This reading is free to attend, but space is limited. Doors open at 6:30pm and seating is first come, first served.
6:00 PM Doors
6:30 PM Reading
Story Parlor | 227 Haywood Road
Parking
Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase.
To kick off their 2025 spring classes, Great Smokies Writing Program presents a Faculty “Writers at Home” Reading featuring members of the faculty, plus the unveiling of the new GSWP Director! 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.
Featuring Jacqui Castle, Tessa Fontaine, Luke Hankins, Sebastian Matthews, and Jamie Tews.
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Tessa Fontaine is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of the year by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors’, and The New York Post. The Red Grove, her debut novel, was named a best book by Amazon Editors’ and People Magazine, and is currently longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Other writing can be found in Outside, The New York Times, Glamour, AGNI, The Believer, People, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, and more. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa is a former professor and has taught in jails and prisons. She co-founded and teaches the Accountability Workshops with writer and pal Annie Hartnett, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, daughter, goofy dog and sassy cat.
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Jacqui Castle is an educator and novelist living and writing in Asheville, North Carolina. She 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 her 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. She is also 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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Sebastian Matthews is the author of two memoirs—most recently Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State—a collage novel, and two books of poems. His hybrid collection of poetry and prose, Beginner’s Guide to a Head-on Collision, won the Independent Publisher Book Award’s silver medal. Matthews currently serves locally on the board of WPVM (where he hosts the radio show Jazz Hybrid) and on the advisory boards for Orison Books and Story Parlor. He is an associate editor for Asheville Poetry Review and host of the reading and music series Jazz Hybrid Presents.
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Jamie Tews earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Her work can be found in the North Carolina Literary Review, Eastern Iowa Review, and the Shore, among others. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina.*
Luke Hankins is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Radiant Obstacles and Weak Devotions, as well as a poetry chapbook, Testament (Texas Review Press, 2023). He is also the author of a collection of essays, The Work of Creation, and a volume of translations from the French of Stella Vinitchi Radulescu, A Cry in the Snow & Other Poems. He 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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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.