Western North Carolina's literary tradition is long and well documented (Thomas Wolfe, O. Henry, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald just to start the list), but the wordsmiths of the area are hardly relegated to a motley band of ghosts and well-thumbed volumes of antiquity. Today's writers are busier than ever crafting prose, poetry, how-to books, guides and pictorial collections. From locally-set mysteries to hikes with dogs, regional authors keep the pages turning. In an effort to give local writers (and writers with local events, and writers inspired by local themes and settings) their due, Book Report offers up at least one book review or literary event each week. Look for these reads at your favorite bookshop, and let us know what you think -- or feel free to offer your own suggestions as to what Xpress should read next.
Drexel, N.C.-based author Susan Woodring‘s new book, Springtime on Mars: Stories (Press 53, 2008) is at once quirky, charming, confusing and comfortable. It manages to be all over the map, but also intricately rooted in family, dysfunction and place.
Part of the scattershot feel of the book comes from its format: like the title suggests, it’s a collection of short stories. The longest of these is 20 pages and the rest weigh in at about half that length. Among the stories, the point of views
• On Friday, May 9, author Jennifer Lowe-Anker discusses her book Forget Me Not: A Memoir. The book tells the story of Anker’s husband Alex Lowe, a mountaineer who died tragically in a Tibetan avalanche. Anker was interviewed by Tom Brokaw for Dateline, and musician Sting composed music for the tribute film, The Endless Knot. The event is held at Malaprops at 7 p.m. Info: 254-6734.
• Karen Dodd, author of Begin Again, Quinn (self-published, 2008), leads a discussion on self-publishing that
• Writer and filmmaker Angela Shelton was born in Asheville. Best known for the documentary Searching for Angela Shelton, in which she interviewed other American women with her same name and learned that 70 percent of them were victims of sexual violence, Shelton was a co-screenwriter for the film Tumbleweeds with her then-husband Gavin O’Connor. She currently spearheads the online female-empowerment cooking show Stirring Up Trouble.
Shelton is on tour for her new book, Finding Angela
Mark my words, if it hasn’t happened already, Rayo Casablanca‘s 6 Sick Hipsters (Kensington Publishing, 2008) will soon be touted as The Catcher in the Rye of the hipster generation. Or something like that. Press for the book already claims, “In this hilarious, adrenalin-charged debut, Rayo Casablanca does for modern day Williamsburg, Brooklyn, what Bret Ellis’s Less than Zero did for ‘80s L.A. — but with a knowing grin and a far cooler soundtrack.”
Only Hipsters isn’t all that funny. It
• Dorthea Benton Frank, known as Dot, writes engaging, fast-paced books with passages like, “‘You look great today. New dress?’ he said, exuding enough testosterone to impregnate every female in the five boroughs of New York City.”
That’s from her latest, Bulls Island (William Morrow), out this month. Set on the South Carolina coast near Charleston, it’s the story of investment-bank executive Betts, who returns to her childhood home — the Southern island locale she thought she’d left for
Kathleen Delaney‘s latest mystery novel, And Murder for Dessert (Poisoned Pen Press, 2007), provides the riveting twists and turns whodunit fans expect from their reading material. However, don’t expect spine-tingling of hair-raising from the start — the mystery at the heart of this book doesn’t come into play until seven chapters and nearly 60 pages in. For a 241-page novel, that’s a lot of plot setup to wade through.
Dessert is the story of sassy realtor Ellen McKenzie whose life in
• This past week, Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz has been stalking me. He’s been in my inbox and my mail box. If I look away for a second, another press release lands on my desk. Then again, since the author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (his debut novel, I might add) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday, I consider him to be good company.
You can, too. Diaz makes two stops in WNC this week. He offers the discussion, “Two Geographies in My Heart” (about the
Fans of Wisconsin-based author Kris Radish have probably already snapped up copies of her newest novel, Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA, just released two days ago. Radish’s fan base is like that, or so I hear.
Being new to this author’s work, I didn’t know what to expect when I first cracked Paradise. All I had to go by was Radish’s considerable skill at naming books. (Previous novels include The Elegant Gathering of White Snows , Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn and The Sunday List
This review is rather unorthodox. The book isn’t new (it was published in 2005), there isn’t a local reading, and the author — though formerly from Atlanta — now lives in Colorado. Still. Having in the very recent past poured a lot of time and effort into this year’s Xpress wedding guide, and being a bit of a sucker for a wedding story, when I came across Toss the Bride by Jennifer Manske Fenske in the archives, I had to pick it up.
And then I couldn’t put it down.
Looking at the paltry
• Mars Hill College English professor, Hal McDonald, author of The Anatomists (reviewed in last week’s Book Report) will read from his new novel a a book sale and signing session Wednesday, April 2, 7 p.m., in the Broyhill Chapel of Mars Hill College.
• Local writer Jeff Douglas Messer, is ready for the publication and world premiere of his script, This War Is Live. Set from 2003 to 2004, it follows the first year of the Iraq war, from “Shock and Awe” to Abu Graib. The show is a fictional
• Bestselling romance writer Jacquelyn Frank is expecting her latest book, Damien (Zebra Books, 2008), on shelves in June. Though Frank’s fiction takes readers to vampiric underworlds, the novelist calls Asheville home. Her new offering is the tale of a vampire prince who, wearied of his evil ways, turns his attentions to protecting his minions. This books comes at a time when there’s a dearth in vampiric literature. With Anne Rice now gone over to the light (she converted to Christianity
Local author Vicki Lane‘s latest installment in the Elizabeth Goodweather mystery series, In A Dark Season (Dell, 2008), comes out this May.
Like her heroine, Lane came to WNC in the 1970s, settling onto a farm with her husband and children. Like Goodweather, she knows a thing or two about quilting, animal husbandry and mountain lore. Though Season is her fourth novel, she’s been writing professionally for less than a decade. In 1999 she co-authored a how-to book on quilting. The following
Already happening: It’s a little bit of a drive, but worth the $3.25 per gallon in gas: Today sees the start of the Clemson Literary Festival, a three-day event featuring workshops, readings, panels and author signings. Sponsored by Clemson University and the City of Clemson, S.C., and hosted by The Arts Center, the festival boasts writers Dave Eggers (pictured), Ron Rash and Steve Almond among others. Leading editors from Mississippi Review, Cincinnati Review, South Carolina Review and more
You may already be familiar with author Chris Bohjalian, whose career spans an impressive two decades and eleven novels. Though he was first published in 1988, things really took off for the Vermont-based writer when Oprah repped his 1997 book, Midwives as one of her book club selections. A few years later, that novel was adapted for TV. Nice work if you can get it.
But Bohjalian wasn’t one to rest on his laurels, and last year’s challenging, suspenseful read, The Double Bind (Vintage,
The Romance Readers’ Book Club (Plume, 2007) by Julie L. Cannon is a book for book lovers (and no, it’s not actually a romance novel, as such). The author gave a reading at Malaprop’s last month, but for anyone looking for a great page-turner to escape the dreary days of late winter, there’s no time like the present for this book.
Cannon, who lives in Watkinsville, Ga., is a Southern writer to be reckoned with. As regionalism fades, accents blur, and strip-mall and big-box culture (not to
• Here’s what not to do. That’s what former New York-based book editor Shelley Lieber will share. Lieber, also known as “the wordy woman,” is the author of 4Ps to Publishing Success: Your Guide to Getting Published and, culling from her experience as a publishing consultant, she’ll clue writers into the five biggest mistakes made by first-time authors and how to avoid those stumbling blocks. The mini-seminar, “Mistakes, Myths & Miracles of Book Publishing” is held at Osondu Booksellers (184 N.
This Friday sees the release of Captivity (John F. Blair, 2008) by Pennsylvania-based author, Debbie Lee Wesselmann. John F. Blair, Publisher (located in Winston-Salem, N.C.) is a small press specializing in regional fiction, and Wesselmann’s new novel, set in South Carolina, fits the bill.
At first glance, Captivity comes off like a work of non-fiction. “Dana Armstrong is no ordinary primatologist,” explains the dust jacket. “In the 1970s, she was the little blond girl with a chimpanzee for
• McSweeney’s Winter Tour comes to Malaprop’s on Friday, Feb. 8. Started in 1998 by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the initial literary journal only published work that had previously been rejected by other lit journals. Needless to say, it was a phenomenon with disgruntled writers everywhere. Now also a publishing house, McSweeney’s is responsible for launching the careers of young writers as well as publishing the works of established names such as Joyce
In the interest of disclosure, let me begin this book review by saying that Rosie Molinary, the Davidson, N.C.-based author of Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina (Seal Press, 2007) was my roommate in the Goddard College MFA program we both attended. We have inside jokes about airplane bathrooms, and I know how long it takes for her to dry her hair. (A very long time.) My point is, I can’t be totally subjective about this book, so I’m not even going to pretend.
That
My husband pointed out that Charlotte, N.C.-based author Kevin Keck probably went through junior high unaware of the “Keck me” signs surreptitiously taped to his back. And little in Keck’s new book, Are You There, God? It’s Me. Kevin.: A Memoir (Bloomsbury, 2008) dispels the idea. Keck, the character, is disturbed. A pot-smoking, masturbating germaphobe, living with his parents at age 26.
But the book, slated for release on Tuesday, Feb. 5, is good. Squirm-inducing, overly revealing and not
• Noted Irish poet Adrian Rice (pictured) visits Asheville to teach a class for beginning and experienced writers. Poets looking to shape and polish their work have the unique opportunity to learn from one of the important contemporary voices in that genre. Rice’s first full poetry collection, The Mason’s Tongue was nominated for the 2001 Irish Times Prize for Poetry.
The workshop is help Saturday, Feb. 2, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Writers’ Workshop. $75, $70 for members. Info: 254-8111..
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• Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once pointed out that the library is like the friend we take for granted. “What’s amazing to me about the library is it’s a place where you go in you can take out any book you want. They just give it to you and say ‘Bring it back when you’re done,’” he joked. “It reminds me of this pathetic friend that everybody had when they were a little kid who would let you borrow any of his stuff if you would just be his friend. That’s what the library is. A government-funded
Though neither of the key adjectives in the title of Brett Webb-Mitchell’s On Being a Gay Parent: Making a Future Together apply to me, the book is an informative read and has much to offer. Perhaps surprisingly, its lessons aren’t just for gay parents, but also for parents of alternative families (hey, even if sexuality isn’t the question—and when isn’t it? — it’s still hard for kids to explain why they have just one parent, or co-habitate with another family, or are raised by grandparents,
Local author Thomas Rain Crowe named his first biographical work A House of Girls (Wind Publications, 2007), which is perhaps ironic. Or maybe not; we’ll have to read the book. Crowe is also billing the culled-from-real-life work as fiction as well as “love stories with a twist,” so it seems safe to assume that tricks are up sleeves.
Crowe is probably best known for his own collections of poetry, published at his own New Native Press and occasionally performed to the accompanyment of his
Of his sophomore effort, A Day in Tuscany: More Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide, author Dario Castagno admits, “I was rather amazed that I wrote it in just a few months.” Actually, the book’s loose structure and folksy sensibility give that away in a matter of pages. The fact that Castagno begins the book surmising that not only is he not a writer, but he didn’t even finish school, makes it a little hard to stomach the fact that he’s now three books (Too Much Tuscan Wine is due for
Virginia-based author Rita Mae Brown has penned an impressive 36 novels, though she credits her tiger cat, Sneak Pie Brown, as co-author on her Mrs. Murphy Mystery series. The most recent in that collection, The Purrfect Murder: Mrs. Murphy Mystery (Bantam, 2008), jumps right back into the action with a host of likable characters surrounding amateur sleuth Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen.
Now, unlike famed female detectives Miss Marple, Miss Silver or Mrs. Bradley, Brown’s Mrs. Murphy is not a
I have to hand it to former Xpress writer and cartoonist Ethan Clark: He sure knows how to title a book. His first full-length literary foray, Leaning with Intent to Fall: A Memoir (Garret County Press, 2007), takes its name from one of many trumped up New Orleans charges (assaulting a cheeseburger is another), but aptly sums up the punk lifestyle Ethan lives and eloquently describes.
“I didn’t make much money, but on warm nights, with whiskey in my belly, I didn’t mind biking around, taking
Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains: A Guidebook (University of North Carolina Press, 2007) by Georgann Eubanks is a revelation. In turns historic tome, travel guide, Southern heritage volume and trivia collection, the book is exactly the sort of thing that’s so obvious it’s a wonder no one wrote it sooner, and such an ambitious undertaking it’s remarkable the book was ever completed.
But, clocking in at around 400 information-dense pages, Literary is as complete as any book
Cynthia Reeves’ debut novel, Badlands (Miami University Press, 2007) isn’t a happy story by any stretch. It deals with slow death, a marriage unraveling and the ravages of morphine in the human brain. No fluffy beach read, this.
But the author, a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA program, infuses her first book with lyricism, starkly beautiful imagery and and interweaving of alternate tales — those pulled from a dying woman’s memory, those of what could have been, and those that
While cleaning out the Xpress library (several A&E editors-worth of accumulated novels, guides, histories, memoirs and how-to books accumulated over the years) I came across this fun little selection of literary confection: A Southern Belle Primer: Or Why Paris Hilton Will Never Be Kappa Kappa Gamma (Broadway, 2006) by Maryln (yes, that’s how she spells it) Schwartz. The slim book, about the size of the writing pad you’d keep by your telephone, is unapologetically pink. The cover is pink. Each
The popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series is back with holiday edition, A Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas (HCI, 2007), by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Designed to be inspirational, motivational and uplifting, the Chicken Soup books are collections of heartwarming stories. In fact, the flagship release, Chicken Soup for the Soul (1993) was a collection of stories that motivational speakers Canfield and Hansen collected from other motivational speakers.
There’s a whole lot of
If the five and a half weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas turn you into a attention-deficit stress monkey, then a novella might be just the thing. The commitment of a few minutes a day (just keep it in the bathroom, or next to the bed) is enough to guarantee completing the text (no War and Peace undertakings here) and the rewards from escaping into fiction are great. Stress reduced, focus restored and — in the case of The Holiday Season (Grove Atlantic, 2007) by Michael Knight — a
For nondog people, taking in Best Hikes with Dogs: North Carolina (Mountaineers Books, 2007) by Karen Chávez, an editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times, is probably something like sending a pianist to a guitar shop. Good information, but not exactly helpful.
However, for canine fans, Chávez has written a great book that combines a bunch of fun elements: Opportunities to explore the best of the N.C. wilderness, useful details on how to hike with a dog and loads of cute dogs-on-wooded-trail
Self-published novels don’t yet carry the same indie-approved stamp of D.I.Y cool of self-released albums. It’s sad but true, and the reason is simple enough: While the technology exists to create professional-sounding CDs in the comfort of one’s own living room, there is not yet an affordable home editing program that can compete with Random House’s slick team of professional book doctors.
At first glance, the simplistic cover art and hard-to-read font on the font of Asheville author
“It’s not going to be a bestseller, there’s no doubt about that, but that’s OK,” says Martin Malloy, author of Evolution in a Nutshell. “What’s more important to me is that a few people get the message.”
Malloy, a former writer for Waynesville, N.C.’s Enterprise Mountaineer, started research for his book about 20 years ago. He claims the topic of evolution has fascinated him since childhood, making this work a life-long pursuit. However, the biology-based study into human origins has long
Local poet Michael Boyko just released his collection of poetry, The Hour Sets, a slim volume of prose-verse along side intricate illustrations by artist Derek White.
The book, somewhat reminiscent of The World Doesn’t End by poet laureate Charles Simic, is divided into hours because (as Boyko explains in the forward), “One hour is how long you must study the symbols of each cultural period to in order to learn everything about it.” Each hour involves three characters: The researcher, the
Though Publisher’s Weekly describes it as a “glum first novel, a plodding study of teenage angst,” Brad Land‘s sophomore effort, Pilgrims Upon the Earth is garnering rave reviews among readers.
“The language and vision are genuine, original, poetic, heartbreaking,” writes one. And there’s truth to the sentiment. The spare, dreamy prose is written in genre-busting sentences like, “November they ditched for a pool hall close to noon.” The book is a slow reveal, paced by copious white space,
Roy Kesey is a columnist and fiction writer (pretty much like everyone else, who isn’t busy being a bio-diesel mechanic or massage therapist). He also lives in Bejing with his wife, a Peruvian diplomat. That, in my opinion, qualifies him to be a novelist.
Other people think so, too. Stephen King chose Kesey’s story, “Wait,” to be included in the antholgy Best American Short Stories 2007. He also earns good guy points for signing a four-book deal with non-profit publisher and new-author
Western North Carolina is no New York. I realize that’s stating the obvious, but at the risk of pressing my case, WNC can’t measure up in terms of city-scapes, cabbies, ethnic eateries or high-end clothiers. However, when it comes to the literary scene, there’s no lack of talent, subject matter or inspiration here.
Want history? Mystery? Intrigue? Romance? Activism? No need to pick up a citified Tom Clancy novel. Local authors are bringing it when it comes to genre fiction.
• WNC-based
There’s more to Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism based on the Torah) than the Hollywood red-string trend that now seems so late 1990s.
In fact, Kabbalah is an ongoing field of study, dating back to the time of Moses. It’s also the long-time passion of Asheville author Gabriella Samuel who is not only a 30-year student of the spiritual practice, but also the founder of The Asheville School of Kabbalah (ASK).
The classes and workshops available at ASK allow seekers to explore “the deep mystical
Part cookbook, part memoir, part quirky romance, Kathleen Flinn‘s newly released The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears and the World’s Most Famous Cooking School (Viking, 2007) has it all. There’s good wine, plenty of bloodshed and more than one wedding. Oh, and part of the text is in French, for good measure.
But, while other all-encompassing personal narrative-turned-how-to books can be accused of over reaching, Flinn’s friendly, well-crafted tale works.
Actor, painter, poet and, of late, playwright David Brendan Hopes moves through language with the sinewy, uninhibited grace of a double-jointed Rodney Yee protege. He dabbles in form with reckless abandon (here, a work of fiction; here, nature writing) and — enjoy verse or not — one thing can be said with certainty about Hopes’ newly published poetry tome: A Dream of Adonis (Pecan Grove Press, 2007) nimbly avoids the cliches, preciousness and cringe moments that generally plague poetry.
From
If Shakespeare seems kind of stuffy and outdated, try local author Alan Gratz’s take on the bard’s classic, Hamlet. That age-old play serves as the basis for Gratz’s young adult novel, Something Rotten (Dial Books, 2007), due out Thursday, Oct. 18.
“I hate adults who treat teenagers like we’re still in grade school, but I needed this buffoon to listen to me so I swallowed it,” says sharp-tongued high school junior and main character Horatio Wilkes. It’s also Wilkes who starts the slim,
File this one under crafts, D.I.Y., cozy autumn sweaters, good reads and sleek coffee table accessories.
Knitwear designer Kaffe Fassett has just published a how-to book with 24 designs. Knitting fanatics are likely already familiar with Fassett’s work: His earliest designs appeared in British Vogue, giving the usual granny-style booties and mittens a high style twist. Not that Fassett does mittens and booties, of course.
The book, Kaffe Knits Again: 24 original designs updated for today’s
