Great Smokies Young Writers Workshop: Character as story & the Poet’s Toolbox
Registration Details:
- Program Dates: June 14 - 19, 2026
- Cost: $1,470
- Eligibility: Open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors
- Tuition Includes: Lodging, meals, course materials, activities, and excursions
- Housing & Dining: Students reside in campus residence hall and dine in campus dining hall
- Deposit & Payment: A $500 deposit is required at registration, with the remaining balance due by May 1, 2026. After that date, full payment is required upon registration. Click here to view our cancellation policy.
- Enrollment: Open until all spaces are filled
- Registration: Registration is through the Camp Doc platform. Detailed step-by-step registration instructions are available here.
Grow as a Writer with Local Authors & Poets
Character as Story:
Spend a week with fellow storytellers discovering one of the surest ways to make your fiction come alive: through your characters. In this camp, we’ll explore ways to craft compelling voices and develop complex character relationships (think romance, family, friends, enemies, frenemies–you name it!)–all while exploring the different ways that your characters’ inner conflicts and motivations give shape to your story. Whether you’re new to fiction or already drafting novels, you’ll leave this camp with new tools for writing vivid characters that are hard to forget.
The Poet’s Toolbox Story:
In this class we’ll explore a variety of poetic techniques and forms in order to expand our writing toolboxes and to hone our ability to use the tools we already have. Building things with words is difficult, but it’s also a lot of fun. We’ll balance discipline and play, rules and exploration, hard work and the gratification of sharing what we’ve made!
Program Topics
- Creating vivid characters
- Explore your character’s inner conflicts and motivations
- Develop complex character relationships
- Explore a variety of poetic techniques
Hands on Learning
- Participating in peer workshopping sessions to give and receive feedback on work-in-progress
- Students are encouraged to participate in an end-of-week reading for an audience of family and friends
Sample Schedule:
| Morning | 8 a.m. – Breakfast 9 a.m. – Poetry Workshop 12 p.m. – Lunch & free time |
| Afternoon | 1 p.m. – Character relationships Workshop |
| Evening | 5 p.m. – Dinner 6:30 p.m. – Activities / Recreation / Free Time Options could include: sand volleyball, Asheville Tourists game, game night, movie 11 p.m. – Lights out |
Meet Your Faculty
Lauren Yero is a Cuban American writer and teacher with an enduring love of all things speculative. She writes near-future stories of resistance, adventure, and first love that question the structures our world is built upon. Her debut YA novel Under This Forgetful Sky was a Poets & Writers Get the Word Out pick, and both Kirkus Reviews and Book Riot named it one of the Best Books of the Year.
Luke Hankins is the director of UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program and is the founder and editor of Orison Books, a non-profit literary press focused on the life of the spirit from a broad and inclusive range of perspectives. He is the author of several poetry collections, a collection of essays, and a volume of translations.
Questions? Please contact us at precollege@unca.edu.