Blue Bicycle Books, Charleston, SC


Piccolo Fiction — Sat., June 3, 5 pm

Sat., June 3, 5 pm, Piccolo Fiction presented by Blue Bicycle Books.

Blue Bicycle Books, 420 King Street. Free and open to the public. 843-722-2666.

The festival’s longest-running event exclusively devoted to fiction, Piccolo Fiction presents local and South Carolina authors reading brief short stories. This year’s reading will be in the courtyard beside the bookstore, and, following tradition, each story will begin with the words “I ducked into the alley…”

Since 2000, Piccolo Fiction has featured dozens of S.C. writers, with stories broadcast by S.C. Public Radio and published in the Charleston City Paper.

Featured authors:

Brittany Butler is a former CIA targeting officer who recruited spies and dismantled terrorist networks abroad. Brittany has worked to promote the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls and to resettle Afghan refugees. Her first novel is The Syndicate Spy, telling the story of how female intelligence officers use their intellect and skills to bring peace to this war-torn region.

Gervais Hagerty grew up in Charleston, graduated from Vanderbilt University and went on to report and produce news for local radio and TV. After earning her MBA at The Citadel, she taught communications to cadets. In 2020, she finally caved to a strong and bizarre urge to write books. HarperCollins published her first novel, In Polite Company in 2021.

Y-Danair Niehrah grew up writing fantasy and horror but shifted to historical fiction in high school, focusing on the stories of the Degar people—the indigenous tribes of Vietnam. He studied creative writing at the College of Charleston before pursuing an MFA at Queens University of Charlotte studying under writers like Fred Leebron, Naeem Murr, and Jonathan Dee.

Sara Peck is the author of three books of poetry. She grew up in Greenville, attended the College of Charleston, received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago, and teaches writing at the University School of the Lowcountry, where she was named SCISA High School Teacher of the Year for 2020-21. She was recently selected to develop a novel manuscript as part of the Tin House Winter Workshop in Portland.



Anjali Tamang and Sarah Symons, Standing in the Way: from Trafficking to Survival, Tues., Apr. 20, 5:30 pm

Join us Thurs., April 20, 5:30 pm, for a special reception and talk with activists Anjali Tamang and Sarah Symons, co-authors of Standing in the Way (pb., $15), hosted by Her Future Coalition, an international non-profit organization fighting human trafficking and other severe forms of gender violence.

Over the past 15 years, Her Future Coalition has provided shelter, education, employment, and healing to over 5,000 women and children in India, Nepal, Cambodia, and Thailand, enabling them to recover from trauma and build safe, independent and successful lives. Recently, Her Future was selected for a collaboration with Michelle Obama’s Girls Opportunity Alliance to highlight the importance of educating vulnerable girls.

To donate, click here.

About the book: Standing in the Way: From Trafficking to Survival, the compelling memoir from Anjali Tamang and Sarah Symons, shares Anjali’s incredible story of being trafficked at age twelve from her village in Nepal to the red light areas of Kolkata, India. Despite enduring the worst abuse imaginable, today Anjal works to combat trafficking and protect the next generation of girls in her community. The stories of the courageous people who freed her and aided in her recovery are woven into the book alongside her own personal insights.

Anjali and Sarah explore the root causes of human trafficking and the factors that made her vulnerable, describing her journey to India as a child, and the large complex network of traffickers and brothel owners involved in selling, transporting, and exploiting her. Anjali was eventually rescued, and the book not only portrays this from both the perspective of the rescuers and Anjali herself, but also describes the subsequent counseling and care she received.

Following her recovery, Anjali was able to return to Nepal and make up the many lost years of education. Now in college, she is planning to go back to her village and open a school and anti-trafficking charity to prevent other girls in her village from having to suffer as she did.

Anjali’s experiences have given her a unique perspective. While child sex trafficking is a difficult subject, the book is ultimately a story of survival and hope.

 



F.T. Lukens, Spell Bound, Tues., Apr. 4, 5:30 pm

Join us on Tues., Apr. 4, 5:30 pm to celebrate the release day of the newest YA novel by F.T. LukensSpell Bound! (Margaret K. McElderry, hb., 336 pp., $19.99) Lukens will be joined in conversation by Corrie Wang, Charleston-based YA author of City of Beasts and The Takedown.

About Spell Bound:

Edison Rooker isn’t sure what to expect when he enters the office of Antonia Hex, the powerful sorceress who runs a call center for magical emergencies. He doesn’t have much experience with hexes or curses. Heck, he doesn’t even have magic. But he does have a plan—to regain the access to the magical world he lost when his grandmother passed.

Antonia is…intimidating, but she gives him a job and a new name—Rook—both of which he’s happy to accept. Now all Rook has to do is keep his Spell Binder, an illegal magical detection device, hidden from the Magical Consortium. And contend with Sun, the grumpy and annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s rival colleague, Fable. But dealing with competition isn’t so bad; as Sun seems to pop up more and more, Rook minds less and less.

But when the Consortium gets wind of Rook’s Spell Binder, they come for Antonia. All alone, Rook runs to the only other magical person he knows: Sun. Except Fable has also been attacked, and now Rook and Sun have no choice but to work together to get their mentors back…or face losing their magic forever.

About the author:

F.T. Lukens is a New York Times bestselling author of YA speculative fiction including the novels So This Is Ever After, In Deeper Waters, and the forthcoming Spell Bound as well as other science-fiction and fantasy works. Their contemporary fantasy novel The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Winner for YA fiction and won the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction. F.T. resides in North Carolina with their spouse, three kids, three dogs, and three cats.



Events

Tues., Jan. 16 — Will Harris, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn

Sat., Feb. 3Brad Taylor, Dead Man’s Hand

Wed., Feb. 21Danny Caine, How to Resist Amazon and Why

Sat., Mar. 2Beto O’Rourke, We’ve Got to Try

Fri. – Sun., Mar. 8 – 10 — Pop-up at Charleston Wine and Food

Tues., Apr. 2 — Phoebe Lapine, Carbivore EVENT CANCELLED

Fri., Apr. 5Maggie Stiefvater book signing

Fri., Apr. 19 — Shovels & Rope, C’mon Utah

Fri., May 17Tommy Tomlinson, Dogland

Fri. & Sat., Nov. 15 & 16YALLFest XV



Ralph C. Muldrow, Charleston Renaissance Man, Tues., Dec. 13, 5:30 pm

Tues. Dec. 13, 5:30 pm, College of Charleston Professor (and longtime Boomer’s/BBB patron) Ralph C. Muldrow will be here to discuss his new book Charleston Renaissance Man: The Architectural Legacy of Albert Simons in the Holy City (USC Press, hb, $50).

With over 100 color and b/w photos, this gorgeous, thorough examination of the most influential architect in Charleston history is sure to become a local classic.

About the book:
A study of the life, work, and extraordinary influence of an innovative architect. Albert Simons came of age during the vibrant years of the Charleston Renaissance in the early twentieth century. His influential social circle included artists, musicians, writers, historians, and preservationists, many supporting the cultural revival that was reshaping the city. Through his architectural design and passion for preservation, Simons contributed tremendously to the cultural environment of the Charleston Renaissance. His work helped to mold the cityscape and set a course that would both preserve the historic South Carolina city and carry it forward, allowing it to become the thriving urban center it is today.

Simons brought both a sense of history and place, born of his deep roots in Charleston, as well as a cosmopolitanism developed during his years of training at the University of Pennsylvania and travels on the European continent. The melding of those sensibilities was a perfect match for the age and made him a true Charleston Renaissance Man. While he preferred the more traditional Beaux-Arts, Classical, and Colonial Revival styles, Simons had the unique ability to balance traditional and modern styles. He believed preservation in Charleston was about retaining the city’s architectural heritage but doing so in a way that allowed the city to grow and progress—to be a living city. Looking forward and simultaneously looking back is quintessentially Charleston and a hallmark of Simons’s life and work.

Featuring more than 100 color and black and white photographs and illustrations alongside author Ralph Muldrow’s compelling storytelling, this fascinating book reveals the deep connection between Simons and the Charleston cityscape. With a foreword by Witold Rybczynski, the award-winning author of numerous books including Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Ideas in the Holy City, Muldrow’s Charleston Renaissance Man is a celebration of Charleston’s unique architectural character and the architect who embodied the Charleston Renaissance.

About the author:
Ralph C. Muldrow is the former Simons Professor of Architecture and Preservation and current associate professor of art and architectural history at the College of Charleston.



Carolyn Prusa, None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive, Thurs., Dec. 8, 5:30 pm

 

Thurs., Dec. 8, 5:30 pm, have a glass of wine with Savannah’s Carolyn Prusa, author of None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive (Atria, hb., 336 pp., $27).

Come celebrate the end (hopefully) of hurricane season with this emotional, fun and lively debut!

This in-store event is free and open to the public. For more information call Blue Bicycle Books, 843-722-2666.

Can’t make it? Order a signed copy here (Release date Nov. 22, 2022)

About the book:

Ramona’s got an obnoxious boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn’t mind sharing her observations, and oops—turns out her husband has been unfaithful. That’s how a Category 4 hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours, she’ll add a neighbor child and a class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as they evacuate town. Attempting to ignore the persistent glow of her minivan’s check engine light, Ramona navigates police checkpoints, bathroom emergencies, instructions from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

About the author:

Carolyn Prusa has written all sorts of things, from essays to articles to product descriptions of zebra print ponchos, which have appeared in the Charlotte Observer, Greensboro News and Record, Go Triad, Savannah Magazine, South Magazine, and Savannah News and Record. None of This Would Happened is her technically her third novel.

She is delighted by Southern women, giant pandas, awkward conversations, Legs-Up-the-Wall pose, pies with graham cracker crust, insulting greeting cards, lip balm, Stacy Abrams, the em dash, Mike’s Hot Honey, and many, many other things.

She lives in Savannah, Georgia, with her two sons, husband, and enormous wookie rescue pup, Dale. So, surrounded by dudes.



Kardea Brown, The Way Home, Thurs. Oct. 27, 5:30 pm

Join Food Network star Kardea Brown, Thurs., Oct. 27 at 5:30 pm for a release party for her brand-new cookbook, The Way Home: A Celebration of Sea Islands Food and Family with Over 100 Recipes (Amistad, hb., 300 pp, $35).

NOTES:

  1. No outside copies of The Way Home allowed. (It comes out two days before this event.)
  2. Blue Bicycle Books will have books for sale — but we highly recommend you reserve a copy by clicking here and selecting In-Store Pickup.
  3. This event is free and open to the public. No ticket required.

Click here to order a signed copy of The Way Home.

About the book:

The breakout star of Food Network’s hit show Delicious Miss Brown celebrates the Gullah/Geechee culinary traditions of her family in this spectacular cookbook featuring 125 original mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous four-color photos.

In The Way Home, her first cookbook, Kardea shares her multi-generational “passed down” recipes and innovative takes on Gullah classics with home cooks everywhere. “Gullah” and “GeeChee” refer to a distinct group of African Americans living in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia who have preserved much of their West African language, culture, and cuisine. The Way Home is an unabashed love letter to her family’s roots, packed with dishes that combine West African herbs, spices, and grains with traditional Southern cooking. “Gullah people laid the foundation for Southern cooking. Before farm-to-table was a fad, it was what Gullah people did,” Kardea explains. “I want to show the world that soul food is not monolithic. It’s so much more than fried chicken and vegetables cooked in pork. It’s seasonal, fresh and delicious! ”

About the author:

In April 2015, Kardea Brown made a leap of faith, quitting her job as a social worker in New Jersey to pursue a career in the food industry. She opened the New Gullah Supper Club, a restaurant and social destination centered around the food she grew up eating at her grandmother’s house on South Carolina’s Wadmalaw Island. After an appearance on Food Network, Kardea caught the attention of executives at the cooking channel and over the course of nearly four hardworking years became a star—sparring with chefs on hit shows like Beat Bobby Flay and hosting Cupcake Championship. Viewers fell in love with her Southern warmth, love of family, and awe-inspiring New Gullah meals, and Kardea quickly landed her own show, the top-rated Delicious Miss Brown.



Jack Torry, The Last One Out, Wed. Oct. 19, 5:30 pm

On Weds., Oct. 19, 5:30 pm, join journalist John Torry in conversation with historian James Scott on Torry’s newest work of military history, The Last One Out: Yates McDaniel, World War II’s Most Daring Reporter (Schiffer Military, hb., 256 pp., $30).

About the book:

When Yates McDaniel died in Florida in 1983, few outside his family paid much attention. The only hint of his fame came in a brief obituary buried on the inside pages of the New York Times. The obit suggested bravery and a past far more exciting than almost anyone knew. Even those who worked alongside him in the 1960s at the Associated Press were startled to learn what McDaniel had been, what he had done when he was a young man and the world was at war. Yet, this remarkable reporter covered more of the Asian war than anyone else—from the savage Japanese assault on Nanking in 1937 to the fall of Singapore in 1942 to landing with US Marines on New Britain in 1943. He took risks no other reporter ever accepted, and colleagues joked that Japanese bombers followed him wherever he went.

About the author:

Jack Torry is the former Washington bureau chief for the Columbus Dispatch. The Last One Out is his third book.



Poetry Reading with Brandon Rushton and Samuel Amadon, Thurs., Oct. 6, 5:30 pm

Thurs., Oct. 6, 5:30 pm, join former College of Charleston professor Brandon Rushton and current University of South Carolina professor Samuel Amadon for a night of poetry. Rushton will be reading from his new book The Air in the Air Behind It (Tupelo, pb., 116 pp., $21.95). Amadon will be reading from Often, Common, Some, and Free (Omnidawn, pb., 80 pp., $17.95)

Brandon Rushton was born and raised in Michigan. A recipient of awards from Gulf Coast and Ninth Letter, his poems appear widely in publications like The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Pleiades, Bennington Review, and Passages North. His essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review and the critical anthology, A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke. After earning his MFA from the University of South Carolina, he joined the writing faculty at the College of Charleston. In the fall of 2020, he began as a Visiting Professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With Josh English, he co-founded the poetry journal Oxidant | Engine.

Samuel Amadon is the author of Often, Common, Some, And Free (Omnidawn, 2021), Listener (Solid Objects, 2020), The Hartford Book (Cleveland State, 2012), winner of the Believer Poetry Book Award, and Like a Sea (Iowa, 2010), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Lana Turner, and elsewhere. He is the author of four chapbooks, including Each H from Ugly Duckling Presse. He regularly reviews poetry in places such as The Believer, Boston Review, Lana Turner: a journal of poetry and opinion, and Rain Taxi. He edits the poetry journal Oversound with Liz Countryman, and directs the MFA Program at the University of South Carolina.

Brandon Rushton

Samuel Amadon



Clay Rice Silhouettes – Aug. 24!

Renowned silhouette artist Clay Rice returns to Blue Bicycle Books, Wed., Aug. 24, 3 – 6 pm to cut children’s silhouettes.

Taught by his grandfather, Carew Rice, Clay is a 21st-century folk artist and a Lowcountry treasure. Cutting a child’s silhouette in under five minutes is a performance in itself. You’ll be amazed when he captures a recognizable profile of your squirming two-year-old in less time than it takes to get her shoes on. His national touring schedule keeps him on the road often, cutting more than 10,000 children’s silhouettes a year, so events back home in Charleston are rare!

Personal silhouettes start at $48 for two copies.

We expect slots to fill up quickly; to book an appointment, just register here!