Creative Writing - All Levels

Ned Dougherty is an award-winning playwright and educator with deep roots in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and West Virginia. His tall tales about regular people and black comedies about rural anxieties have landed at festivals across the country and abroad in Ireland, with recent Appalachian plays gaining recognition at theatres across the region. He was a 2024 semifinalist for the O'Neill National Playwriting Festival and was selected as a 2025 Creative Entrepreneur Fellow with the WV Creative Network. Through his Appalachian Ode Project, Ned facilitates free community writing workshops across the region to help others articulate their shared identities and reclaim pride-in-place through the power of collaborative poetry. He teaches students navigating the juvenile justice system in Pocahontas County, WV where he lives with his family.

Creative Writing Master

Doug Van Gundy is a nationally-known Appalachian musician who has performed and taught throughout the United States and in Canada and Great Britain. Doug learned music in his family, his hometown of Elkins, West Virginia, and from master musicians Mose Coffman (1905 – 1995) and Dwight Diller (1946 – 2023). In 2017, Doug was recognized as a Master Artist by the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For the past 28 years he has been playing fiddle, guitar, mandolin, harmonica and banjo with Paul Gartner as the old-time string duo, Born Old. Doug also directs the Low-Residency MFA program in Creative Writing at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in dozens of journals, including The Guardian, Poets & Writers, Poetry, The Oxford American, and Guernica. He is co-editor of the anthology Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Contemporary Writing from West Virginia (WVU Press) and the author of a book of poems, A Life above Water (Red Hen Press). His second poetry collection is forthcoming.

Dobro: Chris Stockwell grew up in the West Virginia mountains, and started singing at an early age. Chris' interest in the Dobro came in 2002, and instrument that he states... "pretty much changed my life". Chris has had the opportunity to play with some of the best Musicians, People and Venues in this country. Before traveling with The Rarely Herd, Chris was a member of the Johnny Staats Project and Honi Deaton and Dream. Recording or Performing on stage with such artists as Lou Reid And Carolina, Doug and Shelley Harper,Ron Sowell, The Mountain Stage Band, Step into the Blue, Chet Lowther, Matt Walker, Bobby Maynard, The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Ernie Thacker, Midnight Ramblers, The Dillards, Barry Scott and Second Wind, Tim O'Brien, Peggy Ratusz, Joshua Singleton and many others.

Bluegrass Banjo: Todd Sams has lived in Athens Ohio most of his life. He has been playing banjo and guitar for the past 36 years. He is a past Bluegrass Banjo Vandalia winner and was a 2 time Ohio State champion and 2 time Indiana State banjo champion in the late 80'/early 90's. Todd won the coveted Bob Evans Band contest with four different bands in that same time period. He has played the past 8 years with the Rarely Herd. Prior to that, he played with Jordan Run, Retro Grass and many short-lived bands. Todd has played banjo with Tony, Larry and Wyatt Rice and with the Tim O'Brien Band, and has recorded with The Rarely Herd, Clay Hess, Wyatt Rice, Johnny Staats, James Price, Randy Thomas, and Retro Grass

Bluegrass Mandolin: Brandon Shuping makes his home in Williamson, West Virginia. Born in Florida and raised in North Carolina, Brandon was born into a musical family that was dedicated to bluegrass tradition. His father, the late Garland Shuping was a well respected banjo player who played in the late 70's with Jim and Jesse among others. By the age of 12, Brandon was playing upright bass with his mother and father and well on his way to becoming the well respected musician he is today. His amazing picking on mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass can be sampled throughout the week.

Bluegrass Fiddle: Nathan Aldridge loved the fiddle from the age of two, eventually receiving his first professional instrument when he was only four years old. He began performing professionally as a young teenager as part of Al Batten & Bluegrass Reunion and most recently has toured with Sideline. His influences have been classic fiddlers such as Chubby Wise, Benny Martin, and Kenny Baker, and over the years to modern musicians such as Mike Hartgrove and Stuart Duncan. Nathan is very clear on his passion for music, and especially that of Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out. "I grew up listening to and studying their music," he says. "I used to get home from school and spend all my afternoons playing along with their music until my parents got home from work. I'm very excited to pursue my dream of playing with Russell & IIIrd Tyme Out!"

Bluegrass Guitar: Kenny Smith is from Nine Mile, Indiana, and is widely considered one of the most important and influential flatpicking-style guitarists of his generation. A two-time IBMA Guitarist of the Year award winner, his professional credits include six years with the popular Lonesome River Band and an exceptional solo CD, Studebaker, released on Sugar Hill Records in 1997. Kenny is in great demand at guitar workshops and master classes, teaching at guitar workshops at major events such as IBMA and the Nashville Flatpick Camp. He has released a two-DVD instruction set on AcuTab Publications.