Events

Literary Bookpost is pleased to host a return engagement from author Wayne Caldwell and his new novel set in the North Carolina mountains, Requiem by Fire.  Requiem is the direct follow-up to Cataloochee, which was a book club and shop favorite in 2007/8.  Caldwell will have a reading beginning at 6 p.m., preceded and followed by a reception and book signing.

Historian Clint Johnson will speak and sign copies of his new book, A Vast and Fiendish Plot:  The Confederate Attack on New York City, Saturday, March 27^th, beginning at 4 p.m.  Johnson is the author of ten books, eight of which has focused on the American Civil War.

 

Born in Florida, Johnson and his wife now live in the mountains of North Carolina.  His ancestors include Civil War soldiers from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.  He is active as a civil war re-enactor, portraying both Confederate and Union soldiers.  In researching A Vast and Fiendish Plot, Johnson spent days poring through old newspapers and 1864 maps of New York City tracking down the details of the plot to burn down the city.

 

On November 25, 1864, eight confederate officers attempted to destroy New York City with a series of lethal fires.  The officers were fueled by rage due to the Union’s killing of their beloved General John Hunt Morgan and the burning of the Shenandoah Valley.  That the plot did not succeed is somewhat of a miracle despite the audaciousness of the scheme.  A Vast and Fiendish Plot reveals shocking facts about the treacherous alliances and rivalries that threatened nineteenth-century America and brings out the truth about this little-known and stunning event.

 

 Dan Barefoot, popular North Carolina author and frequent visitor to Literary Bookpost, say of A Vast and Fiendish Plot:  “Clint Johnson meticulously details a long-neglected chapter of Civil War history.  His well-researched volume yields a vivid, fast-paced account of the intriguing Confederate attempt to cause mayhem, confusion, and destruction.  Johnson weaves a fascinating story that is sure to captivate readers.”

 

At Literary Bookpost Johnson will give a brief reading and hold a short discussion of his new book, followed by a book signing and reception. 

Literary Bookpost is pleased to host the first Black Cat Reading of the 2010 season in conjunction with the English Department at Catawba College.  Authors to be announced.  The featured poets are Scott Owens and Celisa Steele.

Author of five collections of poetry and over 600 poems, Scott Owens is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review.  His most recent book Paternity was published in 2010 by Main Street Rag Publishing Company. He is also author of “Musings” (a weekly column on poetry), founder of Poetry Hickory, Vice President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and a writer of reviews of contemporary poetry.  His work has received awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Academy of American Poets, the NC Writers’ Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC.  Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, he has lived in North Carolina for the past 25 years.  He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College.  

A native of Arkansas, Celisa Steele lives in Carrboro.  Her poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, the Anglican Theological Review, Kakalak, Pinesong, Bay Leaves, Always on Friday, and others. She serves on the Poetry Council of North Carolina and the Board of the North Carolina Poetry Society as first vice president. She graduated in English and French from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and, through a Sturgis Fellowship, studied abroad in Costa Rica, Jordan, France, and Korea.  She holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from UNC Chapel Hill.  She is managing director at Tagoras, where she has led the development of online education sites with numerous nonprofit organizations including the American Red Cross and the Society for Human Resource Management. 

The Saturday Salon hosts John Hartness with his new collection of poetry and short stories, Returning the Favor.

Southern mystery writer Patricia Sprinkle, best know for her Thoroughly Southern Mystery Series, jumps genres and gives us something different with her new book Hold Up the Sky.  The title comes from an old African proverb:  women hold up half the sky.  One summer, that saying proves true for four women in Solace, Georgia, who find the strength to lift one another high. 

In the book, Mamie Fountain believes that our lives are part of a rich and complex tapestry woven by God.  But when her retirement is put on hold by a secret she can’t bring herself to share, she can’t see a life pattern that makes any sense to her.  Margaret Baxter, Billie Waits, and Emerita Gomez are in similar situations.  One month ago, Margaret had the home and family she’d always wanted.  Now they’ve been taken away.  Billie managed to care for her severely handicapped daughter with a little help from her estranged husband-until he disappeared.  Emerita became an immigrant from Mexico when she was forced to choose between losing her husband and breaking the law. 

These four women were accustomed to taking care of themselves and those around them.  Suddenly, they’re overwhelmed by tough times.  When they band together on a drought-stricken farm, they must open their hearts and share their burdens before they can find the bounty that lies hidden in their changed circumstances…and see the glorious pattern in the tapestry that was there all along. 

Patricia Sprinkle grew up in North Carolina and northern Florida, graduated from Vassar College, and spent a winter writing in the Scottish Highlands before settling in Atlanta. Although as an adult she has also lived in Chicago and Miami, her mysteries and novels reflect her love for and the strength of her Southern roots. Sprinkle is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.  Sprinkle writes novels drawn from her own Southern roots, chronicling the lives of women in the contemporary South.  In addition to writing, she is active in organizations that serve neglected, deprived, and abused children.  She and her husband have two grown sons and live in Smyrna, Georgia, where she enjoys reading, gardening, and doing nothing. 

Hold Up the Sky sprang from a seed planted in 1986 while the Sprinkle’s were eating at a Japanese steakhouse with three strangers whose conversation sparked the idea for the novel.  At the time, Sprinkle was just getting contracts signed for publication of her first two mystery novels.  The mystery genre took off, grew to twenty novels, and the seed for Hold Up the Sky languished.  Twenty years later, Sprinkle rekindled the idea for the novel she had germinated in 1986, and Hold Up the Sky was completed.

Summerville, NC resident, photographer, and poet Jeff Cooper will be at the Bookpost with his two new photography books, the first, a beautiful, coffee-table sized art book, released in November, and a second just released this month.

Poet Jessie Carty visits the shop to read from and sign her new, just released book, as well as her two previously released chapbooks.

A second installment of the popular publishing workshop begun last month at Literary Bookpost will continue on Saturday, April 24^th, beginning at 1:30 p.m.  This time around the workshop will be led by Anne Clinard Barnhill.  Barnhill holds an MFA degree from UNC Wilmington, and over the last twenty years she has published articles, book and theater reviews, poetry and short stories.  Barnhill is the author of the memoir At Home in the Land of Oz:  Autism, My Sister and Me, published in 2007 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, and the book of short stories What You Long For, published by Main Street Rag Publishing in 2009.  She has recently signed a two-book contract with St. Martin’s Press; her first historical novel, tentatively entitled The Queen’s Whore, will be published with them in 2011.

 

Barnhill’s installment of the publishing workshop will focus on “dealing with rejection” from publishers and agents.  Just as in the first workshop, at the conclusion of Barnhill’s presentation, the floor will be open for questions and solutions to all phases of the problems the publishing process can involve.  Participants need not have attended the first workshop to benefit from what Barnhill will discuss and cover in this one, and in the Q & A Barnhill will cover any topics her audience wishes to discuss.

 

Barnhill will also read from her body of works, concentrating on her recent short story collection, and will conclude the afternoon with a book signing.  Both her memoir and her short story collection will be available at the workshop.