ONLINE ARTS JOURNAL WINS APPALACHIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION AWARD

April 9, 2003

     Berea, KY, April 4, 2003— Nantahala Review, an online arts journal supported by the Appalachian College Association, received the e-Appalachia Award for 2003 at the Appalachian Studies Association's annual conference in Richmond, Ky, last week. This award recognizes an outstanding website that provides insight on the Appalachian region and its people or provides a vital community service to Appalachians.

     William Klaus, chair of the selection committee, said of the website, "Anybody who teaches, produces, or cares about art needs to check out the site. He also praised it as "an excellent model of how the web can channel and facilitate collaboration," and as "top-notch and diverse," including work by both established professionals and "compelling student artists."

     " The design of the site itself is a form of art," Klaus added. "The designers of the web site created something that is well beyond the unoriginal html that characterizes most of the web. In their hands, html itself is a form of artistic expression."

     Nantahala Review (http://www.nantahalareview.org) is an online arts journal that features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and photography by residents of Appalachia, although the material need not be specifically about Appalachia.

     The journal was designed and is managed by a team of four faculty members from three schools that are part of the Appalachian College Association (ACA). The team members are Rob Merritt, Editor-in-chief, Bluefield College, Va; Cy Dillon, Fiction Editor, Ferrum College, Va; Mark Roberts, Poetry Editor, Virginia Intermont College, Va; and Joe Champagne, Photography Editor, also at Virginia Intermont College.

     Funding for the Nantahala Review project came from the ACA as part of a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support collaboration in teaching through technology at ACA schools. The ACA is an organization of 34 private, liberal arts colleges and universities in the Appalachian regions of five states: Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

     Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu. # # #