News & Events

Fall issue of “The Great Smokies Review” is now on the Web

October 4, 2010

The Fall 2010 issue of “The Great Smokies Review,” an online literary magazine published by UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program (GSWP), is now on the Web and ready for viewing at www.thegreatsmokiesreview.org.

Now in its second year, the Review presents work by GSWP students and faculty. The GSWP is celebrating ten years of bringing quality writing workshops to the Western North Carolina community.

The current issue highlights a personal essay by Jim McElduff, published posthumously, about his experiences living on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. On the home page, Tommy Hays, GSWP executive director, offers a reflection about McElduff, who until his death in the spring of 2010, was a member of Hays’ class.

In addition to these nonfiction pieces, contributions include two stories, three novel excerpts, and the selected work of eight poets. Also in this issue is a craft session by Great Smokies instructor Marjorie Klein; an interview by Nancy Russell-Forsythe with newly published author (and Great Smokies student) Heather Newton; and musings by Editor Elizabeth Lutyens, Assistant Editor Judi Goldenberg, and UNC Asheville Intern Brian Hart.

Serendipitously, three of the pieces have a setting in common: the Gulf of Mexico. More in evidence, however, is the wide variety of styles and content from a diverse group of writers. Some of the contributors have come to creative writing for the first time; some are getting back to it; others have been pursuing it all along but take Great Smokies classes for instruction and community. “We are growing another layer of that community,” says Hays. “’The Great Smokies Review’ is a forum for discussion and learning as well as a place for good work.”