Showing posts with label City Lights Books (NC). Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Lights Books (NC). Show all posts

Friday, November 4, 2022

Mary Ricketson to Read from Precious the Mule

Mary Ricketson

Mary Ricketson will read from her new poetry collection, Precious the Mule, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Friday, Nov 11, at 5 pm.  City Lights Bookstore is located at 3 E Jackson St, Ste 1, Sylva, NC, a small Main Street town tucked in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains. 

"Precious the Mule is a story of humanity, compassion, and kindness.  My neighbor’s mule got badly injured, frightening all of us who live in this cove.  Mingled with the natural beauty of winter and springtime at my home in the Appalachian mountains, this is the story of a relationship I developed with my neighbor the mule a story that joins sorrow and suffering with joy and hope."  Mary Ricketson.

Ricketson lives in Murphy NC, works as a mental health counselor and a blueberry farmer.  Her poems often reflect the healing power of nature, surrounding mountains as midwife for her words.  Her published collections are I Hear the River Call My Name, Hanging Dog Creek, Shade and Shelter, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian, Keeping in Place, and Lira, Poems of a Woodland Woman, and new collection, Precious the Mule


Wednesday, April 22, 2020

How Can You Help Others?

From now until June 1, Estelle Rice and I are offering our proceeds from the sale of Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins to the Clay County Food Pantry when you order from City Lights Books in Sylva, NC.  This volunteer organization feeds many people and the need is large right not.

City Lights is offering a reduced price for shipping as their way of donating.

Send a book to a friend who is staying home for protection from COVID-19.


Signing books last December - It is a great gift to have on hand for those random times you need one.
Remember a birthday coming up and send this delightful book of stories and poems about domestic pets, dogs, cats, horses and birds.

This is what author Lisa Turner said about our book:

 Evokes those special memories and relationships with our animal friends

"The emotional experiences with our beloved pets are captured in poetic detail and images in these wonderful stories in Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. Our human lives are so enriched by the special relationships we have with all creatures large and small, and these stories capture this delicate and powerful drama so much that we will enjoy reading them again and again. Highly recommend."

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2020

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC announces Jacar Press' publication of Kathryn Stripling Byer's "Trawling the Silences," and hosts opening reading June 8, 2019

It is with great joy and sorrow that Jacar Press announces the posthumous publication of Kathryn Stripling Byer's Trawling the Silences. The book should be available late May, and City Lights Bookstore in Sylva will host an opening reading on Saturday, June 8, 2019, at 6:30. Please join us if you can.

Jacar Press will be donating proceeds from sales to a cause Kay valued. We are in the process of narrowing that down and will have a decision on that soon. 





When she died suddenly from lymphoma in June 2017, Kathryn Stripling Byer had  just completed her 7th, and what would be her last, collection of poetry, Trawling the Silences. It is a book of great beauty and heartbreak, revisiting all her important themes - family and ancestry, the natural world, the inevitable process of aging and death, and the pressing issues of environmental degradation, racism, and international conflict - with an urgency that seems, in retrospect, to have come from an awareness about what fate awaited her. Kay loved the craft of poetry and the expressive possibilities of intricate poetic structures. She wrote free verse, metrical verse, syllabic verse, and used forms as diverse as the sestina and the ghazal. Though often dense with meaning and allusion, her work remains accessible to any careful reader. 


During her writing career, Kathryn Stripling Byer received many honors and awards, including the Lamont prize for her second book, Wildwood Flower, the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Literature, in 2001, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. She was the first woman to be selected as the North Carolina Poet Laureate and served from 2005 to 2009. In 2012 she was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.


For more information, contact City Lights Bookstore at: 828-586-9499

Address:

3 East Jackson Street

Sylva, North Carolina 28779

Friday, March 1, 2019

Gary Carden - City Lights Bookstore, Saturday, March 2 at 3:00 p.m.

Gary Carden: The Hanging of Bayless Henderson

 Folklorist and storyteller, Gary Carden will visit City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, March 2nd at 3 p.m. to tell the story of The Hanging of Bayless Henderson. 
Convicted of murdering N.S. Jarrett, Bayless Henderson was hung in Webster, NC on June 6th, 1873. Gary will tell the story and share the details of this unique piece of Jackson County history. 
This is a ticketed event and seats are limited. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through City Lights Bookstore by calling us at 828-586-9499, or come by the store at 3 E. Jackson St. in Sylva, NC.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Gary Carden will release the DVD of his play, Birdell, Friday, November 2, 2018, 6:30 PM, at City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC

Come celebrate the DVD release of Gary Carden’s play, Birdell on Friday, November 2nd at 6:30 p.m. David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us, says of the play, “"Gary Neil Carden has lived with an ear to the ground and this play is the voice that he heard. Birdell is a testament to the gone and the going away, a lonesome whippoorwill song remembered by those who were here, never heard by those who have come." This event is held at City Lights Bookstore, 3 Jackson Street, Sylva, NC.

 
 
Event date: 
Friday, November 2, 2018 - 6:30pm
Event address: 
3 E Jackson St.
Sylva, NC 28779

Telephone: 828-586-9499

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Joint Poetry reading to be held at City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC, Saturday, September 15, 2018

Poets Catherine Carter, Mary Ricketson, and Joan M. Howard will visit City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, September 15, 2018, at 3:00 PM, for a poetry reading. The reading is free of charge and open to the public.


Catherine Carter has written three collections of poetry and directs the English Education program at Western Carolina University. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Orion, Ploughshares, Cider Press Review, Cortland Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and Best American Poetry 2009, among others. Her full-length collections of poetry include The Swamp Monster at Home (LSU Press, 2012) The Memory of Gills (LSU, 2006), and Larvae of the Nearest Stars (forthcoming from LSU, fall 2019.


 
Mary Ricketson of Murphy NC, has been writing poetry for 20 years; to satisfy a hunger, to taste life down to the very last drop. She is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, and the anthologies, Lights in the Mountains, and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Her two collections are Freeing Jonah, and her chapbook I Hear the River Call My Name



Joan Howard is a retired teacher who lives in Hiawassee and Athens GA.  Her poetry has been published in Poem, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, the Aurorean, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, The Wayfarer, The Deronda Review and other literary journals.She has two books: Death and Empathy: My Sister Web and Jack, Love and the Daily Grail

 
 
Event date: Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 3:00pm
Event address: 3 East Jackson Street, Sylva, NC 28779
 

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Polly Davis to present her memoir at City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC, Sat., Jan 9th, 2015 at 3:00 PM

Polly Davis will present Stumbling Toward Enlightenment on Saturday, January 9th at 3 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore. Married to a Special Forces soldier during the height of the Vietnam War, Polly Davis was a soldier’s wife with a difference: she often led, always followed, and sometimes fought alongside her Green Beret. Whether leaping out of airplanes, SCUBA diving off the coast of Massachusetts, hauling her family and their dogs over two continents, or battling a life-threatening disease, Davis’ life story is superbly rich with courage, compassion, and a sly humor that overcomes all obstacles. Failure is not an option with this warm and enticing tale.


Polly’s is a companion book to her husband’s memoir, The Most Fun I Ever Had With My Clothes On: A March from Private to Colonel. Come join Polly and Tom for a He Said She Said reading. While writing their memoirs, they would compare notes and wonder if they were at the same place at the same time. The contrasting views of the same events are hilarious! To reserve copies of these memoirs please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-949
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Lawrence Thackston Returns with a New Mystery


Lawrence Thackston, author of  the locally set, The Devil’s Courthouse, will visit City Lights Bookstore to present his new mystery, Tidal Pools on Friday, June 6th at 6:30 p.m.

 Making the most of incredible plot twists, dark settings, and the use of ancient religious rituals, Tidal Pools will keep readers on the edge of their seats through the final pages. In the Galeegi Islands along the coast of South Carolina, the former prime suspect in a 40-year-old, controversial murder case is found dead of a questionable suicide. Tyler Miles, a newly recruited patrolman with the Galeegi Police Department, becomes an unlikely part of the investigation and is immediately swept up in a tidal wave of violence and deceit that threatens to impact the entire Lowcountry. Working side-by-side with Chloe Hart, a research biologist for the EPA, Tyler must find a connection between the suicide and the old murder, all the while facing a new rash of killings and an imminent, destructive threat to the islands and the surrounding marshlands. From behind the screen doors of the island's most impoverished hovels to the marble floors and crystal chandeliers of its finest plantation homes, Tyler will race to unravel the mystery behind the chilling case. And, in his search for justice, he will come face to face with an evil as old as hatred itself, cryptically finding his answers only in what the tide leaves behind.

Born and raised in the palmetto state, Lawrence Thackston is a writer of Southern tales of mystery, suspense, loss, and redemption. His first novel, The Devil's Courthouse, was well-received by critics and has generated a faithful following among his readers. To reserve your copies of his books please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE FRIDAY NIGHT

Logo.jpg
www.citylightsnc.com

   
Carole Thompson           Glenda Beall                Mary Ricketson
 

                                   Robert S. King         Scott Owens
 
  

Please join us at City Lights Bookstore on Friday, March 23 at 7 p.m. for a double book launch.  FutureCycle Press will unveil its annual anthology of poetry and flash fiction as well as a new poetry collection from Scott Owens titled For One Who Knows How to Own Land.  Owens and a few of the contributors to the anthology will read some of their work.  Featured writers will be Glenda Councill Beal, Robert S. King, Scott Owens, Mary Ricketson and Carole Richard Thompson.    
 
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter 
 
City Lights Bookstore
3 East Jackson Street
Sylva, NC 28779
828-586-9499
more@citylightsnc.com
always open on the web at: www.citylightsnc.com

Store Hours:
Monday-Saturday, 9 am - 9 pm
Sunday 10 am - 3 pm

Additional parking catty-corner to the store, courtesy of First United Methodist Church


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Coffee with the Poets: Pat Riviere-Seel



February's Coffee with the Poet features Pat Riviere-Seel, a friend who graced my poetry class in the Great Smokies Writing Workshop several years ago.  Pat has become a vibrant presence in our North Caroiina Literary community, offer her talents and her time to her readers and the literary organizations that help draw us all together.  Please joing us at City Lights Bookstore on Feb. 16 at 10:30 to meet Pat and listen to her read and talk about her work.  Our gatherings are always informal and, yes, fun.  Afterward, I highly recommend lunch downstairs at City Lights Cafe!




Here is a poem of hers that I love.   You can find more on her website by clicking on the link above.

The Bears 

The bears returned last night.
 The mother and her three cubs 
slept in the mound of leaves. 
They left deep indentations
 where summer-sated bellies 
A snowy evening last winter.
and massive paws lay curled
 beneath the maple’s outstretched limbs
and the quarter moon’s pale light.
All day, while I raked leaves into piles,
 the bears were watching. They moved 
silent and unseen among evergreens,
 gray trunks, and branches as they had
all summer. Preparing for winter sleep, 
 they stuffed themselves on acorns and grubs.
One late summer day they came  into 
 the orchard. The cubs shimmied
up the young apple trees, bent 
 one bough to the ground and broke
another in their play. The mother
 took her time selecting fallen apples,
and those she could reach balanced 
 on her hind legs. She carried these
one by one to her cubs, gently 
 urged them to taste and chew. 
She knows how long winter lasts. 
   
Pat Riviere-Seel

Pat Riviere-Seel has published two poetry collections, The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Main Street Rag, 2009), winner of the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry and No Turning Back Now (Finishing Line Press, 2004), nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry at UNCA in the Great Smokies Writing Program.
Pat is a 2003 graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Queens University of Charlotte. Her poems have been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies including Asheville Poetry Review, Passager, Tar River Poetry, and Kakalak, an Anthology of Carolina Poets, among others. Recent poems  appear in Boomtown, the Queens University MFA Program 10th Anniversary Anthology, Cloudbank, and Poetry of Love, an anthology published by Jacar Press. 
Her poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and was a finalist in the Press 53 Open Awards and a semi-finalist in the first James Applewhite Poetry Prize in 2011. The Serial Killer’s Daughter premiered as a staged reading in March 2011 with a 4-member cast. 
Pat is a former award winning journalist, lobbyist, publicist, and editor. She worked as a political reporter for daily newspapers in Fayetteville, NC, and Annapolis, Maryland until 1987 when she established her own public and government relations firm. She represented nonprofit organizations in the Maryland General Assembly, designed public relations campaigns for private businesses and political candidates.
In 1992 she returned to her native North Carolina to take a position as Editor of Voices, the bimonthly journal of Rural Southern Voice for Peace. She married Ed Seel in 1997 and moved with him to Germany for two years. During that time, Pat attended the Spoleto Writers Workshop in Spoleto, Italy.
She has lived in Asheville, NC, since 1999 and served as President of the North Carolina Poetry Society and Chair of the North Carolina Writers Conference. Pat is an avid runner, hiker, and gardener.

from  The Serial Killer's Daughter
Winner of the Roanoke Chowan Poetry Award from the NC Literary and Historical Association

I. About the Daughter
The serial killer's daughter hangs damp sheets on the line.
She likes the yeasty way the wind fills the cloth and how the sun sweetens the
threads.
When she holds the clothespins between her teeth, she tastes bread and salted butter.
She no longer worries about trying to hold on to the brass pole of the carousel.
The serial killer's daughter can hold anything - or anyone - she pleases.
Preferring familiar company, she surrounds herself with dahlias and lavender.
She always rides the wooden tiger because there is no bear.
Why are the animals always one step ahead of the humans?
The serial killer's daughter knows how frightening a creature walking upright can be, so
she always walks as if she were about to waltz.
Her hands write a language only she can read.
She's not a figment of anyone's imagination. 

She is sunlight striping murky swamp water.

II. More About the Serial Killer's Daughter




The serial killer's daughter wears tight curls made of cypress roots and washes them in
buttermilk from the moon.
When mud oozes between her toes she no longer worries about wiping her feet before
stepping through the door.
She likes to touch people she loves on the nape of the neck and feel the rocky landscapes
of their spines.
Her heart measures her intentions and stretches them in a chain around her wrist so she
will not forget.
The serial killer's daughter waits for no one.
It never matters if she is on time. Whose time?
Time is irrelevant, like memories she saves and forgets.
Because her life needs seasoning she grows spearmint, basil, and lemon balm.
The serial killer's daughter is always leaving Robeson County.
For her, the stone covered with moss and mica that she carries in
her pocket contains a galaxy.

(Available from Main Street Rag Press )




Monday, December 13, 2010

COFFEE WITH THE POETS: LAURA HOPE-GILL, DEC. 16, IN SYLVA, NC

WHAT COULD MAKE A MORE BEAUTIFUL SEASON'S GIFT THAN THE SOUL TREE, A COLLECTION OF POEMS BY LAURA HOPE-GILL AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN FLETCHER? COME MEET LAURA on DEC. 16 AT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE IN SYLVA. SHE WILL READ FROM HER WORK AND SIGN HER BOOK FOR HOLIDAY GIVING.

(Published and printed in Asheville, North Carolina by Grateful Steps Publishing. )

LAURA HOPE-GILL will be at CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE THIS THURSDAY, DEC. 16TH, 10:30 a.m. to discuss her work. Please join us for coffee, tea, and pastries----and poetry by both Laura and attendees.

-- To say that Laura Hope-Gill and John Fletcher, Jr. have put together one of the most stunning books I've ever seen would be an understatement. Here is a collaboration that expands the definition of that word. It's a seamlessly interwoven collection of words and images that invite and inspire, in the the original meaning of that over-used term. Laura's poems show the depths of her poetic "inseeing, " as Rilke calls it, and Fletcher's photographs open up the landscape that Laura sings into being with her words. The Soul Tree speaks to the landscapes of internal and exterior reality. In this collection those two landscapes have found harmony through two artists working together in celebration of what they love.

Laura Hope-Gill is in the process of being certified as a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator by the National Federation for Poetry Therapy, working under the mentorship of poet and psychotherapist Perie Longo. The Director of Asheville Wordfest, a free poetry festival which presents poetry as Citizen Journalism, she consciously pursues ways of revealing poetry’s relevance to every-day life and not merely an “art form” whose only use is to beautiful. The Soul Tree: Poems and Photographs of the Southern Appalachians (Grateful Steps, Asheville) is a collaboration with local photographer John Fletcher, Jr. and is an application of her vision of poetry as a conversation between inner and outer worlds. Renowned photographer John Fletcher has this to say about the beginnings of their collaboration. "After visiting my landscapes website in the spring of 2008, Laura replied with an email containing an attachment titled, 'The Soul Tree.' I was stunned after reading the poem, then I noticed that there were 35 more pages to the document. My jaw dropped a little lower each time I scrolled to the next poem…36 in all. I was speechless.Not only was her writing beautiful and poignant, but her poetry brought new life to the photographs. I was also quite overwhelmed by her choice of photos…not the pretty sunset pictures that most people like. She was inspired by the photos that were my favorites…the mysterious and more abstract images that I feel personify my experience and observations. Today I continue this pursuit by working as a staff photographer for the Asheville Citizen-Times, shooting weddings, and freelancing for regional and national clients including, USA Today, The Associated Press, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce."

Images and poems from The Soul Tree may be found at http://www.thsoultree.org/, along with ordering information and more about the two artists who have brought this lovely book into existence.

Here are two pages from the book.

Friday, August 20, 2010

MARY MIKE KELLER (From "Here Where I Am" blog)


When Mary Mike Keller read her poem "As the Deer" at our Gala Publication party for Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, hosted by City Lights Bookstore two weeks ago, I was swept away. It's a beautiful poem, and she read it beautifully. This poem is yet another reason to own a copy of Echoes. Go to the Echoes page on Facebook and take a look. Or the Netwest blog. You will find information on how to purchase the book.



As The Deer



The dulcimer drones tranquil

as the pick grazes across strings

as the deer across the glade


My thumb under f sharp mimics

her tongue curled to pluck

a blade intoned on b


Quietness slides along her body

my finger descending the string

in a smooth slur of music


The sweetness of the melody

new as young grass lingers

in the lea of my instrument


A barre chord trembles

I wait

for that last unfettered fret


----Mary Michelle Brodine Keller



Mary Mike reads her poem at the Gala event.





Friday, August 13, 2010

SYLVA COFFEE WITH THE POETS FEATURES WILLIAM EVERETT

(William Everett at the July Coffee With the Poets)

On August 19 City Lights Bookstore will welcome poet and fiction writer William Everett as guest. Bill is a Netwest member, the author of eight books and many poems. He will read and talk about his journey as a writer, his creative process, and engage participants in their own ways of accessing their voices. The event will take place in the Regional Room of City Lights at 10:30. After a break for lunch, there will be a two hour writing workshop at 1:30. Participants should bring copies of one poem or excerpt of prose for discussion.

Bill maintains a website (www.williameverett.com) which I highly recommend visiting. Here is his announcement of his visit to City Lights next week. You will have to go to his site to read the second poem!

On Thursday, August 19, I will be reading and reflecting on my poetry at 10:30 am for the “Coffee with the Poets” group at City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC. The poet’s group is just one of several under the umbrella of the Netwest Mountain Writers, affiliated with the North Carolina Writers Network. (Check outwww.netwestwriters.blogspot.com.) We are convened by Kay Byer, a former NC Poet Laureate, who has graciously encouraged me to reflect on my thirty years of often hidden poetry writing. As I have been reflecting on this welcome task, two poems popped up that I thought I’d share with you. They both involve the quirky, unexpected way that poems elude our normal patterns of perception and expression. I thought you might enjoy them.

I Love That Poetry

Do you like poetry? I asked.

Oh yes, he said. Last year I went to see a poet

Maya Angelou and she was beautiful.

The curtain opened and the spotlight lit upon her hair,

not white, but lustrous gray.

She wore a long crushed velvet dress, much like a kaftan,

bell shaped sleeves descending to wide cuffs

embroidered with a band that looked like kinte cloth.

A long string of pearls draped down from her broad shoulders,

picking up the highlights in her hair.

She was surrounded by a bank of ferns that reached up to her waist

as she sat down among them.

The ferns were like extensions of the dress. They billowed like her hair.

Oh, it was gorgeous. I just love that poetry.

I’m glad you liked it, passed my lips. Perhaps you might cut off a little more

above my ears. I want to look my best tomorrow night.


Thursday, August 5, 2010

ECHOES FEATURED IN SYLVA HERALD

New anthology includes work by Byer, Carden, Crowe

By Lynn Hotaling

A new anthology of Appalachian writings includes work by several local writers.

“Echoes Across the Blue Ridge,” a collection of poems, stories and essays from the southern Appalachians, features poems by former N.C. Poet Laureate Kay Byer of Cullowhee; stories by Gary Carden of Sylva; and an essay by Tuckasegee writer Thomas Crowe.

A celebration of the book’s release from Winding Path Publishing is planned this Sunday, Aug. 8, from 5 until 8 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore. The volume was published with sponsorship and support from the N.C. Writers Network West, a chapter of the statewide N.C. Writers Network.

“Netwest members conceived this anthology, raised funds and brought it to fruition,” according to Nancy Simpson, the collection’s editor.

The anthology’s introduction is by author Robert Morgan, and its cover holds compliments from noted Southern writers Ron Rash and Lee Smith.

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A new anthology, “Echoes Across the Blue Ridge,” a new poetry and prose collection, includes work by several local writers. A special book celebration is planned at City Lights Bookstore on Sunday, Aug. 8, from 5 until 8 p.m.

“Anyone who enjoys Appalachian literature will be delighted by this excellent anthology, particularly because it introduces the reader to a number of our region’s gifted though lesser-known writers,” Rash writes.

“Straight from the land of sky, song and story, another dynamite collection – strong and surprising – these mountain writers know how to howl at the moon,” adds Smith.

In addition to Byer, Carden and Crowe, local contributors to “Echoes Across the Blue Ridge include James Cox, Carl Iobst and Arnie Nielsen. The remaining writers and poets reside within the nine counties south of Asheville, on the Qualla Boundary and in bordering counties of Georgia and South Carolina.

In his introduction, Morgan says the anthology, which places the writing of poet laureates like Byer and former Georgia Poet Laureate Bettie Sellers with the work of newcomers, gives him renewed confidence in the future of Appalachian literature.

“Beyond the storytelling, the ballads, the songs, the fiddle music, there is something profoundly poetic about the Southern Appalachian Mountains,” Morgan writes.

Byer, Carden and Crowe all said they are pleased with the book and proud to be among its writers.

“This anthology is a labor of love by Netwest, especially by Nancy Simpson, the editor,” Byer said. “This project took two years to bring to completion, and the effort was well worth the time. Here we have a diversity of voices ranging from the well known to the relatively unknown. Robert Morgan’s introduction is stellar, and the testimonials by novelists Lee Smith and Ron Rash hit the bull’s eyes, especially Lee’s: ‘These writers know how to howl at the moon.’ I hope Jackson county lovers of the word will come out on Aug. 8 to hear these literary howls echoing across the mountains.”

Crowe said he appreciates the anthology’s role in allowing new voices to be heard.

“One of the things that this highly inclusive anthology does is bring new voices (and they are many with both natives and ‘new natives’ sharing their stories and talents during a period that can only be seen as a kind of renaissance of writers here in these hills and surrounds) before the general public and to the fore in terms of chronicling the new life of our region as well as delineating the work to be done to preserve and protect the beauty and sustainability of Western North Carolina for future generations,” Crowe said. “Having spent the majority of my life in these mountains, I am very pleased to be counted as one of the members of this writers community who writes passionately about this place.”

For his part, Carden termed the book “an impressive collection” and said he intends to invite its writers to read their work at the Liar’s Bench, his monthly storytelling and mountain culture event.

In addition to contributing several of his stories to “Echoes Across the Blue Ridge,” Carden donated the proceeds from a special production of his play “Birdell” to NCWN West to help with costs involved in publishing “Echoes.”

Carden said he was glad to help.

“It’s wonderful when art nurtures art and produces another kind of art,” he said.

The anthology is dedicated to the memory of Appalachian ballad poet Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958) whose poetry collection, “Bow Down in Jericho,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1950. “Echoes Across the Blue Ridge” includes several of Reece’s poems.

Participating writers will read from “Echoes Across the Blue Ridge: Stories, Essays, and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains” during Sunday’s City Lights event.


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