At the intersection of food and story, The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food will offer a collection of essays about the best meal, food and memory, the best family tradition, a cherished food ritual, a dreaded food ritual, a favorite recipe, the worst recipe, the worst meal, the funniest meal. These food-related stories are set in North Carolina, though geography is sometimes secondary to the main theme, which is food in any form: meals and manners, cooking and ingredients, recipes and recollections. The pieces include a humorous story by Michael Parker about his mother's soup disaster; a tour of Duplin County barbeque joints by Celia Rivenbark; Hal Crowther's evening as a reluctant carnivore at a ribfest; chef Cathy Cleary's favorite tomato pie. Writer and goat farmer Tom Rankin writes about taking his goats to be slaughtered by a halal butcher from Afghanistan in Sanford. John McElwee takes us to the annual celebratory Blue Monday shad fry along the Cape Fear River. Some of North Carolina's favorite writers and chefs regale us with stories: Lee Smith, Frances Mayes, Daniel Wallace, Marianne Gingher, Wiley Cash, Bland Simpson, Jill McCorkle, Jaki Shelton Green, Michael Malone, and Wilton Barnhardt. It also includes stories by chefs Vivian Howard (of PBS's "A Chef's Life") and Crook's Corner's popular chef Bill Smith, and noted cookbook authors Marcie Cohen Ferris and Nancie McDermott.