This reading is free to attend, but space is limited. Doors open at 6:30pm and seating is first come, first served.
6:30PM Doors
7PM Reading
Story Parlor | 227 Haywood Road
Parking
Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase.
To kick off their 2024 spring classes, Great Smokies Writing Program presents a Faculty “Writers at Home” Reading featuring Jacqui Castle, Ken Chamlee, Erin Hallagan Clare, Luke Hankins, Barbara Roether, Jamie Tews, and Lauren Yero. The reading will be followed by a chance for guests and readers to mingle. Come with any questions you have about the Great Smokies Writing Program’s classes!
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Jacqui 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 Clare is the Founder and Artistic Director of Story Parlor, a narrative arts space in Asheville, North Carolina dedicated to storytelling and the exploration of the human condition through community-driven programming. She is a certified Creativity Coach and Enneagram Practitioner and is completing her Masters in Psychology with a Creativity Studies specialization. A writer and storyteller, she has told stories at The Moth, Listen to This, Testify, One Page Salon, Story Parlor, and Story Department, and is a Moth Story Slam Champion. 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.
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Luke Hankins is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Radiant Obstacles and Weak Devotions, as well as a chapbook, Testament (Texas Review Press, 2023). He is also the author of a collection of essays, The Work of Creation, and volume of his translations from the French of Stella Vinitchi Radulescu, A Cry in the Snow & Other Poems, was published by Seagull Books in 2019. Hankins is the founder and editor of Orison Books, a non-profit literary press focused on the life of the spirit from a broad and inclusive range of perspectives.
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Lauren Yero is a Cuban American writer and teacher who writes speculative, near-future stories of first love and resistance that question the structures our world is built upon. Born in Florida, she received her BA from Davidson College and her MA in Literature and Environment from the University of Nevada Reno. Her debut novel, Under This Forgetful Sky (Simon & Schuster), was a Poets & Writers Get the Word Out pick and a Kirkus Reviews Best of the Month selection. She lives with her family in the mountains of western North Carolina.
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Jamie Tews graduated from the MFA program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the Spring of 2022. She has work in The Shore, Eastern Iowa Review, The Chestnut Review, and Appalachian Voices, among others.
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Kenneth Chamlee is the author of If Not These Things (Kelsay Books, 2022) and The Best Material for the Artist in the World (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2023), a poetic biography of 19th century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt. He has two contest-winning chapbooks, Absolute Faith (ByLine Press) and Logic of the Lost (Longleaf Press), and his poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, Cold Mountain Review, Pinesong, Kakalak, and in many other places. Ken is a 2023 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the North Carolina Poetry Society. He is Emeritus Professor of English at Brevard College in North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Learn more at www.kennethchamlee.com
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Barbara Roether is a novelist, poet, essayist and the founding editor of Wet Cement Press. Her novel This Earth You’ll Come Back To (McPherson & Co.) was the winner of the 2016 Independent Press Award for Women’s Fiction, and a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award in fiction. She is the author of two books of poetry, Saraswati’s Lament and The Middle Atlas. Her essays about reading & travel have appeared recently in Blaze Vox, The Swan, and The Kyoto Journal. She has written profiles for Tricycle, Yoga Journal and other magazines. Her book reviews appear in Rain Taxi and the New York Journal of Books. In previous lives she worked in New York publishing for Harper Collins and Publishers Weekly. She holds an MFA from Bard College. More information is at barbararoether.com.
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The Great Smokies Writing Program is a joint effort between the UNC Asheville departments of English, Creative Writing, and the Asheville Graduate Center. The program offers opportunities for writers of all levels to join a supportive learning community in which their skills and talents can be explored, practiced, and forged under the careful eye of professional writers.
The program is committed to providing the community with affordable university-level classes led by published writers and experienced teachers. Each course carries academic credit awarded through UNC Asheville.
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The GSWP Writers at Home Series celebrates local and regional writers read from their own work. The series was started by novelist and longtime former Program Director Tommy Hays. Today, the series is hosted by Program Coordinator Jennifer McGaha, and held at Malaprop’s and Story Parlor. Events are free and open to the public.
Fall 2023
August 27, 7pm at Story Parlor: GSWP Faculty & Staff Reading featuring Cynn Chadwick, Erin Hallagan Clare, Annie Frazier Crandell, Lilly Danzis, Meagan Lucas, Sebastian Matthews, Jennifer McGaha, and Brit Washburn
September 17, 5pm at Malaprop’s: Wild Women: five local women hiker-writers/writer-hikers will discuss how their time in the outdoors has shaped their personal and professional lives.
October 15, 5pm at Malaprop’s: four WNC poets will read from their work and discuss their creative journeys.
November 19, 5pm at Malaprop’s: GSWP Student Open Mic
December 10, 7pm at Story Parlor: Great Smokies Review Fall 2023 Celebration