October 24
Donna Mintz
Donna Mintz (born Gainesville, Georgia, 1956) is a visual artist who writes about art and literature. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the Sewanee Review, Sculpture magazine, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, SWING, and the arts journals Burnaway.org and ArtsATL.org. She recently published her first book, Stars at Noon (Mercer University Press, 2026), inspired by the life and work of the writer James Agee.
Mintz holds an MFA from Sewanee’s School of Letters at the University of the South, and resides in Atlanta, Georgia where she maintains her studio practice.
Alice Martin
Alice Martin is a writer, reader, and teacher from North Carolina. She holds a PhD in Literature from Rutgers University and works as an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, where she teaches fiction writing and American literature.
She is the author of the novel Westward Women (St. Martin's Press, 2026), acclaimed by Joyce Carol Oates as “an audacious first novel to set beside Margaret Atwood.”
She lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, her son, and too many typewriters.
Lauren Raye
Lauren Raye is an amateur poet writing from her home nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina. Her works reflect the thoughts that fill her brain as she reflects on nature, family, sense of place, & the everyday happenings of the world. She used to force poetry on adolescents as a middle school English teacher, but she’s now found a much more welcoming audience as she has had the honor to share her works with members of her community through participating in Smoky Mountain Storytellers. She also enjoys sharing her writing through her Substack, laureraye.substack.com. She hopes to one day publish a book of her poetry & set her writing free to the world.
Walter Cook
Walter A. Cook is a North Carolina writer whose work is deeply rooted in the Great Smoky Mountains—the most visited national park in America and the landscape that shapes both his life and his fiction. His novels blend the emotional resonance of literary fiction with the intimacy and community of cozy mystery, creating a body of work defined by atmosphere, memory, and the quiet complexities of small town life.
He lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where the land continues to inform every page he creates.
Scott McLeod is the founder and owner of The Smoky Mountain News, a regional weekly publication serving four counties in Western North Carolina. Prior to starting The Smoky Mountain News in 1999, he was a writer and editor at several other newspapers in North Carolina.
He and his wife, Lori, an ESL teacher, enjoy travel, bicycling, sailing, camping, hiking, books, music and good friends. He’s the proud father of two daughters and a son.
Scott McLeod
Bob Scott is a writer and photographer who claims he came to Western North Carolina as a missionary. “I was going to straighten out the savages in this land of high valleys and mountain tops. I gave up and joined them.”
Bob has worked as a reporter and photographer for three daily newspapers in North Carolina and South Carolina. He was a photographer and public information officer for the SC National Guard and the Army Reserve.
Now retired, he writes a weekly column for the Franklin Press and is a freelance writer and photographer. He is a resident of Franklin.
Bob writes about the fun, humor and craziness being a reporter in the mountains. He is a backwoods, homespun, storyteller.
Bob Scott
Diana New teaches writing and composition at Western Carolina University. While she typically prefers research writing with a focus in 19th Century Essays and Gothic Literature, she finds a serenity in short story writing and poetry. In addition to teaching, Diana is a local singer/songwriter and an advocate for Franklin's growing music scene. She has also worked with Sk828 in efforts to build the Franklin Skate Park, and currently serves on the boards for Smoky Mountain Storytellers and The Warrior's Way.
Diana New
Avery Luft is a North Carolina based writer with deep roots in Florida. Her work has appeared in Nomad, Southeast Review, and is forthcoming in Loblolly Press's UNDERSTORY Anthology Volume II. Some of her stories have won awards such as runner-up for the Spring Literary Festival's Nonfiction competition (2023,2024,2025), runner-up for the Southeast Reviews Ned Stucky French competition, and first place for the Beyond the Frame Short Story contest. She is currently working on a collection of essays inspired by her recent travel to Europe. She is a craft enthusiast, a lamp collector, and loves her cat Muta dearly.