Events

WCU geoscientist Rob Young and Duke environmental scientist Orrin Pilkey will be at the store on Friday, October 23rd at 7:00 p.m. for a program based on their new book, entitled The Rising Sea. The book, which was prominently featured in a recent Sylva Herald story, documents rising global sea levels and projects their impact for people around the world. The book, published by Island Press, is an accessible treatment of the subject, aimed at the general public. The authors’ program at City Lights will be based on their research for The Rising Sea and will incorporate a general discussion of global climate change and the challenges it poses for nations around the world.

Cleveland Jones will be at the store on Saturday, October 24th from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to autograph his new novel, The Firescalds: Road to the Sky. The book is in part a fictionalized account of his family’s life growing up on a farm in Jackson County’s  Barker’s Creek community in the 1950s.
Mr. Jones will be available to talk with customers and autograph copies. This is a drop-in event, so please come anytime during the two hours he’ll be here, visiting from his current home in Virginia. 

Bestselling novelist Silas House returns to City Lights for a special weeknight event on Monday, October 26th at 7:00 p.m. to read from his new novel for young adults, entitled Eli the Good. The book is his first novel in five years, and House calls it his best. His previous books include bestsellers The Coal Tattoo, A Parchment of Leaves, and Clay’s Quilt.

His new book looks at the summer of 1976 through the eyes of a 10 -year-old boy whose world is framed by his father’s experience in Vietnam and by his complicated relationships with his family and his best friend. Like all of the best young adult literature, Eli the Good will appeal to adult readers, as well. Attending a reading by Silas House is always a pleasure, and we hope we’ll see you there. If you can’t attend but would like to reserve an autographed copy of the book, please give us a call at 586-9499.

Join novelist Leanna Sain on Saturday, November 7th at 2:00 p.m. for a reading and signing. She will introduce attendees to her Gate to Nowhere series, book two of which has recently been published.

This year's Great Smoky Mountain Book Fair hosts more variety, more literature, and more personalities than ever before. Come meet the more than 50 authors, hear readings, and stock up for Christmas with autographed books for readers of all interests and ages. Admission is free.

The Book Fair is a fund raising event for the Jackson County Public Library, with twenty percent of the sales will be donated to the Building Fund. 

For a complete list of authors scheduled to appear, click on the following link: 

http://www.gsmbookfair.org/ 

Dorothy Allison, a major literary voice from the South, talks about her workin an audience participation program, 7:30 p.m., November 19, in the UCTheatre at Western Carolina University. Allison's novel, Bastard out ofCarolina is the focus of the show, which will be simulcast with interaction onhttp://www.Citizen-Times.com. The event is free and open to the public.The program, called a WNC Read-for-All, begins with atwenty-minute author feature and continueswith forty minutes of discussion, emceed by Rob Neufeld. (Several WCU studentshave read Allison's book in preparation for the event). See the website, "TheRead on WNC"<http://thereadonwnc.ning.com/> for more details and a Reader'sGuide. Representatives from REACH and The Jackson County Community Table willattend the event, and books will be available for signing courtesy of CityLights Books. The event is funded by the Parris Distinguished Professorship inAppalachian Cultural Studies.The first member of her family to graduate from high school, Allison attendedFlorida Presbyterian college on a National Merit Scholarship and studiedanthropology at the New School for Social Research.Bastard out of Carolina contains many remarkable features: the story of a girlwho forges a positive identity in the teeth of her stepfather's abuse; thedepiction of a poor, Southern extended family; and great storytelling. Allisonreceived mainstream recognition with this novel, a finalist for the 1992National Book Award. The novel won the Ferro Grumley prize and became a bestseller and award-winning movie. It has been translated into more than a dozenlanguages.The expanded edition of Allison's short-story collection Trash (2002) included the prize winning short story, "Compassion," selected for both Best American Short Stories 2003 and Best New Stories from the South 2003. Allison'schapbook of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, was published with Long Haul Pressin 1983. A novel, She Who, is forthcoming.Dorothy Allison was Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry'sDistinguished Visiting Professor, Spring, 2008. In 2006, she was writer inresidence at Columbia College in Chicago. This fall, Allison is the McGeeProfessor and writer in residence at Davidson College in North Carolina.Contact Mary Adams<mailto:madams@wcu.edu> at x3270 or Rob Neufeld at theCitizen-Times for more information.