Literature and Author Receptions
May
Thursday May 29 2:00-4:00
Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses, Widows and Runaways Shaped Modern America
In this innovative and insightful book, Elizabeth Engelhardt argues that modern American food, business, caretaking, politics, sex, travel, writing, and restaurants all owe a debt to boardinghouse women in the South. From the eighteenth century well into the twentieth, entrepreneurial women ran boarding houses throughout the South; some also carried the institution to far-flung places like California, New York, and London. Owned and operated by Black, Jewish, Native American, and white women, rich and poor, immigrant and native-born, these lodgings were often hubs of business innovation and engines of financial independence for their owners. Within their walls, boardinghouse residents and owners developed the region’s earliest printed cookbooks, created space for making music and writing literary works, formed ad hoc communities of support, tested boundaries of race and sexuality, and more. This program is in collaboration with the Highlands Historical Society.
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Location: CLE Lecture Hall
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Join us after Dr. Engelhardt's presentation from 4:30 - 6:00 for a wine reception at Highlands Historical Society!
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Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt, Distinguished Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is a scholar of food, gender, and the US South, as well as the co-convener of Southern Futures - a university-wide network for equity, justice, and possibility in Carolina’s home region. She is the author or editor of eight books, including most recently, Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses, Widows, and Runaways Shaped Modern America.
This program is sponsored by Millie Coleman
June
Wednesday June 25 5:30-8:30
The 2025 Book of the Year: “Table for Two”
Join us for a catered dinner in one of Highlands’ many beautiful homes to examine a book from last year that achieved literary acclaim. Since the Book of the Year is too new to be enshrined as a classic, we will have room to debate its merits and shortcomings. This year we will explore the latest book by one of those rare writers who consistently wins literary praise and bestseller status: Amor Towles. Known for his novels, Towles’ latest book, Table for Two, was a surprise when it came out in 2024 because it is a collection of short stories and a novella. Although the novella, a sequel to his first novel, Rules of Civility, is amusing, we will not focus on that. The real prizes are the stories of New York, Towles’ home ground, which distill the stylistic polish, humor, and pathos of his sprawling novels into a much tighter space. As the New York stories show, Towles is our 21st century F. Scott Fitzgerald. Table for Two (Viking, 2024) is widely available; we will read the hardcover edition.
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Location: Private Residence. Details will be sent to attendees closer to the program date​
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Dr. Brian Railsback is a Professor of English at Western Carolina University, where he served as founding Dean of The Honors College and Chair of the Faculty. He teaches creative writing and U.S. literature. He has published a novel, short stories, a scholarly book, and numerous essays. He has lectured or taught courses in Cuba, Georgia, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, and Portugal. In 2022, he was a Fiction Participant at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and in 2023 named the Steve Kemp Writer in Residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His collection of essays about the experience is published in the Smokies Life Journal, Fall 2024 issue.
August
Wednesday August 20 5:30-7:30
Words from the Heart: An Evening with Ron Rash on Life, Literature, and Legacy
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Join us at High Country Wine and Provisions for an evening with celebrated author, Ron Rash, for a consideration of the major themes of his life’s work to date, which includes eight novels, seven collections of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. After a brief introductory lecture by his colleague, Brian Railsback, Rash will read from a selection of his poetry and fiction. The reading will be followed by questions from Dr. Railsback and the audience.
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Location: High Country Wine and Provisions (please do not call High Country to register)
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Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University (WCU), is among the most acclaimed authors of the Southeastern United States. His work has won numerous prestigious awards, including the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers (2005), the O. Henry Prize for short stories in 2005, 2010, and 2019, and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for his collection, Burning Bright (2010). Three of his works have made The New York Times Book Review bestseller list: Serena (novel, 2008), The Cove (novel, 2012), and Nothing Gold Can Stay (short story collection, 2013). In 2024, Rash was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.
Dr. Brian Railsback is a Professor of English at Western Carolina University, where he served as founding Dean of The Honors College and Chair of the Faculty. He teaches creative writing and U.S. literature. He has published a novel, short stories, a scholarly book, and numerous essays. He has lectured or taught courses in Cuba, Georgia, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, and Portugal. In 2022, he was a Fiction Participant at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and in 2023 named the Steve Kemp Writer in Residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His collection of essays about the experience is published in the Smokies Life Journal, Fall 2024 issue.
This program is sponsored by Diane and Ray McPhail
Thursday August 21 4:00-6:00
Author Reception: Darwin and the Art of Botany
Join us at one of Highlands’ many beautiful homes for this presentation and author reception for Highlands’ own Dr. Jim Costa! From finches and tortoises to barnacles and pigeons, Charles Darwin is most often associated with the iconic animals that he studied, but in fact a larger part of his contribution to the natural sciences is based on plants. Darwin’s botanical observations and experiments are crucial to our modern understanding of so much about plant biology, from pollination to plant carnivory to the way that vines climb. To help modern audiences better appreciate Darwin’s botany as well as the rich tradition of botanical art, Dr. Costa teamed up with his friend, the botanical artist Bobbi Angell (www.bobbiangell.com/), to produce Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the Curious World of Plants. A celebration of Darwin’s often overlooked botanical enthusiasms, the book spotlights 45 fascinating plants studied by Darwin, each illustrated with beautiful and historically significant botanical artwork that Bobbi curated from the Library at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia. This “arts and sciences” course will inspire a new appreciation for Darwin’s creative botanical investigations and the ways in which plants helped shape our understanding of the world around us, as well as the history of botanical art and illustration.
This program is in collaboration with the Highlands Biological Station.
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Location: Private Residence. Details will be provided closer to the event date.
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Dr. James (Jim) Costa is executive director and professor at Highlands Biological Station of Western Carolina University in Highlands, NC. An entomologist, evolutionary biologist, and Darwin and Wallace scholar, Jim’s most recent books include Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace (Princeton, 2023), and Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the Curious World of Plants (Timber, 2023). His honors include the Alfred Russel Wallace Medal of the Wallace Memorial Fund (2017) and the Stephen Jay Gould Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution (2023).