Writers' Workshop features standout poet, author

Writers of all levels can learn about the "one rule of writing," how to effectively express a sense of place and more at this year's Writers' Workshop at Isothermal Community College.

The 14-year-old event will be held on Saturday, March 31, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Business Sciences Building.

The workshop's featured writers are Scott Owens and Jeremy B. Jones. The topics will include "The Rule(s) of Writing: What to Write and How to Make It Good," "Landbound: Writing Artfully about Place," and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Writing."

Registration will cost $25 and will include snacks, coffee and tea. The deadline to register is Tuesday, March 27.

Owens holds degrees from Ohio University, UNC Charlotte, and UNC Greensboro. He is Professor of Poetry at Lenoir-Rhyne University, edits Wild Goose Poetry Review, owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse and Gallery and coordinates Poetry Hickory. He is the author of 14 collections of poetry and recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Next Generation/Indie Lit Awards, the NC Writers Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. He has been featured on The Writer's Almanac 6 times, and his articles about poetry have been featured in Poet's Market each of the past 5 years.

Jones is the author of Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland, which was named the Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction in 2014 and awarded gold in memoir in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2015. His essays appear in Oxford American, Brevity, The Iowa Review, Our State, and elsewhere. Originally from the Henderson County, North Carolina, Jeremy earned his MFA from the University of Iowa and is an associate professor of English at Western Carolina University. He also serves as the series co-editor of In Place, a literary nonfiction book series from Vandalia Press (the creative imprint of WVU Press).

For more information or to register, contact Dr. Kathy Ackerman, Isothermal's dean of Arts and Sciences, at kackerman@isothermal.edu or call 828-395-1301.