She Rambles Podcast Episode 4: Public School vs. Home Schooling

Written story produced by Elise Holbrook. Podcast episode produced in collaboration with Drue Stinnett. Did you attend public schools, or were you home-schooled? And, how many people do you know who were home-schooled for part or all of their education? When public and home-schooled children compare their experiences, the differences can be enlightening. I was […]

Women’s History Month ends with documentary screening and panel

Five professors at Western Carolina University discussed important issues facing women and shared personal stories at a questions panel on March 26. A screening of Makers: Women Who Make America and questions panel consisting of WCU professors Lynn Burkett, Catherine Carter, Elizabeth Heffelfinger, Allison Thorp and Laura Wright ended a Tuesday series of presentations for […]

She Rambles Podcast Episode 3: Why Do We Get Emotionally Attached To Fictional Characters?

Written story produced by Elise Holbrook. Podcast episode produced in collaboration with Drue Stinnett. Are you the type of viewer who gets very emotionally invested in the TV shows you watch? Do you feel like you know the characters you hold close to your heart?  I get super involved in any show I decide to […]

Assault on Blackrock returns for 9th Year

Every spring, the Blackrock Mountain Trail in Pinnacle Park finds itself in bloom and full of hikers out to enjoy the scenery. However, on March 23 the trail will be full of extreme runners, seeking to conquer the terrain. Since 2010 Assault on Blackrock brings trail runners together in the Plott Balsam Mountains for a […]

17th Annual Spring Literary Festival starts this week

Western Carolina’s 17 Annual Spring Literary Festival starts Thursday, March 21 and features a variety of voices of literary writers from the Appalachian region and beyond. What began as a visiting writer’s series has grown over the years into a week-long festival of fiction writers, nonfiction writers, essayists, and poets sharing their work with the […]

Local veteran healing with words and tales of warriors

Story was originally published in The Sylva Herald on March 14. The story was co-written with Jim Buchanan.  Across the centuries war has been a constant in the human experience. Needless to say, war itself has changed along the way – the steel in swords became the steel in rifle barrels; motivations changed, and adversaries […]