Saturday + Sunday, August 23-24 | See full schedule below!
Join Story Parlor for a weekend full of mini workshops showcasing some of the classes on the horizon for the upcoming season. Come meet the instructors, get a feel for their offerings, and network with other creatives in the community.
Your registration fee will give you access to a RSVP link to sign-up for as many of the mini-workshops as you'd like (capacity permitting), along with a $25 credit to apply to a Spring workshop of your choice.
Early bird $35 | Register by February 11 (discount applied at checkout)
Regular Price $45 | Effective February 12
Your registration fee will give you access to a RSVP link (emailed to your separately) to sign-up for as many of the mini-workshops as you'd like (capacity permitting), along with a $25 credit to apply to a fall workshop of your choice.
All sales are final. Refund and other policies can be found here.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Saturday, February 21
9:30am-10:30am | Meet the Facilitators Breakfast and Q&A
11:00am-12:00pm | Story Lab with Erin Hallagan Clare
2:00pm-3:00pm | The Writers Room for Novelists with Jacqui Castle
3:30pm-4:30pm | The Artist’s Way for Busy Minds* with J. Faye D’Avanza
Sunday, February 22
9:30am-10:30am | Sunday Sessions Spotlight
11:00am-12:00pm | Making Your Story Come to Life with Bruce Spang
12:30pm-1:30pm | The Whole Story: Embodied Wisdom for Creatives with Cynthia Bergh, D.C.
2:00-3:00 | The Fantastic Ekphrastic Writing Workshop* with Alli Marshall
*Indicates an online course offered through the Inward & Artward School of Creativity.
The Creative Facilitator Info Session has been postponed. Stay tune for updated date.
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Anyone interested in a quick boost to their creative work and spirit
Folks interested in learning more about upcoming classes and facilitators at Story Parlor
People looking for connection and the collective energy of a creative community
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R. Lyon Bergh
R. Lyon is a writer, actor, and filmmaker currently living and creating in Asheville, NC. He (or she) expresses creative storytelling through poetry, song, short & long-form prose, short & long-form screenwriting, oral storytelling, comedy improv, and just about any other way that (s)he can find. He received his undergrad from Wilmington University in Marketing with a strong concentration in Creative Writing. Following that, he was a finalist for the High Residency MFA Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, studied Meisner Acting at the New York Studio for Stage and Screen, and is a proud alumni of Asheville School of Film. Lyon is a certified Inward & Artward Creative Facilitator.
Early recognition was for a submission to the Wilmington Drama League’s One Act Play Festival, where he received multiple awards including Best Director and Best Original Stage Play. More recently, he was published twice in the WNC Woman magazine and has earned recognition for contributions to the 48hr film project in Asheville.*
Jacqui CastleJacqui Castle is an educator and novelist living and writing in Asheville, North Carolina. Castle received her MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has been published in a variety of local publications including Mountain Xpress, WNC Woman, Asheville Grit, and Explore Asheville.
Her novel The Seclusion, which School Library Journal called “A must-have for all libraries and fans of scifi,” garnered Castle the title of 2020 Indie Author of the Year through the Indie Author Project (a collaboration between Library Journal and Biblioboard). Jacqui currently teaches creative writing through the Great Smokies Writing Program and Redbud Writing Project.
Jacqui is the owner of Lit Local Mini Bookshops, which bring the work of local authors to Asheville establishments. When not writing, Jacqui can be found hanging out with her kids and consuming far too much caffeine.
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Erin Hallagan ClareErin Hallagan Clare is the founder of Story Parlor, a narrative arts listening room and experiential learning space, as well as co-owner of the Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar, both based in Asheville, NC. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Creativity at Rowan University where her dissertation is focused on the ontology of story and creativity. With a Masters in Creative Psychology—plus certifications in creativity coaching, applied mythology, the narrative psychology of fairy tales, and the Enneagram—Erin is passionate about helping others explore the intersection between creativity and story. A writer, storyteller, Moth Story Slam champion, and Emmy-winning producer, she teaches regularly at both Story Parlor and UNCA’s Great Smokies Writing Program, and leads a bi-annual Creative Facilitator Training Program. Her writing can be found in Psychology Today, Thrive Global, and others, and she is a contributing author to The Coach’s Guide to Completing Creative Work published by Routledge. Erin has spent her career developing the “Inward & Artward Model of Creativity,” and recently launched an online school dedicated to this methodology.
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J. Faye D’Avanza
J. Faye D’Avanza is a writer-editor, holistic librarian, creative guide, and the founder of Library of Care—a 21st-century resource hub dedicated to curating and sharing the knowledge, stories, and tools needed for creative recovery, healing, and thriving in the modern age.
A creative workshop facilitator, consultant, and coach, she is passionate about helping others on their parallel burnout recovery and creative healing journeys by nurturing one's passion for learning, connection, and growth. She holds an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts, a BA in English with minors in American Studies and Art from the University of New Hampshire, a Certificate in Editing from the University of Chicago, and is a certified Inward & Artward Creative Facilitator from Story Parlor in West Asheville, North Carolina.
You can learn more about her creative offerings at jfayedavanza.com.
Bruce Spang, former Poet Laureate of Portland, is the author of two novels, The River Crossed (2024), The Deception of the Thrush and a memoir Those Close Beside Me: A Young Man’s Search for Home. He has published five books of poems, including Twist (2025), All You’ll Derive: A Caregiver’s Journey, To the Promised Land Grocery and Boy at the Screen Door (Moon Pie Press) along with several anthologies and several chapbooks. He is the poetry editor of the Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine and staff writer for The Asheville Poetry Review. His poems have been published in Connecticut River Review, Puckerbrush Review, Red Rover Magazine, Great Smokies Review, Kalopsia Literary Journal, Café Review and other journals across the United States. He teaches courses in fiction and poetry at Great Smokies Writing Program at University of North Carolina in Asheville and lives in Candler, NC with his husband Myles Rightmire and their two dogs, fifteen fish, and eighteen birds.
More at : brucepspang.wordpress.com