The Regulator Bookshop: Friday Night! A Very Special Event...

Listen Up! The author of a wonderful, important, riveting new novel will be at The Regulator Friday night, in conversation with Lee Smith

...an event you are not going to want to miss!

Friday evening at 7:00 Wiley Cash will be in conversation with the marvelous Lee Smith, discussing Cash's powerful new book, The Last Ballad. The Last Ballad is a fictional account of a woman named Ella May Wiggins, who, until now, was a largely forgotten textile worker in Gastonia, North Carolina in the late 1920's. (Wiley Cash grew up in Gastonia in the 1980's). Ella May worked in terrible conditions in a textile mill, six days a week, 12 hours a day, for $9.00 a week. Her alcoholic husband had left her, and four of her nine children died from malnutrition or diseases she couldn't afford to treat.

Realizing that her life as a mill worker was killing her children, Ella May became a union organizer, and the protest songs she wrote became one of the union's most powerful recruitment tools. (Pete Seeger once called Ella May Wiggins the greatest songwriter in America). The 1929 Gaston County textile mill strikes were an infamous event in our country's labor history, and Wiley Cash brings the strikes and Ella May's world fully to life in his new novel. There's an amazing story here, and Wiley Cash simply blows it away. Almost 80 years on, Ella May Wiggins has found a storyteller worthy of her tale.

If you don't want to rely solely on my word, here are some of the reviews the book has already received:

"Wiley Cash reveals the dignity and humanity of people asking for a fair shot in an unfair world. Fraught with the turmoil of social change, The Last Ballad moves inexorably toward a devastating moment of reckoning. A timely and topical portrait of a community in crisis." (Christina Baker Kline, author of A Piece of the World and Orphan Train)

"Cash pulls no punches in this gorgeous, gut-wrenching novel, and that's entirely as it should be for a story of desperate people. In an era when American workers are besieged as they haven't been since the Great Depression, I can think of no more relevant novel for our times." (Ben Fountain, Author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk)

"Inspired by the events of an actual textile-mill strike in 1929, Cash creates a vivid picture of one woman's desperation. . . . A heartbreaking and beautifully written look at the real people involved in the labor movement." (Kirkus Reviews)

"It's impossible not to hear echoes of Steinbeck in Cash's sprawling, multi-voiced account of a battered, hopeless woman who rises up to become the symbol of a movement... Ella May Wiggins, it seems, sings not only of the forgotten past, but for our time too." (Chapter 16)

"Beautifully and courageously told. Wiley Cash dares give voice to people lost in the margins of history, and he brings to life their inspiring fight for justice with graceful prose, honesty and intensity, and best of all, a wonderful bigness of heart." (Lydia Peelle, author of The Midnight Cool)

"Resonates with pain, love, the struggle of life and the gross injustices of the world. I hated leaving Ella May's world, reveled in watching her bravery against unspeakable odds and her unending support of racial equality... A riveting story." (Louisiana Book News)

"With his vibrant imagination, vigorous research, and his architectural skill in structuring this novel, Wiley Cash has lifted the events of the past into the present and immortalized a time that holds valuable lessons for our country today." (Charlotte Observer)

"Wiley Cash's third novel is a sweeping, old-fashioned saga with an inspirational but ill-fated heroine at its center... Ella May is such a rich, sympathetic character... Powerful and moving, exploring complex historical issues that are still with us today." (BookPage.com)

See you at The Regulator Friday night!

Upcoming Events: More good times to be had at

The Regulator!

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME

Wednesday, October 18, 10:15AM

Join us for Preschool Storytime at The Regulator with Amy Godfrey. Free!

NONFICTION AUTHORS ASSOCIATION (NFAA)

Wednesday, October 18, 6:15PM -- 7:45PM

Info: http://www.meetup.com/Durham-Chapel-Hill-Chapter-Nonfiction-Authors-Association

CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE

Thursday, October 19, 7:00 PM

OFFSITE: 21c Museum Hotel, 111 North Corcoran Street

This is a ticketed event; Tickets prices vary. (See details below.)

7:00 pm event tickets are $30

5:30 pm VIP tickets are $100 and include a signed, personalized copy of Orphan Train and an intimate reception before the event. All proceeds

benefit the Durham Literacy Center! Event details can be found here: www.durhamliteracy.org/kline

Join the Literacy Center for an intimate event with bestselling author Christina Baker Kline at on October 19 at the 21c Museum Hotel. Kline will talk about the true story behind her #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train (about the 250,000 orphaned and abandoned children sent on trains from the East Coast to the Midwest as indentured servants). Copies of Orphan Train and her new novel, A Piece of the World will be available for purchase at the event, courtesy of The Regulator.

DAVID GOODWIN

Thursday, October 19, 7:00PM

The Regulator welcomes David Goodwin, author of Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street, for a reading and book signing. Left Bank of the Hudson is a smart history of Jersey City through the microcosm of a small artist community repurposing a building and forming a collaborative network. Goodwin offers a window into the demographic, political, and socio-economic changes experienced by Jersey City during the last thirty and addresses the question of the role of artists in economically improving cities. Left Bank of the Hudson provides an illustrative lesson to government officials, scholars, students, activists, and everyday citizens attempting to navigate the "rediscovery" of American cities.

David J. Goodwin works by day as a librarian at Fordham University School of Law. An alum of Drexel, St. Bonaventure, and Fordham University, Goodwin is a past commissioner and chairman of the Jersey City Historic Preservation Commission. Currently, he serves as a board member of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy.

WILEY CASH in conversation with LEE SMITH

Friday, October 20, 7:00PM

The Regulator welcomes Wiley Cash in conversation with Lee Smith for a reading and signing of Wiley's wonderful new book, The Last Ballad.

The New York Times bestselling author of the celebrated A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy returns with this eagerly awaited new novel, set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events. The chronicle of an ordinary woman's struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, The Last Ballad is a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent novel confirms Wiley Cash's place among our nation's finest writers.

A native of North Carolina, Wiley Cash has held residency positions at Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony and teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University. He and his wife live in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Lee Smith began writing stories at the age of nine and selling them for a nickel apiece. Since then, she has written seventeen works of fiction and most recently, the memoir, Dimestore: A Writer's Life.Smith lives in Hillsborough with her husband, the writer Hal Crowther.

JAMIE DEMENT

Saturday, October 21, 3:00 PM (note the time)

Piedmont restaurant co-owner Jamie DeMent will discuss her new book,

The Farmhouse Chef: Recipes and Stories from My Carolina Farm, which offers 150 recipes for every occasion--from down home to downright elegant--inspired by Coon Rock Farm's yield through the four seasons. DeMent's deliciously observant stories illuminate what life is really like on a working farm. The Farmhouse Chef will inspire those who may not have a lot of time to cook, let alone farm, but who care about eating and preparing seasonal, healthfully grown food.

Jamie DeMent farms and cooks on Coon Rock Farm in Hillsborough. A well-known cooking teacher, she also owns, with her partner, Richard Holcomb, Piedmont Restaurant in Durham and Bella Bean Organics.

KIA CALDWELL

Monday, October 23, 7:00PM

Please join us at The Regulator Bookshop as we celebrate the launch of Dr. Kia Caldwell's newest book, Health Equity in Brazil: Intersections of Gender, Race and Policy. Dr. Michele Berger will join Dr. Kia Caldwell in conversation about her book. A book signing will follow. Light refreshments will be provided.

Kia Lilly Caldwell is an associate professor of African, African American, and Diaspora studies at the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of "Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning Black Women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity."

Michele Tracy Berger is associate professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is also the Director of the Faculty Fellows Program at the UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

JEFFREY MEYER

Tuesday, October 24, 7:00PM

The Regulator welcomes Jeffrey Meyer, author of the book, A Call to China, for a reading and book signing. A child of American missionaries disappears at a Beijing festival in 1940 and is never seen again. Set against the background of revolutionary change in 20th century China and America, China-born and American-raised Olivia hears her "call to China" and embarks on her own mission through the exotic country to find the sister she never knew.

Jeff Meyer (Ph.D., University of Chicago) taught at UNC Charlotte from 1971 until 2008. He is a specialist in the religions of China and East Asia.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME

Wednesday, October 25, 10:15AM

Join us for Preschool Storytime at The Regulator with Amy Godfrey. Free!

CHARLES CLOTFELTER

Wednesday, October 25, 7:00 PM

Duke Professor Charles Clotfelter will discuss his new book, Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity. For decades, leaders in higher education have voiced their intention to expand college education to include disadvantaged groups. In Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity, Clotfelter presents quantitative comparisons across selective and less selective colleges from the 1970s to the present, in exploration of three themes: diversity, competition, and inequality. Clotfelter shows that exclusive colleges have benefited disproportionately from America's growing income inequality. Despite a revolution in civil rights, billions spent on financial aid, and the commitment of colleges to greater equality, stratification has grown starker. Top colleges cater largely to children of elites.

"A deeply researched, stimulating, and thoughtful analysis of the role of undergraduate education in America in sustaining the growing inequalities of our nation. A treasure trove of relevant data and careful analysis."-Harold T. Shapiro, Princeton University

Charles T. Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke.

LANE WINDHAM

Thursday, October 26, at 7:00PM

The Regulator welcomes Lane Windham, author of Knocking on Labor's Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide, for a reading and book signing. Through close-up studies of workers' campaigns in shipbuilding, textiles, retail, and service, Windham overturns myths about labor's decline, showing instead how employers united to manipulate weak labor law and quash a new wave of worker organizing. Recounting how employees attempted to unionize against overwhelming odds, Knocking on Labor's Door refashions the narrative of working-class struggle during a crucial decade and shakes up current debates about labor's future. Windham's story is a must-read in labor, civil rights, and women's history.

Lane Windham is a fellow with Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

TRICK-OR-TREAT ON NINTH ST. (and a Scary Story Time!)

Tuesday, October 31, 3:00 p.m-5:00 p.m

Come Trick-or-Treat on 9th Street! The Regulator Bookshop will join our fellow Ninth Street merchants in welcoming Halloween trick or treaters. The bookshop will hold a "Scary Stories Storytime" starting at 4:00. And we will, (of course!) be handing out candy to all our trick or treaters.