UNCA Offers Great Smokies Writing Program Winter Workshops

The Great Smokies Writing Program, a consortium of the Western North Carolina writers' community and UNC Asheville, will offer five winter courses in poetry and prose. The classes are open to all interested writers. Students will earn UNCA credit hours in Literature & Language.

Cost is $20 for the visiting student application fee and $115.06 for tuition and fees for two credit hour classes and $172.59 for tuition and fees for the three credit hour classes.

Kathy Sheldon will teach "Beginning Poetry Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays beginning February 4 at First Presbyterian Church. This 10-week, two-credit hour workshop will create an opportunity for novice poets to share their love of poetry and strengthen their writing skills. Students will read, discuss and enjoy poems from a wide range of styles and will be involved in exercises to generate new poems. Sheldon is a graduate of the Iowa's Writer's Workshop, she writes poetry, fiction and gardening books. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as "Plainsong" and "The Florida Review."

Sheldon will also teach "Advanced Poetry Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays beginning February 5 at the Asheville School. This 15-week, three-credit hour class will involve reading poetry and what poets have written about their craft, particularly the art of revision. Students will receive thoughtful critiques of their own poems in both workshops and individual conferences with the instructor.

Tommy Hays will teach "Hanging in There: An Advanced Prose Writing Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays beginning January 29 at the Asheville School. This 15-week, three-credit hour class is for experienced writers and will provide structure, criticism and support. The class will read and discuss one another's work in detail and the teacher will respond respectively to individual work. Hays is the author of two novels, "Sam's Crossing" and "In the Family Way," which was a selection for the Book-of-the-Month Club and won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. He is executive director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and is the Creative Writing chair for the Honors Program at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities.

Valerie Ann Leff will instruct "Telling a Story: A Workshop in Creative Prose" from 6-8:30 p.m. Mondays beginning February 3 at the First Presbyterian Church. This 10-week, two-credit hour class will focus on the elements of good prose writing such as characterization, voice, description, pacing and language. Students will read examples of published prose, write in-class exercises, and discuss manuscripts. All aspects of the workshop will occur in an atmosphere of gentle encouragement, focusing on the writer's strengths. Leff's short stories and personal essays have appeared in "The Antioch Review," "Lilith," "The Sun" and other journals. She is currently completing her first book-length collection of short fiction.

Hays will also instruct "Give Up and Write: An Advanced Creative Prose Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays beginning February 4 at the Asheville School. This 10-week, two-credit hour class is for advanced prose writers who have current projects or who want to start a new project in either fiction or memoir. The class will discuss craft and read accomplished writers, and an emphasis will be placed on reading and critiquing one another's work.

For more information or to register, call UNCA's Special Academic Programs Office at 828/250-3833.

Media Contacts:

• Tommy Hays, Great Smokies Writing Program Director, 828/254-1389
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526