Booksigning and Fundraiser
Thursday, 08 September 2022 12:48Join Malaprop’s and Metro Wines on Sunday, October 16th, from 1 to 3:30 at Metro Wines, 169 Charlotte Street in Asheville, for a rare in-person event with award-winning authors Barbara Quick (What Disappears) and Gavin Larsen (Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life).Authors will mix with the crowd and read select passages from their work, illuminating the world of ballet past and present.
"Metro Wines, beautifully restored to its 1923 roots, is the perfect location for this event" says John Kerr, co-owner of Metro Wines. "The art of preservation hosts the art of writing."
The $16 ticket includes a glass of wine as well as a silent auction that will raise funds for a needs-based scholarship at the Ballet Conservatory of Asheville. Auction Items include virtual visits by the authors to your book club or writing group, backstage passes to a ballet performance, private ballet lessons, and a wine event at Metro Wines for eight people! And a bookseller from Malaprop’s will be available to sell books by Gavin and Barbara, which they will sign and personally inscribe.
To buy tickets, go here: https://
Barbara Quick (What Disappears) and Gavin Larsen (Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life). Novelist and poet Barbara Quick and ballet memoirist Gavin Larsen became fans of one another’s books during the pandemic—and have been doing virtual events together ever since as part of Quick’s national tour for her acclaimed fourth novel, What Disappears. The writers will mix with the crowd, sharing their thoughts about writing, wine, and the world of ballet past and present—and will read a braided selection of passages from their books.
Until the publication of her fourth novel this past May, Barbara Quick was best known as author of the 2007 international favorite, Vivaldi’s Virgins (currently in development as a mini-series with Director Agnieszka Holland). Winner of the Discover: Great New Writers prize for her first novel, Northern Edge, Barbara was awarded the Blue Light Press Poetry Prize for her debut book of poems, The Light on Sifnos (2021). Scientific American published one of her poems as a full-page spread in their May 2022 issue. Five of Barbara’s poems were recorded by Garrison Keillor and featured on the Writer’s Almanac last year. She is a frequent guest on Maryland Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri’s archived program from the Library of Congress, The Poet and the Poem. Over forty years in the making, What Disappears had its origins in the author’s own Russian-Jewish family history, evolving into a gripping multi-generational story of love and loss, set in Tsarist Russia, Belle Époque Paris, and the world of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
Gavin Larsen’s memoir is a beautifully crafted and deeply moving book about the realities of life as a professional ballet dancer. Editor and dance critic Robert Gottlieb called it the best book he’s ever read about becoming and being a dancer—"Every word rings true!” Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life is a must-read book for aspiring dancers, those who love them, and anyone who has ever been captivated by the magic of ballet, providing rare insight into the unique sacrifices demanded by the art as well as the rare joys it confers.