On Monday, July 15, the series "Where We Live:  History, Nature, and Culture," will present a program by author, musician, teacher, and scholar Jeremy Jones. Jones will explore the culture and history of the North Carolina mountains through song and reading. Performing old-time banjo tunes and reading excerpts from his writing, he considers how place shapes people—and how, in turn, people shape this place. 

Jeremy Jones is the author of the memoir Bearwallow, about returning to his ancestral home, which was named the Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction in 2014. His next book, an exploration of his ancestor’s coded diaries, which will be published in 2025, tells the story of Jeremy’s 19th-century ancestor–an adulterous, slave-owning farmer whose secret enciphered diaries were discovered and decoded by an NSA cryptanalyst in the 1970s

His essays appear in Garden & Gun, Bitter Southerner, Oxford American, and The Iowa Review, among others, and he writes regularly for Our State. He serves as an associate professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, where he teaches creative writing and directs the annual Spring Literary Festival.  

The program will take place at Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center at 51 Cowee School Rd. in Franklin beginning at 6:30 on July 15.

The  series is designed to give people an opportunity to learn more about ourlocal area, from many different angles, and to enjoy a pleasant, informative evening together. Come join us!