My friends, if you have never been to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, you must put it on your calendar to spend time there.
The school began in the 1930s as a replica of Folk Schools in Denmark, Sweden, and other countries, but has grown tremendously since its birth when the natives of Clay and Cherokee County gave land and labor to build it.
One of our NCWN members, Dr. Eugene Hirsch, who was from Pennsylvania, but owned a mountain cabin near Murphy, NC, was a poet as well as a renowned doctor. On one of his trips down south, Gene Hirsch spent a week taking a class at the folk school in Brasstown. Like most of us locals, he fell in love with the casual, friendly, and enthusiastic people there and continued to take classes, but he thought this would be a great place for a writing program.
He talked to the director of the school and soon there were writing classes on the schedule. Our own Nancy Simpson served as Resident Writer and she brought some of the best poets, novelists, and nonfiction writers to the little town of Brasstown, a place they might never have heard of if not for the writing program at John Campbell. I am fortunate to have been a student there many times over the years and to have taught writing there. Some of my happiest times were at the John C. Campbell Folk School, and I met people who have become life-long friends.
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| This photograph is of one of the first classes I taught at JCCFS in 2008 |
I have never been able to put into words the feelings I had while attending and the feelings I had when I left. Your classmates or your students become like family as you share common interests such as weaving, painting, cooking, dancing, playing instruments, and writing. I am reading a memoir by Betty Brown, a fellow student I met in a writing class at John Campbell a decade ago. She is well known as a visual artist also. I find that she is an excellent writer.
Below is the writing schedule for this year. I know most of these writers and some are long-time friends of mine. Make a pledge to yourself to spend a week or a weekend in a writing class with one of the fantastic writers who will be your instructor. You will stay in a comfortable cabin with other students. You will share meals from the dining room and you will attend gatherings outside now because of COVID. Visit their website and read the catalog. I promise you if you spend time there enjoying a craft of your choosing, making friends, and learning more about yourself, you will make memories that will be with you always.
For those of us who live in counties near the school, we can come home at night. The tuition is half of the price paid by others.
Click on this link to see what is happening in the writing classes.CLASSES WITH MEDIA CODES THAT CONTAIN WRITING
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| Writing Rosemary Royston | Creative Writing Across Genres | |||||||||
| Writing Annette Clapsaddle | The Body Keeps the Story | |||||||||
| Writing Pamela Duncan | Fiction Writing - Focus on Craft | |||||||||
| Writing Dana Wildsmith | What's in Your Writing Folder? | |||||||||
| Writing Darnell Arnoult | Creative Nonfiction in a Flash |  | ||||||||
| Writing Valerie Nieman | The Breath of Life: Discovering and Depicting Characters | |||||||||
| Writing Bobbie Pell | Poetry - The Wonders of Nature |
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