Book City ★ Roanoke

Join 2023 Writer by Bus Eva Lynch-Comer for a reading and Q&A session at Book No Further, hosted by the Latinas Network . In this episode, the we feature the sixth annual celebration of transit through the arts sponsored by the Roanoke Arts Commission , Ride Solutions , and Valley Metro with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Eva Lynch-Comer is an Afro-Latina and African-America...

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Tim Duggan Books, 2017) is an ideal book to launch season four. This season we're exploring BOOKS THAT MATTER--books that challenge us and shape the way we think and act. And return guest Shari Henry is an ideal guide for a look at our first book, which draws 20 lessons from the 20th century on how to care for our democracy. Shari Henry is the director of democracy an...

Betsy Biesenbach is doing the work of anti-racism as member of the Roanoke Universalist Unitarian Church and as a resident of Raleigh Court. Title searches led her to uncover the names of enslaved people who once lived on the land, and as a result has written a book for grades 3 and up to help parents teach a fuller history of the place to their children. Get the book at Book No Further.

Garland Gravely combines his interest in fashion, multiculturalism, the ballroom scene, and community organizing in several Roanoke area endeavors. This conversation begins with a discussion of the late Andre Leon Talley's memoir, The Chiffon Trenches and lands with an upcoming event celebrating Black history with ballroom legends. Learn more about the virtual Black History event on 2/22/22 at 7 P...

Beth Macy's work ( Factory Man , Truevine , Dopesick) is a call to action. From her roots growing up poor in Ohio through a career in journalism and now as bestselling author, the stories she's gravitated to--those she's chosen to tell--foster empathy with our neighbors who are suffering and struggling.  Now with the opioid crises haven taken more than a million American lives, the need to ac...

What can Appalachian fourth graders tell you about rural lives? A lot, it turns out. Rachelle Kuehl's dissertation at Virginia Tech focused on the analysis of fourth grade writing to get a better understanding of the role of reading and writing in perceptions of places. Of course long-lived Applachian stereotypes aren't true, and books and writing can go a long way in helping to rectify them. &nbs...

Poet, writer, editor, publisher, and journalist Mike Allen is trying to scare us. And he's succeeding.  With another collection out now from his own Mythic Delirium Books , he discusses his novella, "The Comforter," from his 2020 collaborative suite, A Sinister Quartet. The conversation explores this season's theme Alone / Together: What pulls us into community and stands us apart through the...

A conversation with author Eleanor Levine is as wide ranging and unexpected as her stories. Following her book of poetry, Waitress at the Blue Moon Pizzeria (Unsolicited Press, 2016), Levine now offers Kissing a Tree Surgeon from Guernica World Editions.  We dig into the stories, unrequited love, and our theme, "Alone / Together in a conversation that we just couldn't cut short.  The BOO...

Roanoke resident Thomas Fellers offers two books for a conversation on social infrastructure as we continue an exploration of Alone / Together: What draws us into community and sets us apart.  Books discussed in this third episode of the season are Chang-rae Lee's On Such a Full Se a (Riverhead Books, 2014) and Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg (Broadway Books, 2018).  On investi...

In season 3, we ponder the theme Alone/Together: What pulls us into community and stands us apart. In Ann Pachett's Bel Canto (HarperCollins, 2001), the overtaking of a Vice President's home in an unnamed country after the performance of an opera singer at the birthday of a powerful Japanese businessman. As Patchett weaves through the perspectives of the characters in this tightly set tale of unli...

Larry I. Palmer, the author of Scholarship Boy: Meditations on Family and Race (Paul Dry Books, 2020), attended Phillips Exeter Academy at 14, boarding at the prestigious school, worlds away from his large St. Louis Family. Now his coming-of-age memoir highlights the strength of a family, the determination of parents, and, of course, the lessons of youth -- all in an era of dramatic upheavals and...

Roanoke native Kris Spisak writes, edits, and coaches writers through professional services, a podcast, a blog, two books, and creative workshops. In this conversation with BOOK CITY Roanoke' s Douglas Jackson, Spisak discusses the thought process, common mistakes made by beginning writers, why grammar matters, and how it just might be fun. Spisak is most recently the author of The Novel Editing W...

We caught up with Doloris Vest, proprietor of Book No Further, the independent book store on Roanoke's historic city market to get a glimpse behind the scenes. She talks about the area reading community, the strength of local authors, the support of Southern Independent Booksellers Association, and most recently what she's doing to keep the cash register ringing amidst the COVID-19 shut down.

Celebrating 10 years of "Word from the Appalachian South," The Revivalist' s Mark Lynn Ferguson reflects on Appalachian craft, food and literature in a conversation with BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke 's Douglas Jackson.  Ferguson is co-owner of Crafteria in downtown Roanoke. The vendor-filled space celebrates contemporary makers of Southern Appalachia craft and includes a retail presence for his blog....

Sandee McGlaun is an associate professor of English and the director of the writing center at Roanoke College. She writes nonfiction as well as poetry and plays. She has released her writing in two blogs, Still Life, Beyond Cancer  and 40 Something First Time Bride . "When I switched from fiction to nonfiction," says McGlaun, "I realized everything's a story. There's material everywhere. It's...

Artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson recently installed a sculptural series, "Rhapsody in Knowledge," in front of Roanoke's Melrose Library. In this conversation with BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke 's Douglas Jackson, the artist reflects on the role of books and libraries in his life, including the experience as a child of hearing Gwendolyn Brooks read poetry at Chicago's Hall Branch Library and the impact of the...

Urban gardener Cameron Terry began Garden Variety Harvests in 2017. The businesses borrows other people's land to grow fresh produce for the Roanoke market. In this episode of the podcast, Cam talks with BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke' s Douglas Jackson about books that continue to shape the strategy and spirit with which he's connecting local residents with local food. There's a real social mission behind t...

Contemplative photographer and writer Ashley Wilson Fellers is creative on a number of fronts including poetry, painting, and photography. She's currently asking the question: "What can I do with my gifts?"  Intentionally disrupting her life is a creative jolt jointly undertaken with husband Thomas Fellers. "I am at a place where I just want to let some of what I do exist in community with ot...

Artist Katherine Devine joins host Douglas Jackson for a discussion of books that have shaped her identity as an artist. "Writing and Reading is really how I make decisions about my life," says Katherine. In the sense of personal transformation, Katherine is steadily at work. If you're a fan of memoir and art, creative thought and reflection, you'll enjoy this conversation with a working artist. F...

Lee Hunsaker returned to Roanoke to "live authentically" near the mountains and her family. She tells us about rediscovering her true love of writing and stories and the idea for a story hoedown that's grown into a tradition of Hoot and Holler storytelling evenings, featuring "Our Stories. Out Loud." "I really push for honesty and truth, even if it's uncomfortable," says Hunsaker. "There's some el...

Season two of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with a conversation with four-term Roanoke City Council Member Bill Bestpitch. Bestpitch offers reflections on his reading life, Roanoke's progress, and the exchange of perspectives over shared reading. Bestpitch entered public life through his active participation in the Old Southwest neighborhood in the early 90s and is active in a number o...

Season two of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast launches with a conversation with freelance journalist and local foods advocate Christina Nifong. In her profiles of Roanoke area residents, Nifong plays the cinematographer.  "I'm always trying to decide when to go in tight and when to pull back," she says. The telling detail help us understand her subject, and these individual stories help us un...

Our exploration of  Identity and Action  wraps with podcast producer Brad Stephens. In this episode, Brad and Douglas Jackson look back at the entire season. Of course, we'll talk about books, many of this seasons' guests and what these conversations are adding up to, touching on the following and more: empathy and books,  books and the unlikeable, writing and wisdom, and the comple...

The exploration of Identity and Action continues with Writer Jeanne Larsen.  With the poet, novelist, and essayist we explore how the written word shapes our sense of self and how we put that into work in the world around us.  "You need to find the words that put who you are as you perceive yourself out there into the world," says Larsen. Jeanne Larsen, writer, spent a career at Hollins...

Identity and Action: We continue exploring how the written word shapes our sense of self and how we put that into work in the world around us with a conversation with City of Roanoke Vice Mayor Joe Cobb. In this episode Joe discusses three books that weave through his way of being in the world. We touch on hospitality and fear, on seeing ourselves and on the power of claiming our bodies.  "Li...