ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — For Asheville writer Shelley McKechnie, writing is a way to deal with unimaginable events and big emotions. Hurricane Helene embodied both.
“Writing helps me process things and so I just had to write something about the storm,” McKechnie said. “Just for my own sense of, my own ability to process what happened. After doing that, it did help. It’s kinda started the healing process for me.”
Writing about the storm was a life preserver for McKechnie. She thought it may have been for other writers, too.
“I figured a lot of my friends were probably doing the same thing,” McKenchie said. “I thought to myself, ‘It would be great to collect some of that writing.’ So I reached out to my writer friends and I said, ‘Are you doing this too?’ And they’re like, ‘Yes, I am, I had to write something.'”
McKechnie also checked on the artists she knew.
“I’ve got friends who’ve got studios in the River Arts District, or who had studios in the River Arts District, and reached out to them, too,” McKechnie said. “Because I thought, well, this is how people, writers and artists, process things.”
Seeing the work these creatives made, McKechnie decided to assemble it all into a mosaic. The essays, artwork and poetry would be collected into a book about surviving Hurricane Helene.
McKechnie opened the door for her friends to submit their work for the collection while promoting the project at the River Arts District and in writer groups around Western North Carolina.
The criteria for submissions is simple: writing may be 2000 words maximum, the work must have been influenced by the storm, not overtly political in nature and the artist must have been in Western North Carolina at the time of the storm.
“I don’t put too many guardrails on it. People need, creatives need to create what they want to,” McKechnie said.
The submissions so far, McKechnie says, have been incredibly affecting.
“I’ve gotten several already and as I read through them, I need to take my time with each one because I find myself being profoundly moved by the writing,” McKechnie said. “I find I may break out in tears of either empathy or understanding or just gratitude. Each piece is different.”
McKechnie hopes that the book will stir a similar response from its readers, whether they were in W.N.C. during Helene or watching from the outside.
“The reason why this book is super important I think is because writers and artists, creators, have a role in society,” McKechnie mused. “Writers and the artists are the translators of emotional events and so this book is meant to be a collection of those translations, really. I’m hoping it’ll touch people’s heart and help people understand what it’s like to be here. To have been here and to be here.”
Submissions for the book can be made at helenewncbook@gmail.com.
More information about the project, including which charity the proceeds will be going to support, will become available in the coming months.