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, May 4, 2021
WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club
May 4 @ 6:30 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

Check the WILD book club’s Facebook page for COVID-19 related updates. Please RSVP the moderator at [email protected] for the Zoom meeting passcode for the meetings.  

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 at the Battery Park Book Exchange. It will be held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 4 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.

Thursday, May 6, 2021
Crime and Politics Book Club
May 6 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

The Crime and Politics Book Club will be held virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please email [email protected] for info and instructions to attend. 

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month.

Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 6 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Friday, May 7, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 7 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Daily Meditation + Support
May 7 @ 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute

FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺

🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.

🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.

🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.

Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!

Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Saturday, May 8, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 8 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Monday, May 10, 2021
Mystery Book Club
May 10 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

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

Join host Tena Frank for Malaprop’s Mystery Book Club! Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!

The club meets at Malaprop’s on the second Monday of every month at 7:00pm.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Discussion Bound Book Club: I Always Loved You: A Novel by Robin Oliveira
May 11 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Online w/ Asheville Art Museum

The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an artist was going to be easy. When, after a decade of work, her submission to the Paris Salon is rejected, Cassatt’s fierce determination wavers. Her father is begging her to return to Philadelphia to find a husband before it is too late; her sister Lydia is falling mysteriously ill; and worse, she is beginning to doubt herself. Then one evening a friend introduces her to Edgar Degas, and her life changes forever. Years later she will learn that he had begged for the introduction, but in that moment their meeting seems a miracle. So begins the defining period of her life and the most tempestuous of relationships. In I Always Loved You, Oliveira brilliantly recreates the irresistible world of Belle-Époque Paris, writing with grace and uncommon insight into the passion and foibles of the human heart.

Moderated by Barbara Pressman, touring docent. Presented in conjunction with Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism Through the French Lens and Intersections in American Art.

Meeting each second Tuesday at 12pm, 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. Pick up some tasty local fare at the Malaprop’s Café to make the most of your midday break! Books are available at Malaprop’s for a 10% discount.

Generous support for this program is provided by Art Bridges.

 

 

LitCafe: Mary Burnette presents Lige of the Black Walnut Tree
May 11 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Online w/ Western North Carolina Historical Association (WNCHA)

LitCafe: Mary Othella Burnette presents Lige of the Black Walnut Tree

For the third installment of this year’s LitCafe series, we are very excited to bring you author and local native Mary Othella Burnette who will present her recently published memoir Lige of the Black Walnut Tree: Growing Up Black in Southern Appalachia. This virtual event begins at 6pm Tuesday, May 11. Mary’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. We hope to see you there!

About the Author:

Her memoir, Lige of the Black Walnut Tree: Growing Up Black in Southern Appalachia, depicts life in a close-knit community settled by former slaves. Her vibrant stories bring to life the unimaginable world of her rustic youth and open a new window into an area of Black History little known to the outside world and rarely described by a native Black mountaineer. Ms. Burnette grew up among her very real characters, ate at their tables, slept in their homes, and was determined to preserve her memory of Lige, one of her father’s favorite cousins who had passed away long before she was born.

 

You must pre-register and purchase a ticket for this event. A Zoom link will be sent for participants to join.

For questions email Trevor Freeman at [email protected]

30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 11 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Mary Magdalene Monthly Sacred Circle
May 12 @ 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Online

Each month Adora will explore alchemical interventions and lead a guided meditation for healing and empowerment.

Pre-registration required:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mary-magdalene-monthly-sacred-circle-tickets-129486689173

Thursday, May 13, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 13 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Friday, May 14, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 14 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Daily Meditation + Support
May 14 @ 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute

FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺

🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.

🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.

🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.

Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!

Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Saturday, May 15, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 15 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Transformational Forest Bathing
May 15 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
The Forest Farmacy

Forest bathing is a ancient Japanese practice for de-stressing and relating to the more-than-human world. It has gained much popularity in Asia, and now in the US, as a growing bank of scientific research is demonstrating it’s healing benefits.

Forest bathing has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and anger while strengthening the immune system, improving cardiovascular and metabolic health and increasing overall wellbeing.

It’s a delicious way to be in the world!

Transformational Forest Bathing weaves in techniques from eco-therapy, depth psychology, wilderness rites of passage and mythic storytelling to form a powerfully transformative experience. We will work with whatever is holding you back right now and show you how to work with the land to gain insight on your next steps forward. As you shift through this current block you’ll learn how navigate this way in the future.

You will:
– Unwind the knots you formed by keeping it all together
– Learn how to let the forest hold you
– Connect deeply to the more-than-human world
– Shift into a state of consciousness that allows you to receive information and nourishment, one where you don’t need to figure it out
– Learn how to work with the natural world to move through whatever is blocking you right now
– Open the door to reclaiming your ancestral heritage

Is this for you?
Honestly, if you are simply looking for some stress reduction and a lovely walk in the forest this isn’t the program for you. If you are ready to dig deep and do some soul-tending then come on over!

It doesn’t matter if you already have a strong nature connection practice or you have never heard of it, the program is designed to work for any level of previous nature connection experience.

What is key is your desire and willingness to work with whatever part of you is holding you back from living the life you want right now.

Monday, May 17, 2021
Live Stream: Dual Event with Joseph Fink + Meg Bashwiner and Jonny Sun
May 17 @ 6:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

Joseph Fink created the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn’t Dead podcasts and is the author of the novel Alice Isn’t Dead, and co-author of the New York Times best-selling novels Welcome to Night Vale, It Devours!, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home, and four Welcome to Night Vale episode script books: Mostly Void, Partially Stars, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe, The Buying of Lot 37, and Who’s a Good Boy.

Meg Bashwiner is a writer, performer, tour manager, podcaster and producer. She is the emcee for the international touring live show of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. She is an alumni member of the acclaimed New York theater company The New York Neo-Futurists. They live in the Hudson Valley and Los Angeles.

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

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

Order GOODBYE, AGAIN below to get a book signed by Jonny Sun and a limited edition leaf pin! (While supplies last.)

Copies of THE FIRST TEN YEARS ordered from Malaprop’s come with a bookplate signed by Joseph Fink and Meg Bashwiner. (While supplies last.)

Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Live Stream: Ayanna Thompson presents Blackface, with Natalie Hopkinson
May 18 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

Ayanna Thompson is a Regents Professor of English and Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) at Arizona State University. For more information, visit her website, https://www.ayannathompson.com

Natalie Hopkinson is Associate Professor of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University. She is the author of Go-Go Live (Duke University Press, 2012) and A Mouth is Always Muzzled (The New Press, 2018). For more information, visit her website.

Click here to RSVP for this event. On the day of the event, we will send a reminder email with the link required to attend on YouTube. (Note that this event was rescheduled from April 21.)

The event is co-sponsored by Skylight Books in Los Angeles, CA and Source Booksellers in Detroit, MI.

Like most of our events, this event is free. If you decide to attend and to purchase the authors’ books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s or our Indie co-sponsors. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our local communities. You may also support the Malaprop’s staff and work connecting authors and readers by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!

30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 18 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.

Thursday, May 20, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 20 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Friday, May 21, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 21 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Daily Meditation + Support
May 21 @ 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute

FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺

🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.

🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.

🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.

Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!

Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Saturday, May 22, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 22 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Live Stream: Jeremy Jones: Bearwallow in Paperback, with Ronni Lundy
May 25 @ 6:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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

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


Across the Blue Ridge Mountains stretches a world both charming and complicated.
Jeremy Jones and his wife move into a small house above the creek where his family had settled 200 years prior. He takes a job alongside his former teachers in the local elementary school and sets out on a search to understand how this ancient land has shaped its people-how it shaped him. His search sends him burrowing in the past-hunting buried treasure and POW camps, unearthing Civil War graves and family feuds, exploring gated communities and tourist traps, encountering changed accents and immigrant populations, tracing Wal-Mart’s sidewalks and carved-out mountains-and pondering the future. He meshes narrative and myth, geology and genealogy, fiddle tunes and local color about the briskly changing and oft-stigmatized world of his native southern Appalachians.
Somehow, these journeys continually lead him back to the mystical Bearwallow Mountain, a peak suddenly in flux.

Jeremy B. Jones is the author of the memoir Bearwallow, which was named the 2014 Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction and awarded gold in memoir in the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards. His essays appear in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Oxford American, Appalachian Reckoning, and The Iowa Review. Born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina, Jeremy earned his MFA from the University of Iowa and now serves as an associate professor of English at Western Carolina University, where he teaches creative writing and directs the Spring Literary Festival. Alongside Elena Passarello, Jeremy is the series co-editor of In Place, a nonfiction book series from West Virginia University Press.

Born in Corbin, Kentucky, RONNI LUNDY has long chronicled the people of the hillbilly diaspora as a journalist and cookbook author. She is the former restaurant reviewer and music critic for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, former editor of Louisville Magazine, and has contributed to many national magazines. Her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken was recognized by Gourmet magazine as one of six essential books on Southern cooking. In 2009, Lundy received the Southern Foodways Alliance Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award. She has contributed to Eating Well,GourmetBon AppétitEsquire, and other magazines.

30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 25 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.

Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Live Stream: Kevin McIlvoy: One Kind Favor, in conversation with Steve Almond
May 26 @ 6:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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

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


Based loosely on a tragic real-life incident in 2014, One Kind Favor explores the consequences of the lynching of a young black man in rural North Carolina. After the lynching of Lincoln Lennox is discovered and subsequently covered up in the small fictional community of Cord, North Carolina, the ghosts who frequent the all-in-one bar and consignment shop take on the responsibility of unearthing the truth and acting as the memory for the town that longs to forget and continues to hate. A reimagined Kathy Acker, the groundbreaking literary icon, engages Lincoln in a love triangle and brings a transgressive post-punk esthetic to the mission. The down-the-rabbit-hole satirical storytelling of One Kind Favor, Kevin McIlvoy’s sixth novel, echoes Appalachian ghost stories in which haunting presences will, at last, have their way.

Kevin McIlvoy is the author of seven previous books: five novels, a book of short stories, and a book of prose poetry. A retired Regents Professor of Creative Writing from New Mexico State University, he teaches at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program in Creative Writing. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Find Kevin online at kevinmcilvoy.com;
facebook.com/kevin.mcilvoy; Twitter @KevinMcIlvoy; and Instagram @kevin.mcilvoyager.

Steve Almond is the author of eleven books, including the NYT bestsellers “Candyfreak” and “Against Football.” His work has appeared in venues ranging from the Best American Short Stories to the New York Times Magazine. https://stevealmondjoy.org/

Thursday, May 27, 2021
Live Stream: David Swinson City on the Edge, in conversation with Ryan Gattis
May 27 @ 6:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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

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


In the wake of a baffling tragedy, 13-year-old Graham moves with his family to Beirut, Lebanon, a city on the edge of the sea and cataclysmic violence. Inquisitive and restless by nature, Graham suspects his State Department father is a CIA operative, and that their family’s fragile domesticity is merely a front for American efforts along the nearby Israeli border. Over the course of one year, 1972, Graham’s life will utterly change. Two men are murdered, his parent’s marriage disintegrates, and Graham, along with his two ex-pat friends, run afoul of forces they cannot understand.

The City on the Edge is elegiac, atmospheric, and utterly authentic. It’s the story of innocents caught within the American net of espionage, of the Lebanese transformed by such interference, of the children who ran dangerously beside the churning wheel of history. One part Stephen King’s “The Body” and another John le Carre’s A Perfect Spy, it’s a transformative crime story told with heart and genuine experience.

David Swinson grew up in Washington, DC, Beirut, Mexico City and Stockholm, the son of a foreign service officer. He is a retired police detective from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, having been assigned to Major Crimes. Swinson is the author of The Second Girl, Crime Song and Trigger. He lives with his wife and daughter in Northern Virginia.

Ryan Gattis (ryangattis.com) is the author of SAFE, KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL, THE SYSTEM, and ALL INVOLVED, which won the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Lire Award for Noir of the Year (France). He lives and writes in South Los Angeles, where he is a member of art collective UGLARworks and a PEN America Prison Writing Mentor.

Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
May 27 @ 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Online w/ Awakening Asheville

Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.

About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together

Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.

What we’re about

COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney

We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!

Friday, May 28, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
May 28 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org