Tremont to host Writing the Appalachians forum October 28

Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont is pleased to announce Writing the Appalachians, an evening of literary exploration, held Saturday, October 28, at Maryville College’s Clayton Center. The public forum brings Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers together with authors Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Janet McCue, and Frank X Walker to share stories and insights from their […]

Now accepting applications for 2024 Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency

summertime on Andrews Bald

Great Smoky Mountains Association is now accepting applications for its fourth Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency. The annual residency hosted by GSMA is designed to help writers of any medium connect in meaningful ways with Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing space for successful applicants to focus on their craft in an inspiring, retreat-like setting. […]

Blue Ridge artist Tray Wellington builds bridges with bluegrass

The North Carolina-based artist Tray Wellington is a rising star of contemporary bluegrass. In 2019, he won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year award, and in both 2022 and 2023 he was a finalist for the association’s New Artist of the Year award. Photo by Rob Laughter, courtesy of the artist.

Late last month, I was lucky enough to catch a special musical performance in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a fine morning in high summer, and on the back porch of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, North Carolina, a four-piece string band launched into the first swirling notes of an original composition. […]

Eric Mingus uncovers origins of a famous family’s saga

Eric Mingus and GSMNP Superintendent Cassius Cash unveil a new sign outside Mingus Mill in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at a ceremony held Tuesday, May 23, 2023. The new sign describes how the Mingus family experience in America touches on “some of the country’s sharpest historical notes.” Provided by Great Smoky Mountains Association.

Eric Mingus is intimately familiar with his father’s story. For better or worse, it’s a story that has followed him throughout his life and shaped his own path as a performing artist. The story goes something like this: Born in 1922, Charles Mingus Jr. came of age in Los Angeles, California, where he received training […]

¿Lees Español? Bilingual Storybook Trails have arrived in the Smokies for the summer

three kids at the Storybook Trail of the Smokies

The Storybook Trail of the Smokies is back, and this year, the popular self-guided outdoor education series is bringing both English and Spanish reading opportunities to new trails in the park and beyond. Great Smoky Mountains Association recently partnered with the City of Gatlinburg, the Sevier County School System, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park […]

“Sepia Tones” podcast miniseries honored with national award

Great Smoky Mountains Association received national recognition at the 2023 Public Lands Alliance Partnership Awards for its podcast miniseries Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music, which won the award for Outstanding Public Engagement. PLA publicly announced and honored the winners of its annual Partnership Awards at a virtual ceremony on Thursday, April 27. Funded by […]

An Appalachian salamander’s glow could shed light on a biological mystery

In the white light of day, the biofluorescence of the southern gray-cheeked salamander remains invisible to the human eye. Southern gray-cheeked salamanders maintain relatively small home ranges and inhabit the northern hardwood and spruce-fir forests of Southern Appalachia at elevations generally above 3,500 feet. Climate change and habitat disruption from pests like the hemlock woolly adelgid pose the most significant threats to the survival of this and other salamander species found only at the highest elevations in the Smokies. Photo by Todd W. Pierson.

Three years ago, researchers from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota captured the attention of biologists around the world with a surprising discovery. After observing a number of frogs, salamanders, and newts under blue and ultraviolet light, the team found that every amphibian they tested could glow, or ‘biofluoresce.’ Although biofluorescence has been studied predominately […]

Sepia Tones welcomes Amythyst Kiah and Jack Tottle

In a new episode of Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music, hosts Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk to Amythyst Kiah—an acclaimed, Grammy-nominated musician whose work blending the genres of folk, rock, and roots music has established her as a distinctive new voice in Appalachia.

Park invites visitors to “We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga” Storybook Trail

Great Smoky Mountains National Park invites visitors to experience the We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga Storybook Trail on Saturday, October 8, through Friday, November 12, on the Oconaluftee River Trail near Cherokee, North Carolina. This unique opportunity allows visitors of all ages to learn about Cherokee culture through dual-language storybook panels along the one-mile trail beginning at the […]