Guests will experience encounters with zoo ambassador animals, signature drinks and a seated dinner from award-winning Chef 360. The evening will include a live and silent auction with exclusive behind-the-scenes zoo encounters and live music from Kami Ocean & the Rhythm. Wear your green (if you wish) and join us for an unforgettable evening to support the Greenville Zoo. Dress formal. Black Tie.

Join us for a Pop-Up with author Jennifer Ferguson and her book Lenny the Lemming!

BOOK SUMMARY

When Lenny’s peaceful life of foraging for basic needs takes an unexpected turn, he ends up on a journey that ends with a friendship he didn’t know he needed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her mother, three tabby cats, and a cockatiel. She is on the autism spectrum and is employed part time at a local supermarket. Also, she is an active member of Greenville CAN (Collaborative Action Network). greenvillecan.org

Come meet Jennifer, hear more about her books, and get a signed copy!

You’d never be able to eat at 13 restaurants in one night without needing stretchy pants and a ride home, but, on Sunday, April 16, that’s exactly what we are going to do! Join us for the Loaves & Fishes Taste of the Upstate: 2023 Food Rescue Challenge. This year’s challenge will be held Sunday, April 16th, from 11:30am – 2pm at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Patio.

Each dish will feature a commonly recued food as an ingredient to bring awareness to food waste. Nikko Cagalanan (cah-GAL-uh-nan), a Charleston champion from Food Network TV’s Chopped, will be the guest judge.

Taste of the Upstate (TOU) will feature 10 of Greenville’s tastiest restaurants, each sharing their finest dishes with a panel of regional food experts and local TOU ticketholders. 2023 will feature a panel of local judges including local chef and former winner of Taste of the Upstate awards, Tony Keely, and Cagalanan.

The unlimited eats, live music, silent auctions and libations make this fund raising event unforgettable. Tickets are $50 each and include all-you-can-eat tastings from all restaurants. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Please join us to celebrate the launch of The House is on Fire with Rachel Beanland. A riveting reimagining of one of early America’s deadliest tragedies, the Richmond Theater Fire of 1811, The House is on Fire is told from the perspectives of four characters whose lives are irrevocably altered in the aftermath of the inferno.

Rachel will be on hand to talk, answer questions, and sign books, as we enjoy an incredible lunch at Soby’s! Get your ticket today!

BOOK SUMMARY

Richmond, Virginia 1811. It’s the height of the winter social season, the General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city’s only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment at the front of a church.

On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly-widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom first.

When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.

Based on the true story of Richmond’s theater fire, The House Is On Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious—and fleeting—chances at redemption.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Beanland is the author of the forthcoming novel, The House Is On Fire, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in April 2023. Her debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was selected as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble, a featured debut by Amazon, an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was recognized with the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (Greenberg Prize). To date, it has been published or is forthcoming in nine countries.

Rachel’s writing has also appeared in Lit Hub, Business Insider, Creative Nonfiction, and Broad Street, among other places. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rachel lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family.

REVIEWS

“Fully realized characters and gripping prose makes for an excellent, riveting novel that is highly recommended.” —Booklist, STARRED review

“Powerful… Beanland enlivens the smart and suspenseful narrative with fully developed protagonists that illuminate the community’s response to mass catastrophe. Readers will relish this.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“Propulsive… full of historical detail and full-blooded characters” —Shelf Awareness

“Propulsive. Rachel Beanland’s The House Is On Fire pulls you into a major moment in American history via the lives of four vividly drawn characters.”—Farah Ali, author of People Want to Live

“I could not turn the pages fast enough! An absolutely propulsive feat of storytelling! The House is On Fire reveals the little-known events of an American tragedy of Titanic proportion. In heart-stopping, intimate detail Beanland transports us directly into the souls of a truly diverse cast of Virginians whose varied means of survival during the theater fire and in its deftly-told aftermath, not only paint a rich portrait of 1800s America, but also hold up a timeless mirror to the racial disparity revealed by unexpected loss – and the means through which we must all come together to rebuild. Brava!”—Afia Atakora, author of Conjure Women

Join us for WOMEN IN THE KITCHEN (where we belong), a fundraiser benefiting Julie Valentine Center and WREN Group on Tuesday, April 18, from 7:30-9PM.
We’re getting our lady friends together to show some support for South Carolina women and the local organizations who put them first. Join us for a fantastic evening of food and drink, donated by some of the best female chefs in Greenville. Your ticket includes specially-prepared snacks from these fine establishments, as well as a couple fun beverages to go pair with your plate:

Christina Barest of Naked Pasta

Meredith Bost of Resident Diner

Katie Cheney of Hester General Store

Elizabeth McDaniel of Larue Fine Chocolate

Teryi Youngblood Musolf of Camilla Kitchen

Leslie Urbina of Camilla Kitchen

Over the course of the evening, after hours in the bookstore, we’ll have the chance to hear from members of the Julie Valentine Center and WREN about their mission and how we can help. Chefs are donating their time and product, and the proceeds from ticket sales will go equally to each organization. So join us at M. Judson, where everybody belongs.

Free micro-festival
Musical Acts: The Get Down Junkies, Natti Love Joys, and BEMI Music.
Stilt-walking Gulf fritillary butterfly, attend a solar tour or
homesteading workshop, visit local vendors, and unwind in the health &
wellness zone. All ages are welcome.
Meet the team and learn how to get involved for our Solar Festival in
August at the local Music Camp.

Get Off The Grid Fest Charrette
Free micro-festival
Musical Acts: The Get Down Junkies, Natti Love Joys, and BEMI Music.
Stilt-walking Gulf fritillary butterfly, attend a solar tour or
homesteading workshop, visit local vendors, and unwind in the health &
wellness zone. All ages are welcome.
Meet the team and learn how to get involved for our Solar Festival in
August at the local Music Camp.

Join us on Tuesday, April 25th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with author Matthew Vollmer. He’ll be chatting with about his book All of Us Together in the End.

All Of Us Together In The End is a lyrical examination of transformation after loss, by a writer the New York Times calls “irresistible” and “utterly convincing.” We’re excited to have Matthew in store with us and can’t wait to hear all about his writing processes, what inspires him, and ask questions about his book.

So don’t miss out on this free event!

BOOK SUMMARY

Vollmer’s family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Soon after, flashing lights and floating orbs appear in the woods surrounding his family’s home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories of having been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church resurge in Vollmer’s mind, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning.

He corresponds with a retired geology professor about “ghost lights,” which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. He scrolls TikTok. He contacts an eccentric shaman who lives in Spain to have transcendental psychotherapy administered over Zoom. And then Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer’s father, holding secrets to their family’s past.

Amidst the turmoil and loneliness of the pandemic, All of Us Together in the End is a poignant and often humorous investigation into belief set in a time where it seems people will believe anything. It is an elegiac affirmation of the awesome, strange, otherworldly ways our loved ones remain alive to us, even when they are out of reach.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections as well as three collections of essays. He was the editor of A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which collects invocations from over 60 acclaimed and emerging authors, and served as co-editor of Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts. His work has appeared in venues such as Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Tin House, Oxford American, The Sun, The Pushcart Prize anthology, and Best American Essays. He teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lives in Blacksburg, VA.

REVIEWS

“Matthew Vollmer thinks too much. I’m glad, for I’m probably not thinking enough most days. All of Us Together in the End is an honest missive addressed to hope, regret, childhood, faith, truth, parenting, and the paranormal. And Love, with all its mysteries. It’s an insightful, beautiful memoir that I’ll remember forever.”
—George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories

“This engaging what’s-in-the-woods puzzle elegantly probes the questions that characterize deep relationships and deeper mysteries.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“All of Us Together in the End is an unforgettable record of ‘a purposeful journey’ that became ‘a collision with the ineffable.’” —Rebecca Foster, Foreword Reviews, Starred Review

We are so excited to spend an evening talking about the highly anticipated new thriller from the USA Today and #1 bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead author Jeneva Rose! Colleen Hoover herself says You Shouldn’t Have Come Here is “Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming.” We’ll enjoy a cocktail as we listen to Jeneva talk about her book and her writing process. Join us!

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.

Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him—including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it’ll be far more destructive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeneva Rose is the internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston.

REVIEWS

“Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming. Jeneva Rose is the queen of twists.”Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A page-turner from start to finish with a whiplash of a twist ending, Rose has cemented her place as a must-read author for fans of domestic thrillers. Sexy, sizzling, and suspenseful.”Jennifer Hillier, USA Today bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark and Little Secrets
“Jeneva Rose’s latest is a cat-and-mouse thriller, rustic Airbnb style. Throw in sexy romantic tension between narrators Grace and Calvin, and you have an unputdownable story where the suspense accelerates with every page turned. The twist at the end is brilliantly unexpected. This story will make you think twice about your next vacation rental, and about being a host. Sexy, shocking suspense.” Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author
“A dark, suspenseful psychological thriller with a great premise and masterful use of twists. Rarely have I read a book where I have switched allegiance with characters so frequently and still got my prediction wrong. It’s a pitch-perfect sinister read and begging for a sequel.”John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The One
“[An] intriguing thriller…A sinister undercurrent runs throughout, and while the reader is privy to each narrator’s thoughts, there are a few land mines buried along the way to the surprise ending. Rose should win new fans with this one.”Publishers Weekly

Greer Relief Week Fundraiser

• Where: Barberitos at 2801 Wade Hampton Blvd
• When: April 28th from 12pm-8pm
• What: Giving Back 20%

This meal will only happen if at least 20 commitments to eat are made by April 25, 2023.

You want to get into horror but you don’t know where to start. This is your sign. This is an intensive, boot campy, crash course 4 week program that will throw you head first into reading, writing, talking, screaming, digesting, sweating, and bleeding horror content. It’s going to be a blast!

We will meet on the following Thursdays: May 4, 11, 18, 25 from 7-9PM EST. Over those 4 weeks, participants will read a number of stories from various subgenres with the intent to identify tools and techniques used by the author. Implementing lessons and notes from class, students will workshop one story they’re passionate about over the duration of the course. At the end you’re going to have a story you’re proud of, but also you will have had a little tapas of what horror can be. Welcome to the fold!!

Week One: Building the Scary Premise and Your Scared Characters

After introductions we’ll talk about what brought us to this class and what stories (if any) are something we want to pursue. Through a series of generative exercises we’ll make your protagonist and the scary thing for them to encounter.

Reading: TBD

Writing: The first draft of your story!

Week Two: Setting, Secondary Characters, and the Talking about the Monster

We’ll workshop our pieces. Then we’ll go over the role of setting, the importance of characters for your protagonist to interact with, and how information can build suspense about the monster.

Readings after Class: “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, “Bulldozer” by Laird Barron

Write: The second draft of your story!

Week Three: The Villain’s Perspective and Your Character’s Agency

We’ll workshop your pieces again. We’ll discuss the importance of the villain’s perspective and how nailing it down can make the conflict clearer. We’ll also go over agency and what it means for your character being agentic vs. passive.

Readings: “The Cabbit” by Maria Dong, “No Matter Which Way They Turned” by Brian Evenson, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates.

Write: The third draft of your story!

Week Four: One More Workshop

This is the last class! What a doozy! We’ll workshop everyone’s pieces and talk about what techniques and tools we enjoyed, utilized, didn’t quite mesh with.

Should You Have the Time…

Read: “The Jaunt” by Stephen King, “The Boogeyman” by Stephen King, “Rainy Season” by Stephen King, “Hairy Legs and All” by Stephen Graham Jones, “The Moths” by Elina Hawkinsons, “The Coward II” by M. Gira, with more to come.

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Alex Gonzalez is a WGA screenwriter, author, and instructor. He teaches fiction writing at various platforms and teaches MFA level screenwriting at Long Island University. He is one of the creators of PoC satire site Flexx Magazine, horror-zine youarenotalone, and has been published in various magazines and anthologies, with his novel Land Shark debuting in 2020. He has been a consultant on novels, treatments, and screenplays. His feature script Negative Space is currently in development with Extra A Productions (The Giant, Little Woods) and his second novel is on submission through FinePrint Lit.

Join us on Sunday, May 7th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with authors Mimi Herman and Susan Reinhardt where we’ll be talking about their respective books The Kudzu Queen and The Beautiful Misfits.

We’re very excited to have these ladies in store with us and can’t wait to hear all about their lives, writing processes, inspirations, and books.

So don’t miss out on this free event!

THE KUDZU QUEEN

Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu—claiming that it will improve the soil, feed cattle at almost no cost, even cure headaches—Mattie is ready. Mr. Cullowee is determined to sell the entire county on the future of kudzu, and organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant. Mattie is determined to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture the attentions of the Kudzu King. As she learns more about Cullowee, however, she discovers that he, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. When she finds she is not the only one threatened, she devises a plan to bring him down. Anyone who knows—or has been—a fifteen-year-old girl will understand how a crush can sour, or even turn dangerous. And anyone who’s seen “southern topiary” will recognize how it swallows up whatever stands in its way. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through the voice of an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.

ABOUT MIMI HERMAN

Mimi is a Kennedy Center teaching artist, director of the United Arts Council Arts Integration Institute and co-director of Writeaways writing workshops in France, Italy, and New Mexico. She has taught in the Masters of Education programs at Lesley University, served as the 2017 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate, and been an associate editor for Teaching Artist Journal. Since 1990, she has engaged over 25,000 students and teachers with her warm and intuitive teaching style.

Mimi holds a BA from the University of North Carolina and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson. She is the author of The Kudzu Queen, A Field Guide to Human Emotions, Logophilia and The Art of Learning. Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review, The Hollins Critic, Main Street Rag, Prime Number Magazine and other journals. Mimi has performed her fiction and poetry at many venues including Why There Are Words in Sausalito, Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh and Symphony Space in New York City.

THE BEAUTIFUL MISFITS

Eighty-four seconds can change your life. Or destroy it. Josie Nickels is an Emmy-winning news anchor, poised to rise through the ranks of television journalism. On a bitter March evening on live TV, the pressures and secrets burbling behind the closed doors of her ridiculous Victorian mansion explode and the overwhelmed journalist spills family secrets like a Baptist at altar call. The aftermath costs her much more than a career. It robs her of a beloved son—a preppy, educated millennial trapped in the deadly world of addiction. Desperate for a new start and a way to save her son, Josie packs up her pride, her young daughter, and accepts a new job slinging cosmetics at a department store make-up counter with other disgraced celebs. In the gorgeous mountains of Asheville N.C., known for hippies, healings, and Subarus, Josie is faced with a choice for her son: Take a chance on a bold, out-of-the-ordinary treatment plan for her son or lose him forever. This heart-wrenching and, at times, hilarious novel, will delight fans of book-club women’s fiction and inspire and give hope to those with addicted sons and daughters.

ABOUT SUSAN REINHARDT
Susan Reinhardt is a bestselling author and humorist whose latest release, The Beautiful Misfits, publishes March 2023 from Regal House Publishing. Her debut novel, Chimes from a Cracked Southern Belle, won the Independent Publisher Book Award for “Best Regional Fiction,” and Tantor Media recently bought the audio rights. Reinhardt lives near Asheville, North Carolina, and loves her grown kids and her rescue cats. Her quirky talent is riding a unicycle while twirling a baton.

Make plans to attend this Power Up Spartanburg Workshop on How to Start Your Business and How to Access Capital. Offered every month in partnership with the SC Small Business Development Center, join Jay Jenkins, Director of Small and Minority Business Development, to learn about the topics below.

Training Topics: Business Start-up/Preplanning; Accounting/Budgeting; Business Financing
Description:

We are so excited to host the writing BFFs behind the Ali Brady pen name: Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey! Perfect for reading BFFs, we can’t wait to hear more their new book The Comeback Summer, where two sisters have one summer to crush their comfort zones and save their grandmother’s legacy. Hear more about this sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel, as well as this author duo’s unique writing process as we enjoy a book-inspired cocktail. This is a ticketed event.

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

Hannah and Libby need a miracle. The PR agency they inherited from their grandmother is losing clients left and right, and the sisters are devastated at the thought of closing. The situation seems hopeless—until in walks Lou, an eccentric self-help guru who is looking for a new PR agency. Her business could solve all their problems—but there’s a catch. Whoever works with Lou must complete a twelve-week challenge as part of her “Crush Your Comfort Zone” program.Hannah, whose worst nightmare is making small talk with strangers, is challenged to go on twelve first dates. Libby, who once claimed to have period cramps for four weeks straight to get out of gym class, is challenged to compete in an obstacle course race. The challenges begin with Hannah helping Libby train and Libby managing the dating app on her sister’s behalf. They’re both making good progress—until Hannah’s first love rolls into town, and Libby accidentally falls for a guy she’s supposed to be setting up with her sister.
Things get even more complicated when secrets come to light, making the sisters question the one relationship they’ve always counted on: each other. With their company’s future on the line, they can’t afford to fail. But in trying to make a comeback to honor their grandmother, are they pushing themselves down the wrong path?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Impostor.

Make plans to join us on May 11, 2023, for Twilight in the Garden – the Upstate’s Premier Garden Party ! We look forward to this year’s signature fundraising event with an elegant, celebrated garden party including cocktails, an irresistible gourmet dinner, and the finest selection of silent and live auction items!

Submit your nominees for the Noble Trees of Spartanburg County Contest. Our friends at Noble Tree Foundation will announce the 2023 winners during Twilight in the Garden!