UNC
Asheville's Great Smokies Writing Program (GSWP) has added new workshops with
new faculty to its spring semester lineup of workshops for local writers of all
levels. Joining Tommy Hays, Megan Shepherd, Heather Newton and other popular
GSWP faculty, will be newcomers Meta Commerse of Story Medicine Asheville, and
Dale Neal, formerly of Asheville Citizen-Times. Classes in fiction,
creative non-fiction, poetry and more will be offered in community locations in
Asheville, Hendersonville and Burnsville. Classes range from five to 15 weeks.
I’ll
Have Another: Creating Poems for a Sequence or Series with Kenneth Chamlee – Extended
work with a poem’s impulse might yield a memorable series (several thematically
related poems), a revealing sequence (poems in progressive relation), or even a
full study (book or chapbook). This class will brainstorm many possibilities,
both fun and serious, and look at a variety of examples. Students will initiate
a poetic series or sequence and commit to completing at least five poems.
Chamlee is a professor of English at Brevard College. His poems have appeared
in The Asheville Poetry Review, The Cumberland Poetry Review, The Greensboro
Review, Ekphrasis and many others. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning
Feb. 13, Mondays, 2-4:30 p.m., at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 900 Blythe St.
Hendersonville.
Story
Medicine for Racial Healing: A Creative Writing Workshop with Meta Commerse – In
this class, participants will respond to two African-American voices: James
Baldwin representing 20th century questions of race and Ta-Nehisi Coates
describing the 21st century experience. Using personal essays crafted to break
silence and find language on this topic, participants will create room to imagine
and then write about justice as a new concept, justice as water for parched,
weary psyches. Commerse, author of the novel The Mending Time, is
founding director of Story Medicine Asheville, a program blending writing and
healing. She has taught at Haywood Community College, Wright College (City
Colleges of Chicago) and East-West University. Class meets for 5 weeks
beginning March 15, Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m., at Grateful Steps, 333 Merrimon
Avenue, Suite A, Asheville.
Writing
as Healing: A Creative Prose Workshop with Abigail DeWitt – For
those who have experienced a life-changing trauma or are simply dealing with
the ordinary stresses of everyday life, certain kinds of writing can have a
profoundly positive effect on the overall sense of well-being. This course will
explore a wide variety of writing techniques designed to bring access to
participants’ own capacity for healing. The techniques are beneficial for
everyone – published authors, beginning writers, and non-writers alike. DeWitt
is the author of two novels, Lili and Dogs, and is currently
working on a collection of short stories. She is the recipient of a 2016 Artist
Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council, as well as a Michener
Fellowship. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 16, Thursdays, 6-8:30
p.m., at the Mountain Heritage Center, 113 Green Mountain Dr., Burnsville.
DIY
(Do It Yourself) Book Promotion and Professionalism with Christine Hale – Many
writers have questions and anxieties about what they must or should do to give
their books the best possible chance at finding a publisher and readers in
today's rapidly evolving publishing environment. This class is structured as a
crowd-source forum for sharing advice and caveats about seeking visibility in
the literary marketplace. Students will work on promotion strategies for their
writing, identifying connections and strengths they can leverage, as well as
those they lack and wish to work on. Hale practiced DIY promotion in
launching her book, A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice: A Memoir in Four
Meditations (Apprentice House Press, 2016). Class meets for 5 weeks
beginning March 14, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m., at the Flatiron Writers Room, 252
Brevard Rd., Asheville.
Methodical
Madness: Creative Prose Workshop with Heather Newton – This course is for
writers of fiction and creative non-fiction who enjoy honing their craft in a
workshop setting. Students will submit two pieces of work for group critique
and do in-class writing in response to prompts. For the last class, students
will submit one piece of work to a publication or contest. Newton’s novel, Under
the Mercy Trees (Harper Collins, 2011) won the 2011 Thomas Wolfe Memorial
Literary Award, was chosen by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great
Group Reads Selection, and was an “Okra Pick” by the Southern Independent
Bookstore Alliance. She is a founding member of the Flatiron Writers, a
collective dedicated to serving as a resource for the Western North Carolina
writing community. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 13, Mondays,
6-8:30 p.m., at the Flatiron Writers Room, 252 Brevard Rd., Asheville.
The
Art of Prose Revision with Sebastian Matthews – Students in this course
will bring current personal essays or memoir chapters to be workshopped and
discussed. Students will focus on the “art of revision,” practicing a variety
of techniques to re-approach and re-vision their work. To this end, the class
will read the work of Joan Didion, Richard Rodriquez, Tim O’Brien, Ross Gay,
Fabio Morabito, Annie Dillard, Mary Karr, Michael Ondaatje, Maggie Nelson and
others. Matthews is the author of a memoir, In My Father's Footsteps,
and two books of poems, We Generous and Miracle Day. His latest
book, a hybrid of poetry and creative nonfiction, comes out from Red Hen Press
in 2017. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 14, Tuesdays, 6-8:30
p.m. at Asheville Bookworks, 428 Haywood Road, Asheville.
Writing
Dark Fiction: A Fiction Workshop with Jamieson Ridenhour– “Dark” fiction
will be approached not a genre but a mode, a way of approaching unpleasant
emotions like fear, shame, brutality, and loneliness. This course intends to
explore this darkness, with attention to character, as well as the role of
setting, both physical and situational, the creation of atmosphere and the
function of fear and anxiety in a variety of narrative forms. Writers are
encouraged to bring longer works in progress for workshopping, though having a
work in progress is not required. Ridenhour is the author of the werewolf
murder mystery Barking Mad (Typecast, 2011) and two award-winning short
horror films. His play Grave Lullaby was a finalist for the Kennedy
Center’s David Mark Cohen National Playwriting award. Class meets for 10
weeks beginning Feb. 13, Mondays, 6-8:30 p.m. at RiverLink, 170 Lyman Street,
Asheville.
The
Younger Years: Beginning Writing for Children and Young Adults with Megan
Shepherd – This workshop is designed for beginning writers or experienced
writers of other genres who are interested in exploring writing for children
and young adults, including picture books, short stories, and novel-length
works. Sessions will include in-class creative writing exercises, discussions
of readings from noteworthy “kidlit” fiction, and critiques of students’ work.
Students will be expected to work both in and out of class on a 10-20 page
story or novel excerpt. Shepherd’s novel, The Madman’s Daughter,
won the 2013 North Carolina Young Adult Book Award. In addition to two more
books in the Madman’s Daughter series, she launched a new series with
the New York Times bestseller, The Cage, and last year published Secret
Horses of Briar Hill. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 15,
Thursdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at Spellbound Children's Bookshop, 640 Merrimon Ave.,
Asheville.
The
Art of the Small and Obscure in Writing Poetry: A Workshop with Katherine
Soniat – This class will be conducted in a workshop setting and is open to
writers of all levels as well as artists and photographers. Within this
context, "small" is defined as poetry that uses gemlike imagery with
many facets. "Small" may indicate the exactly crafted phrase that
snaps your reader to attention. "Small" also can imply silence and
use of formal white space. Such absence in itself is an elusive art. Soniat's
seventh collection of poems, Bright Stranger, is recently out from
Louisiana State University Press. Her works, The Goodbye Animals won the
2014 Turtle Island Chapbook Award and The Swing Girl was selected as
Best Collection of 2011 by the North Carolina Poetry Commission. Class meets
for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 14, Tuesdays, 4-6:30 p.m. at Hanger Hall, 64 W.T.
Weaver Boulevard, Asheville.
The
50s – Not Your Typical Cold War Poetry: A Poetry Workshop with Eric
Steineger – The 50s were a time of transition particularly in
literature, as modernism gave way to postmodernism. The veneer of the clean-cut
American was starting to crack and jazz merged with poetry, as did art, and
Black Mountain College emerged as a breeding ground for the avant-garde.
This course will focus on the New York School, the Beats, the San Francisco
Renaissance, Black Mountain College, and other trailblazers in poetry. There
will be in-class writing assignments. Steineger is the poetry editor of The
Citron Review and his work has been featured in The Los Angeles Review,
Tinderbox, Redheaded Stepchild, and Asheville Poetry Review. Class meets
for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 16, Thursdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at Spellbound Children’s
Bookshop in Merrimon Square, 640 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville.
Memoir
as Legacy – Step One: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Molly Walling – How
does one capture in words the essence of the stories that reside in memory and
can be retold generation after generation? In-class exercises will help
students become open to new interpretation, forgoing quick and comfortable
analysis so as to move away from delusions about the past. Starting with
sensate perceptions, students will source stories with relevant details,
descriptions, context, timing and dialogue. Walling, author of Death in the
Delta: Uncovering a Mississippi Family Secret, has recently submitted the
sequel, For Simon, to her editor at the University Press of Mississippi.
Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Feb. 15, Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at the
Thomas Wolfe Memorial, 52 North Market Street, Asheville.
The Bare Necessities: An Introduction to the Craft of Creative Prose with Tommy Hays –The more the writer understands the possible approaches to the material, the more likely it is to find a way into the story. This class is for anyone interested in learning the essential elements of writing fiction and creative nonfiction. Each week will be devoted to a particular aspect of craft, explored through discussion and in-class writing exercises. Hays is executive director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and core faculty for the Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences program at UNC Asheville. His middle grade novel, What I Came to Tell You, was chosen as a 2013 Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). His novel, The Pleasure Was Mine, was a finalist for the SIBA Fiction Award and has been chosen for numerous community reads. Class meets for 15 weeks beginning Jan. 31, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at RiverLink, 170 Lyman Street, Asheville.
Writing
Your Way Home with Dale Neal – For intermediate and advanced students who
want feedback on a work in progress or a new project, this workshop will help
students find their voice in fiction or creative nonfiction through risk and
reward, draft and revision. The workshop will provide close reading and
critique of the first 50 pages of participants’ projects, and ideas and
questions from the instructor designed to help students find their best words.
Dale Neal is the author of the novels The Half-Life of Home and Cow
Across America, winner of the 2009 Novello Literary Prize. His short
fiction and essays have appeared in dozens of literary journals. He also was a
reporter and columnist for 33 years at the Asheville Citizen-Times. Class
meets for 15 weeks beginning Feb. 1, Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at Asheville
School, 360 Asheville School Road, Asheville.
Prose
Master Class with Elizabeth Lutyens – The Prose Master Class is a next step
for those who are looking for an intensive writing and critiquing experience. This
small–group workshop is limited to experienced writers who are working on an
ongoing project: a collection of essays or stories, a novel, a memoir. If the
work is new, the writer should have at least sixty pages ready to submit for
three critiques during the 15-week semester. Each class begins with a craft
session requiring outside reading, sometimes led by a student wishing to share
his/her examination of an aspect of craft, or with a writing exercise to
practice craft elements and inspire new approaches to ongoing projects.
Permission from the instructor or from Tommy Hays is required. Lutyens, a
former journalist, is the editor in chief of The Great Smokies Review, the
online literary magazine published by UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing
Program. Class meets for 15 weeks beginning Jan. 31, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m.
at Asheville School, 360 Asheville School Rd., Asheville.
The
Great Smokies Writing Program is committed to providing the community with
affordable university-level classes taught by professional writers. For
in-state residents, five-week courses cost $152.50; 10-week courses cost $305;
15-week courses cost $457.50. The costs are higher for out-of-state residents.
A $20 non-refundable application fee for new students also is required. For
more information or to register, visit unca.edu/gswp or call 828.250.2353.
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