Book City ★ Roanoke

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 and community impact for the Urban Li...

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 PM.
Follow House of Expression o...

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 act, which she so stunningly uncovered i...

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.  Hear more about empathy, stereoty...

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 lens of the story's central charact...

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 BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast is sponsor...

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 Sea (Riverhead Books, 2014) and Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg (Broadway Books, 2018).  On investing in a strong locality, Fellers say...

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 unlikely compatriots, we see them each ...

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 gradual change, spanning school des...

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 Workbook. A former college writing in...

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. In the conversation he discusses econ...

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 a matter of seeing it, looking at it...

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 writings of James Baldwin on him as...

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 this enterprise, and through collabor...

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 other people, and serve other people,...

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.

Find links to the books Katherine me...

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 element we can all relate to."

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