Course Descriptions
Full Schedule with Course Descriptions
FRIDAY, MAY 2
3 – 9:30 PM: Registration & Book Sales Open
5 – 9:30 PM: Exhibit Tables Open
7 – 8 PM: Opening Reception
Sponsored by Great Smokies Writing Program
8 – 9 PM: Keynote Address by Ron Rash
Sponsored by Western Carolina University
Ron Rash is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Caretaker, The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; five collections of poems; and seven collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; Nothing Gold Can Stay, a New York Times bestseller; and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Three times the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, his books have been translated into seventeen languages. He teaches at Western Carolina University and is a 2024 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.
9 – 9:30 PM: Ron Rash Book Signing
Sponsored by Regal House Publishing
SATURDAY, MAY 3
7:30 AM – 7 PM: Registration, Book Sales, & Exhibit Tables Open
7:30 – 9 AM: Continental Breakfast Available
8 – 9 AM: All Stories Connect panel discussion
Sponsored by NC Humanities
Have You People Never Seen The Terminator?: Writers & AI
with Michele T. Berger, Paul Jones, and Patrick Cumby
AI is the greatest technological advance for writers since the printing press, or at least the ballpoint pen.
AI is the greatest threat to human creativity and freedom since the Inquisition, one that will render writers obsolete on its way to imprisoning us in the Matrix.
So which is it? Is it somewhere in between . . . or neither one at all? In this panel three writers who actually know what they’re talking about will talk about AI from a variety of perspectives, examining its benefits, its dangers, its hype, and its backlash.
9 – 10:30 AM: Session I
Got Rhythm?: Crafting Prose That Sings with Jennifer McGaha
Rhythm might be a crucial ingredient for poems and songs, but why should poets and musicians have all the fun? Prose writers can also make beautiful music by manipulating syntax and diction to enrich their narrative voices, underscore themes, set the tone for their stories, and create a sense of urgency and momentum in their work. Using examples from prose writers exploring a variety of topics, this workshop is ideal for prose writers at all stages of the writing journey, and will include brief readings, a generative writing activity, discussion time, and a take-home prompt.
The More-than-Human World (poetry) with Mildred Barya
In this poetry writing workshop, participants will focus on crafting poems that precisely portray our observations, interactions, and entanglements with the more-than-human world of plants, animals, and fungi. This workshop is for anyone who is interested in exploring, expanding, and transforming their connections with non-human creatures. The goal is to discover a new way of seeing, listening, and paying attention to what or how we write.
Author Events: Getting the Most Out of a Tour or One-Off with Gold Leaf Literary (Caroline Christopoulos and Lauren Harr)
We hear people ask the question “are events worth it?” all the time. We say the answer is YES! That said, a lot goes into creating a successful event, and it is a partnership between the author and the location. We’ve been on both sides of bookstore events and have tips and stories that can help you land an event with a bookstore or other location, make the most of your (and their!) time and energy, and maybe even enjoy yourself. Whether you have several books out in the world or are at the beginning of your writing journey, join us to feel prepared and hopefully a little excited about meeting your readers at a future event!
Writing the ‘Big Issues’ in YA with Lauren Yero
Some of the most celebrated and beloved young adult literature deals with timely subjects and important, often weighty themes. From The Hate You Give to Dry, from Firekeeper’s Daughter to Children of Blood and Bone, many of the biggest titles in recent years reckon with real-world issues in nuanced and compelling ways. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how to write stories that deal with important social and political themes without being didactic. Through a series of exercises we’ll hone in on the importance of developing complex characters in these kinds of stories (protagonists and antagonists alike!), while also touching on ways to access your own inner teenager and the role of hope in this corner of YA literature.
CLASS FULL: Creative Nonfiction Master Class: Between the Lightning and the Lightning Bug with Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn
This nonfiction master class explores the art of telling true stories that highlight and explore those resonant moments (flashes!) that make up our lived experience. The focus throughout will be specificity. Mark Twain famously said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word . . . is the difference between the lightning and lightning bug,” and in this class we will delve into the individual experiences in order to access more universal emotions. We’ll begin at the macro level with discussions of different forms of nonfiction—including memoir, braided and hermit crab essays—before honing in on the micro—the language.
CLASS FULL – Please submit up to 1,500 sequential words from a single work, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day that you register for the conference. Submissions should be saved in an MS Word document, using double-spaced 12-point Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font, with numbered pages, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The Word document’s file name should include your own last name, and the title of the work and your name should appear on the submission itself. If accepted into the Master Class, your submitted work will be shared with other Master Class registrants.
Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.
CLASS FULL: Fiction Master Class: Layering A Scene with Robert Gipe
This will be a generative workshop. Participants will write scenes from prompts provided by the workshop facilitator and explore ways to make those scenes function on a greater number of levels by reflecting on the component layers of scenes—the basics of character, setting, action, and dialogue, but also historical context—political, intellectual, material—and point of view within the scenes. Participants will reflect on the necessity of not telling everything one knows and practice informed erasure. Examinations of samples from writers living and dead will also be part of the experience.
CLASS FULL – Please submit up to 1,500 sequential words from a single work, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day that you register for the conference. Submissions should be saved in an MS Word document, using double-spaced 12-point Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font, with numbered pages, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The Word document’s file name should include your own last name, and the title of the work and your name should appear on the submission itself. If accepted into the Master Class, your submitted work will be shared with other Master Class registrants.
Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.
CLASS FULL: Poetry Master Class: Good Morning, Unseen with Catherine Carter
Most of us live in buildings which literally constrain rivers of lightning in their walls. Some of us have companion animals in the form of small lions and wolves. All of us are being constantly dragged toward the molten-iron core of the earth, prevented from reaching it by the rubble of crushed and ground-down mountains; all of us contain multitudes of lives too small to see, without which we would literally die. The stone at the roadside was carried there by glaciers. And roughly three species will go extinct in the first hour of our workshop, and we will pass people who have lost their homes as we drive to it, and the bodily fluids of the enslaved dripped into the sack of sugar, and onto the supermarket lettuce, that we’ll eat at lunch.
So often the unseen isn’t unseeable—it’s just that our eyes aren’t focused to see it. In this workshop, we’ll consider some poems which offer some alternate prescriptions for glasses, and maybe try on a few different pairs. And we’ll both try to write some new poems as we look through altered lenses, and consider what’s lying unseen in the poems we’re already written which might be brought into the daylight.
CLASS FULL – Please submit three poems, totaling no more than five pages, on the same day that you register for the conference, along with your current CV in a separate attachment. Poems should be saved in a single MS Word document, using single-spaced, 12-point, Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The Word document’s file name should include your own last name, and your name and the title of each poem should appear on the submission. If accepted into the Master Class, your submitted work will be shared with other Master Class registrants.
Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.
Manuscript Mart with Maggie Cooper, Denton Loving, Lauren Scovel, Mariah Stovall
10:30 – 11 AM: Break
11 AM – 12:30 PM: Session II
Life Stories: A Writing Workshop with Lori Horvitz
This workshop is for anyone who wants to bring their real-life stories to the page, whether for publication or simply to record stories for family and friends. Through focused prompts, we will revisit and write about important moments from our lives. Our session will include timed writing exercises, group discussions, and an opportunity to read one’s work aloud in a supportive setting. Please bring paper and a writing implement and come ready to write!
Echoes and Echoes: A Look at the Uses of Repetition in Poetry with Brandon Amico
Among poetry’s many tools, repetition has an incredible variety of ways to be utilized, within the levels of sound, word, and image. Alliteration and assonance tune the reader’s ear to certain sounds; anaphora uses repeated words or lines to emphasize or iterate, changing the poem’s perspective; repeated, revisited, or reimagined images can provide the most indelible moments of a poem or leave a record of change behind.
This session will review the many flavors of repetition readers can enjoy in a poem, and examine the ways that repetition can be used by poets to create more depth in their poetry and provide a subtle level of guidance through the poem for their readers. Participants will look closely at examples of effective repetition by poets contemporary and beyond, and participate in an open discussion around the topic. Prompts for more consciously utilizing repetition in their own poetry will be provided to participants for use in their own time (or within the session if time allows).
What Writers Should Know About Small Presses with Meg Reid
Join Meg Reid, the Publisher of Hub City Press, as she demystifies all aspects of Small Press publishing. This talk will serve as an overview of the 2024 book landscape and offer a candid discussion of the best practices and challenges of working with smaller and independent publishers. Topics will include types of publishing models, mission, distribution, query letters, agents, and much more, followed by a Q&A.
Writing for Pages, Writing for Stages with Robert Inman, Maggie Marshall, & Erica McGee
Telling a story on the page is not the same as telling a story for the stage. What must be spelled out (literally) on the page can be acted out on the stage or screen, and lyricism that moves the reader to tears can bore an audience to tears. In this panel discussion, three writers who have written both for the page and for the stage or screen will discuss the challenges and rewards of each, from first drafts all the way to pub day or premiere.
Creative Nonfiction Master Class with Alysia Sawchyn
CLASS FULL – Fiction Master Class with Robert Gipe (cont.)
CLASS FULL – Poetry Master Class with Catherine Carter (cont.)
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Luncheon Panel Discussion – “What The Mountains Need Now,”
moderated by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Writers tend to love the mountains, and the mountains have loved writers back, intriguing and inspiring from Thomas Wolfe on down. The question we face, especially after Helene, is how do we keep from loving the mountains to death? This panel will discuss not only the ongoing practical needs in Western North Carolina—of which there are many—but the cultural and even spiritual needs. How do writers grapple with Helene and her aftermath without exploiting human suffering? How can artists help the region rebuild in an affordable and equitable way? How can they—we—preserve and pass on ways of life while also helping people move on from the past? Panelists include Nickole Brown, Jeremy Jones, Tanya Davis and Ronni Lundy.
1:30 – 2 PM: Network Town Hall Meeting
The Network Town Hall Meeting is exactly what it sounds like—a chance for members to share their questions, concerns, and suggestions about our statewide literary community and the organization that nurtures it.
2 – 2:30 PM: Break
2:30 – 4 PM: Session III
Landbound: Writing Artfully About Place with Jeremy B. Jones
In this session, we’ll explore approaches for putting place on the page. By moving through a series of techniques and related writing exercises, we’ll generate material that opens up the places in your writing, considering how the many layers of landscape and culture and history (and so much more) can add to your current and future writing projects. While we will focus primarily on nonfiction, the class’s material will benefit writers in all genres.
Biography, Observation, and Belief (poetry) with Keith Flynn
Seeing is believing. This workshop will focus on incorporating elements of the writer’s personal life with tangible visual aspects to give their work greater authenticity and credibility. We will discuss Surrealism as a strategy and the assimilation of abiding imagery as pillars to wrap the poem around. The session will have prompts and active exercises to buttress and enhance our discussion. We will examine the continued influence of William Carlos Williams’ famous dictum, “No ideas but in things,” and the value of everyday items as totems in our literary experience. Anne Sexton wrote, “The mind takes pictures of things it has wished for but never seen.” Each participant may submit one poem that combines a seminal event from their life that is attached to arresting or unforgettable metaphors. All poems submitted will be considered for inclusion in The Asheville Poetry Review’s Special 30th Anniversary Issue.
What to Talk About When You Talk About Book Design with Kate Arden McMullen
How do you manifest the image you have in mind for your book cover once it’s time to talk about design with your publisher or book designer? How do you walk designers through what you’re envisioning, and when should you step back and let a designer do their thing? What if you hate the cover they send back? What about how it looks inside? In this class we’ll go over book design vocabulary (inside and out), and dos and don’ts for authors (whether that’s a trade house, university, or self-publishing), so you can move forward on solid ground when your book is heading to publication.
Food for Inspiration with Ronni Lundy
James Beard Award-winner Ronni Lundy will lead you through a series of food-related prompts to enhance your ability to create mood, define character, describe place, and reveal motivation in your work.
Creative Nonfiction Master Class with Alysia Sawchyn
CLASS FULL – Fiction Master Class with Robert Gipe (cont.)
CLASS FULL – Poetry Master Class with Catherine Carter (cont.)
4 – 4:30 PM: Break
4:30 – 5:30 PM: Faculty Readings
Sponsored by Appalachian Journal
Faculty readings occur in three different sessions. See the lineup here.
5:45 – 6:15 PM: Young Writers Caucus
We like to think all writers are young at heart, but if you’re also young in age, this caucus is a chance for you to meet other writers 35 or under from all across the state and beyond.
6 – 7 PM: Happy Hour
Sponsored by Weymouth Center for The Arts & Humanities
7 – 8 PM: Network Banquet featuring South Arts’ Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellow Kelle Jolly
Appalachian storyteller Kelle Jolly has been recognized by SouthArts for her contributions to carrying forward the tradition of storytelling within her community. Her work combines narrative, history, folklore, and maybe a little ukulele.
8 – 9 PM: Open Mic Readings
Sponsored by John C. Campbell Folk School
SUNDAY, MAY 4
7:30 A.M. – 12 PM: Registration, Book Sales, & Exhibit Tables Open
7:30 – 9 AM: Continental Breakfast Available
8 – 9 AM: Brilliant at Breakfast Panel Discussion: Agents & Editors
A panel of agents and editors will take your questions about the publishing process, from querying to contracts to best-selling superstardom.
9 – 10:30 AM: Session IV
Finish What You Started: Putting Gas in the Tank of Your Stalled-Out Draft with Tessa Fontaine
It’s easy enough to have a great idea and get the first pages down with energy and enthusiasm, but it can feel almost impossible to make it to the end of a draft, especially with long form works. This class addresses the myriad ways we can stall out in the middle of a novel or memoir, looking at common problems that arise and addressing solutions: both personal and researched tips, ideas, and strategies to create forward momentum in the plot or narrative arc, build creative accountability, rejuvenate artistic confidence, and more.
“Poetry Makes a Music of The Language of a Place”: The Poetry of the Colloquial with Annie Woodford
In this generative workshop, which takes its name from a statement by poet Robert Hass, writers will respond to the question, “How did your grandmother talk?” and examine the power of attuning our ear to the power of ordinary language and “small” lives lived. Other questions that will be considered will revolve around the familial, regional, and cultural language of labor, food, and nature. This workshop, as Alice Walker once wrote, is “For Your Grandmama.”
The Use of Sound in Prose with Heather Newton
Of all the sensory details used in fiction and nonfiction, sound may get the least attention. Yet sound can be key to depicting character, setting, and tone. How can you describe sound in a way that is both original and instantly familiar to the reader? How can you avoid clichés (screen doors banging, hearts pounding like drums)? In this session we’ll look at examples of sound well rendered on the page, and do in-class exercises to get you thinking more deeply about how to give sound its due. We’ll also talk about the use of music in your prose. Our exploration of sound can be expanded to the senses of sight, smell, touch, and taste as well. Come prepared to write.
Bending Reality: Transforming Your Ideas into Speculative Fiction with Michele Berger
What is speculative fiction and how does it play with realist constructs? What does it mean to incorporate elements of magical realism, horror, weird, or the fantastical into one’s work? Why would one want to? Increasingly writers are drawn to the concept of speculation and include speculative elements in their short fiction and novels. This workshop explores how you can do the same in both subtle and dramatic ways. We consider how to include speculative elements that strengthen and amplify the story’s trajectory. We’ll concentrate on character, conflict and setting. We will draw on models and inspiration from a diverse set of writers including Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Jocelyn Johnson, Tim Waggoner, and Nisi Shawl. We will write together and see where we can help our work shape-shift.
Manuscript Mart
10:30 – 11 AM: Break
11 A.M. – 12:30 PM: Session V
Memoir in the Time of Collage with Rachel M. Hanson
In this nonfiction course we will explore the way time works in memoir/personal essay writing. Specifically, we will consider the ways in which structure and carefully crafted language, in conjunction with time, are key to artful creative nonfiction writing. This class will consider ways the nonfiction genre allows writers to be in the (most recent) present, while unpacking the past. During the workshop we will read a few short collage and lyrical memoir/personal essay pieces, discuss the craft elements specifically related to place in time, while paying special attention to the through lines that support the works’ trajectories. With the aid of a writing prompt and inspiration from our class discussion, writers will have time to generate their own start to a memoir or personal essay.
Let’s Get Weird: A Taxonomy of Strangeness in Poems with Ross White
Strangeness wakes us up. In poems, strangeness creates invitation and resistance: it enables new possibilities and new ways of seeing the world while simultaneously promising us there are things we cannot fully understand. And, oddly enough, strangeness can make poems more tender, more sensible, and more human. In this session, we’ll look at strangeness as a craft strategy in poems, exploring several modes of strangeness poets can use to generate and explore ideas. We’ll read a handful of strange poems and do a little writing of our own.
Finding Your Audience and Building Your Writing Community with Alyson Sinclair
You’ve written something you’re excited to share, but you’re not sure who will read it. And, more importantly, who will read and connect with your work. Putting in the time to learn and refine your craft is the first priority. However, writers can often build a community as they work to become a published author. If you build community thoughtfully, those fellow readers and writers are often your most enthusiastic and supportive audience. This class will focus on ways to locate and learn from the people who are most likely to be your people. As a publicist with over a decade of experience working with literary authors in all genres and as a publisher of a widely-read lit magazine, I’ll offer practical advice on how to find a balance between promoting your work and being a thoughtful literary citizen.
When YA Lit Gets Personal: Writing about Self and Family with Zackary Vernon
Many great young adult literary works draw on autobiographical or familial details–for example, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Neal Shusterman’s Challenger Deep, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Even YA novels in the fantasy genre can borrow heavily from the author’s real experiences, such as Robyn Dabney’s The Ascenditure which utilizes her expertise in rock climbing. This workshop will explore how to craft YA literature that deals with material from your own life. In particular, we will examine the conflict we sometimes experience when writing about our home communities. How, we will ask, can you write about family, friends, and community in an ethical and responsible way, while also not compromising your artistic vision for the work?
12:30 – 1 PM: Closing Conversation
The Closing Conversation offers conference-goers a chance to share their impressions and experiences of the Spring Conference and the Network itself.