The Great Smokies Writing Program, UNC Asheville’s unique community-oriented creative writing program, is pleased to announce Luke Hankins as its new director. For 25 years, The Great Smokies Writing Program has offered affordable university-level community classes for writers of all experience levels every spring, summer, and fall.
Wiley Cash, executive director of the Literary Arts at UNC Asheville, says, “For years Luke Hankins has played a major role in the literary scene in Asheville and nationwide. He’s a poet, an editor, a nonprofit administrator, and, most importantly, an active member of a thriving literary community. I’m really looking forward to him calling upon his vast experience and considerable talent as he leads the Great Smokies Writing Program into the future.”
Hankins is a longtime Asheville resident and has taught classes for The Great Smokies Writing Program in the past. A graduate of the Indiana University MFA in Creative Writing Program, where he held The Yusef Komunyakaa Fellowship in Poetry, Hankins is the founder and editor of Orison Books, a nationally recognized non-profit literary press. His books include several poetry collections, a collection of essays, and a volume of translations, and he has edited or co-edited a number of anthologies, including Orison Books’ annual Best Spiritual Literature series. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, EuropeNow, Image, New England Review, Pleiades, Poetry International, 32 Poems, Verse, World Literature Today, and The Writer’s Chronicle, as well as on the American Public Media radio program “On Being.”
“As a longtime Great Smokies Writing Program instructor,” says Hankins, “I have witnessed firsthand the value the program offers to writers who may not be able to attend a traditional or low-residency creative writing program—or perhaps they did, but they’re seeking ongoing mentorship and literary community.
“By offering a wide range of affordable writing classes led by experienced writers, The Great Smokies Writing Program gives writers from all sorts of backgrounds and demographics the opportunity to hone their craft, develop professionally, and become part of a community of writers.
Over the coming year, we’ll be introducing some new initiatives, including new class formats and topics, new public events, and renewed fundraising efforts. But the program’s core will remain: affordable university-level writing classes offered each spring, summer, and fall, and community events that keep the program tied to Western North Carolina’s literary public and small businesses.”
For the latest Great Smokies Writing Program class offerings, visit greatsmokies.unca.edu.
For further information, or to request an interview, please contact Liam Danzis at ldanzis@unca.edu.
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