Guest Columnists
Recent Stories
Guest Column, Will Griffin - Floyd, Virginia, and its Sense of Community
Will Griffin has served as the mayor of the small town of Floyd, Virginia, for 10 years. During that time Floyd has received national recognition from USA Today and Southern Living magazine as one of the best small towns in the South. Read more
Guest Column, Fred Alsop of East Tennessee State University
Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Fred Alsop joined the faculty of East Tennessee State University in 1972. The author of 18 books on the birds of North America, he is the director of the EagleCam Project that has live-streamed around the world. Read more
Guest Column, David Arthur Ramsey: Preserving a Hidden Jewel
David Arthur Ramsey is an outdoor photographer, writer and conservationist, born and raised in Unicoi County, Tennessee. Read more
Guest Column, Roddy Moore: Old Cultures Live on as New Ones Meld
Roddy Moore is the executive director of the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at Ferrum College in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Read more
Guest Column: The Magic Of The Camera
Kevin Adams, author of North Carolina Waterfalls and several other books, leads photo tours in the Blue Ridge Mountains and abroad. Read more
Susan Jamison
Going Rural: Copperhead Confrontation
Cathryn Hankla is an intrepid traveler and the author of more than a dozen books. This excerpt is from her latest book, a memoir in essays, Lost Places: On Losing and Finding Home (Mercer University Press, 2018) Read more
Ghost Towns in the Sky
Betsy Teter's guest column describes her childhood want to visit Ghost Town in Maggie Valley. Read more
Bill Burnham
Building Memories One Adventure At A Time
Bill Burnham is the owner-operator, with his wife, Mary Burnham, of Burnham Guides LLC, which combines their work as guidebook authors and kayak guides. Read more
Hand-Painted Gems, Just Around the Corner
Suzi Parron is the author of “Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement” and “Following the Barn Quilt Trail.” Read more
Gatlinburg: Darkness Erases Scars
The Cherokee people called the southern Appalachian mountains “shaconage” (sha-con-oh-hey) or “place of the blue smoke.” Read more