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-American poet with Costa Rican ancestry. She is a Creative Writing MFA student and teaching fellow at Hollins University. Eva holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Hamilton College where she received the John V. A. Weaver Prize in Poetry and the Sydna Stern Weiss Essay Prize in Women’s Studies. She is a two-time pushcart prize nominee. Eva’s work has appeared in over 15 literary magazines including Free Verse Revolution, Honeyguide Magazine, Nightingale & Sparrow, and Capsule Stories, among others. Her writing centers on themes of healing, family, love, social justice, the divine feminine, nature, jazz, music, ecofeminism, the ocean, and magic. In her free time, Eva enjoys singing, drinking tea, and walking her dog Osito. You can find more of Eva's work at www.evalynchcomer.com

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 Libraries Council. Shari has worked in libraries for over 15 years, including director for Roanoke County, Va. Prior to her library career, she worked in community engagement and outreach in nonprofits and is a published writer. Shari is driven by the desire to impact the community for good by connecting resources to people, and by her undying belief that libraries are fundamental to healthy democracies.

Here are some links to content discussed in the podcast.

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

The BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke Podcast is sponsored by Book No Further.

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 PM.

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 in Dopesick, remains urgent.

In this conversation, the author hits on the power of individuals and institutions in our communities, the importance of listening, and the need to strengthen our human infrastructure.

Beth Macy is the author of three widely acclaimed and bestselling books. Based in Roanoke, Virginia for three decades, her reporting has won more than a dozen national awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard.

Sign up for Beth Macy's newsletter at intrepidpapergirl.com.

Get Beth's books at Book No Further.

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, stereotypes, self-awareness, and local pride in this episode.

Rachelle Kuehl, PhD, is postdoctoral associate at Virginia Tech and project manager of the Appalachian Rural Talent Initiative. She is a reading specialist and former elementary teacher whose articles about writing instruction, children’s literature, and teacher education have been published in such journals as the English Journal, Collection Management, Reading in Virginia, the Virginia English Journal, and the Teacher Educators’ Journal. She is coauthor of chapters in What’s Hot in Literacy? Exemplar Models of Effective Practice (2020) and the forthcoming volumes, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Rural Education in the USA and Gifted Education in Rural Schools.

Learn more about the project.

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 character, an eighth grade girl undergoing some traumatic experiences. 

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 sponsored by our good friends at Roanoke's independent book store, Book No Further. Purchase Kissing a Tree Surgeon here.

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 says, "Everyone who's a part of it has a seat at the table and feels there's going to be enough." That, he says is what social infrastructure can help do.

Hear the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, and pick up a copy from an independent book seller like our podcast sponsor, Book No Further.

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 affected by the others, by music, by the disruption of their worlds. 

Brad Stephens joins the conversation to talk about the power of that disruption in helping us set and change the course of our days and lives.

You can catch Brad's latest podcast: Quarantine Conversations with My Friends.

Brad Stephens spends his days working in the world of workforce development and has spent many years working with the social change and entrepreneurship community in Roanoke, helping build innovative community solutions. Along with being the founder of Big Lick SOUP, a co-founder of Noke Codes and putting on CityWorks (X)po, he is always looking for new community development projects that can help improve the lives of the people that call this community home.

Brad and his wife, Sarah, moved to the Roanoke Valley years ago while he was working on his M.S. in Forestry at Virginia Tech with a focus on community collaborations in sustainable development. Ever since, this community has felt like home. They have grown to love the authenticity of this dynamic place. He wants to build communities that work for people.