Author Appearance

Join us on Saturday, November 13th at 3 p.m. for a tribute to North Carolina's natural wonders. Bland Simpson, the celebrated bard of North Carolina's sound country, has blended history, observation of nature, and personal narrative in many books to chronicle the people and places of eastern Carolina. Yet he has spent much of his life in the state's Piedmont, with regular travels into its western mountains. In North Carolina: Land of Water Land of Sky, for the first time, Simpson brings his distinctive voice and way of seeing to bear on the entirety of his home state, combining storytelling and travelogue to create a portrait of the Old North State with care and humor.

Three of the state's finest photographers come along to guide the journey: Simpson's wife and creative partner, Ann Cary Simpson, professional photographer Scott Taylor, and writer and naturalist Tom Earnhardt. Their photos, combined with Simpson's rich narrative, will inspire readers to consider not only what North Carolina has been and what it is but also what we hope it will be. This book belongs on the shelf of longtime residents, newcomers, and visitors alike.

Bland Simpson is Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a pianist for The Red Clay Ramblers, the Tony Award-winning string band. In 2005 he received the North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor.

All attendees will be required to wear a mask. For more information please call us at 828-586-9499. 

Join us on Saturday, November 6th at 3 p.m. as Marlin Barton presents his latest novel, Children of Dust. Ron Rash, author of Serena and In the Valley said of Children of Dust, "In Marlin Barton's superb new novel, two men, one black, one white, find common cause in an attempt to understand their shared ancestor, Rafe Anderson, and the mysterious deaths of two of his newborn children, but what makes Children of Dust most memorable is Barton's refusal to simplify and judge. His characters are never caricatures, and they reveal that the greatest mysteries of all lie within the human heart. Marlin Barton is one of our most underrated writers, and I hope this novel gains him the attention he's long deserved." 

Marlin Barton lives in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to Children of Dust, he's published two earlier novels and three story collections. Stories of his have been included in Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and he received the Truman Capote Prize for his short fiction. Barton teaches in a program for juvenile offenders called Writing Our Stories, and he also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Converse College.

All attendees will be required to wear a mask. To reserve copies click the link below or call us at 828-586-9499.

Webster writer Dave Waldrop and Whittier artist/musician Alma Russ combined their unique talents to create a visual language experience in Roll Your Eyes Now.  Alma's vivid colors and non-linear style capture Dave's puns and bring them to life for the reader. Kids' humor for all ages. They will present Roll Your Eyes Now at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Sunday; October 31 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. 

Here's what our friend Ben Woody had to say about the book: ''If you live in a small town, there are instances when you see someone coming toward you on the street, or down the aisle at the grocery store, and you frantically think of ways to avoid them. The inevitable small talk will be mind-numbing. You have known this person your entire life and you know nothing interesting has happened to them in 16 years. This is a dreaded encounter. Dave Waldrop is not one of these people. Folks go out of their way to run into Dave Waldrop, and, my friends, I know why. Dave Waldrop is a born story-teller. Entertainment and language flow into each other and out of Dave like a rushing river. He has the gift of gab, sure, but he also cultivates it. The very breath of Life is in him. Dave creates, collects, and spins great stories. His writing is an extension of his life. He has done for others. I can't think of anyone I would rather read, talk to, and just be with except for maybe Bob Dylan; but Bob Dylan doesn't live in Sylva and Dave Waldrop does.'' 

To reserve copies of the book please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499. 

Ed Southern will visit City Lights Bookstore on Friday, October 22 at 5 p.m.  He will present his new book, Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South. The publisher says it is, “A wry and witty commentary on college sports and identity in the complicated social landscape of the South.” Ed Southern, lifelong Wake Forest University Demon Deacons fan, set out to tell how he got tangled with the two giants of his favorite sport: the Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. He set out to tell how a North Carolina native crossed the shifty, unmarked border between Tobacco Road and the Deep South and how the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, from beyond the grave, introduced him to his wife, a Birmingham native and die-hard Alabama fan. While he was writing that story, though, 2020 came along. Suddenly his questions had a new focus: Why do sports mean so much that so many will play and watch them in the face of a global pandemic? How have college sports shaped how southerners construct their identities, priorities, and allegiances? Why is North Carolina passionate about college basketball when its neighbors to the South live and die by college football? Fight Songs explores the connections and contradictions between the teams we root for and the places we plant our roots; between the hopes of fans and the demands of the past, present, and future.

Ed Southern, a resident of Forsyth County, NC, is well-known to the state’s literary community as the director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Discussion of his book will be a thought-provoking pre-game activity ahead of the Mustangs’ home football game vs. the Mountaineers. Masks will be required for attendance at the book event. To reserve copies of Ed’s book please call us at 828-586-9499. 

Teacher, folklorist, and writer H. Byron Ballard will return to City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, October 23rd at 3 p.m.  She will present her latest book, Seasons of a Magical Life: A Pagan  Path for Living. This book is for those who are inspired to reconnect with the seasons, whether they live in the country, the city, or anyplace in between. Seasons of a Magical Life serves as a guide to earth-based spirituality and ritual living.

A resident of Asheville, H. Byron Ballard is a senior priestess and is the co-founder of Mother Grove Goddess Temple and the Coalition of Earth Religions

Join us at Bicentennial Park in downtown Sylva for a celebration of the natural world on Saturday, October 9th at 1 p.m. Brannen Basham and Jill Jacobs will present Brannen’s A Guide to the Wonderful World Around Us and their collaborative book, Finding Home: A Story of Mason Bee. 

A Guide to the Wonderful Around Us explores sixty nature-based topics broken down into six chapters. Finding Home, written by both Basham and Jacobs, shows readers an inside look at the lives of six beneficial native creatures through an engaging and educational tale of a mason bee’s search for a new home.

Brannen Basham and Jill Jacobs are owners of Spriggly’s Beescaping. Spriggly’s is a nature education and habitat restoration business with a special focus on supporting native plants and pollinators. Visit sprigglys.com to discover other publications, informative videos, and educational resources.

To reserve copies of their books or for more information please call City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC at 828-586-9499. 

Christy Alexander Hallberg and Meagan Lucas will visit City Lights Bookstore on Friday, November 19th at 5 p.m.  They will discuss Hallberg’s new book, Searching for Jimmy Page. In this debut novel, the unraveling of eighteen-year-old Luna Kane's haunted past begins in the winter of 1988, when her dying great-grandfather, a self-proclaimed faith healer, claims he hears phantom owls crying in the night. Can you hear the music? His words trigger Luna's repressed memory of her dead mother's obsession with Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin's legendary guitar wizard. Desperate to learn the truth about her mother's suicide, to tease fact from family lore in order to weave her own personal narrative, Luna embarks on a pilgrimage from her family's farm in the pines of eastern North Carolina to England, to search for the man whose music her mother held sacred, Jimmy Page.

Christy Alexander Hallberg teaches literature and writing online at East Carolina University. She serves as Senior Associate Editor of North Carolina Literary Review. Her short fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and interviews have appeared in such journals as North Carolina Literary Review, storySouth, Main Street Rag, Fiction Southeast, Riggwelter, Deep South Magazine, Eclectica, Litro, STORGY Magazine, Entropy, and Concho River Review. Her flash story Aperture was chosen Story of the Month by Fiction Southeast for October 2020 and was selected by the editors of the annual Best Small Fictions anthology series for the 2021 edition. She lives near Asheville, NC.

Meagan Lucas is the author of the award-winning novel, Songbirds and Stray Dogs (Main Street Rag Press, 2019). Meagan’s short work has been published or is forthcoming in journals like The Santa Fe Writers’ Project, Still: The Journal, MonkeyBicycle, Cowboy Jamboree, BULL, Pithead Chapel, and others. She is Pushcart-nominated.

Masks are required to attend the event. To reserve copies of Searching for Jimmy Page and Songbirds and Stray Dogs please click the links below. 

Ann Melton returns to City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, October 2nd at 3 p.m. She will present her most recent book, When God’s In It, a collection of stories that deliver the message that blessings follow those who follow the Lord.

Masks are required to attend the event. To reserve copies, please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499. 

Mike Jones will visit City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, August 14th, at 3 p.m. to help raise money for the Community Table. He will present his novel, Dear Old Town, where Francis Todd returns to his Southern coastal hometown to lay his father to rest, but a host of memories from his childhood, centering around the unsolved 1956 murder of a schoolmate, threaten the closure he seeks. Will he succeed in keeping the ghosts he left behind at bay? Or will he finally make sense of the past and come to terms with the present?

Robert Michael "Mike" Jones is a retired Episcopal priest. He lives with his wife Beth in Sylva, N.C., with a large yellow dog of indeterminate breed. They have 4 children and 6 grandchildren, of whom they are inordinately proud. The author has a number of post-graduate degrees, some of which are legitimate. He follows the Chicago Cubs and collects vintage tea cozies. This is his first novel.   A portion of the sales from the event will be donated to the Community Table, which does fine work feeding folks in need here in Jackson County. To reserve copies of Dear Old Town, please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499. 

Michael Amos Cody will visit City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, August 28th at 3 p.m. He will present his new story collection, A Twilight Reel. Cody, a native of Madison County, NC, and a professor of English at East Tennessee State University, is becoming widely recognized as one of the leading voices of contemporary Southern Appalachian literature. Writer Leah Hampton, the author of F*ckface, describes his writing this way: “Cody blends traditional and modern elements, wry humor, spooky darkness, and his intimate knowledge of the region to bring us a deftly rendered Appalachian story cycle.”

This collection, with a story set in each of the twelve months of 1999, chronicles life in the fictional western North Carolina town of Runion, which first appeared in Cody’s 2017 novel Gabriel’s Songbook. Like Thomas Wolfe’s Altamont, Runion stands in for places Cody grew up in and knows as only a native son can.

Masks are required to attend this event. To reserve copies of Cody's books please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499.