Stephen Kirbach, Peter Turchi to Read at UNCA May 21

UNCA's Writers at Home reading series continues at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 21, with readings by authors Stephen Kirbach and Peter Turchi. Writers at Home is part of the Great Smokies Writing Program, a consortium of the Western North Carolina writer's community and UNC Asheville's Creative Writing Program. The program is free and open to the public.

Kirbach, who just received his bachelor's degree in Literature and Language from UNCA, recently won an AWP Intro Journals Award and had a poem published in Hayden's Ferry Review. He was also a finalist for the 1999 Ruth Lilly Fellowship sponsored by Poetry.

Turchi, director of Warren Wilson College's Master of Fine Arts Program for Writers, is the author of three books, including the novel "The Girls Next Door," a collection of stories and a work of non-fiction. His stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Story, Puerto del Sol and other journals. "The Night Sky" was selected as one of the 100 Notable Stories of 1999 by the editors of Best American Short Stories, and it and "The Man Who Lived Above Us" have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award, Turchi has taught graduates and undergraduates at the University of Arizona, Northwestern University, Appalachian State and Warren Wilson College.

For more information, call UNCA's Literature and Language Department at 828/251-6411.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Rick Chess, UNCA Creative Writing Program Director, 828/251-6576
• UNCA Public Information, 828/251-6526