Please join us for a talk by Erica Abrams Locklear, a professor of English and humanities at the University of North Carolina Asheville, on her latest book, Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People. When her mother passed along a cookbook assembled by her grandmother, Locklear thought she knew what to expect. But rather than a homemade cookbook full of apple stack cake, pickled watermelon or other “traditional” mountain recipes, she discovered recipes for devil’s food cake with coconut icing, grape catsup, and fig pickles. Some recipes even relied on food products like Bisquick, Swans Down flour and Calumet baking powder. Her book explores how long-held preconceptions about Appalachian foodways color our perception of the region and its people. A book signing will follow the talk.

The Carole Weinstein Author Series supports the literary arts by bringing both new and well-known authors to the Library of Virginia through online or in-person events. Free and open to the public, the series focuses on Virginia authors and Virginia subjects across all genres. This book is available at the Virginia Shop. For more information, contact Catherine Fitzgerald Wyatt at 804.692.3999 or catherine.fitzgeraldwyatt@lva.virginia.gov.

This is a free event. Registration is required. Seating in the Lecture Hall is available on a first come, first served basis. Limited free parking is available in the deck underneath the Library building.