Jaki Shelton Green
The Highlands-Cashiers Center for Life Enrichment (CLE) is back with another stellar program lineup for the 2026 season. This month, we’re highlighting some of CLE’s new creative workshops, sure to bring out the author, poet, or artist in anyone!
For aspiring authors, Dr. Brian Railsback, author and Professor of English at Western Carolina University will lead a brand new, four-week creative writing workshop at CLE. This program is ideal for anyone interested in writing short stories, novels, or creative nonfiction. Participants will bring manuscripts or first drafts of approximately twenty double-spaced pages to the workshop. Through discussion, exercises, and personalized feedback, Dr. Railback and the workshop participants will explore narrative technique, including structure, pace, characterization, setting, and tone. This course is intended to help writers achieve a solid launch on a new project or revitalize an old one, and is open to all levels.
If art, nature, and travel are up your alley, CLE member and artist Helen Tapp will lead a sketchbook journaling workshop. With an emphasis on “fun art” rather than “fine art,” participants are encouraged to explore ways to unleash their creativity, deepen their connection to nature, and capture memories in a personal, meaningful way. No experience required, inquisitive spirit mandatory.
Helen Tapp
Last but certainly not least, CLE is honored to welcome the North Carolina Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, for an exclusive, hands-on creativity salon titled “What We Keep Keeps Us: Exploring Our Human Museums.” Drawing on her profound practice in poetry, narrative, and documentary inquiry, Green will guide participants in an exploration of how creativity and identity emerge from our deepest interior spaces, shared stories, and community. She will highlight how our lived experiences, memories, and inner landscapes shape who we are and how we create. Green will elaborate on and explore topics such as body-centered knowing, reclaiming language, voice, cultural assumptions, self, and imagination. Through dialogue, reflection, and poetic inquiry, participants will be invited to deepen their creative practice and embrace the alchemy of self. Jaki Shelton Green, ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina, is the first African-American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate.
For more information on all of CLE’s 2026 programs, dates, times, pricing, registration, and membership, please visit www.clehighlands.com, call (828) 526-8811, or email office@clehighlands.com.
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