Highlands Summer Conference

Highlands Summer Conference

Imagine a week of hanging out at a nature conservancy with about a dozen other people, deeply immersed in daily lectures, lessons, and writings about all things Appalachia. Your evenings are filled with readings and old-time music. You share an indoor, air-conditioned...
Mountain Heritage Lit Festival

Mountain Heritage Lit Festival

The 18th annual Mountain Heritage Lit Festival took place at Lincoln Memorial University Friday, June 21-Saturday, June 22. Numerous sessions were offered by a talented staff of writers this year, covering general fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as...
West Virginia Writers Conference Recap

West Virginia Writers Conference Recap

The West Virginia Writers Conference was held in Ripley, WV, at the Cedar Lakes Conference Center, June 7-9. It was a grand conference with phenomenal speakers and workshops. I got to see several old friends and made a few new friends, too. The first session I...
7 A.M. Writing Group

7 A.M. Writing Group

I belong to a group of writers that meet every morning at 7:00 a.m. (except for Saturdays, when it’s 8:00 a.m.), to write to a prompt, provided by our fearless leader, Connie Kinsey. As a disclaimer, I do not make it every day. In fact, I took a hiatus for several...
Lionel Richie

Lionel Richie

From “Hello” to “All Night Long” and every song in-between, the Lionel Richie concert at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville was everything I could have hoped for! The only thing I might have changed would have been for him to sing “Lady,” which he actually wrote for...