2025 Creative Writing Festival Theme: [re][en]vision
April 25, 2025
(online registration deadline by April 18, 2025 but door tickets available)
With special guests
Christy Award Finalist and author Pepper Basham
Poet Michael Dechane, and more!
About Montreat’s Creative Writing Festival
Montreat’s Annual Creative Writing Festival offers a one-day experience with creative writing and is welcome to people of all ages, locations, and interests. Songwriting workshops, story writing strategies, character workshops, publishing advice, and sessions with expert writers are only a few of the previous Montreat Creative Writing Festival offerings. Our past and present guests represent a variety of creative writing interests, including children’s literature author Kimberly Angle, historical fiction and Appalachian fiction author Sarah Loudin Thomas, poet Andy Coe, NY Times bestselling novelist William R. Forstchen, and award-winning folk musician David Wilcox.
Download the event flyer.
2025 Creative Writing Festival Theme: [re][en]vision
Every creation begins with a vision, from an inkling to an entire universe. Often, that vision changes. We envision something different from the first. We revise and re-envision what once was to what can be. At times, we pick up old visions that, stalled, we laid to rest long ago but which we now re-envision a fresh paradigm full of energy. This year’s Creative Writing Festival reflects on the experiences of vision and revision in bringing art to life.
Special Guests
Pepper Basham
A speech-language pathologist native to Asheville, NC, Pepper Basham has published nearly two dozen works of historical fiction and romance including The Thorn Bearer (Vinspire Publishing) and Authentically, Izzy (Thomas Nelson Publishers). Pepper’s stories have garnered the attention of booklists and awards over the past fifteen years including being a finalist for American Christian Fiction Writers Awards (and their Carol Award) multiple times, Inspy Awards, and the ECPA Bestseller list. The third in a series and her most recent novel, Loyally, Luke, arrived in May 2024. Find out more about Pepper at https://pepperdbasham.com/ .
Michael Dechane
Michael Dechane is a poet who carves wooden spoons and indulges his passion for historic home renovation in a cove forest on the French Broad River north of Asheville, NC. He is the founder of Reify Marketing, a solopreneur consultation and content development venture for associations, authors, and exceptional organizations. His poetry has appeared in Image, Southern Poetry Review, Spiritus, Bellingham Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Lake Effect, and elsewhere. He released a poetry collection, The Long Invisible (Wildhouse Publishing) in Fall 2024. Learn more at www.michaeldechane.com or LinkedIn.
2025 Creative Writing Festival Schedule (subject to change)
- 8:30-9:30 am: Check-in
- 9:30-10:20 am: Opening remarks and panel session with creative specialists
- 10:30-11:20 am: Breakout sessions including writing workshops with Pepper Basham and Michael Dechane
- 11:20 am-12:20 pm: Lunch break in the dining hall (provided)
- 12:30 pm-1:30 pm: Keynote Address with novelist Pepper Basham
- 1:30 pm-2:15 pm: Campus tours
- 2:15 pm-2:30 pm: Closing session and Creative Writing Competition awards
- (BONUS) 7:00 pm-9:00 pm: Open mic night hosted by The Lamp Post (Montreat College’s arts magazine) where current students, faculty, and staff showcase their talents
Registration
Online registration for Montreat College’s Annual Creative Writing Festival concludes on April 18, 2025 (but see the early bird discount below). Tickets are also available at the door. Registration includes lunch at the college’s Howerton Dining Hall.
Early Bird Registration Deadline: March 31, 2025
- Early Bird General Admission: $10
- Early Bird High School Students and Caregivers: $5
Online Registration Deadline: April 18, 2025
- General Admission: $12
- High School Students and Caregivers: $10
Door Tickets: $15
Single Registration
Register using the Single Registration Form if you are a student, parent/caretaker, or a member of the community. If you are registering multiple people within your party, you may do so using this form by clicking “Add Another Attendee.”
Group Registration
Register using the Group Registration Form if you are a school group leader registering yourself and your group of high school students.
The 2025 Creative Writing Competition
We invite current junior and senior high school students who are attending the Creative Writing Festival to submit one poetry piece and/or one prose piece. Winners in each category (11th grade poetry, 11th grade prose, 12th grade poetry, and 12th grade prose) will receive a $1,500 scholarship to Montreat College. All entries are due by March 31, 2025.
Eligibility
- 11th grade or 12th grade high school student
- Maximum of one poem and one prose piece per writer
- Attendance at the 2025 Creative Writing Festival
Criteria
- Entries should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Google Document files and formatted in Times New Roman, 12 pt font with single-spaced text.
- The Creative Writing Festival is offered by Montreat College with its Vision, Mission, Statement of Faith, and Community Life Covenant: https://www.montreat.edu/about/mission/. We do not expect entries to address the College’s values, and we welcome submissions from writers who see the world from all vantage points; however, entries will be evaluated with consideration of the College’s values.
- Submissions generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence are forbidden: no exceptions!
- No more than 5,000 words per submission
- Prose pieces may stand alone, such as a short story, or may be a portion of a larger work.
Procedure
Each submission must be in a separate document. That is, a student submitting a poem and a short story must submit two separate files—one with the poem and one with the short story, each submitted separately via the appropriate form below.
The file must be named with the writer’s last name followed by the initial of the writer’s first name, a hyphen, and the name of the writer’s text, such as the following poem by John Smith entitled “Fly Away”:
- Smith J – Fly Away.docx
Rights to Publication
By the act of submission, each contestant releases one-time rights for their work to Montreat College for editing and publishing in both print and online versions of the college’s arts magazine, The Lamp Post. Submission does not guarantee publication in The Lamp Post. Authors retain full ownership of their works, and this release does not prohibit authors from publishing their works elsewhere.
Please see past editions of The Lamp Post.
English Program at Montreat College
Check out the English program at Montreat with its literature, creative writing, and professional communication concentrations.
Also see our Technical and Professional Communication program.
Please direct any questions to the Director of the Writing Program, Dr. Zachary Rhone: zachary.rhone@montreat.edu.