War, persecution and manhood: three books

Cold weather means more time indoors, and more time indoors means more time for books. Here are three for the season of Jack Frost, sweaters and robust beverages.  

A portrait of an Appalachia upbringing

For those of you who don’t know her, Julia Nunnally Duncan is an award-winning freelance writer and author of 11 books of nonfiction, fiction and poetry who is a native of Western North Carolina whose hometown is Marion.

Database collects George Masa photos

A new database cataloguing the work of renowned Smokies photographer, Japan-born George Masa, is now available online. 

An artist's legacy: New database contributes to study of George Masa's photography

Angelyn Whitmeyer might be the last person you would expect to contribute to ongoing research surrounding a Japanese photographer who found inspiration in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Swain Genealogical and Historical Society to explore Chambers family history

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4, in Bryson City, Frank March and Henry Chambers will present “The Lamon Chambers Map” at this year’s first Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society meeting. 

Nostalgia’s great, but ditch the rose-colored glasses

Like a lot of middle-aged-to-older Americans during the holiday season, I’m a person with a healthy nostalgic streak.

Fingers like lightning: A Haywood County banjo retrospective

Editor’s Note: Since first rolling into Haywood County in August 2012 to start work as the arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News, Garret K. Woodward has been extensively documenting banjo players around our backyard.

Five strings of fury: New book spotlights Haywood banjo legends

In the mid-1960s, when Bill Allsbrook was a med school student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, he decided to pick up the banjo. 

The unfailing connection of a classic novel

I have always been a fan of old books. There’s a comfort I find in between the pages of a story written long ago, a sort of escape from my modern-day life.

America’s founding deserves our gratitude

In her classic novel “Little Women,” Louisa May Alcott has her character Margaret gaze bitterly at the family’s frostbitten garden and proclaim that “November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year.”

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