Great Smokies Writing Program

10/03/2026

Join us on October 18 for our monthly "Writers at Home" event at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe! Our featured readers are poets Melissa Crowe and Margaret McMurtry. Free registration required at the link in the comments.

Melissa Crowe is the author of the poetry collections Dear Terror, Dear Splendor, Lo (winner of The Iowa Poetry Prize), and most recently, Abider. Her work has appeared in Copper Nickel, New England Review, Poetry, and Poetry Northwest, and she was the 2021 recipient of The Robert H. Winner Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She chairs the Department of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington, where she teaches poetry and publishing.
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​Margaret McMurtry is a poet based in Hendersonville, NC, where she lives with her husband and two young sons. Her debut poetry chapbook, The First Daughter, will be published by Orison Books this month.

09/23/2026

Our final Fall instructor spotlight!🔎✨

Jacquelyn Nasti received her MFA in Poetry from the University of New Orleans. Her poetry can be found in The Pinch, Carolina Quarterly, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere, and her work was nominated for Best New Poets 2019. She is currently working on her first poetry collection.

About her class, "Creativity within Confines," Jacquelyn writes: While formal poetry is often thought of as a restrictive product of the past, it can actually inspire and unlock creativity. Recognizing specific poetic forms—like sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and pantoums—as well the mechanisms behind them will give you a deeper appreciation for formal poetry and the echoes of formality in free verse. As a writer, using a form’s guidelines, whether strictly or loosely, can unlock new ways of expression. With pattern comes variation, with structure comes musicality, with tradition comes the bucking of tradition. We will explore the expansive potential of forms through readings, class discussions, in-class exercises, and workshops of students’ original poems.

Sign up today at the link in the comments! (A limited number of scholarships available.)

09/20/2026

Today, 5:00 at Malaprop's!

Join us this Sunday at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe for a reading by poet NitaJade and poet and fiction writer Doug Ramspeck!

NitaJade, an Affrilachian Poet and self-proclaimed weirdo, hails from Asheville, NC. They earned their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky and their debut poetry collection, Mob the Sky, is forthcoming from Loblolly Press in 2027. NitaJade’s writing has appeared in Callaloo, Poetry Northwest, Torch Literary Arts, Still: the Journal, The Griot: Journal of African American Studies, and The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, among other places. Their work is forthcoming in several anthologies, including Testament: A Rural Anthology (Backwoods Literary Press) and belonging to place: The Creative Community and Artistic Legacy of bell hooks (University Press of Kentucky). NitaJade insists that their late O.G. Queen's sweet potato pie epitomizes love, and they aspire to embody the aesthetics of sloths and narwhals (slarwhals, if you please). They laugh loudly and stubbornly.

Doug Ramspeck is the author of ten poetry collections, two collections of short stories, and a novella. His latest book, Dancing in Their Dead Mother’s Dresses (Wolfson Press, 2026), includes stories that first appeared in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Cincinnati Review, New Letters, The South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. One story received First Place in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Another was selected as a Distinguished Story for The Best American Short Stories. Ramspeck is a retired professor from The Ohio State University and lives in Black Mountain, NC.

Free registration required at the link in the comments.

09/18/2026

We're pleased to announce THE FIRST DAUGHTER, Margaret McMurtry's debut chapbook, now available for pre-order!

Melissa Crowe writes, "Here is a book of lush and lucid poems that wound us and bandage the wound. I'm not sure what more we can want."

Margaret and Melissa will be reading together at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe on Oct. 18 as part of The Great Smokies Writing Program's "Writers at Home" series.

Links to pre-order THE FIRST DAUGHTER and to register for the reading in the comments!

09/17/2026

Another instructor spotlight!🔎✨

Brit Washburn is the author of the essay collection Homing In: Attempts on a Life of Poetry and Purpose (Alexandria Quarterly Press, 2023) and the poetry collections Notwithstanding (2019) and What Is Given (2025), both from Wet Cement Press. She teaches at Virginia Tech and co-curates the Juniper Bends reading series. She also serves as Associate Editor for Criticism and Interviews at The Great Smokies Review and as Nonfiction Editor at Only Poems, to which she contributes regularly. Recently, her work has appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, The Christian Century, and the anthology Had I a Dove: Appalachian Poets on the Helene Floods.

About her class, "Portrait of the Artist," Brit writes: In this generative workshop, we’ll explore artists’ statements, the ars poetica, manifestos, and self-portrait poems both philosophically and as literary forms. We’ll consider the form or forms our work takes or might take, how our identities and backgrounds might inform our work, what we are “drawn to” and “interested in,” and what we believe a poem (story, essay) should (or should not) do/be. We’ll explore what we “must do” and what our responsibilities are—as artists and otherwise. Whether a fledgling or seasoned writer, these reflective exercises will support you in orienting yourself according to where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going as an artist.

Register today at the link in the comments! A limited number of full scholarships are available to those with financial need.

09/15/2026

Join us this Sunday at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe for a reading by poet NitaJade and poet and fiction writer Doug Ramspeck!

NitaJade, an Affrilachian Poet and self-proclaimed weirdo, hails from Asheville, NC. They earned their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky and their debut poetry collection, Mob the Sky, is forthcoming from Loblolly Press in 2027. NitaJade’s writing has appeared in Callaloo, Poetry Northwest, Torch Literary Arts, Still: the Journal, The Griot: Journal of African American Studies, and The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, among other places. Their work is forthcoming in several anthologies, including Testament: A Rural Anthology (Backwoods Literary Press) and belonging to place: The Creative Community and Artistic Legacy of bell hooks (University Press of Kentucky). NitaJade insists that their late O.G. Queen's sweet potato pie epitomizes love, and they aspire to embody the aesthetics of sloths and narwhals (slarwhals, if you please). They laugh loudly and stubbornly.

Doug Ramspeck is the author of ten poetry collections, two collections of short stories, and a novella. His latest book, Dancing in Their Dead Mother’s Dresses (Wolfson Press, 2026), includes stories that first appeared in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Cincinnati Review, New Letters, The South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. One story received First Place in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Another was selected as a Distinguished Story for The Best American Short Stories. Ramspeck is a retired professor from The Ohio State University and lives in Black Mountain, NC.

Free registration required at the link in the comments.

09/14/2026

Our Fall instructor spotlights continue!🔎✨

Tiana Kennell is the Food and Dining Reporter for The Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, reporting on the hospitality, agriculture, arts, and tourism industries. A Detroit native and Michigan State University alum, Tiana has 20 years of journalism experience, having previously worked as the Louisiana Flavor Reporter for The Shreveport Times. In 2021, she relocated to Asheville with her now-fiancé, Russell, and their two Tortie sister cats, Yogurt and Tofu. Tiana enjoys watching reality cooking competitions, writing fiction, running, dancing, costuming, and trying new recipes.

About her virtual class, "Family & Community Storykeeping," Tiana writes: In this course, students will receive guidance on unearthing lesser-known stories and preserving history through interviews and narrative writing. In-class and at-home assignments will include conducting conversations with strangers, loved ones, and neighbors, then transforming the information and anecdotes into creative pieces that can be shared, kept for personal record-keeping, used in a memoir, or passed down to the next generations. Students will also practice writing original tribute-style obituaries and living legacies.

Sign up today at the link in the comments! (A limited number of scholarships available.)

09/12/2026

Another Fall instructor spotlight!🔎✨

Raleigh native Tamara Federici’s published work includes the New Yorker’s Daily Shouts and the iconic Mad Magazine. She’s written puzzles for NPR’s “Ask Me Another” and contributed a humor piece to PRI’s “Marketplace.” She was awarded an honorarium for a trio of short plays from Theater Breaking Through Barriers while pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at the New School in New York City. In 2024, she was invited to be a comedy mentor for the inaugural Stanford Doctoral Humanities Fellowship program. For TV, Tamara has written for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and Demetri Martin on Important Things, and she served as Associate Producer for Chappelle’s Show. Tamara is a Professor at Pace University in Manhattan and is at work on her first comedic memoir.

About her class, "Humor as a Radical Act," Tamara writes: What better way to stick it to the man than by actively learning about comedy in a time of chaos and despair? Humor is an art form we can study to strengthen our funny bones and our resilience! We can laugh while learning about power imbalances. We can study underrepresented points of view while learning what our own comedic voice sounds like. We’ll discuss the tools and the places comedy winds its way through to make a point, including: Satire, Mockumentary, Absurdity, Truth to Power, and Social Commentary. We’ll discover how the life cycle of a joke or essay works. And we’ll write funny short work both individually and as a group.

Sign up today at the link in the comments!

09/05/2026

There's still space in Savannah Brooks' extremely practical class, "Getting Published," which starts Tues. 9/8! Savannah has many years of experience as an agent, editor, and writer, and will help you refine your tools for the professional side of the writer's life.

If you need financial assistance to attend, don't hesitate to fill out our scholarship application!

Registration and scholarship application links in the comments.