"The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making." |
The Lillian E. Smith Foundation, Inc. was established to honor the memory of Lillian E. Smith, one of this country's eminent writers. Map to the LES Center A visual survey of the LES Center's buildings and ruins of the camp. . |
| The
Lillian E. Smith Center for Creative Arts The mission of The Lillian
E. Smith Center for Creative Arts is to offer a place where gifted
creative artists and scholars in various disciplines may find the
conditions of quiet solitude and privacy in which to pursue their work
in the mountains of North East Georgia.
Applications for the summer of 2012 are now being taken. Residencies open June 1 and close at the end of August. Click here for the Residence application form in Adobe PDF format. New Development! Interested in doing a residence in the fall or spring? Historically the LES Center is open in the summer months. We are interested in making the Center available at other times. John Siegel and John Templeton, members and officers on the LES Board, now live at the Center and have graciously agreed to keep the Center open at various times when the Fichters are not in residence. Applications should be directed as indicated on the Application Form and the Co-directors (the Fichters) will negotiate the possibilities for residences. |
Visit the Lillian Smith's home site which has joined a distinguished group of southern writer's home sites to form a trail. THE TRI-STATE SOUTHERN LITERARY TRAIL (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi) |
| The Lillian E. Smith Foundation is pleased to announce the first annual Writer-in-Service Award, which includes a two-week residency during the summer of 2011, a $500 honorarium, and a $300 travel allowance. The Award is open to residents of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi working to advance writing and the arts through public service careers or volunteer work. Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, arts education, literacy instruction, prison arts and education, English as a second language instruction, art-related therapies, etc. While the work of writing instructors and volunteers is vital to the community, the demands often limit personal writing time. The Writer-in-Service Award residency provides two weeks of peaceful solitude to focus a new or ongoing writing project. This award provides an opportunity for those writers who like Lillian E. Smith recognize "the power of the arts to transform the lives of all human beings." Click here to download the Writer-in-Service Award application form in Adobe PDF format. Click here to read about the winners of the 2011 award winners. |
Blog notes ....
2 Tommye Scanlin was a resident in 2010. Click on this link Tommye Scanlin's blog to see her comments and pictures about her experiences at the LES Center.
Me and My Shadow |
Click here for information about the The LILLIAN SMITH BOOK AWARD The awards ceremony is now presented on the Sunday of the Labor Day Weekend as part of the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia. | |||||
| Laurel Falls
Camp for Girls The memory of Laurel Falls Camp for Girls,
Rabun County, North Georgia, which was directed by Lilllian Smith,
continues to hold a special place in the hearts of the many woman who
came to the mountains as young women in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and
enjoyed the time they spent at the camp.
|
Miss Lil's Camp the movie by Suzanne Niedland and Anberin Pasha has won a number of film festival awards and was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival and at the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library. Public Broadcasting selected it for national distribution. Georgia PBS aired it several times as well. Visit their site and find out more about this evocative film and it's production. | ||||
Clayton weather.
| Joan Ross Sorkin's opera version of STRANGE FRUIT, based on Lillian Smith's best selling novel by the same name, had it's premiere performance, June 15th, 2007 at 8:00 pm and June 17th at 2:00 pm, by the Longleaf Opera company in the new performing arts center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. | ||||
 Interior Esther Cottage The Center provides four self contained cottages. The Esther cottage is one of two original cabins of the Luarel Falls Camp. |
 The Common Room offers a space for residents to gather for conversation and meals or to just sit looking out toward Screamer Mounatin while reading or using the wi-fi connection. |