurants near the university, but guests are encouraged to check their hours/status in advance.
Tickets: This is a free event, though donations are accepted. Donations are shared with the Anderson Rosenwald School. Registration is required.
Rain Date: In the event of inclement weather, we will reschedule to Saturday, August 13. Participants will be notified no later than 8PM the evening before the event.
Covid Safety: While inside the school building, and when congregating outside, we will require masks to be worn. We ask that anyone experiencing symptoms refrain from attending.

Join us for a virtual evening with Mohsin Hamid presenting The Last White Man: A Novel on Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 7 PM ET.
This event is hosted by Books & Books/Miami Book Fair + indie bookstore partners.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
There are TWO ticket options for this event. One is the price of the book and includes the book. The other is free.
1. Click to purchase EVENT & BOOK for $26.00 (plus applicable tax and shipping):
♦ includes a hardcover copy of The Last White Man
♦ includes the link to access the live event on Zoom
2. Click to register for EVENT ONLY:
♦ includes a link to access the live event on Zoom
Please make sure you submit the correct email address with your ticket purchase or registration and that your email filters will allow messages from addresses @malaprops.com. The link required to attend will be emailed to you prior to the event.
NOTE: Books bundled with event tickets may be shipped ONLY to United States addresses. Books will not be shipped before publication date, August 2, 2022. Postal delivery times vary.
The Last White Man: A Novel
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change.
One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders’s skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Soon, reports of similar events begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends, and family will greet them. Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders’s father and Oona’s mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance at a kind of rebirth–an opportunity to see ourselves, face to face, anew.
Mohsin Hamid is the author of five novels, including the Booker Prize finalists and New York Times bestsellers Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. His essays, some collected as Discontent and Its Civilizations, have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere.

Join us for a virtual evening with Mohsin Hamid discussing The Last White Man: A Novel with Danzy Senna, on Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 7 PM ET.
This event is hosted by Books & Books/Miami Book Fair + indie bookstore partners.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
There are TWO ticket options for this event. One is the price of the book and includes the book. The other is FREE.
1. Click to purchase EVENT & BOOK for $26.00 (plus applicable tax and shipping). Ticket includes:
♦ a hardcover copy of The Last White Man
♦ a bookplate signed by Mohsin Hamid
♦ the link to access the live event on Zoom
2. Click to register for EVENT ONLY for FREE:
♦ includes a link to access the live event on Zoom
Please make sure you submit the correct email address with your ticket purchase or registration and that your email filters will allow messages from addresses @malaprops.com. The link required to attend will be emailed to you prior to the event.
NOTE: Books bundled with event tickets may be shipped ONLY to United States addresses. Books will be available after we recieve the signed bookplates and will not be shipped before publication date, August 2, 2022. Postal delivery times vary.
The Last White Man: A Novel
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change.
One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders’s skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Soon, reports of similar events begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends, and family will greet them. Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders’s father and Oona’s mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance at a kind of rebirth–an opportunity to see ourselves, face to face, anew.
Mohsin Hamid is the author of five novels, including the Booker Prize finalists and New York Times bestsellers Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. His essays, some collected as Discontent and Its Civilizations, have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere.
Danzy Senna’s first novel, the bestselling Caucasia, won the Stephen Crane Award for Best New Fiction and the American Library Association’s Alex Award, was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. A recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, Senna is also the author of the memoir Where Did You Sleep Last Night?, the story collection You Are Free, and the novels Symptomatic and New People. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist Percival Everett, and their sons.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!

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.
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!
From athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick to musician Fela Kuti, explorer Matthew Henson and writer Chinua Achebe, there are so many inspirational men in Black history. This lyrical, rhythmic texts encourages boys to imagine everything they can be and the great things they can do, drawing on the strength of people throughout history that paved the way for Black boys.
It tells today’s boys: you have the courage, you are the light. It’s a new day! Be inspired and motivated by drawing on the history of the role models that came before you.
Dear boy, Black boy, I believe in you so.
Let’s start your story–ready, set, go.
Contributor Bios
ALI BIKO SULAIMAN KAMANDA is an award-winning filmmaker and social entrepreneur from Sierra Leone, West Africa. He runs BIKO Studios, a cross-cultural film production company and is the President of Salone Rising, a not-for-profit organization that provides micro-financing and mentoring resources to small business owners in rural Sierra Leone.
JORGE REDMOND currently works in the Buncombe County District Attorney’s office as an Assistant District Attorney, and as an adjunct professor in South College’s Legal Department. Ali and Jorge are college friends, and Black Boy, Black Boy is their debut book.
KEN DALEY is an award-winning artist from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He believes that diverse stories are essential to creating a more just, and equitable world, and is known for his use of bold colors and authentic details to depict Black Life in all its iterations.
Join host Tena Frank for Malaprop’s Mystery Book Club! Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!
The club meets at Malaprop’s on the second Monday of every month at 7:00 pm.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!
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This month we’re discussing The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan. The Leicester Library Book Discussion Group meets the second Tuesday of each month at 1 pm in the Community Room at the library. Newcomers welcome! |

Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 8 PM ET.
Join us for a virtual evening with Colson Whitehead celebrating the paperback release of Harlem Shuffle, in conversation with Adam Serwer.
This event is presented by Books & Books/Miami Book Fair + indie bookstore partners including Malaprop’s.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Tickets are $17.00 each (plus applicable tax and shipping) and include:
♦ A paperback copy of Harlem Shuffle: A Novel (unsigned)
♦ A link to access the live event on Zoom.
Purchase below.
Please make sure you submit the correct email address with your ticket purchase and that your email filters will allow messages from addresses @malaprops.com. The link required to attend will be emailed to you prior to the event.
NOTE: Books bundled with event tickets may be shipped ONLY to United States addresses. Books will not be shipped before publication date, August 9, 2022. Postal delivery times vary.
Please email [email protected] with questions.
We look forward to seeing you online on August 9th!
Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked… To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa–the Waldorf of Harlem–and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it’s a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.
COLSON WHITEHEAD is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, he lives in New York City.
Adam Serwer is a staff writer for the Ideas section of The Atlantic and the author of the New York Times bestselling essay collection The Cruelty Is The Point. He was previously the national editor at BuzzFeed News, a national reporter for MSNBC, and a reporter for Mother Jones. He is the recipient of the 2019 Hillman Prize for commentary and analysis, the 2015 Sigma Delta Chi Award for online column writing, The 2020 Vernon Jarrett Medal, and the 2019 National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for magazine commentary.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!


Hosted by the Asheville Art Museum, this monthly discussion is a place to exchange ideas about readings that relate to artworks and the art world and to learn from and about each other. Meetings will take place in person at the Art Museum on the second Wednesday of the month at noon. Please click here and scroll to the current month and year to see what the club is reading this month.

Join us for a conversation with Jo Ann Thomas Croom and Katey Schultz discussing the ways in which the Toe River Valley informs and inspires their writing. The conversation will be moderated by Jim Stokely.
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. 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.
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!
Step back in time to the early 1900s and enter the sparsely settled Toe River Valley in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, a region still only slowly healing from the deep ravages of the Civil War. Life is centered in small insulated communities made up of subsistence farm families, one of which is the A.H. and Maggie Silver Thomas family. Both the Thomas and Silver families can trace their ancestors in the Valley back for five generations, and both their histories are first recorded by their son, Monroe, a teacher who is home-bound by illness. From his cot in the living room, Monroe watches as the entry of the railroad changes life into a wage-earner economy. He keeps an account of farm and community life in his journals while continuing to further educate himself through avid reading and thinking. His younger brother Walter, also an educator, provides a retrospective view of the time and place through the age-old practice of telling stories to illustrate truth. Together, these two accounts have been pieced together by Walter’s daughter, Jo Ann Thomas Croom, into a mosaic quilt that gives us a fresh in-depth look into a turbulent period of change – change that upended personal lives as well as the socioeconomic culture of the Valley. While this is the story of one particular family, it represents a microcosm of the history of the region.
Jo Ann Thomas Croom was born in Mitchell County, North Carolina, where her parents were life-long educators in the public school system. After graduating from Harris High School in Spruce Pine, Jo Ann attended Mars Hill College for two years. She then earned BS and MS degrees in Chemistry and Microbiology from North Carolina State University. She worked as a chemist for Chemstrand Research in Triangle Park, then moved to Asheville with her husband Richard Croom and began a family. In the Asheville area, Jo Ann taught at Asheville Biltmore College, Warren Wilson College, Saint Genevieve’s Academy, and Homewood School at Highland Hospital. After the family moved to Mars Hill in Madison County, Jo Ann began a forty-year career at Mars Hill University. She earned a PhD in human genetics at the University of Tennessee Biomedical Program. In retirement, Jo Ann has been working with written materials inherited from her father Walter Thomas and her uncle Monroe Thomas.
Katey Schultz is the author of Flashes of War, which the Daily Beast praised as an “ambitious and fearless” collection, and Still Come Home, a novel, both published by Loyola University Maryland. Honors for her work include North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Doris Betts Fiction Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year award, gold and silver medals from the Military Writers Society of America, the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, five Pushcart nominations, a nomination to Best American Short Stories, National Indies Excellence recognition, and writing fellowships in eight states. She lives in Celo, North Carolina, and is the founder of Maximum Impact, a transformative mentoring service for creative writers that has been recognized by both CNBC and the What Works Network.
Jim Stokely grew up in Newport, Tennessee and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with exceptional distinction in American Studies. He later received an MBA from Stanford University, and embarked upon a 25-year corporate career in Human Resources for The Hay Group, Brown-Forman Corporation, and Sylvania. In 2011 he and his wife Anne moved back to the southern mountains and now live in Weaverville, North Carolina. As President of the Wilma Dykeman Legacy, Jim produces local lecture series and other events in order to sustain the values of Wilma Dykeman. He is the author of Constant Defender: The Story of Fort Moultrie, co-author of Mountain Home: A Pictorial History of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, co-editor of An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee, and editor of An Appalachian Studies Teacher’s Manual as well as Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood.

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. 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.
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!
Step back in time to the early 1900s and enter the sparsely settled Toe River Valley in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, a region still only slowly healing from the deep ravages of the Civil War. Life is centered in small insulated communities made up of subsistence farm families, one of which is the A.H. and Maggie Silver Thomas family. Both the Thomas and Silver families can trace their ancestors in the Valley back for five generations, and both their histories are first recorded by their son, Monroe, a teacher who is home-bound by illness. From his cot in the living room, Monroe watches as the entry of the railroad changes life into a wage-earner economy. He keeps an account of farm and community life in his journals while continuing to further educate himself through avid reading and thinking. His younger brother Walter, also an educator, provides a retrospective view of the time and place through the age-old practice of telling stories to illustrate truth. Together, these two accounts have been pieced together by Walter’s daughter, Jo Ann Thomas Croom, into a mosaic quilt that gives us a fresh in-depth look into a turbulent period of change – change that upended personal lives as well as the socioeconomic culture of the Valley. While this is the story of one particular family, it represents a microcosm of the history of the region.
Jo Ann Thomas Croom was born in Mitchell County, North Carolina, where her parents were life-long educators in the public school system. After graduating from Harris High School in Spruce Pine, Jo Ann attended Mars Hill College for two years. She then earned BS and MS degrees in Chemistry and Microbiology from North Carolina State University. She worked as a chemist for Chemstrand Research in Triangle Park, then moved to Asheville with her husband Richard Croom and began a family. In the Asheville area, Jo Ann taught at Asheville Biltmore College, Warren Wilson College, Saint Genevieve’s Academy, and Homewood School at Highland Hospital. After the family moved to Mars Hill in Madison County, Jo Ann began a forty-year career at Mars Hill University. She earned a PhD in human genetics at the University of Tennessee Biomedical Program. In retirement, Jo Ann has been working with written materials inherited from her father Walter Thomas and her uncle Monroe Thomas.
Katey Schultz is the author of Flashes of War, which the Daily Beast praised as an “ambitious and fearless” collection, and Still Come Home, a novel, both published by Loyola University Maryland. Honors for her work include North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Doris Betts Fiction Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year award, gold and silver medals from the Military Writers Society of America, the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, five Pushcart nominations, a nomination to Best American Short Stories, National Indies Excellence recognition, and writing fellowships in eight states. She lives in Celo, North Carolina, and is the founder of Maximum Impact, a transformative mentoring service for creative writers that has been recognized by both CNBC and the What Works Network.
Jim Stokely grew up in Newport, Tennessee and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with exceptional distinction in American Studies. He later received an MBA from Stanford University, and embarked upon a 25-year corporate career in Human Resources for The Hay Group, Brown-Forman Corporation, and Sylvania. In 2011 he and his wife Anne moved back to the southern mountains and now live in Weaverville, North Carolina. As President of the Wilma Dykeman Legacy, Jim produces local lecture series and other events in order to sustain the values of Wilma Dykeman. He is the author of Constant Defender: The Story of Fort Moultrie, co-author of Mountain Home: A Pictorial History of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, co-editor of An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee, and editor of An Appalachian Studies Teacher’s Manual as well as Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!

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Join us at Join us at Noir Collective AVL, 39 S. Market St. in downtown Asheville,, for our discussion of this month’s book pick, The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin. |

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).
Register your child now!
For the first time ever, paranormal, horror and metaphysical communities unite as one group at HeXpo, The Gathering. Join us for a weekend like no other magickal encounter before as we shatter the barriers that separate our realms. Our time has arrived! Come and be a part of this.
All tickets for the previously scheduled show will remain valid for the future date. If you are unable to attend the new date, you may obtain a refund at the point of purchase.
- IMPORTANT: As the current developments regarding COVID-19 are affecting events nationally and internationally, Ticketmaster may be experience high call/email volumes in the coming days and weeks.
- If purchased at the venue box office, please Submit a Refund Request.
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. Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.

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. 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.
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From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches comes an enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance about a young witch attempting to undo a terrible curse.
Iris Gray knows witches aren’t welcome in most towns. When she was forced to leave her last home after an illegal display of magic, she left behind a father who was no longer willing to start over. And while the Witches’ Council was lenient in their punishment, Iris knows they’re keeping tabs on her.
Now settled in Washington, Iris she vents her frustrations by writing curses she never intends to cast and spends her days at the wildlife refuge with a witch-hating intern, Pike Adler.
Iris concocts the perfect curse for Pike: one that will turn him into a witch. But just as she’s about to dispel it, a bird steals the curse before flying away. If the bird dies, the curse will be unleashed and turn not just Pike, but everyone in the region, into a witch.
Iris begs Pike to help her track the bird, and they set out on a trek through the Pacific Northwest…and find they may like each other’s company more than they want to admit.
RACHEL GRIFFIN lives just outside of Seattle with her husband and dog, Doppler. She became a certified weather spotter for the National Weather Service while doing research for her New York Times bestselling debut The Nature of Witches. Visit her online at rachelgriffinbooks.com.
Isabel Ibañez is the author of Woven in Moonlight, Together We Burn, and Written in Starlight, a finalist for the William C. Morris Award, and is listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time. She was born in Boca Raton, Florida, and is the proud daughter of two Bolivian immigrants. Isabel has a profound appreciation for history and traveling and loves hosting family and friends around the dinner table. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, their adorable dog, and a serious collection of books. Say hi on social media!

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library impacts the pre-literacy skills and school readiness of children under the age of 5 in Buncombe County. The program mails a new, free, age-appropriate book to registered children each month until they turn five years old. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates a home library of up to 60 books and instills a love of books and reading from an early age. If you have any questions about the program, please send an email to [email protected].
A national panel of educators selects the Imagination Library titles, which include: The Little Engine that Could, Last Stop on Market Street, Violet the Pilot, As an Oak Tree Grows, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Look Out Kindergarten, here I come, and many more (take a look at all the titles).

