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, August 9, 2022
Ticketed | Virtual Evening with Colson Whitehead + Adam Serwer
Aug 9 @ 8:00 pm
online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore
Image shows a black box with the text: Ticketed. A Virtual Evening with Colson Whitehead discussing HARLEM Shuffle. LIVE on Zoom in conversation with Adam Serwer. August 9. 8 PM ET. Presented by Books & Books, Miami Book Fair, and indies across the U.S.

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.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library®
Aug 10 all-day
online

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!

Tai Chi Ten Form: Eight Sessions
Aug 10 @ 9:00 am – 10:00 am
The North Carolina Arboretum

 

This elegant short form introduces the signature movements of Tai Chi Chuan in a simplified and compact sequence. A wonderful practice for beginners, participants will learn the basic principles of each movement as well as modifications to accommodate individual needs. Tai chi is a safe and effective form of meditative exercise consisting of relaxed and focused movements that clear the mind and relax the nervous system while improving balance, strength, flexibility, stability, coordination, joint health, memory and attentional skills.

Pack Library Book Club: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Aug 10 @ 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Pack Memorial Library
Discussion Bound Book Club
Aug 10 @ 12:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

 

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.

Hybrid: No Work in the Grave: Life in the Toe River Valley with Jo Ann Thomas Croom, Katey Schultz and Jim Stokely
Aug 10 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore
Image contains the text: Jo Ann Thomas Croom with Katey Schultz and Jim Stokely: Wednesday, August 10, 2022. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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.

Hybrid: No Work in the Grave: Life in the Toe River Valley with Jo Ann Thomas Croom, Katey Schultz and Jim Stokely
Aug 10 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image contains the text:  Jo Ann Thomas Croom with Katey Schultz and Jim Stokely: Wednesday, August 10, 2022. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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.

Thursday, August 11, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library®
Aug 11 all-day
online

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!

Rescheduled – Black Experience Book Club
Aug 11 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Noir Collective AVL

Rescheduled - Black Experience Book Club

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.
WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK
AT THE LIBRARY
Call your local Buncombe County Public Library or visit buncombecounty.org/library to reserve your copy online.
NOIR COLLECTIVE AT THE YMI
Stop by the Noir Collective during open hours, call 828-257-4540, or email [email protected] to check availability.

Friday, August 12, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library®
Aug 12 all-day
online

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!

Hybrid: Rachel Griffin presents Wild is the Witch in conversation with Isabel Ibañez
Aug 12 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore

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. 

Hybrid: Rachel Griffin presents Wild is the Witch in conversation with Isabel Ibañez
Aug 12 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image contains the text: Rachel Griffin in conversation with Isabel Ibañez: Friday, August 12, 2022. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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!


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!

Saturday, August 13, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library®
Aug 13 all-day
online

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!

Friends of the Library Pop Up Book Sale! Black Mountain Library
Aug 13 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Black Mountain Library

Friends of the Library Pop Up Book Sale!

Children’s books: 2 for $1
Fiction: a bag full for $5

Grandfather Presents: Charlie Brady
Aug 13 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Grandfather Mountain
Charlie Brady Event

As part of our 2022 Grandfather Presents speaker series, Charlie Brady, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Conservancy, will present “Strategically Protecting Land to Ensure Access to Natural Places for Everyone.” The Blue Ridge Conservancy is a non-profit organization that has protected over 23,000 acres in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey Counties in western NC. In addition to protecting working farmland, BRC’s efforts have resulted in the creation of state natural areas such as Beech Creek Bog, Bear Paw and Bullhead Mountain.

Charlie has served on the Environmental Management Commission for the State of North Carolina, North Carolina State Parks Board, Foothills Conservancy Board of Trustees, Trout Unlimited National Board, as well as on numerous local and regional non-profit boards. He is an avid outdoorsman and recreationalist with a strong commitment to land and water conservation.

Arrive early or stay after to chat with the speaker. Read more about Grandfather Presents.

Location: Classroom in the Clouds Event Space, Wilson Center for Nature Discovery

Tickets: Included in park admission or Bridge Club membership. RSVP required. Reserve your seat below beginning July 11.

Author Talk – Andrew Aydin
Aug 13 @ 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
East Asheville Public Library

Author Talk - Andrew Aydin

Author Andrew Aydin will join us at the East Asheville Public Library to talk about his work with the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and their #1 New York Times bestselling work, March.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
North Asheville Book Club: Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown
Aug 16 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Online w/ North Asheville Library

North Asheville Book Club

Join us to discuss this month’s book: Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown

This is a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting. Participants may come in person to the North Asheville Library or participate via Zoom.

Registration is required for the Zoom link.

The North Asheville Book Club meets on the 3rd Tuesday of every month.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Tai Chi Ten Form: Eight Sessions
Aug 17 @ 9:00 am – 10:00 am
The North Carolina Arboretum

 

This elegant short form introduces the signature movements of Tai Chi Chuan in a simplified and compact sequence. A wonderful practice for beginners, participants will learn the basic principles of each movement as well as modifications to accommodate individual needs. Tai chi is a safe and effective form of meditative exercise consisting of relaxed and focused movements that clear the mind and relax the nervous system while improving balance, strength, flexibility, stability, coordination, joint health, memory and attentional skills.

Introduction to Medicare with the Council on Aging of Buncombe County
Aug 17 @ 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
East Asheville Public Library

Introduction to Medicare with the Council on Aging of Buncombe County

Are you new to Medicare? Are you confused about which benefits are right for you? Do you need more information? The Council on Aging of Buncombe County will help answer your Medicare questions in this free class. No registration is required.

The classes will explain how Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money. This class will meet in person at the East Asheville Library on Aug. 17 at 2:30 p.m.

Anyone who is new to Medicare, caregivers, and others who help senior citizens with their Medicare insurance should consider attending this informative session. The material presented is unbiased and accurate.  No products are sold, recommended, or endorsed.

For more information, contact the Library or the Council on Aging.

Hybrid: Melanie Bianchi presents The Ballad Of Cherrystoke And Other Stories, in conversation with Alli Marshall
Aug 17 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore
Image contains the text: Melanie Bianchi in conversation with Alli Marshall : Tuesday, August 16, 2022. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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!


A young maid at an upscale resort hides her banjo-playing freight hopper brother. An unlikely romance bridges a quarter-century age gap and a 150-year-old murder. A man tries to turn his sheltered mother’s backyard shed into a pricey vacation rental. A gig worker must shake off her darker identity to become a professional baby namer. This mesmeric debut collection of stories set in the Appalachian mountains weaves together the curious and the sublime, with Bianchi’s lyrical style cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Melanie McGee Bianchi grew up in a series of character-forming historic houses in different parts of the U.S. Starting at age 12, she gathered modest notice on the spelling-bee circuit, won short-story contests in various newspapers, and placed poems and fiction in national print publications, including the grunge-era teen magazine Sassy. After university, she began a career in features journalism in Asheville, North Carolina, where she has lived most of her life. Melanie was the lead arts reporter and Arts & Entertainment Editor at Mountain Xpress, a member paper of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, for ten years. She interviewed celebrities of many genres, including Loretta Lynn, David Sedaris, Aimee Mann, the late R.L. Burnside, and the late Doc Watson. In 2004, she won an industry Gold Award for special-section editing.After five happy years as a stay-at-home mom, Melanie next edited VERVE, a women’s magazine, for a period in the 2010s, working with Venezuelan fashion photographer Zaire Kacz and model/stylist Sara Fields Bridges. Melanie currently manages three regional lifestyle publications: Asheville Made, Bold Life, and Carolina Home + Garden. Her humor essays have been published regionally and nationally, and her poetry has been shortlisted in national chapbook contests and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Melanie’s current fiction has appeared in The Mississippi Review’s Summer Prize Issue, in Chattahoochee Review, and in The Moth Magazine (based in Co. Cavan, Ireland). These pieces and more are included in her first book, The Ballad of Cherrystoke + Other Stories, forthcoming from Blackwater Press in 2022.

Alli Marshall is a poet, performer, writer, editor, film maker and creative community builder. She’s interested in moving writing beyond the page, seeking the golden in the mundane, finding the intersection of art and social justice, and reconnecting with mythology — both ancient and modern.

Hybrid: Melanie Bianchi presents The Ballad Of Cherrystoke And Other Stories, in conversation with Alli Marshall
Aug 17 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image contains the text: Melanie Bianchi in conversation with Alli Marshall : Tuesday, August 16, 2022. 6 PM ET. Hybrid. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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!


A young maid at an upscale resort hides her banjo-playing freight hopper brother. An unlikely romance bridges a quarter-century age gap and a 150-year-old murder. A man tries to turn his sheltered mother’s backyard shed into a pricey vacation rental. A gig worker must shake off her darker identity to become a professional baby namer. This mesmeric debut collection of stories set in the Appalachian mountains weaves together the curious and the sublime, with Bianchi’s lyrical style cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Melanie McGee Bianchi grew up in a series of character-forming historic houses in different parts of the U.S. Starting at age 12, she gathered modest notice on the spelling-bee circuit, won short-story contests in various newspapers, and placed poems and fiction in national print publications, including the grunge-era teen magazine Sassy. After university, she began a career in features journalism in Asheville, North Carolina, where she has lived most of her life. Melanie was the lead arts reporter and Arts & Entertainment Editor at Mountain Xpress, a member paper of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, for ten years. She interviewed celebrities of many genres, including Loretta Lynn, David Sedaris, Aimee Mann, the late R.L. Burnside, and the late Doc Watson. In 2004, she won an industry Gold Award for special-section editing.After five happy years as a stay-at-home mom, Melanie next edited VERVE, a women’s magazine, for a period in the 2010s, working with Venezuelan fashion photographer Zaire Kacz and model/stylist Sara Fields Bridges. Melanie currently manages three regional lifestyle publications: Asheville Made, Bold Life, and Carolina Home + Garden. Her humor essays have been published regionally and nationally, and her poetry has been shortlisted in national chapbook contests and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Melanie’s current fiction has appeared in The Mississippi Review’s Summer Prize Issue, in Chattahoochee Review, and in The Moth Magazine (based in Co. Cavan, Ireland). These pieces and more are included in her first book, The Ballad of Cherrystoke + Other Stories, forthcoming from Blackwater Press in 2022.

Alli Marshall is a poet, performer, writer, editor, film maker and creative community builder. She’s interested in moving writing beyond the page, seeking the golden in the mundane, finding the intersection of art and social justice, and reconnecting with mythology — both ancient and modern.

Thursday, August 18, 2022
Virtual Story Time with Wallace West, author and illustrator of Mighty Red Riding Hood
Aug 18 @ 10:00 am
online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore
Image contains the text: Story Time with Wallace West: Thursday, August 18, 2022. 10 AM ET. Virtual. Next to the text are photos of the participant and the cover of the featured book.

Join us for a special Miss Malaprop’s Storytime featuring author and illustrator Wallace West!

This 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!


In this clever twist on a traditional tale, a boy who loves his frilly, swishy riding hood turns the tables on a big, bad, bullying wolf!
Better not mess with Little Red when he’s got on his favorite frilly red riding hood! It makes him feel happier than a pig in mud, more special than a birthday cake, and mighty as a firecracker. Nothing’s gonna stop him from being himself…Not even a big ol’ bully of a WOLF! With admirable spunk and a heaping helping of southern humor and hospitality, Little Red finds a way to crack the shell of the closed-minded wolf’s perception of frills and bows.
This refreshingly spirited version of the classic tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” explores the challenge of staying on your path when confronted by strangers who don’t want to understand you.

Wallace West is a native Texan and world explorer. Wallace says “I once foolishly pet a wild alligator and consider a tinned-fish picnic in Norway the best meal I’ve ever had. By day I work in advertising. By night my beagle and I wonder if the house is haunted.”

Notorious HBC (History Book Club)
Aug 18 @ 7:00 pm
online

This club meets in-person and virtually. If you are interested in attending, please email [email protected] for more info and instructions! 

Join host and Malaprop’s bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across different periods of history. The club tackles challenging subjects, hence “NOTORIOUS.”  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 3rd Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm.

Sunday, August 21, 2022
BOOK LAUNCH: THE LISTENING SKIN BY GLENIS REDMOND
Aug 21 @ 3:00 pm
Peace Center

Book Launch: The Listening Skin by Glenis Redmond

Join us for a special book launch event celebrating award-winning poet and and our former poet-in-residence Glenis Redmond‘s newest poetry collection, The Listening Skin, which explores how an artist dares to dance and create through a pain-riddled body. Come enjoy a reception followed by a reading and Q&A session with Glenis as well as a book signing opportunity.

About Glenis Redmond

Glenis Redmond is a performance poet, a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, a Cave Canem alumni, and a former poet-in-residence here at the Peace Center. She is the author of three books of poetry with three more books set to publish this year. Her poetry has been showcased on NPR and PBS and most recently published in Orion Magazine, southStory and The New York Times. Glenis has spent almost three decades touring the country as a poet and teaching artist.

Ticket price includes a signed copy of The Listening Skin.

Hybrid: Dan Chapman presents A Road Running Southward in conversation with Georgann Eubanks
Aug 21 @ 5:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore
Image contains the text: Dan Chapman in conversation with Georgann Eubanks. Hybrid.Sunday, Aug 21, 2022. 5 PM ET. Virtual. Next to the text are a photo of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

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!


Veteran Atlanta reporter Dan Chapman, distressed by sprawl-driven environmental ills in a region he loves, recreated Muir’s journey to see for himself how nature has fared since Muir’s time. Channeling Muir, he uses humor, keen observation, and a deep love of place to celebrate the South’s natural riches. But he laments that a treasured way of life for generations of Southerners is endangered as long-simmering struggles intensify over misused and dwindling resources. Chapman seeks to discover how Southerners might balance surging population growth with protecting the natural beauty Muir found so special. Each chapter touches upon a local ecological problem–at-risk species in Mammoth Cave, coal ash in Kingston, Tennessee, climate change in the Nantahala National Forest, water wars in Georgia, aquifer depletion in Florida–that resonates across the South. Chapman delves into the region’s natural history, moving between John Muir’s vivid descriptions of a lush botanical paradise and the myriad environmental problems facing the South today. Along the way he talks to locals with deep ties to the land–scientists, hunters, politicians, and even a Muir impersonator–who describe the changes they’ve witnessed and what it will take to accommodate a fast-growing population without destroying the natural beauty and a cherished connection to nature.

A Road Running Southward is part travelogue, part environmental cri de coeur, and paints a picture of a South under siege. It is a passionate appeal, a call to action to save one of the loveliest and most biodiverse regions of the world by understanding what we have to lose if we do nothing.

Dan Chapman is a writer, reporter, and lover of the outdoors. He grew up in Washington DC and Tokyo, the son of a newspaperman and an English teacher. He worked for Congressional Quarterly, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Charlotte Observer, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has also reported from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. He currently writes stories about conservation in the South for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Lunch + Learn: Overcoming Communication Barriers
Aug 23 @ 1:00 pm
Enka-Candler Public Library

 

Communication is the string that ties us all together. If that string isn’t strong enough or is broken, our relationships tend to unravel. This curriculum is designed to look at common communication problems and methods to make it an easier, more efficient process. Examples of communication to use and those to not use will be discussed.

This class is free and registration is required. To register: Go to VayaHealth.com/Calendar or Call Enka-Candler Public Library at 828- 250-4758.

Live Stream: Robyn Ryle presents She/He/They/Me: An Interactive Guide to the Gender Binary
Aug 23 @ 6:00 pm
online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore
Image contains the text: Robyn Ryle presents She/He/They/Me: Tuesday, August 23, 2022. 6 PM ET. Virtual. Next to the text are photos of the participant and the cover of the featured book.

This 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!


We will have a limited quantity of signed copies available for purchase. Please order the book below and indicate that you would like a signed copy in the “comments” section during checkout. 

If you’ve ever questioned the logic of basing an entire identity around what you have between your legs, it’s time to embark on a daring escape outside of the binary box. Written in a choose-your-own path style, you’ll explore over one hundred different scenarios that embrace nearly every definition of gender around the globe and throughout history in a refreshingly creative exploration of the ways gender colors and shapes our world.

In She/He/They/Me, Dr. Robyn Ryle, professor of sociology and gender studies at Hanover College in Indiana, thoughtfully discusses gender constructs, expectations, and transitions along with covering everything from the science, biology, and psychology of gender to the philosophy, legality and societal implications.

This is a must-read for better understanding and celebrating LGBTQ+, nonbinary, and transgender identities and a great resource for parents of gender queer kids.

Dr. Robyn Ryle is a writer and a professor of sociology and gender studies at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, where she has been teaching sociology of gender and other courses for 20 years. She went to Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, for her undergraduate degrees in sociology and English with a concentration in women’s studies. She received her PhD in sociology from Indiana University-Bloomington and is originally from northern Kentucky.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022
INTRODUCTION TO TAI CHI *New Course*
Aug 24 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
YWCA Asheville

This 10-week course will introduce basic principles that are foundational to all Tai Chi movements. Tai Chi is proven to be effective in decreasing pain, stiffness, and risk for falls while improving balance, postural stability, strength, cognitive focus, immune system function, and more. Wednesdays noon -1 pm; August 24th-October 26th. This course has a general public cost of $60. There is no additional cost for members, the course is included.
Register before September 31st on our YWCA App, by calling (828) 254-7206 ext. 213 or emailing [email protected].

Hybrid: Asia Suler presents Mirrors in the Earth: Reflections on Self-Healing from the Living World
Aug 24 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore
Image shows teal box containing the text: Hybrid. Asia Suler presents MIRRORS IN THE EARTH. Wednesday, 8.24.22. 6 PM ET. A photo of the author and the front cover of the book are shown.

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!


 In a series of 12 lyrical nature essays, herbalist, writer, and Earth intuitive Asia Suler illuminates the healing power of the living Earth–and gives us permission to nurture self-compassion and empathy as forces for personal and ecological healing.In a time of unprecedented ecological devastation, it’s easy to feel hopeless and disconnected. It’s easier still to mask our inherent goodness–to imagine that our unique and precious gifts simply aren’t enough, or forget the power of our inborn empathy. For those of us who are highly sensitive, innately attuned to the workings and whispers of the natural world, it can be hard to embody the belief that we’re enough as we are–and that can heal the Earth.Here, Suler reveals the opposite: our goodness, our empathy, our intuitive connections, and our capacity for self-compassion are more than personal traits or antidotes to despair: they are, in fact, our most potent vehicles for planetary transformation. And as we learn to more deeply nurture and accept ourselves, we unlock living, healing connections to Earth.Combining poetic nature writing with exercises and reflection prompts at the end of each essay, Mirrors in the Earth coaxes us to come as we are: to discover and tend the inherent brilliance and medicine that lives in each of us. From the manatee-calm springs of wild Florida to the flower-dotted coves of the world’s most biodiverse mountains, Mirrors in the Earth is an invitation and encounter with the benevolence of the living world–and a nature therapy session for the soul.

Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, earth intuitive and ecological philosopher who lives in the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the founder of One Willow Apothecaries, an Appalachian-grown company that offers handcrafted herbal medicines and educational experiences in herbalism, animism, ancestral healing and earth-centered personal growth. Asia has guided over 20,000 students in 70+ countries through her immersive online programs. With her writings and teachings, Asia helps people embrace their own unique medicine through a joyful engagement with the natural world. Mirrors in the EarthReflections on Self-Healing from the Living World is her first book.

Hybrid: Asia Suler presents Mirrors in the Earth: Reflections on Self-Healing from the Living World
Aug 24 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image shows teal box containing the text: Hybrid. Asia Suler presents MIRRORS IN THE EARTH. Wednesday, 8.24.22. 6 PM ET. A photo of the author and the front cover of the book are shown.

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!


 In a series of 12 lyrical nature essays, herbalist, writer, and Earth intuitive Asia Suler illuminates the healing power of the living Earth–and gives us permission to nurture self-compassion and empathy as forces for personal and ecological healing.In a time of unprecedented ecological devastation, it’s easy to feel hopeless and disconnected. It’s easier still to mask our inherent goodness–to imagine that our unique and precious gifts simply aren’t enough, or forget the power of our inborn empathy. For those of us who are highly sensitive, innately attuned to the workings and whispers of the natural world, it can be hard to embody the belief that we’re enough as we are–and that can heal the Earth.Here, Suler reveals the opposite: our goodness, our empathy, our intuitive connections, and our capacity for self-compassion are more than personal traits or antidotes to despair: they are, in fact, our most potent vehicles for planetary transformation. And as we learn to more deeply nurture and accept ourselves, we unlock living, healing connections to Earth.Combining poetic nature writing with exercises and reflection prompts at the end of each essay, Mirrors in the Earth coaxes us to come as we are: to discover and tend the inherent brilliance and medicine that lives in each of us. From the manatee-calm springs of wild Florida to the flower-dotted coves of the world’s most biodiverse mountains, Mirrors in the Earth is an invitation and encounter with the benevolence of the living world–and a nature therapy session for the soul.

Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, earth intuitive and ecological philosopher who lives in the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the founder of One Willow Apothecaries, an Appalachian-grown company that offers handcrafted herbal medicines and educational experiences in herbalism, animism, ancestral healing and earth-centered personal growth. Asia has guided over 20,000 students in 70+ countries through her immersive online programs. With her writings and teachings, Asia helps people embrace their own unique medicine through a joyful engagement with the natural world. Mirrors in the EarthReflections on Self-Healing from the Living World is her first book.