Stephen Crimi will be presenting his first book, Katabatic Wind: Good Craic Fueled by Fumes from the Abyss at City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, August 13th at 3p.m.  Katabatic Wind is an inspired collection of essays drawn from the lost unknown sacred tradition of the West. Using the lens of mythology, pre-Socratic Greek thought, this book illumines how these traditions shadow life lived today. The kernel of these essays is loss, longing for return, and the grief of living in a society without an inkling of its sacred origin story.

Stephen Crimi has a degree in English literature from Union College, and spent over a decade in traditional Yoga study at Yoga Anand Ashram in Amityville, NY. He's done time as an editor, estate gardener, cook, massage therapist, and most recently, running a biodynamic garden and fiber farm, Philosophy Farm, for twelve years with his wife of three decades, Krys. They now live in Asheville, in the mountains of North Carolina, where they continue to write and publish.

John Lane returns to City Lights Bookstore to present his latest book, Coyote Settles the South, on Friday, August 19th, at 6:30pm. Ron Rash, author of Serena, says “John Lane takes readers into the heart of nature as well as into the nature of the heart, and he writes with wonder, wisdom, and profound attentiveness.”

Coyote Settles the South is about Lane’s journey through the Southeast, as he visits coyote territories, meets and observes those who interact with the animals, and gains insight on the migration of the American coyote, an animal that, in the end, surprises him with its intelligence, resilience, and amazing adaptability.

Lane is a professor of English and environmental studies at Wofford College. He has published several volumes of poetry, essays, and a novel, as well as a selection of his online columns, The Best of the Kudzu Telegraph.

Robert Kendrick will be presenting his first collection of poetry, Winter Skin, at City Lights Bookstore on Saturday, August 20th at 3p.m. Ron Rash comments, “Robert Lee Kendrick’s poems transport the reader into the deep, dark souls of his narrators, but the elegance of his language gives the poems a rough, hard-earned grace. Winter Skin marks the debut of a very talented poet.”

Kendrick grew up in Illinois and Iowa, but found a home in South Carolina. He now lives in Clemson with his wife and their dogs. His poems appear in The Louisiana Literature, South Carolina Review, Kestrel, The James Dickey Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Main Street Rag, and more. To reserve copies of Winter Skin, please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499. 

The Jackson County Public Library and City Lights Bookstore are partnering in a presentation  and book signing with Bronwen Dickey on Thursday, August 25th at 7 p.m. The presentation will be in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library. Dickey will discuss her book, Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon which examines the history and myths of the breed. Hal Herzog, WCU professor, and author Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat, said about Pit Bull, "This is one of best dog books you will ever read. But, it is also about the big stuff – the moral status of animals, the science of nature and nurture, the role of race in our culture. In Pit Bull, Bronwen Dickey weaves a tale in which the most divisive of animal issues becomes a metaphor for deep-seated conflicts in American society." Publishers Weekly added, "[Dickey] illuminates many of the facts and exposes many of the myths surrounding pit bulls and dogs in general... Dickey's immersive and illuminating work deserves a wide audience."

Bronwen Dickey is a contributing editor at The Oxford American. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Newsweek, Outside, Popular Mechanics, Best American Travel Writing 2009, Slate, Garden & Gun, The San Francisco Chronicle, Southern Living, World Hum, Sport Diver, and The Independent Weekly, among other publications. In 2009 she received a first-place Lowell Thomas Award in travel journalism and a residency grant from the MacDowell Colony. She lives in North Carolina.