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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.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Malaprop’s Book Club
Feb 1 @ 7:00 pm
online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

The Malaprop’s Book Club, hosted by Jay Jacoby, explores a diverse selection of fiction and nonfiction books determined by member suggestion. 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 the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM. The club will meet virtually until further notice. To join the club, please email [email protected]

Thursday, February 2, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 2 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Arboretum Reads: Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
Feb 2 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
The North Carolina Arboretum

Connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, asks what it would be like to live in a well-rested world. Hersey casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted and our worth does not reside in how much we produce. Informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep-deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.

Crime and Politics Book Club
Feb 2 @ 4:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore

Crime and Politics Book Club

Crime and Politics is a book club for people who want to explore the overlap between true crime and public affairs. We will explore scandals, malfeasance, murder, corruption, and cover-ups. We will alternate months, beginning with a work of true crime, then a book on politics or public affairs. Crime, from the most personal to the global, is the theme. We meet the first Thursday of the month at 4 p.m. Contact [email protected].

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets in Asheville and offsite, usually at a restaurant, on the first Thursday of the month at 4 p.m. Please email [email protected] for info and instructions to attend. See the list of upcoming dates above and click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month!

Live Stream | Jeffrey Dale Lofton presents Red Clay Suzie in conversation with Neema Avashia
Feb 2 @ 6:00 pm
online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore
Thursday, February 2, 2023 – 6:00pm

 

This virtual event is free 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!


A novel inspired by true events. The coming-of-age story of Philbet, a gay, physically-misshapen boy in rural Georgia, who battles bullying, ignorance, and disdain as he makes his way in life as an outsider–before finding acceptance in unlikely places. Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay boy in rural Georgia. He’s happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet’s world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his misshapen chest skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes at home; and convince him that he’s not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction. Over time, Philbet finds refuge in unexpected places and inner strength in unexpected ways, leading to a resolution in the form of a letter from beyond the grave.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. During those early years he spent many a night trodding the boards of the DC’s theaters and performing arts centers, including the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and Studio Theatre. He even scored a few television screen appearances, including a residuals-rich Super Bowl halftime commercial, which his accountant wisecracked “is the finest work of your career.” Ultimately he stepped away from acting, much to his parents’ relief, to pursue other, more traditional work, including providing communications counsel to landscape architects and helping war veterans tell their stories to add richness and nuance to historical accounts. At the same time, he focused on pursuing post-graduate work, ultimately being awarded Master’s degrees in both Public Administration and Library and Information Science. Today, he is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress, surrounded by books and people who love books—in short, paradise. Red Clay Suzie is his first work of fiction, written through his personal lens growing up an outsider—he is gay and was born with a physical deformity—figuring out life and love in a conservative family and community in the Deep South.

Neema Avashia was born and raised in southern West Virginia to parents who immigrated to the United States. She has been a middle school teacher in the Boston Public Schools since 2003. Her essays have appeared in the Bitter Southerner, Catapult, Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere.

Friday, February 3, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 3 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Friends of the South Buncombe Library Book Sale
Feb 3 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
South Buncombe Library

The Friends of the South Buncombe Library are pleased to announce their first live, in-person book sale of 2023!  We will have thousands of books in fiction and non-fiction at bargain prices, in every genre and for every age group.

Prices have changed since our last sale, but are still a bargain: most adult hardbacks are $2.00 and paperbacks are $1.00.  Children’s items are still just $1.00 & 50¢!  And all movies and music are $1.00.

Proceeds benefit your library in so many ways: purchasing library supplies and equipment, newspapers, and large print books; providing children’s programs; and improving the grounds.

Sale Hours: 10am-4pm Friday and Saturday, with 10am-12pm on Friday reserved for Friends of the Library members.  Not a member?  We’re happy to sign you up at the door; the minimum donation is just $10.00.

AV material and children’s book bag sale on the last hour of business Saturday, if supplies allow!

Saturday, February 4, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 4 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Friends of the South Buncombe Library Book Sale
Feb 4 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
South Buncombe Library

The Friends of the South Buncombe Library are pleased to announce their first live, in-person book sale of 2023!  We will have thousands of books in fiction and non-fiction at bargain prices, in every genre and for every age group.

Prices have changed since our last sale, but are still a bargain: most adult hardbacks are $2.00 and paperbacks are $1.00.  Children’s items are still just $1.00 & 50¢!  And all movies and music are $1.00.

Proceeds benefit your library in so many ways: purchasing library supplies and equipment, newspapers, and large print books; providing children’s programs; and improving the grounds.

Sale Hours: 10am-4pm Friday and Saturday, with 10am-12pm on Friday reserved for Friends of the Library members.  Not a member?  We’re happy to sign you up at the door; the minimum donation is just $10.00.

AV material and children’s book bag sale on the last hour of business Saturday, if supplies allow!

Pokémon Trading Card Game Learn-to-Play Day!
Feb 4 @ 1:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Tokyo Toybox

Learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game! Battle other trainers, trade with other collectors, and have fun at Tokyo Toybox inside of the Blue Ridge Mall across from Bath & Body Works! Bring your cards, learn to build a deck, or borrow one from the store!

Sunday, February 5, 2023
Sundays Traditional Game Day
Feb 5 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

The Perspective Café is kicking off 2023 with a classic bang! Grab your friends and join us each Sunday from 2pm to 5pm in the Perspective Café to play an assortment of board and card games. You can even bring your own favorite games from home to share with new friends.

The Perspective Café will be offering special snacks and cocktails to savor while you play and make a memorable afternoon! Enjoy the galleries and then head up to the rooftop.

Hybrid | Poetrio: Glenis Redmond, Molly Rice, Niina Pollari
Feb 5 @ 4:30 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore and Virtual

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store.

The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. 

Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.

This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.

If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!


Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and a Cave Canem alumni. The Listening Skin (Four Way Books) is her sixth poetry book. She is presently working on a seventh collection, Port Cities: Portals of the Second (Domestic) Middle Passage. She received the highest arts award in South Carolina—the Governor’s Award—and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. Redmond received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. For more, visit http://www.glenisredmond.com

In The Listening Skin, Glenis Redmond returns to the ancestors and the deep knowing that comes from being ever ready to receive the wisdom they give us. She plants us again in the South Carolinian soil and reaches across decades and continents back to the motherland for historical context, for truth, and for healing. She does not flinch from racism nor the complexities of what it means to carry trauma inside the Black body. These poems are beautifully rendered but don’t shrink. I am grateful for the depth and breadth of the music and the keen use of the line in this collection, but mostly I’m taken by the way Glenis holds us up to the light. In her sure hands we shine!

Molly Rice has held several residencies teaching poetry, storytelling, theatre, film, and English as a Second Language in hundreds of schools, colleges, and organizations in North Carolina, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, and Hungary. She has taught for seventeen years at St. Stephens High School where she is director of the Tractor Shed Theatre. She’s published in magazines including Fortnight Magazine, The Stinging Fly, and Iodine Poetry Journal. She resides with her husband and son in Hickory, North Carolina. For more, visit https://www.mollyrice.com

In Molly Rice’s Forever Eighty-Eights, there are “no crystal stairs” in her southern mill hill childhood. Yet, the poet pushes onward following an urgent pulse, while unflinchingly calling forth ghosts, wounds, and secrets of the past. She bids them to come out of their hiding places, while she battles both hardships and heartbreaks. In this work, Molly reckons, but she also fathoms beauty and pays homage by uplifting people, places, and moments deeply rooted in North Carolina. With her forging she creates a throughway—each poem a stair to “reach landings and turn corners.”

Monday, February 6, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 6 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 7 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Hybrid | Jennie Liu launches Enly and the Buskin’ Blues
Feb 7 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore and Virtual

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. 

Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.

This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.

If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!


Twelve-year-old Enly Wu Lewis is determined to go to band camp and follow in the footsteps of his musician father, who died years ago. But his mom, a single parent working two jobs, is saving every penny for his older brother’s college tuition. So Enly sets out to earn the money for camp on his own, by busking with an obscure instrument he can only kind of play. When someone drops a winning scratch-off lottery ticket into his tip box, Enly thinks it’s the answer to his problems–but he’ll have to overcome teenage thieves and his own family if he wants to achieve his dreams.

Jennie Liu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She has been fascinated by the attitudes, social policies, and changes in China each time she visits. Her young adult novels have won honors including a Freeman Book Award Honorable Mention and an In the Margins: Best Books for Teens award She lives in North Carolina with her family.

WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club
Feb 7 @ 6:30 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore

WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 – 6:30pm
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 – 6:30pm
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 – 6:30pm
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 – 6:30pm

Join former Malaprop’s General Manager Linda-Marie Barrett for this woman-only book club that seeks to have fun by reading books (fiction & non) by women writers. 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 6:30 P.M. on the first Tuesday of the month.

Please RSVP to the moderator at [email protected] for location and details.

Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 8 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
The Rumpus presents: Morgan Thomas + Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn
Feb 8 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Story Palor

Morgan Thomas is a writer from the Gulf Coast. Their debut story collection, MANYWHERE, was published by MCD-FSG. Their work has appeared in The Atlantic, American Short Fiction, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. They were the recipient of Lambda Literary’s Judith Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ+ Writers and have also received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Southern Studies Fellowship, and the Fulbright Foundation.

Alysia Li Ying Sawcyhn is the author of the essay collection A Fish Growing Lungs, and she is the editor-in-chief of The Rumpus. Her nonfiction has appeared in the St. Petersburg Review, Gulf Coast, Brevity, Prairie Schooner, Southeast Review, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing at Catapult, the University or Maryland, and currently teaches at Warren Wilson.

Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, CA and now based in Asheville, NC with readers and editors all over the US and abroad, The Rumpus is one of the longest-running independent online literary and culture magazines. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. Often, we are an emerging writer’s first notable publication, which is something we’re really proud of. We believe that literature builds community, and we’re excited to bring readers and writers together.

Note: Story Parlor will have its bar open and drinks will be available for purchase, along with Rumpus merch and the authors’ books.

Thursday, February 9, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 9 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Hybrid | James Ponti presents City Spies: City of the Dead, in conversation with Alan Gratz
Feb 9 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore and Virtual

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. 

Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.

This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, order below by February 8 and use the order comments field to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.

If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!


In this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls. Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it’s clear that Kat’s skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job. And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there’s another layer to the mystery. With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it’s also going to bring about a change to the City Spies…

James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of three middle grade book series: the all-new City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.

Alan Gratz is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels for young readers, including Ground ZeroRefugee, Allies,Grenade, Prisoner B-3087, Projekt 1065, and Ban This Book. A Knoxville, Tennessee native, Alan is now a full-time writer living in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and daughter.

Short Story Discussion via Zoom “E A Recollection” with Dan and Ana Clare
Feb 9 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

 

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).

Friday, February 10, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 10 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Author and Artist Sophie Labelle – the Trans Agenda book tour
Feb 10 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
East Asheville Public Library

Just what is the trans agenda, anyway? French-Canadian YA author Sophie Labelle is visiting Asheville as part of her Trans Agenda tour to explain it! Her book The Trans Agenda offers rebuttals of popular anti-trans talking points and a positive vision of a world where everyone is free to be themselves.

Free. Malaprop’s Bookstore will be on site for those who would like to purchase copies of Sophie’s books.

To learn more about the author’s work, visit her web site, serioustransvibes.com

Saturday, February 11, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 11 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
Saturday Board Game Afternoons
Feb 11 @ 2:00 pm – 4:45 pm
Swannanoa Library

Bring your friends and family for an afternoon of competitive fun. We’ll provide a selection of board and card games for ages 7 and above. Please register, our space is limited, but the excitement isn’t!

Social Game Night @ Hi-Wire Brewing RAD
Feb 11 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Hi-Wire Brewing RAD

Drinks, foods, gaming, and relaxing with great company!

Everyone is invited to Bring Your Own Games (optional). I’ll be bringing some card/board games and the Brewery has bocci ball, cornhole, and more! Kick some ass at your favorite game or pick up something entirely different while making new friends.

Sunday, February 12, 2023
Sundays Traditional Game Day
Feb 12 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

The Perspective Café is kicking off 2023 with a classic bang! Grab your friends and join us each Sunday from 2pm to 5pm in the Perspective Café to play an assortment of board and card games. You can even bring your own favorite games from home to share with new friends.

The Perspective Café will be offering special snacks and cocktails to savor while you play and make a memorable afternoon! Enjoy the galleries and then head up to the rooftop.

UNC Press presents Emily Hilliard, author of Making Our Future, in conversation with Erica Abrams Locklear
Feb 12 @ 5:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore and Virtual

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. 

Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.

This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.

If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!


Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia
Drawing from her work as state folklorist, Emily Hilliard explores contemporary folklife in West Virginia and challenges the common perception of both folklore and Appalachian culture as static, antiquated forms, offering instead the concept of “visionary folklore” as a future-focused, materialist, and collaborative approach to cultural work.

With chapters on the expressive culture of the West Virginia teachers’ strike, the cultural significance of the West Virginia hot dog, the tradition of independent pro wrestling in Appalachia, the practice of nonprofessional women songwriters, the collective counternarrative of a multiracial coal camp community, the invisible landscape of writer Breece D’J Pancake’s hometown, the foodways of an Appalachian Swiss community, the postapocalyptic vision presented in the video game Fallout 76, and more, the book centers the collective nature of folklife and examines the role of the public folklorist in collaborative engagements with communities and culture. Hilliard argues that folklore is a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation, as well as a framework that helps us reckon with the past, understand the present, and collectively shape the future.

Emily Hilliard is a folklorist and writer based in central Appalachia. She is the former West Virginia state folklorist and the founding director of the West Virginia Folklife Program. Find more of her work at emilyehilliard.com.

Erica Abrams Locklear is a professor of English and the Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of North Carolina Asheville. She is the author of Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People (forthcoming April, 2023 from University of Georgia Press) and Negotiating a Perilous Empowerment: Appalachian Women’s Literacies (Ohio University Press). She is a seventh-generation Western North Carolinian who loves good food, books, and conversation.

Valentine’s Games: The Newlywed Game
Feb 12 @ 5:30 pm
The Breedloves Deli
Monday, February 13, 2023
Celebrate Black Legacy Month
Feb 13 all-day
Buncombe County Libraires

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi