In May, a very special anniversary issue of the Asheville Poetry Review was released for public consumption celebrating 30 years as one of this country’s seminal literary journals. 

Next week, award-winning graphic novelist Andrew Aydin will return to Haywood County to help kick off an ambitious new creative endeavor — one that aims not only to elevate overlooked Appalachian voices but also to preserve the stories of Hurricane Helene’s survivors in a way that’s never been done before. 

The following events will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

• Elizabeth and Quintin Ellison will present “Land of Blue Shadows: Mountain Life in Verse & View” — a poetry and photography collaboration with the late George Ellison — at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 14.

In the course of human events, there does come a time when comedy is in order. Such was a time last month for me. I was choosing a book to read and I needed comedy.

“Morte D’Urban,” a novel by J. F. Powers (Doubleday, 1962), had been recommended by a trusted friend. It is brilliantly funny and, how wonderful, much more than that. 

Sometimes fictional books, when they’re written well, can give the same, if not more, insight to a people and culture than a history book can. Alan Paton’s “Cry, the Beloved Country” (Scribner, 2003, 316 pages) is one of those novels. 

The Haywood County Public Library recently unveiled a memorial to Fred Chappell at its Canton branch, which honors his literary achievements and dedication to teaching creative writing. 

As a practitioner and student of poetry all my life, I’ve noticed that while there is a lot of poetry written well and with talented reach, at the same time, there is little current poetry that I’ve experienced that one would classify as being “wise” or “transcendent.”  

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,

but rather spiritual beings on a human journey.”

Teilhard de Chardin

— from: “Thoreau’s God” 

Having read and relished Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow,” I picked up the first novel he published, “Rules of Civility” (Penguin Books, 2012, 368 pages) prepared to enjoy it as well. Unfortunately, some satisfying experiences elude repetition. 

Having grown up in proximity to a Cherokee community (Little Snowbird in Graham County), I’m familiar with and sensitive to the history and the psychology of Native peoples who have been marginalized and worse from their cultural roots and their homelands.