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.

North Georgia resident Joseph Gatins will be at City Lights on Friday, November 20th at 7:00 p.m. to introduce readers to his family memoir, entitled We Were Dancing on a Volcano: Bloodlines and Fault Lines of a Star-Crossed Atlanta Family, 1849-1989. The book is a well-told family saga centered both in Atlanta and in Paris. Through this remarkable family tree, readers get a tour through late 19th and early-to-mid 20th century history, both in the rising New South city of Atlanta and the French capital, ravaged by both World Wars.

Specifically, the book follows the adventures of more than five generations of families that made their mark on both Atlanta and Paris. The narrative especially highlights one grandmother's brave work with the French Resistance in World War II and her untiring efforts to successfully help her only son escape from Nazi prisoner of war camps. 

Says John C. Inscoe, Editor, The New Georgia Encyclopedia. “Joseph Gatins boasts a remarkable family tree, and chronicles their dramatic ups and downs with great verve and insight in this very aptly titled book. It’s a narrative full of memorable characters – from the Irish brothers who first came to Atlanta in 1849, to a great-grandfather whose gambling operations in New York City provided the wealth with which he built and operated the Georgian Terrace Hotel, to his one-armed grandfather and the French heiress who married him, to his father’s harrowing experience in and ultimate escape from German POW camps during the Second World War, and his romance in the midst of it all with Gatins’ mother, daughter of Colombian ex-patriates in Paris. Through their lives and those of other ancestors, equally colorful, Gatins makes this as much a rich social history of Atlanta – and early twentieth century Paris – as it is a compelling family saga.” 

Brian Lee Knopp spent more than a decade as a privateinvestigator here in western North Carolina, working for private clients as well as attorneys. In his new book, Mayhem inMayberry: Misadventures of a P.I. in Southern Appalachia, he tells what the profession is really like on a day-to-day basis. Knopp will be at City Lights on Saturday, November 21sta t 7:00 p.m. to read from the book and take questions from the audience. Don’tmiss this opportunity to meet a real P.I.!

During the City Lights Open House on Tuesday, December 1st from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m, Carole Lilly will offer chair massages in the store for a donation to the New Library Building Fund. Carole is a nationally certified and NC Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist (NC#7803). Her office is located at 45 King Street in Sylva, on the lower level of the McGuire dental building. To purchase a holiday gift certificate or schedule an appointment, visit her website at http://www.carolelillymassage.com or call her at 507-9851.

On Friday, December 4th at 7:00 p.m., Gary Carden will be at the store for a reception celebrating the release of his acclaimed play, Nance Dude, on DVD.

One of the most harrowing crimes committed in western North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century is the alleged murder in 1913 of two-year-old Roberta Putnam by her grandmother, Nancy Kerley, known as Nance Dude. Released from prison after 15 years hard labor, Nance Dude lived out her life rejected by her family. But as she never admitted her guilt or testified in court, her side of the story was never heard. In his acclaimed play, Gary Carden imagines what she might have said, combining folklore, some compelling historical evidence, and a playwright's storytelling art. The much-performed play is now available as a DVD, featuring a performance by Elizabeth Westall. The evening at City Lights will feature copies of the DVD for sale as well as refreshments and conversation with the playwright. 

Kathryn Stripling Byer, Cecilia Woloch and Mary Adams will read from their recent poetry collections on Saturday, December 5th at 7:00 p.m.

Byer,who lives in Cullowhee and is the former Poet Laureate of North Carolina, is author of a new chapbook entitled Aretha's Hat: Inauguration Day, 2009. Written with Penelope Schott, the book was inspired by the Inauguration ceremonies for President Obama. Mary Adams, also of Cullowhee, is author of Commandment, her second collection, published in Sylva by Spring Street Editions. According to Ron Rash, "What makes Mary Adams such an exceptional poet is her ability to fuse formal elegance and profound sentiment. Few contemporary poets can match her combination of craft and feeling, which makes this new collection all the more welcome. She is a poet of the first rank." Cecilia Woloch also has a new collection, entitled Carpathia. She is the founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild and of The Paris Poetry Workshop. She is currently a lecturer in the creative writing program of the University of Southern California and is author of three previous collections. All three authors will read from their new works and take questions from the audience.

Plan to come by City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, December 12th at 4:00 p.m. to help longtime hosptial chaplain Jack Hinson celebrate the publication of his new book, Laughter Was God's Idea.  Rev. Hinson has distilled his years of using humor to help people through hard times into a charming collection of stories that will take its place next to Norman Cousins' Anatomy of an Illness.