Mary Ardery shares her debut poetry collection based on her experience as a wilderness guide for a woman's substance abuse treatment program in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Alongside pals, Molly Devane (a writer for Asheville's Mountain Xpress) and Nora Weatherby (a local midwife) come celebrate this debut. This launch event will include a short talk from the author, a couple of short readings, a conversation moderated by Molly with Nora and Mary, and time for an audience Q&A.

Firmly grounded in time and place, part record and part elegy, Level Watch is a book for those who have been affected by addiction and all who have ever sought solace or redemption in nature.

Mary Ardery has written poems that appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. She earned a BA from DePauw University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she won an Academy of American Poets Prize. The recipient of a Lifelong Arts Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission, she was born and raised in Bloomington and now lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. You can visit her online at maryardery.com.

Molly Devane is a standup comedian turned humor writer and personal essayist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, Insider and Reductress. She has a piece forthcoming in HuffPost. She lives in Western North Carolina with her husband, daughter and mini dachshund. 

Nora Weatherby is a nurse midwife and writer from Asheville, NC. She is the founder of The Birth Narratives Oral History, housed in the University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Oral History Archives. Nora writes poetry and nonfiction works often focusing on nature, sense of place and the connection between grief and joy. She is currently finishing her first manuscript, a collection of creative nonfiction forthcoming in 2026. 

Content Warning: This event may include discussion of death or dying.