The North Carolina Book Festival, which will bring an array of nationally renowned writers to Raleigh February 21-23, already announced its first wave in November, including novelist Katya Apekina, poet Jericho Brown, and Raleigh’s Kwame Mbalia.

Now the second wave has been revealed, and music fans just perked up their ears.

In addition to announcing big-time award-winning sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson (Quail Ridge Books, February 21), the festival will feature Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man’s Amelia Meath—one of the subjects of our recent cover story about Mountain Man’s Cosmic Prom—at Kings on February 22, in conversation with Taylor Jenkins Reid, whose ‘70s LA rock novel Daisy Jones & the Six is being produced as an Amazon Video miniseries by Reese Witherspoon.

The Kings event also features Apekina in conversation with Charlotte author Jeff Jackson, whose music-scene murder mystery Destroy All Monsters we reviewed favorably, among other interesting panels and pairings. The poetry event downstairs at Neptune’s has been rounded out, and the Sunday Send-Off reading will feature music by Jake Xerxes Fussell. Other parts of the festival take place at HQ Raleigh and CAM Raleigh; find the full schedule at the festival’s website.  

Contact arts and culture editor Brian Howe at [email protected]. 

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