Western North Carolina poets Scott Owens, Bill Griffin and Linda French Griffin will be at City Lights in Sylva for a joint reading hosted by state poet laureate Kay Byer on Saturday, May 9, at 7 p.m.

Bill Griffin is the author, and Linda French Griffin is the illustrator, of a new collection entitled “Snake Den Ridge: A Bestiary.” The book is a celebration of the creatures encountered in a lifetime of hiking the western Carolina mountains. Says Kay Byer, “The animals speaking in Bill Griffin’s Snake Den Ridge might well have wandered up to your porch to tell you what’s on their minds. No obviously symbolic creatures are these. Raven, skunk, squirrel, even millipede speak with distinctive voices. I wanted to carry on the conversation long after the last poem!” Linda Griffin’s illustrations are themselves a kind of graphic poetry, and the combination makes for a stunning, small jewel of a book.

Also featured will be McDowell County poet and writing teacher Scott Owens, whose new collection is entitled “The Fractured World.” Says Byer of Owens’ work, “Nothing prepared me for the immediacy and yet intimacy of these poems ... Scott Owens has given us a powerful, disturbing look at our contemporary fractured world.” And Ron Rash also praises the book: “Scott Owens’ poems grab the reader by the throat from the opening line and don’t let go, unspooling down the page with verve and startling moments of insight and imagination. He’s the real thing.”

For more information, or to reserve autographed copies of either book, contact the store at (828)586-9499.