UNCA's Great Smokies Writing Program Offers
Summer Workshops

The Great Smokies Writing Program, a consortium of the Western North Carolina writers’ community and UNC Asheville, will offer summer workshops in poetry and prose. The workshops are open to all interested writers.

Kathy Sheldon will teach "Breaking Open: A Poetry Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. June 4, 5, 11, 12 and 18. This class, appropriate for both beginning and experienced poets, will help writers make changes to their styles. Students will read a variety of poems, use exercises to jump-start new writing and workshop student poems. Sheldon has published poetry in The Florida Review, Plainsong and other literary journals. She has worked an editor and writer in both magazine and book publishing and has taught at the University of Iowa and Warren Wilson College.

Jasmine Beach-Ferrara will teach "Paying Attention: A Fiction Workshop" from 6-8:30 p.m. Mondays June 9-July 7. This class is designed for beginning and experienced fiction writers. It will address issues of craft, such as character and thematic development, in both new pieces and works in progress. Students will also discuss readings and the creative process, participate in writing exercises and workshop student writing. Beach-Ferrara is a graduate of Warren Wilson’s master’s degree program and is currently the Joan Beebe Teaching Fellow at Warren Wilson College. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Harvard Review, Puerto del Sol, The Baltimore Review and BlitheHouse Quarterly. She is working on a collection of short fiction.

"Writing The Personal Essay," taught by Sebastian Matthews, will meet from 6-8:30 p.m. July 7, 11, 14, 18 and 21. In this class, students will read and discuss personal essays, then work as a group on exercises to build their own personal essays. The class will culminate in a pair of workshops geared toward providing strategies for revisions. Matthews teaches part-time at Warren Wilson College and served as editor of the literary journal Rivendell. He recently completed a memoir, "In My Father’s Footsteps" (Norton, 2004) and "Search Party: Collected Poems of William Matthews," (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), which he co-edited with Stanley Plumly. His work has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, New England Review and Seneca Review, among others. Matthews was a recent Bread Loaf Scholar in nonfiction.

Students will earn one college credit hour per class or may choose to audit. Cost is $20 for the visiting student application fee and $57.53 for tuition and fees for those meeting North Carolina residency requirements. Class size is limited; early registration is suggested.

For more information or to request an application, call UNCA Special Academic Programs at 828/250-3833 or send an e-mail.

Media Contacts:

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