Newton, NC – The Catawba County Library will be hosting Tamra Wilson, local author and columnist at The Hickory Daily Record, Observer-News-Enterprise and Lincoln Herald, to discuss her new book and how it benefits the community. The program will take place at 6 pm on Tuesday, May 3 at the Main Library in Newton.

Tamra “Tammy” Wilson of Newton has partnered with Redhawk Publishing, an initiative of Catawba Valley Community College, to compile a collection of her newspaper columns to benefit The Corner Table, a local soup kitchen. Going Plaid in a Solid Gray World, Collected Columns offers 135 short slice-of-life essays that have appeared in area newspapers since 2015. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during this program. A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Corner Table soup kitchen in Newton. The agency also coordinates the countywide school backpack program.

Wilson’s columns deal with life in Western North Carolina and being a Midwestern transplant in the South. Her views of the ordinary cover such topics as the dearth of CD players to the annoyance of greeting-card glitter, and why one shouldn’t wear white shoes after Labor Day.

Going Plaid was named after her 2017 column that related the difficulty of replacing plaid loveseats in a world upholstered in gray and beige.

“Regardless of how the country is divided politically and socially, everyone has shifted to neutral when it comes to interior decoration,” Wilson wrote, and not following the herd can be difficult and expensive.

Wilson is the author of Dining with Robert Redford & Other Stories (Little Creek, 2011) and was co-editor of Idol Talk, the first anthology of teen idol essays by female writers (McFarland, 2018). She holds a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a master of fine arts degree from the Stonecoast Creative Writing program at the University of Southern Maine. She has published widely in literary journals and anthologies.

Redhawk Publications is an artistic initiative of CVCC, publishing written works of interest for the local community, the state of North Carolina as well the entire United States. Established in 2017, CVCC is the only state community college with a publishing press and has over 65 unique titles.

We hope you’ll join us at 6 pm on Tuesday, May 3 at the Main Library in Newton for this exciting conversation.

For more information about the Catawba County Library’s resources and services, visit www.catawbacountync.gov/library, call 828.465.8665, email [email protected], or visit www.facebook.com/catawbacountylibrarysystem.