Dr. Rick Chess

This summer the venerable Bread Loaf School of English will add a new site to its distinguished list of campuses: UNC Asheville.

The Bread Loaf School of English was established in 1920 at Middlebury College in Vermont. Later the program expanded to four campuses: the University of Alaska Southeast near Juneau, St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., Lincoln College, Oxford, in the United Kingdom and in 2006, UNC Asheville. Each summer students gather at one of the campuses to pursue a master’s degree while studying with some of the finest professors in the United States and U.K.

This year, UNC Asheville has been invited to join the Bread Loaf family. Some 60 students – mostly secondary school teachers – will spend six weeks living and studying on campus. Students will explore writing, the teaching of writing, English literature, and Southern and African-American literature.

Rick Chess, a noted poet and UNC Asheville professor of literature and language, is among the seven faculty members for the North Carolina Bread Loaf program.

“We are thrilled that Bread Loaf has chosen UNC Asheville for its first campus in the Southeast.  Ever since the news broke, I’ve heard from friends around town about how excited they are that this prestigious program will now have a home in Asheville,” said Chess. “Personally, I’m honored to have been invited to join Bread Loaf’s stellar faculty.”

The Bread Loaf School of English in North Carolina began June 20 and will run through August 2. During the semester, several free community events will be offered. Each will be held at 7 p.m. in UNC Asheville’s Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall.

-- Middlebury College Associate Professor of English Robert Cohen will give a reading of recent works on July 10. Cohen is the author of four books, including “The Here and Now,” which won the Ribalow Prize for Best Jewish Novel of 1997.

-- Professor Chess will hold a poetry reading on July 24. A widely published poet, Chess has served as a visiting artist and poetry faculty member at festivals, conferences and universities across the United States and Israel. He is the author of two books of poetry, “Tekiah” and “Chair in the Desert.”

For more information about the public readings, call 828/250-2351 between 8:30 a.m. and noon, or 1-2 p.m. weekdays.  For more information about the Bread Loaf School of English, click on www.middlebury.edu/academics/blse/