It’s a busy time here in Gold Leaf land (as well as in the bigger book business). It’s officially the 4th quarter, which means tons of books are coming out in the lead up to Christmas. It’s the middle of book festival season. There are birthdays and holidays and so many stressful and delightful things coming around the bend!
It’s also time to eat all the apples from the orchards here in WNC and beyond, drink copious amounts of tea, and dream of sitting by a fire, cozy under a blanket, reading. Every leaf that drifts to the ground puts us closer to that vision. Of course, during the fall, we’ll also be calling our reps about so many issues, making time to care for ourselves and our loved ones, and donating to places like our local NPR station as much as we can.
We look forward to seeing some of you around this fall! Check out our news and events below to see where we, and our amazing authors, plan to be.
If you have questions about the book world or any of our authors or projects, or we can do something to support your work, please reach out. As always, thanks for reading!
—Lauren
The Anniversary of Helene
For those of you who were affected, you probably know in your bones that the anniversary of Hurricane Helene is right around the corner. September 27th is the official date, but over the weeks folks will be remembering in different ways. Below, we’re sharing books and events that we can recommend if you need to know more about this storm and the people who were here or if you need to commune with others to remember and rise.
Edited by one of our former Great Smokies Writing Program students, Shelley McKechnie, this book brings together writers and artists affected by the storm and using their work to understand what happened. All proceeds benefit Manna Foodbank. At a wonderful recent event, we got to watch Shelley present Manna with a $7,500 check!
Put together by local author Nora Shalaway Carpenter with a list of incredible local and national writers, this is a guidebook for writers and creatives. Everyone who shared work did so without compensation so that all proceeds benefit Helene recovery.
On September 24th, our local NPR station, Blue Ridge Public Radio or BPR, is teaming up with NC Local, Buncombe County Special Collections, UNC Asheville and more than a dozen local news organizations on “The Heart of the Mountains,” a live storytelling event, at UNCA’s Highsmith Student Union.
On September 27th, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church will host a symposium on Climate Change and Social Justice in the wake of Helene. Featuring Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull and Rev. Rebecca Barnes and moderated by Warren Wilson professor and author Mallory McDuff, as well as BBQ donated by Phil’s, it is free and open to the public.
For other options, our local newspaper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, has more.
News
Welcome, Anna Beth!
Our fabulous fall intern from Western Carolina University, Anna Beth, is helping us update lists, plan social media and other outreach, and more! We feel incredibly lucky to have her on the team.
Here’s her bio, for more details:
My name is Anna Beth Savage and I am so excited to have joined the Gold Leaf Team as their new fall intern. I am a senior at Western Carolina University, studying English: Film and Media studies with a Minor in Professional Writing. I love all things books and movies. I love anything Fantasy and magical when picking up a book. My favorite book series is Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I am planning on attending Grad School here at WCU where I will get my Masters in Professional Writing. I am so thankful for this opportunity and excited to learn and grow as a student and an intern.
Gold Leaf authors and staff are on the move this fall. Look for Peter McDade, Michael Amos Cody, Archer Sullivan, and Stacia Pelletier at the Southern Festival of Books in October! Lauren and Grace will be on site, too, to meet authors, visit Parnassus Books, and enjoy this incredible event!
At the end of October, Lauren will be talking marketing at Redhawk Publishing’s Open Access: Literature from the Margins Conference. You’ll find Gold Leaf author John Rhea, as well as others, there, too. The conference includes sessions on editing, copyright, presses of NC, and getting your book from print to screen.
New Books!
Out this month and next:
The Deliverance of Barker McRae by Stacia Pelletier (Jamie Ford calls it a “sweeping, masterfully crafted saga.”)
Angels at the Gate by Sheri Joseph (check out the book trailer and this great Atlanta Journal-Constitution review!)
War Games AND Refugee: The Graphic Novel by Alan Gratz (full tour)
The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik by Denise Smith Cline (Heather Newton says Vesta is “a heroine we can all root for.”)
Caroline’s in NYC!
Caroline and fam are officially up in New York for the next couple of years. She’s still busting out the bookstore emails and much more for Gold Leaf, plus attending events like the recent AALA People of Publishing Conference (where she met our publishing idol, Jane Friedman). If you’re in the area—living, visiting, touring, etc.—or want to share your favorite literary doings in the city, give her a shout!
In collaboration with WNC’s own McFarland & Co. Publishing, we’re working on a series of events for the forthcoming North Carolina Day Hiking for Every Body by Whitney Wallace. An inclusive hiking guide for anyone, at any level of experience or ability, this is exactly the book we need to get everyone outdoors and enjoying the amazing state we live in!
We’re thrilled to be working with local author Bobbie Pyron again as we connect her middle-grade book, Octopus Moon, to new audiences. Written in verse and exploring a young girl’s struggle with depression, this book is something so many of us needed when we were young. Ultimately hopeful, this story is already receiving heart-healing reader feedback.
From Our Community
There are several new offerings from friends, community partners, and former clients or students.
Get ready for CIPHER from Jeremy B. Jones. Published by our friends at Blair, this is a book unlike any other. Follow the link to learn all about this wild trip from found encoded diaries to Jones’s exploration of his ancestor’s—and his own—life.
(Pro Tip: Follow Jeremy on social media to be deeply entertained and see a masterclass on embracing fun in book promotion!)
If you don’t know who Ed Southern is, you’re probably not in North Carolina. The beloved Executive Director of the North Carolina Writer’s Network and an incredible storyteller himself, Ed has gathered some of our state’s best to share spooky stories for The Devil’s Done Come Back: New Ghost Tales from North Carolina.
Visit Ed’s website and check for local events by clicking the image.
The Red Car to Hollywood by Jennie Liu came out earlier this year and we’ve been looking for the right time to shout out this excellent YA historical fiction novel set in the 1920s. Jennie is a dear friend and member of our Asheville lit community, as well as a former Great Smokies Writing Program student!
For more, check out this Historical Novel Society review!
Also out this year, Valerie Nieman’s Upon the Corner of the Moon is a deeply researched fictional recast of Lady Macbeth as a young woman. Prepare to have your high school ideas shifted as you read this sumptuous novel!
We worked with Valerie on her dark, twisty novel In the Lonely Backwater, which is also a great read for the season we’re in.
Speaking of the season, Andrew K. Clark’s follow up to last year’s horror novel Where Dark Things Grow is out! Where Dark Things Rise is also set in our region, but this time it’s the 1980s that form the backdrop for strange happenings and chilling discoveries.
Andrew is on the road for the book and you can find out where to catch him by clicking the book cover.
As always, please feel free to share this with anyone you think would enjoy it. We appreciate you and our lush literary ecosystem so much!
Connect with us on social media! @goldleafliterary