UNC Asheville to Host an Evening with Acclaimed Appalachian Writers;
Tommy Hays and Ron Rash to Discuss Recent Work

UNC Asheville’s literature and language department and Creative Writing Program will host an evening with celebrated Southern Appalachian writers Tommy Hays and Ron Rash. Both will read from and discuss their novels at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center Chestnut Ridge Room. The talks are free and open to the public.

Hays is the author of three novels, “The Pleasure Was Mine,” “Sam’s Crossing,” and “In the Family Way,” which was a selection for the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. He is director of the Great Smokies Writing Program, a consortium of Western North Carolina writers and UNC Asheville. Hays is also the creative writing director for the Academy at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He reviews books for The Atlanta Constitution, is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and is a frequent contributor to Our State magazine.

Rash is the author of three books of poetry, “Eureka Mill,” “Among the Believers,” and “Raising the Dead,” and two collection of short stories, “The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth,” and “Casualties.” He is the author of two acclaimed novels, “Saints at the River” and “One Foot in Eden,” which received the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award for 2003 and Forward Magazine’s Gold Medal for the Best Literary Novel of 2002. He is currently the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Literature and Language Department at 828/251-6411.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Richard Chess, UNC Asheville Professor of Literature and Language, 828/251-6576
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526