WCU faculty art showcase

Featuring works from faculty artisans at Western Carolina University, the 2025 School of Art & Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition will…
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Americana, folk at Scotsman

Rising singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alma Russ will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at The Scotsman Public…
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Haywood Arts to offer Helene support grants

The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) in Waynesville has announced the launch of the HCAC Helene Support Grant. Designed to…
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Interested in theatre?

Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART) in Waynesville has announced the launch of its “Spring Semester Theatre Classes,” which will run…
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Under the bright lights: WCU's Bardo Arts Center welcomes ballet, circus acts

With the spring semester soon underway at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, so, too, comes the rich, diverse and vibrant…
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Poet sets a new path for humanity

“In time, maybe the land will decide.” Scott T. Starbuck is an award-winning poet, career fisherman, climate activist and longtime…
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Upcoming readings at City Lights

The following literary events will take place at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. • Lester Laminack will present his new…
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Ricky Skaggs returns to Franklin

Country and bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at…
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Encouraging the gift of a snail mail note

There’s no fool like an old fool. Allow me to serve as a prototype of that adage. I’m old, three…
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WNC’s storytelling spirit finds a home in new film project

A local hero comes home to Western North Carolina for the first time in 20 years, potentially reigniting a longtime feud…
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Till the wheels fall off: A conversation with Charlie Starr

Amid this modern era of rock music, Blackberry Smoke is the absolute epitome of what it means to plug in…
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Lessons from a reimagined winter fairy tale

When you’re a child, this time of year is full of magic and wonder. As you get older, the holidays…
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A class act: HART celebrates milestone, looks ahead

It’s Sunday afternoon. And while many are either watching professional football on a glowing TV somewhere or simply trying to…
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From book monsters to nuclear war

For all sorts of reasons, mostly having to do with research, the last two weeks brought more reading than usual…
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Heart of the arts

You sure as heck can pack a lot into 365 days, especially when it comes to the immensely vibrant arts…
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Real perspectives from a fictional Russian

The ever growing stack of my “to-read” books has had Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow” for about a year…
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A year in review: The best albums of 2024

Editor’s Note: Since August 2012, Garret K. Woodward has held the position of arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky…
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Blow the tannery whistle: Foxfire Christmas: traditions and superstitions

Back in the 1980s, when I was telling stories in the Cope Crest Conference Center in Tiger, Georgia, I heard…
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Desperate times, desperate measures

It’s spring of 1941 and Britain stands alone against Hitler’s Germany. The British aircraft dropping their bombs on German military…
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Here’s to inspiration?

“What are you reading after the election?” a friend asked me last week. She asked me because she had picked…
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Heart is the hero: A conversation with Oliver Wood

Since its formation in 2004, The Wood Brothers have become one of the premier, marquee acts in the vast sonic…
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Blow the tannery whistle: A tale of two Abrahams

I remember a day in March when I was in the seventh grade. We were on the second floor of the…
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Get in the holiday spirit

•  “The Merry Buccaneers Holiday Heist” stage production will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 22-23 at the Swain Arts…
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The Parton sisters’ cookbook

About 10 years ago, Dolly Parton became one of my heroines. It wasn’t her music, or her movies, or her…
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Mountain power: Hundreds of artists come together for 'Caverns of Gold' album

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there has been numerous initiatives put forth by local Western North Carolina musicians to…
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‘Rock for Relief’ raises over $32K

The recent “Rock for Relief: A WNC Flood Benefit Festival” was able to garner more than $32,000 in its one-day…
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An inside look at life in a Christian convent

If you ever wondered what it would be like to live as a monk or a nun, this book delves…
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Being kind: A conversation with Larry Keel

When it comes to bluegrass guitar pickin’-n-grinnin’ — hell, acoustic guitar playing, in general — one name high atop the…
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Of war and peace: novels for Veterans Day

According to surveys and government data cited in the online article “The Changing Face of America’s Veteran Population,” 40 years…
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Coming together: 'Rock for Relief' rolls through WNC

When record-breaking floodwaters tore through Western North Carolina last month in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it was only a…
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A book of peace in hard times

Given the harrowing natural disasters in the South, I thought a good book to review this month would be one…
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Interested in learning to write?

Award-winning poet Cecilia Woloch will offer a workshop for local writers, “Our Lives Which Can Never Run Dry: Workshop for…
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All-star music compilation to benefit flood victims

With the recent floods ravaging Western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, there’s been countless avenues by which artists and…
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The forgotten victims of violent death

Approximately 20,000 murders occurred in the United States in 2023. These killings ranged in scope from gang battles to domestic…
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'A shelf on which to rest': Writing through trauma

As the life-threatening emergency faced in the wake Hurricane Helene ebbs in Haywood County and the reality of the long…
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Giving the present to the future

No book review today. Instead, some words about the importance of words — yours. If you’re reading these words and…
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Bryson City community jam

A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.…
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A proclamation about women as artists

As I peruse the shelves in the Jackson County Library’s “new releases” section, it is evident to me that there…
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Planting the seeds of tomorrow: A community comes together post-Helene

On Friday evening, downtown Waynesville was in kind of a festive spirit — a far cry from what all of…
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Mountain Heritage Day celebrates 50 years

A beloved long-time Western North Carolina tradition, Mountain Heritage Day will spotlight its 50th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.…
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A thoughtful farewell to summer

The change of season, especially to autumn, is always a welcome and refreshing time for me. Traveling diminishes, darkness encroaches…
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Debut novel deals with opioid crisis

Rick Childers will share his debut novel, “Turkeyfoot,” in conversation with Meagan Lucas at 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at…
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A blank canvas: The world of paint and sip

On a sunny morning, I met Robin Arramae at Panacea Coffee House in the Frog Level District of Waynesville. We…
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Teaching manners and other life skills

Recently I had the opportunity to speak by phone with writer and podcaster Jennifer L. Scott. The author of the…
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It's Only Fear That Makes You Run: A conversation with Melissa Etheridge

If there’s one word to describe singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, it would be persistent. From humble and hardscrabble beginnings as a…
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A new take on an old issue

Glass half-full or glass half-empty? For the past 20 years, we’ve heard from academics, some politicians and various commentators that…
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Smokies Life publishes George Masa biography

Smokies Life has announced the publication of “George Masa: A Life Reimagined,” the first comprehensively researched biography of the visionary…
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Shine your light: Patton Magee of The Nude Party

It’s a hot, early evening at FloydFest, the storied independently-run music festival held each July in the backwoods of rural…
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Living off the grid for 40 years

In a book written in a first-person, vulnerable and intimately entertaining narrative oral storytelling voice, Ken Smith takes us through…
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In this book, old-time means good time

Over 30 years ago, I read Helen Hooven Santmyer’s “And Ladies of the Club,” a doorstopper of a book chronicling…
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