Western Carolina University’s School of Music took on a whole new challenge when creating this opera. From making sure Ron Rash’s works were honored and reflected in the inspiration of lyrics and feeling, a school-run musical collaboration with special guests, and an overwhelming amount of care and detail, down to the lighting and design work […]
WCU sets stage for first opera inspired by Appalachia
January 22, 2026 by
Mark your calendars and make weekend plans to see Western Carolina’s first opera performance on Friday, Jan. 23. WCU takes inspiration from Ron Rash’s poetry works of Appalachian history and transforms them into this new medium, filled with drama, human themes—and most importantly song. The weather moved the premier night for “Shelton Laurel: An Appalachian […]
Writer urges students: ‘read and persevere’
April 26, 2017 by
This story was originally published in The Sylva Herald. Every Monday night since January, 10 students have met for class in the Coulter building on Western Carolina University’s campus. They read stories, write and present on contemporary work—all while learning from one of America’s towering professional writers: WCU professor and Jackson County resident Ron Rash. […]
Sylva: The region’s most literary town
March 31, 2017 by
This story was written by Quintin Ellison, originally published in The Sylva Herald. One day last week, Catherine Carter, a poet and professor in the English department at Western Carolina University, started sketching a bubble chart to illustrate how literary and artistic engagement dovetail in this community. She didn’t complete the task. “I ran out of paper. […]
Time for poetry and prose… and beautiful words
April 1, 2016 by
Each year, for the past 14 years, Western Carolina University has held an annual Spring Literary Festival to reflect WCU’s commitment to providing the best humanities education possible for its students and to bring the best of the arts to the heart of the WNC Mountains. The Festival is a 4-day long event where both established […]
Ron Rash talks about writing “Serena”
November 11, 2014 by
“ [I] spent more time on my characters, which is probably dangerous for my mental health,” Rash said explaining the process of writing “Serena” and the main characters. It took him 14 drafts and several years to be happy how they turned out to be. As he explained all of his novels begin with a […]
