Marc Hoffman, author, and Tony Waters, illustrator, will sign copies and read from their new children’s book Sleep, Little Child on Sat., Oct. 23, 11 – 12 pm. Join us on the carpet for a reading, juice boxes and goldfish.
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Blue Bicycle Books Author’s Luncheon Series
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Blue Bicycle Books Author’s Luncheon Series continues Fri., Oct. 8, noon to 2 pm, with two charming, funny and very Charleston writers: Josephine Humphreys (Rich in Love, others) and Beth Webb Hart (Love, Charleston, others). The talk and luncheon will be at Virginia’s Restaurant, 412 King St., followed by a dessert-and-champagne book signing at the bookstore, 420 King St.
Josephine Humphreys is a native of Charleston, and her hometown is the setting for her first three novels Dreams 
of Sleep, The Fireman’s Fair and Rich in Love, which was made into a 1993 movie. She graduated from Ashley Hall, studied with Reynolds Price at Duke University and is the winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and a Guggenheim Foundation. While her first three books deal with contemporary life in Charleston, her most recent novel, Nowhere Else on Earth is a historical novel about Lumbee Indians in Eastern North Carolina after the Civil War.
“Like summer heat lightning, her style is subdued and swiftly illuminating.” –Time
Beth Webb Hart is the author of Grace at Low Tide, Adelaide Piper, The Wedding Machine, and, just out this fall, Love, Charleston. She studied writing at Hollins and Sarah Lawrence and has won awards for both her writing and teaching (she is writer in residence at Ashley Hall School). Beth Webb lives in downtown Charleston with her husband, composer Edward Hart, and their two children. She lists Annie Dillard and Flannery O’Connor among her influences, and her website is bethwebbhart.com.
“Old South eccentricities mesh nicely with the spirit of the New South, and it’s clear that the author, a South Carolina native, is in comfortable territory. Her charismatic cast of characters resonates long after the last page is turned.” – The Charlotte Observer
The talk and luncheon will be at Virginia’s Restaurant, 412 King St., followed by a dessert-and-champagne book signing at the bookstore, 420 King St.
Entrée choice of:
BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich
Smothered in homemade Carolina style BBQ sauce, topped with lettuce, tomato and onion served on a Kaiser bun accompanied with sweet potato fries and blue cheese coleslaw
Fried Green Tomato BLT
Buttermilk soaked and cornmeal buttered, pan-fried green tomatoes layered with arugula and Applewood smoked bacon, dressed with Creole mayonnaise and served on Texas toast accompanied with sweet potato fires and blue cheese coleslaw
Waldorf Salad
Garnished with apples, celery, raisins, and walnuts, served with grilled Tuscan bread
Fri., Oct. 8, 2010, 12 – 2 pm.
$35, or bring a friend for $60.
Advance reservations required.
For tickets please call 843.722.2666 or order online here.
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CofC Miscellany Event
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Miscellany is the College of Charleston’s annual Literary and Art Magazine publishing student work in poetry, fiction, prose, art and photography. The magazine’s student organization is hosting an event at Blue Bike on Thurs., Sept. 30, 6:30 – 8:30 pm with an informal writing exercise (“Erasures”), food, music provided by the newly founded Songwriters club and good company. Join them in developing a community of writers and artists as they promote the magazine in an endeavor to find work for the 2011 edition!
Clay Rice Silhouettes, Sept. 15
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Renowned silhouette artist Clay Rice is returning to Blue Bike to cut personal silhouettes and sign copies of his book The Lonely Shadow (Joggling Board, 2009, hb., $19.95) on Wed., Sept. 15, 3 – 6 pm.
Taught by his grandfather Carew, Clay Rice is a 21st century folk artist and a Lowcountry treasure. Watching him cut a child’s silhouette in five minutes has been called performance art in itself. Last year, we watched as he was actually able to capture a recognizable profile of our squirming one-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 $40 for two copies. We expect slots to fill up quickly, to book an appointment, please call us at 843.722.2666.
Pictures from last year’s visit
Craig Welch at Downtown Public Library
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Join Craig Welch, Seattle Times chief environmental writer, Thurs., Sept. 23, 6:45 – 7:45 pm, Downtown Public Library, 68 Calhoun St., as he discusses Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature’s Bounty.
Blue Bike favorite Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines, calls it a “fiercely reported and wholly captivating cops-and-robbers story about the black-market wildlife trade in the Pacific Northwest.”
Michelle Zink, Guardian of the Gate, Sept. 7
Monday, August 16, 2010
Blue Bicycle Books welcomes Michelle Zink, author of the Young Adult series Prophecy of the Sisters, Tues., Sept. 7, 4-6 pm. She is touring on Guardian of the Gate, the second in the trilogy, which has been well received all around.
The series follows sixteen year-old twin sisters, Lia and Alice Milthorpe, as they continue their exploration of an age-old prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. While Lia searches for clues in order to end the prophecy, Alice gets caught up in the dark mysticism of the Otherworld. It is being tagged as the ultimate battle between sisters of good and evil, but it has nothing to do with either Janet or La Toya Jackson.
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New Section of Long Table Poets
Friday, August 6, 2010
Richard Garcia is opening up a new biweekly class of Long Table Poets. This second section will begin with the basics: forms, both formal and informal, structures, and strategies. Each meeting features members’ poetry news, discussion of contemporary poetry, an exercise toward producing a new draft, and critique. Richard’s exercises are fun, imaginative and often produce new, publishable poems.
Richard’s students have achieved journal and book publication, won prizes, and gone on to attend prestigious MFA programs such as Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Warren Wilson. The first meeting of the new section will be on Aug. 4, 7 – 9:30 pm., at Richard’s house on James Island. To sign up and get directions: richardgpoet@earthlink.net or 843-795-0115. The group will meet every other Wednesday. When scheduling is an issue, poets may attend either of the two groups. The cost is $25 for each session.
Richard Garcia teaches at Antioch Low Residency in Creative Writing in Los Angles,College of Charleston, Idyllwild Poetry Festival, Burke High School, at his home and privately on line. He has had five book published, among his publishers are The University of Pittsburgh Press and BOA Editions. He has received a grant from The National Endowment of the Arts, several Pushcart Nominations and a Pushcart Prize, and is in included in many anthologies such as Best American Poetry. You can read more about his poetry, books and teaching on his website.
Long Table Poets include Helen Brandenburg, Kit Loney, Katherine Williams, Susan Stevens, Susan Myers, Joe Zealburg, Debbie Scott, Carol Peters, Mary Harris and Barbara Hagerty. You can also see collaborative poems produced by Richard and his students in the journals Poemeleon and Qarrtsiluni.
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BAROLO, Aug. 7
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Author Matthew Gavin Frank will read from and sign copies of his memoir, BAROLO, chronicling his illegal work in the Italian Piemontese food and wine industry at Blue Bike, Sat., Aug. 7, 1 – 3 pm. Barolo follows Frank during his six-month stay in the same-titled region of Italy (pop. 646), living out of a tent in the garden of the local Pittatore farmhouse. The Chicago-born writer and poet has been cooking and serving his way across the world since he was 17, from breakfast in Alaska to hog snapper in Key West. His current favorite dessert recipe is Revisionist Caprese Salad: basil ice cream, mozzarella syrup, oven-dried sweet tomato, and tomato rock candy.
Order a signed copy here!
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Bike Ride to honor Edwin Gardner on Saturday
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
On the morning of Sat. July 31, at 9 am, a short bicycle ride around Downtown Charleston will celebrate the life of Edwin Gardner, who passed away after a bicycle accident last week. The ride will start and finish at Cannon Park (Calhoun Street between Ashley and Rutledge) for breakfast and fellowship. All members of the community are welcome on any type of bike. We hope to see you there with your favorite Edwin story. Read the tribute in the City Paper written by store owner Jonathan Sanchez here.
Helping Ghosts, July 29
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Please join us Thurs., July 29, 5 – 7 pm for a signing with supernatural explorer Louis Charles and his second book, Helping Ghosts. Always interested in ghosts and hauntings, Charles launched his website Angels and Ghosts in 2004, and since then, has been compiling paranormal experience submissions from around the world and comparing potential evidence. Charles has also worked on numerous field tests and investigations in spirit communication, and has relayed his own research as well as others in his most recent book.
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