Y'all come: Taste of the Nation, CPCC Literary Festival

Two events in two days:

I'll be a judge tonight at the annual Taste of the Nation (yes, it is a rough job - thanks for your sympathy). If you're looking for a fun food event, this is a great way to spend an evening and raise money to fight childhood hunger. Tickets at the door are $60, or $85 for a VIP ticket that gets you to the food tables earlier. For the money, you get live music, beer, wine and spirits, an auction, and samples of food from a couple of dozen restaurants.

Thursday night should bring a lively discussion at Litfest 2010, part of the Sensoria Celebration of the Arts at Central Piedmont Community College. "Communicating Your Hunger" is a panel discussion at 7 p.m. in the Culinary Arts Building on the central campus. (That's the spiffy new brick building with the columns at the corner of 7th Street and South Kings Drive. There's free parking in the Employee Theater parking deck, or look for the signs.)

Amy Rogers of Novello Press, Charles Jenkins of WBT and I will talk about blogging and social media, trends in cookbooks and food writing, ethics of restaurant reviewing, and using food to explore family heritage. But it's a Q&A format, so I suspect the talk will be more free-ranging than that. Come and bring lots of questions. Tickets are free, and it starts at 6 p.m. with a reception. The panel discussion kicks off at 7 p.m.

Details: http://sensoria.cpcc.edu