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.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Romance Book Club
Mar 29 @ 7:00 pm
zoom

Romance Book Club is a space to celebrate love in literature. Whether it’s set in early 1800s London, a distant planet years into the future, a fantasy world of magic, or our own contemporary universe, we are here for the stories that end with a happily-ever-after (or at least a happily-for-now).

Meetings will take place at 7:00 PM ET on the last Tuesday of each month via Zoom. Please visit the Romance Bookclub page for the monthly selection, and email Samantha at [email protected] for the link to join.

Trivia Tuesday
Mar 29 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

No reservations needed, just get ready for a good time and a chance to win some Down Dog prizes!

Trivia Tuesday
Mar 29 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

Join us every Tuesday night for Trivia!

Trivia will run from 7-8:15 pm. We will be capping the teams at 20 and teams will not be able to join after 7 so make sure to arrive early to secure your spot!

No reservations needed, just grab your thinking caps and get ready for a good time and a chance to win a $10, $20, or $30 gift certificate to Down Dog!

Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Miss Malaprop’s Storytime— ages 3-9
Mar 30 @ 10:00 am
online

Due to Covid-19, we are posting Storytime on Instagram in lieu of an in-store event. Join us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/malapropsbookstore/ to tune into Miss Malaprop’s Storytime from your home.

Join us with your wee ones on Wednesdays at 10 am for classic and contemporary stories sure to enchant and entertain. Together, we’ll introduce children to the wonderful world of books! Recommended for ages 3-9.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 – 10:00am
Wednesday, February 16, 2022 – 10:00am
Wednesday, Ma
Hybrid Event: Jacqui Castle launches The Chasm in conversation with Rachael Sparks
Mar 30 @ 6:00 pm
Hybrid online and Malaprops Bookstore
Image shows a blue border around a white box containing the text:  Jacqui Castle launches The Chasm in conversation with Rachael Sparks.Wednesday, Mar. 30. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of Jacqui Castle, Rachael Sparks, and the front cover of CHASM

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats 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 purchase the authors’ 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!


About Chasm:

Two months have passed since Patch Collins narrowly escaped the Board, leaving her loved ones behind to navigate the escalating tensions in America. Patch finds herself in an unfamiliar world, struggling with her mental health, and surrounded by those who abandoned the very idea of American diplomacy long ago. When a familiar enemy resurfaces and she learns the previously unknown fate of a loved one, Patch must make a choice: stay and live a life of relative safety, or risk everything to expose the Board’s actions to the world.

Jacqui Castle is a professional freelance writer and novelist. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Jacqui was selected as the 2020 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project(in collaboration with Library Journal and Biblioboard). Her debut novel, The Seclusion, is a Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award winner in Science Fiction and the winner of the North Carolina Author Project. The sequel to The Seclusion hits shelves on March 1, 2022. When not writing, Jacqui can be found consuming too much caffeine, and spending time with her husband and two children.

Rachael Sparks is a local Asheville author whose first novel, Resistant, was published in 2018, which was the same year that she met Jacqui here at Malaprops, and it was the beginning of a friendship peppered with pranks, bets, and an expanding group of author buddies. Rachael is a microbiologist with a background in transplants, who now leads marketing for a healthcare startup. She lives in North Asheville with her incredibly attractive and talented husband, her brilliant young daughter, and her amazing mother.

We Are The Land: A Presentation by Historian Damon Akins
Mar 30 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
online

Damon Akins, Professor of History at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, will give a talk focused on the history of writing about Native California, Indigenous sovereignty, and settler colonialism. Atkins’ recent book (with William J. Bauer), “We Are The Land: A History Of Native California”, will serve as the backdrop for his remarks.

Register for the talk through Zoom

Thursday, March 31, 2022
Live Stream: Dalia Kinsey presents Decolonizing Wellness
Mar 31 @ 6:00 pm
online
Image shows a blue border around a box containing the text: Dalia Kinsey presents Decolonizing Wellness. Next to the text are photos of  the authors and the front cover of the book. Virtual. Thursday, March. 31, 2022. 6 PM ET.

This event is a free event, but registration is required. 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!


Become the healthiest and happiest version of yourself using wellness tools designed specifically for BIPOC and LGBTQ folks.

The lack of BIPOC and LGBTQ representation in the fields of health and nutrition has led to repeated racist and unscientific biases that negatively impact the very people they purport to help. Many representatives of the increasingly popular body positivity movement actually add to the body image concerns of queer people of color by emphasizing cisgender, heteronormative, and Eurocentric standards of beauty. Few mainstream body positivity resources address the intersectional challenges of anti-Blackness, colorism, homophobia, transphobia, and generational trauma that are at the root of our struggles with wellness and self-care.

In Decolonizing Wellness A QTBIPOC-Centered Guide to Escape the Diet Trap, Heal Your Self-Image, and Achieve Body Liberation, registered dietitian and nutritionist Dalia Kinsey will help readers to improve their health without restriction, eliminate stress around food and eating, and turn food into a source of pleasure instead of shame. A road map to body acceptance and self-care for queer people of color, Decolonizing Wellness is filled with practical eating practices, journal prompts, affirmations, and mindfulness tools. Ultimately, decolonizing nutrition is essential not only to our personal well-being but to our community’s well-being and to the possibility of greater social transformation. This is a body positivity and food freedom book for marginalized folks. It’s a guide to throwing out food rules in exchange for internal cues and adopting a self-love-based approach to eating. It’s about learning to trust our bodies and turning mealtime into a time for celebration and healing. It’s also a love letter to those of us who struggle with our bodies and a gentle plea for us to do the work it takes to accept, trust, and love ourselves.

Dalia Kinsey is a Registered Dietitian, Decolonized Wellness Coach, and the creator of the Body Liberation for All podcast. On a mission to spread joy, reduce suffering, and eliminate health disparities in the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC community, Dalia rejects diet culture and teaches people to use nutrition as a self-care and personal empowerment tool to counter the damage of systemic oppression. Dalia works at the intersection of holistic wellness and social justice, continually creating wellness tools and resources that center the most vulnerable, individuals that hold multiple marginalized identities.

Slice of Life Comedy Open Mic & Feature Comedy at Asheville Pizza
Mar 31 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co

Cocktails, taps & menu available while you laugh the night away to some of the areas best Standup Comics in a ridiculously fun adult environment!

For more info contact Michele at [email protected].

3/31 Hosted by Ryan Cox
Comedy Open Mic Featuring
Cody Hughes, Katy Hudson & John Hawley

7:30p-till, 18+
Doors 6:30p: [Music before show provided by Buzz Radio Asheville]

Comedy Open Mic plus Three Professional featured performers. Open mic comics signup at door get 3-5m. [Free entry for performing comics, free pizza at comics table]
Buy tix at: https://www.ashevillebrewing.com/location/north/

Slice of Life Comedy Open Mic & Feature Comedy at Asheville Pizza
Mar 31 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co

Cocktails, taps & menu available while you laugh the night away to some of the areas best Standup Comics
in a ridiculously fun adult environment!!
For more info contact Michele at [email protected]
3/31 Hosted by Ryan Cox
Comedy Open Mic Featuring
Cody Hughes, Katy Hudson & John Hawley
7:30p-till, 18+
Doors 6:30p: [Music before show provided by Buzz Radio Asheville]
Comedy Open Mic plus Three Professional featured performers. Open mic comics signup at door get 3-5m. [Free entry for performing comics, free pizza at comics table]
Buy tix at: https://www.ashevillebrewing.com/location/north/

Sunday, April 3, 2022
Virtual Writers Workshop 2021 NYC Youth Poet Laureate Serena Yang
Apr 3 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
online

On Sunday, April 3, from 3-5pm ET, Serena Yang will kick off National Poetry Month. Serena is the New York City Youth Poet Laureate and a Finalist for the 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate. Her workshop aims to engage youth to express themselves through poetry and is best suited for ages 15-25.

It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Zoom for the virtual connection.

Serena was born in Singapore and raised in Queens, she is a first-generation Chinese American immigrant, and her work reflects her myriad identities. She performed at the 2021 NYC COVID Memorial Ceremony alongside the New York City Mayor & The NY Philharmonic, and has appeared on NPR as well as in the Washington Post and the New Yorker Magazine. She approaches art in all its mediums as the fire, fuel and food for change, and believes imagination and storytelling are critical to writing.

Tuesday, April 5, 2022
ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club
Apr 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club

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.

Trivia Tuesday
Apr 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

No reservations needed, just get ready for a good time and a chance to win some Down Dog prizes!

Trivia Tuesday
Apr 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

Join us every Tuesday night for Trivia!

Trivia will run from 7-8:15 pm. We will be capping the teams at 20 and teams will not be able to join after 7 so make sure to arrive early to secure your spot!

No reservations needed, just grab your thinking caps and get ready for a good time and a chance to win a $10, $20, or $30 gift certificate to Down Dog!

Thursday, April 7, 2022
Literacy Together Online Volunteer Orientation
Apr 7 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am
zoom

Our Ideal Volunteer Tutor

The ideal volunteer tutor is someone seeking to make a one-year commitment of two hours per week to help someone else make the change of a lifetime. For our volunteer tutors, an education background is helpful, but not necessary. The most important qualities are patience, an open mind, and resourcefulness. Tutors also need to be non-judgmental and sensitive to cultural differences. A GED or high school diploma is required. Ideal tutors enjoy seeing concrete outcomes from their efforts and sharing in the life-changing successes of others. See our full tutor position description here.

Learn more about Literacy Together’s volunteer roles!

Five Steps to Become a Tutor

1. Contact Literacy Together. Sign up online, call (828)254-3442, or email [email protected] to let us know you are interested in becoming a volunteer. We will get back to you within two business days.

2. Attend orientation. We host two volunteer orientation meetings a month. Sign up online, or send an email to  [email protected].

3. Attend tutor training. Sign up for training at the end of the orientation session. Here you can see the dates of our training.

4. Get matched with a student. The program director for your chosen program will match you with a student or small group of students who corresponds to your preferences. The program director will set the date, time, and location of your first meeting. After that, you will schedule your tutoring sessions directly with your student.

5. Start tutoring. Meet with your student(s) for at least two hours per week for a minimum of six months (Adult Literacy GED track), a year (ESOL,  Adult Literacy Basic Skills track), and a school year (Youth Literacy). Share your success stories with us, and attend periodic in-service training to freshen up your skills.

Live Stream: Menachem Kaiser presents Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure
Apr 7 @ 6:00 pm
online
Image shows an orange border around a light peach box containing the text:. Menachem Kaiser presents Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure. Next to the text are photos of  the author and the front cover of the book. Virtual. Thursday, April 7. 6 PM ET

This event is a free event, but registration is required. 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!


From a gifted young writer, the story of his quest to reclaim his family’s apartment building in Poland—and of the astonishing entanglement with Nazi treasure hunters that follows.
Menachem Kaiser’s brilliantly told story, woven from improbable events and profound revelations, is set in motion when the author takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather’s former battle to reclaim the family’s apartment building in Sosnowiec, Poland. Soon, he is on a circuitous path to encounters with the long-time residents of the building, and with a Polish lawyer known as “The Killer.”  A surprise discovery—that his grandfather’s cousin not only survived the war, but wrote a secret memoir while a slave laborer in a vast, secret Nazi tunnel complex—leads to Kaiser being adopted as a virtual celebrity by a band of Silesian treasure seekers who revere the memoir as the indispensable guidebook to Nazi plunder. Propelled by rich original research, Kaiser immerses readers in profound questions that reach far beyond his personal quest. What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living? Plunder is both a deeply immersive adventure story and an irreverent, daring interrogation of inheritance—material, spiritual, familial, and emotional.

Menachem Kaiser holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and was a Fulbright Fellow to Lithuania. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, New York, BOMB, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Crime and Politics Book Club
Apr 7 @ 7:00 pm
online

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.

Slice of Life Comedy Open Mic & Feature Comedy at Pulp Lounge
Apr 7 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Pulp Lounge

Slice of Life Comedy presents the return of comedy nights at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge in Asheville, NC.
Come join us at Asheville’s most popular comedy open mic/showcase hybrid.

(Slice of Life Comedy has been producing quality, premier comedy shows at the Orange Peel for over 10 years)

Pulp Lounge is located in the Orange Peel’s basement at 103 Hilliard Ave, around the corner from the Box Office entrance

Hosted by one of Asheville’s beloved comics, Cody Hughes

Featuring Jess Cooley

Jess Cooley is a writer stand up comedian from Upstate South Carolina, where he learned how to walk, and talk, and eat food like a real boy. Currently based in Asheville, NC, his comedy includes personal subjects like Autism, religion, and the loss of his favorite sex toy during a home invasion. His unique and colorful perspective brings his stories to life, and his demons to the surface.

Show Time:
April 7, 8p
(Doors at 7:30p— music from Buzz Radio Asheville “All Asheville Music and Comedy, All the Time”)
Ticket: $13 for members/ +$2 for annual membership.
Tickets at theorangeperl.net and door.

FB Event:
Craft Drink specials & snacks available
[Comics sign up to perform at door. Performing comics get in free (+free year membership). New-to-venue performers get 3-5m. Regular comics get as much time as available. Look for light, check with Cody when you get there for time and lineup]
Contact Michele Scheve at [email protected] for more info/any questions or sign up early or request a future feature comedy (paid 20m) spot.
*Pulp is one of Asheville’s finest craft cocktail lounges, located underneath The Orange Peel. This self acclaimed Bourbon bar has 284 different fine bourbon/whiskey selections, which we’re almost sure it’s the most in the entire state. Bourbon connoisseurs from thousands of miles can’t believe their eyes, but don’t worry, The Pulp has a little bit of everything.

Friday, April 8, 2022
Live Stream: UNC Press + NC Arboretum: Georgann Eubanks, author of Saving the Wild South, in conversation with Jeff Michael
Apr 8 @ 6:00 pm
online

Image shows a blue border around a box containing the text: UNC Press, the NC Arboretum & Malaprop's present Georgann Eubanks in conversation with Jeff Michael. Friday, April 8. 6 PM ET. Next to the text are a photo of Georgann Eubanks and of the front cover of her book SAVING THE WILD SOUTH.

Malaprop’s is pleased to partner with UNC Press and the North Carolina Arboretum to present this event. Introductions will be provided by UNC Press Advancement Council member Kirk Brown.

This event is a free event, but registration is required. 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!


The American South is famous for its astonishingly rich biodiversity. In this book, Georgann Eubanks takes a wondrous trek from Alabama to North Carolina to search out native plants that are endangered and wavering on the edge of erasure. Even as she reveals the intricate beauty and biology of the South’s plant life, she also shows how local development and global climate change are threatening many species, some of which have been graduated to the federal list of endangered species.

Why should we care, Eubanks asks, about North Carolina’s Yadkin River goldenrod, found only in one place on earth? Or the Alabama canebrake pitcher plant, a carnivorous marvel being decimated by criminal poaching and a booming black market? These plants, she argues, are important not only to the natural environment but also to southern identity, and she finds her inspiration in talking with the heroes–the botanists, advocates, and conservationists young and old–on a quest to save these green gifts of the South for future generations. These passionate plant lovers caution all of us not to take for granted the sensitive ecosystems that contribute to the region’s long-standing appeal, beauty, and character.

Georgann Eubanks is a writer and Emmy-winning documentarian. Her most recent books are The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods through the Year and Saving the Wild South:The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction.

Longtime conservationist Jeff Michael has served as director of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and Wildacres Leadership Initiative, and as executive director of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina (now Three Rivers Land Trust) and the Yadkin-Pee Dee Lakes Project (now Central Park NC). He has also served on the boards of Morrow Mountain State Park Advisory Committee and Preservation North Carolina, among others. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and master’s in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also holds a J.D. from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law.

Event date:
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Book It to the Sidewalk Pop-Up Sale
Apr 9 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Black Mountain Library

Book it over to Black Mountain for this exciting opportunity. The Friends of the Black Mountain Library will be having a pop-up used book sale on Saturday, April 9, outside the library. There will be books for all ages at great prices. All proceeds benefit the Friends of The Black Mountain Library.

 

Monday, April 11, 2022
Mystery Book Club
Apr 11 @ 7:00 pm
online

The club will meet virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. If you are interested in attending, please email [email protected] for instructions about how to attend the club event.  

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.

Event date:
Monday, January 10, 2022 – 7:00pm
Monday, February 14, 2022 – 7:00pm
Monday, March 14, 2022 – 7:00pm
Monday, April 11, 2022 – 7:00pm
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Live Stream: Allan Wolf launches Behold Our Magical Garden
Apr 12 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
online
Image shows a green border around a white box containing the text: Allan Wolf presents Behold Our Magical Garden. Saturday Mar 12. 3pm. Virtual. Image also shows a photo of Allan Wolf and the cover image of BEHOLD OUR MAGICAL GARDEN

This event is a free event, but registration is required. Click here to RSVP. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event. Pre-order Behold Our Magical Garden from Malaprop’s to get a signed and personalized copy. Please request signing and/or personalization in the “comments” section during checkout.

If you decide to attend and purchase the authors’ 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!


Witty and inspiring, Allan Wolf’s upbeat poems are poised to cultivate a new crop of gardeners, aided by Daniel Duncan’s bountiful illustrations. There’s a lot more to gardens than meets the eye! In this collection of buoyant poems filled with fun facts, young nature enthusiasts and budding gardeners are called on to help solve a mystery by the compost bin, join a Wild West-style standoff between some good bugs and a few bad ones, interview the sun to find out what happens when it drinks a glass of water, and learn the fancy names of plants to spice up dinner conversation. They’ll be spurred to grab their own gardening tools, drop in some seeds, encounter a few insects, gather fresh vegetables, and find a whole lot of magic. Allan Wolf’s playful poems and Daniel Duncan’s whimsically detailed, welcoming illustrations combine in a charming celebration of the many wonders and lessons to be learned from a school garden. For further inspiration, engaging notes on the poems and an author’s note on jotting down observations can be found in the back matter.

Allan Wolf is the author of many award-winning books for children and teens, including No Buddy Like a BookThe Day the Universe Exploded My HeadThe Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts, and The Blanket Where Violet Sits. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Live Stream: Joseph Boone presents Furnace Creek in conversation with Elizabeth Kostova
Apr 12 @ 6:00 pm
online
Image shows an orange border around a box containing the text:. Joseph Boone in conversation with Elizabeth Kostova. Next to the text are photos of  the authors and the front cover of the book. Virtual. Tuesday, April 1. 6 PM ET

 

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!

Please call Malaprop’s at 828-254-6734 or email [email protected] to order Furnace Creek


Taking its inspiration from Great Expectations, this novel teases us with the question of what Pip might have been like had he grown up in the American South of the 1960s and 1970s and faced the explosive social issues–racial injustice, a war abroad, womenís and gay rights, class struggle–that galvanized the world in those decades. A guilty encounter with an escaped felon, a summer spent working for an eccentric man with a mysterious past, conflicted erotic feelings for his employerís niece and nephew–these events set the stage for a journey of sexual and moral discovery that takes Newt Seward to New England, Rome, and Paris–all before returning home to confront his lifeís many expectations and disappointments. Deftly combining elements of coming-of-age story, novel of erotic discovery, Southern Gothic fiction, and detection-mystery thriller, FURNACE CREEK leaps the frame of Dickensí masterpiece to provide a contemporary meditation on the perils of desire, ambition, love, loss, and family.

Joseph Boone has written a page-turning novel, a spirited American retelling of an English classic. The American South is our own Dickensian England, and Boone brings both worlds vividly alive with his ebullient prose. A joyously ambitious debut! – Marianne Wiggins, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee for Evidence of Things Unseen, Joe Boone’s FURNACE CREEK is a funny, moving, and true rendition of everybody’s story: surviving our childhoods, which can be uniquely challenging if you’re Southern, and queer. Boone is a natural novelist, and FURNACE CREEK is a genuine accomplishment.–Michael Cunningham

Joseph Allen Boone grew up in the piedmont foothills of North Carolina and earned his BA from Duke University, where Reynolds Price numbered among his creative writing teachers. Now a professor of English at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, he is the author of three works of non-fiction, a musical adaptation of Herman Melville’s The Confidence-Man, and a forthcoming short story collection from BSPG, Conditions of Precarity.  Furnace Creek, his debut novel, was a finalist in four international competitions.

Elizabeth Kostova is the author of the international bestseller The Historian. She graduated from Yale and holds an MFA from the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award for the Novel-in-Progress.

Trivia Tuesday
Apr 12 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

No reservations needed, just get ready for a good time and a chance to win some Down Dog prizes!

Trivia Tuesday
Apr 12 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Down Dog Yoga Studio and Dog Bar

Trivia Tuesday

Join us every Tuesday night for Trivia!

Trivia will run from 7-8:15 pm. We will be capping the teams at 20 and teams will not be able to join after 7 so make sure to arrive early to secure your spot!

No reservations needed, just grab your thinking caps and get ready for a good time and a chance to win a $10, $20, or $30 gift certificate to Down Dog!

Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Discussion Bound at Asheville Art Museum: Prosperity Gospel: Portraits of the Great Recession
Apr 13 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

The Prosperity Gospel: Portraits of the Great Recession is a project done in collaboration with the writer, Keith Flynn, and photographer, Charter Weeks, documenting the effects of the Great Recession on the individual lives of people living in Appalachia, within a 75 mile radius of Asheville, North Carolina. The book is organized in four parts: Profiles of the Working Poor, Working Around It, One Crisis from Catastrophe, and Where the Money Goes. There is a heartbreaking and clear understanding throughout that there is a fluidity between these categories, that economically speaking, the safety net is full of holes. Along the way, Flynn and Weeks met a roster of proud Appalachian people including couples, religious believers, Native Americans, lovers, outlaws, small business owners, parents and preachers, struggling to imagine a future for themselves, doing what it takes to keep hope alive. But Prosperity Gospel is much more than a book of “hard luck stories.”

The authors are not ascribing the fortunes of their subjects to good or bad luck; resisting that demoralizing shrug, they lay blame squarely where it belongs: on structural inequities that reached catastrophic proportion in the lives of these individuals. This is a book about people surviving the massive plundering of the American economy that brought about the Great Recession of 2008. Prosperity Gospel is not about what happened in 2008, however, but about its consequences, about what is still happening, now: in a word — if the word is used honestly — history, a history that leads on to continuing struggle and back to a still unpunished crime: the mendacity, thievery, and fraud of politicians, banks, and corporations.

Moderated by author Keith Flynn, and Jay Bonner, Associate Head, Asheville School. Participants will gather in-person; moderators will Zoom in virtually.

DISCUSSION BOUND

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. Books are available at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café for a 10% discount. To add your name to our Discussion Bound mailing list, click here or call 828.253.3227 x133.

Hybrid Event: Landis Wade presents Deadly Declarations in conversation with Heather Newton
Apr 13 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image shows a blue border around a light blue box containing the text: Landis Wade presents Deadly Declarations in conversation with Heather Newton. Hybrid. Wednesday, APR 13, 2022. 6 PM ET.

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats 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 purchase the authors’ 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!


It’s modern day in the New South City of Charlotte, North Carolina, when three retirees at the Independence Retirement Community, a/k/a The Indie, team up to investigate two mysteries related to the death of a 96-year-old resident. Why was his manuscript about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence missing when they found his body? And why did his handwritten will dated the day he died disinherit his beloved granddaughter (his only heir), and leave his $50 million fortune to Sue Ellen Parker, the most despised resident at the Indie?

At the urging of Chuck Yeager Alexander, an optimistic soul who loves historical conspiracies, and Harriet Keaton, a former businesswoman with an extreme dislike of Sue Ellen Parker, Craig Travail, a trial lawyer recently ousted from his law firm after 40 years, reluctantly goes to court to challenge the dead man’s will for the granddaughter. This decision sets in motion a series of dangerous events that could lead the threesome to discover the answer to a colonial mystery that has evaded historians for more than two centuries.

Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer, dog and sports lover, host of Charlotte Readers Podcast, speaker, teacher, moderator, fly-fisherman and author of books and stories whose third book—The Christmas Redemption— won the Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. He won the 2016 North Carolina State Bar short story contest for The Deliberation and received awards for his non-fiction pieces, The Cape Fear Debacle and First Dance. His short work also has appeared in Writersdigest.com, The Charlotte Observer, News and Observer, Flying South, Fiction on the Web and in anthologies by Pamlico Writers’ Group, High Country Writers and the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Story Publishing Project.

Heather Newton is the author of the short story collection McMullen Circle (Regal House 2022), finalist for the W.S. Porter prize. Her novel The Puppeteer’s Daughters is forthcoming from Turner Publishing in July 2022 and has been optioned for 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.  www.heathernewton.net https://www.flatironwritersroom.com

Thursday, April 14, 2022
And the Crows Took Their Eyes with Author Vicki Lane
Apr 14 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Black Mountain Library
Join us for a 30 minute discussion of Vicki Lane’s And the Crows Took Their Eyes, followed by a short break, then an hour-long reading with the author. Lane’s novel, which explores the perspectives of several people tied to Madison County’s Shelton Laurel Massacre of 1863, was a finalist for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. Learn more here.
Location: Education Room of the Black Mountain Public Library
Tickets: FREE to the public, but attendees are asked to RSVP ahead of time.
NC Reads: “Even as We Breathe” by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Apr 14 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Swannanoa Library

NC Reads: "Even as We Breathe" by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (IN PERSON EVENT)

Our book club will meet in person for a discussion of Even as We Breath by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

North Carolina Reads is North Carolina Humanities’ statewide book club for 2022. North Carolina Reads features five books that explore issues of racial, social, and gender equality and the history and culture of North Carolina.

The April book poses critical questions about how North Carolinians view their role in helping to form a more just and inclusive society.

We will be joined by Cori Anderson, Associate Director of Key Center for Community Engaged Learning at UNC-A as she discusses life in Asheville and Cherokee in the time period of the book and leads us through the NC Humanities discussion questions.

How to participate:
Libraries, community groups, and individuals across North Carolina are encouraged to read along with North Carolina Humanities.

Copies of the book are available for pickup at the Swannanoa Library or may be requested through the library holds system. Please join us early. We are limiting the number in our inside space.

Live Stream: Bill Kopp presents Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave
Apr 14 @ 7:00 pm
online
Image shows an orange border around a box containing the text: Bill Kopp presents DISTURBING THE PEACE: 415 RECORDS AND THE RISE OF NEW WAVE. Thursday Apr. 14, 2022. 7 PM ET. Virtual. Also shown are a headshot of Kopp and the front cover of the book.

Click here to RSVP for this event. On the day of the event, we will send a reminder email with the link required to attend.

Like most of our events, this event is free. 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!


Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave is Bill Kopp’s chronicle of the groundbreaking independent record label founded by Howie Klein & Chris Knab, featuring the stories of Romeo Void, Red Rockers, Translator, Wire Train, Roky Erickson, The Nuns, Pearl Harbor and Explosions, and nearly two dozen other bands. Based on nearly 100 interviews with the artists, industry execs, producers, friends, rivals, onlookers, journalists and hangers-on, Disturbing the Peace also features hundreds of photos and memorabilia from the personal archives of those who were there.

Bill Kopp

With a background in marketing and advertising, Bill Kopp got his professional start writing for Trouser Press. After a stint as Editor-in-Chief for a national music magazine, Bill launched the online zine Musoscribe in 2009, and has published new content every business day since then (and every single day since 2018). The interviews, essays, and reviews on Musoscribe reflect Bill’s keen interest in American musical forms, most notably rock, jazz, and soul. His work features a special emphasis on reissues and vinyl. Bill’s work also appears in many other outlets both online and in print. He regularly hosts lecture/discussions on artists and albums of historical importance, and is a frequent guest on music-focused radio programs and podcasts. He also researches and authors liner notes for album reissues — more than 30 to date — and co-produced a reissue of jazz legend Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s final album. His first book, Reinventing Pink Floyd, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2018, and in paperback in 2019. Disturbing the Peace is his second book.

Short Story “Nebraska Crane”
Apr 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

Join US VIA Zoom for a
Discussion led by Ellen Brown, author of John Apperson’s Lake George.
Register at [email protected]
Thomas Wolfe Short Story Discussions are a partnership between the Wilma Dykeman Legacy and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site. Our text is The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, edited by Francis E. Skipp with a Foreword by James Dickey (New York: Scribner’s, 1987). This book is on sale at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and at local bookstores.