Calendar of Events

Guests will meet outside the Asheville Art Museum (2 S. Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801) and then depart with their treasure map on a walking team scavenger hunt where they will use their minds and feet to follow clues, solve puzzles, and crack codes to find and unlock the treasure chest for a grand prize!

The hunt involves walking a distance of up to 2.0 miles in total and will take place rain or shine, so long as the weather does not become dangerous. The hunt typically takes about 60 minutes to complete.

Children under 10 years old are welcome to participate for free with the purchase of an Adult ticket.

The July installment of our monthly poetry reading series, coordinated by Mildred Barya, will feature readings by Philip Belcher, James Davis May, James Dickson, and Sara Moore Wagner.

This is a hybrid event with limited in-store seating and the option to attend online. 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.

All of the poets’ new books will be available to purchase in-store at the event. You may also call us at 828-254-6734 or order online below. 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!

Philip Belcher is the Vice President of Programs for The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina in Asheville and the author of The Flies and Their Lovely Names, which won the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Prize. A graduate of Furman University, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Duke University School of Law (JD), he also earned an MFA in poetry from Converse College, and is the recipient of both the Porter Fleming Prize in Poetry and Shenandoah’s Carter Prize for the Essay. Belcher’s poems and critical prose have appeared in numerous journals, including The Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He also served as an Advisory and Contributing Editor for Shenandoah. For more, visit https://philipbelcher.net

“Nothing dies as slowly as a scene,” Richard Hugo once said, and that line came to me often as I read these excellent, often elegiac, poems. Whether writing of youth or old age, of photographs or place, Philip Belcher creates images that endure: windblown, burning leaves become “little kites of fire”, words “bulging creels of speech”. Yet the artistry is always in service of conveying the depths of the human heart. Gentle Slaughter is a beautiful and memorable collection.” —Ron Rash

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James Davis May is the author of the poetry collection Unquiet Things, and a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Creative Writing. Originally from Pittsburgh, he now lives in Macon, Georgia, where he directs the creative writing program at Mercer University. His second poetry collection, Unusually Grand Ideas, was published this year by Louisiana State University Press. For more, visit https://jamesdavismay.com

“James Davis May’s second book begins quietly, chronicling a series of losses, then escalates into a harrowingly exact, artfully rendered portrait of depression: ‘I needed a darkness I’d probably survive / to escape the one I knew I wouldn’t.’ May nails the paralyzing character of his illness and somehow manages, through art and ardor, to negotiate with despair, climbing toward a position that acknowledges darkness but does not deny hope. ‘Forgive me, Love, my difficulties with joy,’ he writes to his young daughter, and to himself and his grateful readers, ‘sometimes the world doesn’t disappoint.’ Unusually Grand Ideas is wrenching, genuine, and superb.” —Mark Doty

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James Dickson teaches English and Creative Writing at Germantown High School in Mississippi. An MFA graduate from the Bennington Writing Seminars, he is the recipient of Mississippi Arts Commission fellowships, was named High School Literary Magazine Advisor of the Year by the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association, and was invited to speak at the National Educators Association 50th anniversary celebration. His poems, book reviews, and essays appear in The Common, Ruminate, Hospital Drive, The Louisiana Review, Spillway, Slant, Poetry Quarterly, McSweeney’s, Sylvia, and other publications.  Some Sweet Vandal, his first collection of poems, was published by Kelsay Books in May.  He lives in Jackson with his wife, their son, and a small menagerie of animals.

“If you’re weary of ironic poems that wink at the camera, welcome to the ardent-hearted world of James Dickson. In Some Sweet Vandal, Dickson finds delight and depth in the everyday, and always in fresh language. We meet a high school teacher who reflects on Sylvia Plath during a school shooter training, a lifeguard in a camp for mentally handicapped adults, a father imagining his toddler’s passage into a future where one day he’ll deliver his eulogy. These are poems that, with skill and insight, connect us with our humanity, and they are a tremendous gift.” ―Beth Ann Fennelly, author of Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs

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Sara Moore Wagner is the author of the poetry collection Hillbilly Madonna (2022 Driftwood Press prize winner), a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist, and the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award. Swan Wife also won the 2021 Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Sixth Finch, Waxwing, Nimrod, Beloit Poetry Journal, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. She lives in West Chester, Ohio with her husband Jon, and children Cohen, Daisy, and Vivienne. For more, visit www.saramoorewagner.com

“Say Dorothy Allison had a baby with Hans Christian Andersen. That ain’t right—I know it, I know—but just say. And say that girl child grows up to wander the tracks, all the while lining up pennies to be smashed on the rails, all the while picking up shed antlers and discarded needles along the berm. And say here comes a fast train, a Christ-haunted train, a train heavy with the freight of West Virginia, a cargo of such great violence and great tenderness that you know the girl is standing far, far too close to all that’s barreling past. She stands so close the force of it blows back her hair; she stands so close you’re sure she’ll get hit and won’t survive. But she doesn’t step back. No, she stands her ground. This, dear reader, is Sara Wagner, writing this book. These poems ache and ache and ache, but not once do they flinch. Read them and prepare yourself to be wrung out, to be redeemed, to be fit to be tied.” –Nickole Brown, author of To Those Who Were Our First God

Join us in the temperature-controlled Arena to walk on most Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Each lap around the concourse is 1/4 mile and strollers are welcome. Representatives from St. Francis Sports Medicine will be on hand for each event and other health professionals- like dietitians- are frequently scheduled to attend. Free parking is available in the VIP lot off of Church Street.

Join us in the temperature-controlled Arena to walk on most Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Each lap around the concourse is 1/4 mile and strollers are welcome. Representatives from St. Francis Sports Medicine will be on hand for each event and other health professionals- like dietitians- are frequently scheduled to attend. Free parking is available in the VIP lot off of Church Street.

Come join in on the fun at this Latin Inspired Zumba Exercise Party. This fun and upbeat class is exhilarating and easy to follow. All levels are welcome and it’s free!! This Program is offered every Thursday from 11:00am-12:00pm. Please call 828-350-2062 for more information.

This event is centered on community and connection while unleashing, empowering, and embracing our true selves on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Dr. Jenny Nuccio, founder of Imani Collective and author of “Let It Be Wild”, will share some of the stories behind her book. There will be time for engaging discussions and personal discoveries to encourage attendees to share their “wild soul dream.” The heartbeat of this evening is fellowship and true community that fosters space to dream within the space we cultivate together.

On July 14 and 15, the Friends of Pack Library will be having their annual Super Summer Antique, Collectible, & Coffee Table Books Sale at Pack Library. There will also be a sale in Bookends Used Book Store in the Library during the sale hours.

On Friday, July 14 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. all books in the sale downstairs at Pack Library will be priced as marked. Children’s books will be priced as marked and available downstairs on Friday only. All items in Bookends Used Book Store will be half off the marked price with books in the children’s area of the bookstore specially priced at just twenty-five cents each.

On Saturday, July 15 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., books in the book sale downstairs will be half off the marked price. Items in Bookends will be the same prices as Friday, half off everything with children’s books for twenty-five cents.

All proceeds from the sale will benefit the library.

On July 14 and 15, the Friends of Pack Library will be having their annual Super Summer Antique, Collectible, & Coffee Table Books Sale at Pack Library. There will also be a sale in Bookends Used Book Store in the Library during the sale hours.

On Friday, July 14 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. all books in the sale downstairs at Pack Library will be priced as marked. Children’s books will be priced as marked and available downstairs on Friday only. All items in Bookends Used Book Store will be half off the marked price with books in the children’s area of the bookstore specially priced at just twenty-five cents each.

On Saturday, July 15 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., books in the book sale downstairs will be half off the marked price. Items in Bookends will be the same prices as Friday, half off everything with children’s books for twenty-five cents.

All proceeds from the sale will benefit the library.

Lets discuss The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55711311-the-queen-of-the-cicadas

2018: Belinda Alvarez has returned to Texas for the wedding of her best friend Veronica. The farm is the site of the urban legend, La Reina de Las Chicharras – The Queen of The Cicadas.

In 1950s south Texas a farmworker—Milagros from San Luis Potosi, Mexico—is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship.

Belinda and the new owner of the farmhouse, Hector, find themselves immersed in the legend and realize it is part of their fate as well.

“The Queen of the Cicadas” Is More than a Ghost Story

Join us in the temperature-controlled Arena to walk on most Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Each lap around the concourse is 1/4 mile and strollers are welcome. Representatives from St. Francis Sports Medicine will be on hand for each event and other health professionals- like dietitians- are frequently scheduled to attend. Free parking is available in the VIP lot off of Church Street.

This live streamed virtual event is free but registration is required.

Please CLICK HERE to register. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

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

Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters: A stirring defense of Sinéad O’Connor’s music and activism, and an indictment of the culture that cancelled her.
In 1990, Sinéad O’Connor’s video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” turned her into a superstar. Two years later, an appearance on Saturday Night Live turned her into a scandal. For many people—including, for years, the author—what they knew of O’Connor stopped there. Allyson McCabe believes it’s time to reassess our old judgments about Sinéad O’Connor and to expose the machinery that built her up and knocked her down. Addressing triumph and struggle, sound and story, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters argues that its subject has been repeatedly manipulated and misunderstood by a culture that is often hostile to women who speak their minds (in O’Connor’s case, by shaving her head, championing rappers, and tearing up a picture of the pope on live television). A journalist herself, McCabe exposes how the media distorts not only how we see O’Connor but how we see ourselves, and she weighs the risks of telling a story that hits close to home. In an era when popular understanding of mental health has improved and the public eagerly celebrates feminist struggles of the past, it can be easy to forget how O’Connor suffered for being herself. This is the book her admirers and defenders have been waiting for.

Allyson McCabe is a writer, reporter, and producer whose work is often broadcast on NPR, and her byline appears in the New York Times, BBC Culture, Wired, and other publications. More at https://www.allysonmccabe.com

Living Colour’s Time’s Up: The iconic Black rock band Living Colour’s Time’s Up, released in 1990, was recorded in the aftermath of the spectacular critical and commercial success of their debut record Vivid. Time’s Up is a musical and lyrical triumph, incorporating distinct forms and styles of music and featuring inspired collaborations with artists as varied as Little Richard, Queen Latifah, Maceo Parker, and Mick Jagger. The clash of sounds and styles don’t immediately fit. The confrontational hardcore-thrash metal – complete with Glover’s apocalyptic wail – in the title track is not a natural companion with Doug E. Fresh’s human beat box on “Tag Team Partners,” but it’s precisely this bold and brilliant collision that creates the barely-controlled chaos. And isn’t rock & roll about chaos?

Living Colour’s sophomore effort holds great relevance in light of its forward-thinking politics and lyrical engagement with racism, classism, police brutality, and other social and political issues of great importance. Through interviews with members of Living Colour, and others involved in the making of Time’s Up, Kimberly Mack explores the creation and reception of this artistically challenging album, while examining the legacy of this culturally important and groundbreaking American rock band.

Kimberly Mack is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a music critic, and a memoirist. She is the author of Living Colour’s Time’s Up (33 1/3) (Bloomsbury, 2023) and Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White (2020), which won the 2021 College English Association of Ohio’s Nancy Dasher Award.

Rachel Angel is an alt-country & indie artist and Malaprop’s Bookseller. Listen to Rachel’s music at https://rachelangel.bandcamp.com/album/midnite-heart-attack and https://www.instagram.com/rachelangelmusic

Come join in on the fun at this Latin Inspired Zumba Exercise Party. This fun and upbeat class is exhilarating and easy to follow. All levels are welcome and it’s free!! This Program is offered every Thursday from 11:00am-12:00pm. Please call 828-350-2062 for more information.