The North Carolina Writers Network brings its fall conference to the Doubletree Hotel in Biltmore, November 18 – 20, attracting hundreds of writers from around the country and providing a rich slate activities. Attendees can engage in lunch and dinner banquets with readings, session tracks in several genres, open-mike sessions, a bookstore, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques at a cocktail party with New York editors and agents. Conference faculty include professional writers from North Carolina and beyond.
The conference keynote presentation, set for 8 pm Friday evening, Nov. 18, features award-winning author Silas House, who’s been active in the fight against mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia — the process of dynamiting the tops off mountains to reach a seam of coal. The practice is ecologically destructive, releasing tons of soil along with toxins such as heavy metals.
House is the award-winning author of four novels: Clay’s Quilt (2001), A Parchment of Leaves (2003), The Coal Tattoo (2004), and Eli the Good (2009); two plays, The Hurting Part (2005) and Long Time Travelling (2009); and Something’s Rising (2009), a creative nonfiction book about social protest co-authored with Jason Howard. He is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Novel of the Year, and an Appalachian Writer of the Year, among many other honors. He serves as Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College and on the fiction faculty at Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing program.
The North Carolina Writers’ Network offers programs to serve writers at every stage of development. The Network builds audiences for literature, advocates for the literary arts and for literacy, and provides information and support services. For more about the Writers’ Network and this year’s conference, point your web browser to http://avl.mx/proo. To view Silas House’s website, featuring his regular blogs, tour schedule and more, see http://avl.mx/prop .
Here’s the Saturday afternoon panel discussion (3-4:30 pm) featuring several Asheville folks – me, Jason Sandford, as well as Xpress writer Glenn and Citizen-Times contributor Neufeld.
Panel Discussion:
How do I sign up for this conference next year. I am a recently published North Carolina author and am just finding out about these gatherings.
Thank you,
Sarah Martin Byrd