Events Calendar

Experience mouthwatering Southern baking—from humble home kitchens to innovative new Southern chefs. One of the world’s richest culinary traditions comes to life through this essential cookbook from bestselling author Anne Byrn. With 200 recipes from 14 states and more than 150 photos, Baking in the American South has the biscuits, cornbread, cakes, and rolls that will help you bake like a Southerner, even if you aren’t. Recipes can tell you volumes if you pay attention—the crops raised, languages spoken, family customs, old world flavors, and, often, religion. Did you know that where a mill was located affected the recipes handed down from that area? Or that baking and selling pound cakes directly impacted the Civil Rights Movement? These stories and recipes, developed from good times and bad, have been collected and perfected over years and are now accessible to us all. Anne’s expertise in assessing, modernizing, and developing well-written recipes makes this the definitive guide for bakers of all levels. From-scratch, Southern classic recipes include: Thomasville Cheese Biscuits Ouita Michel’s Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins Nina Cain’s Batty Cakes with Lacy Edges The Best Lemon Meringue Pie Georgia Gilmore’s Pound Cake This fascinating dive into the history of 14 Southern states—Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and more—features stories and beautifully photographed recipes from pre-Civil War times to today’s Southern kitchens. It’s about the places, the people, the products and the culture of the moment that influenced what people baked. It’s about African-American women and the monumental contributions they have made to the art of Southern baking, about home cooks and how they’ve kept traditions alive wherever they settle by baking family recipes each year for holidays and celebrations, and about the pastry chefs who have thoughtfully reimagined how the South bakes. Experience the recipes and the stories behind them that showcase the substantial contributions Southern baking has made to American baking at large. Food historians, bakers, foodies, and cookbook collectors from every corner of the country will want this cookbook in their collections.

ANNE BYRN is a New York Times bestselling food writer and author. She writes the weekly newsletter Between the Layers, one of the top 20 food and drink newsletters worldwide on Substack. She has authored several cookbooks. Her latest books are A New Take on Cake and Skillet Love, the latter exploring the history and modern uses for the cast-iron skillet. They followed American Cookie and American Cake, which NPR named one of the best cookbooks of 2016. The Cake Mix Doctor and sequels have more than 4 million copies in print, and USA Today called The Cake Mix Doctor the bestselling cookbook the year it debuted. Byrn’s career began as a food writer for The Atlanta Journal. Her food writing was named the Best Food Section by the Association of Food Journalists. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Paris and lived in England where she wrote about food and travel for a year. Anne is a contributor to Food52, Bon Appétit, and the Bitter Southerner. Byrn is a Nashville native and a fifth-generation Tennessean. For several years, she was the food writer for The Tennessean. Byrn has been featured in People magazine, The Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Southern Living, Publishers Weekly, and many other publications. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Later Today, CNN, The Food Network, and QVC and has taught cooking classes across the country. She and her husband live in Nashville.

The YWCA Racial Justice Workshop is open to our entire YWCA Asheville community – including our staff, volunteers, board, donors, program participants, Fitness Center and community members. This 90-minute workshop will take place on the second Tuesday of each month at 11:30 am and will be facilitated by Gerry Leonard, Racial Justice & Outreach Specialist and Lexus Walker, Tzedek Social Justice Fellow.

Drinks with author Kimberly Brock to celebrate her latest novel, The Fabled Earth! Your ticket includes entrance to the event, a copy of the book, and a signature cocktail (or mocktail).

Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world. 1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined. 1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend – and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost–someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.

Kimberly Brock is the award-winning author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare and The River Witch. She is the founder of Tinderbox Writers Workshop and has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national writing workshops including at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. She lives near Atlanta with her husband and three children.

It’s Bookish Game Night at M. Judson! Join us and our friends at the Greenville County Library for a night of Literary Bingo, complete with prizes. Look for this event once a month, for a regular dose of fun. This is a free event.

Come celebrate the Upstate’s culture at the FREE 1st Annual Funday Festival 2024! Join us at Conestee Park, Sunday October 13th from 11am-7pm for a Comm”Unity” event. A full day of live music, dancers, vendors, kids activities, food trucks, pet friendly events, games, community initiatives, surprises, announcements and more! Our Platinum Stage will be hosting some of the hottest acts local and out-of-state, as well as other acts to be announced. We will also have a Halloween Costume contest and Trunk-N-Treat for the kid in everyone.

Flash Fiction Writing Group meets the 3rd Friday of each month and examines, explores and uses the elements and techniques of short fiction writing.

Are you looking for an excuse to knit or crochet for a good cause? Help make baby hats and blankets and adult hats, scarves, and slippers to support at-risk newborns and homeless adults.  Your handmade knitwear will keep our neighbors warm.  Volunteers with basic skills in knitting or crocheting are welcome. Please bring your own needles or crochet hooks and a pattern.

Check out Knit-n-Give on WLOS: http://wlos.com/news/only-on-wloscom/close-knit-group-of-women-use-their-talents-to-help-asheville-charities