financial aid opportunities
Laurel Rematore Tremont Writers Conference Scholarship
This award, which provides $5,000 to be divided among three or more chosen writers, is named in honor of former Smokies Life CEO Laurel Rematore. Rematore, who led Smokies Life from 2016 to 2024, has admired the power of the written word throughout her life and supported Smokies Life’s involvement in founding, organizing, and operating the ongoing conference together with Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. The annual Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency was also created under her leadership, as were a variety of ambitious publishing projects—ranging from Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography, a feat of research and storytelling that went on to win the 2019 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, to A Search for Safe Passage, an imaginative chapter book for middle-grade readers that was recognized as the Public Lands Alliance’s 2022 Publication of the Year. Scholarship funds will be awarded based on financial need and overall application quality.
Debbie Ellis Tremont Writers Conference Scholarship
Named in honor of his late wife, this award is funded by Ron Ellis, a Kentucky author who is a long-time supporter of Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nature plays a leading role in Ellis’ works, which include Yonder: Tales from an Outdoor Life, Cogan’s Woods, and Brushes with Nature: The Art of Ron Van Gilder. He is also the editor of two anthologies, Of Woods and Waters: A Kentucky Outdoors Reader and In That Sweet Country: Uncollected Writings of Harry Middleton and wrote the foreword for the Pruett Publishing edition of Middleton’s On the Spine of Time, which celebrates fly fishing and hiking in the Smokies. Ellis’ work has appeared in a variety of anthologies and periodicals, and he is the recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and Professional Assistance Award. He is currently working on a memoir inspired by his life with Debbie.
Financial aid opportunities
Laurel Rematore Tremont Writers Conference Scholarship
This award, which provides $5,000 to be divided among three or more chosen writers, is named in honor of former Smokies Life CEO Laurel Rematore. Rematore, who led Smokies Life from 2016 to 2024, has admired the power of the written word throughout her life and supported Smokies Life’s involvement in founding, organizing, and operating the ongoing conference together with Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. The annual Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency was also created under her leadership, as were a variety of ambitious publishing projects—ranging from Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography, a feat of research and storytelling that went on to win the 2019 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, to A Search for Safe Passage, an imaginative chapter book for middle-grade readers that was recognized as the Public Lands Alliance’s 2022 Publication of the Year. Scholarship funds will be awarded based on financial need and overall application quality.
Debbie Ellis Scholarship
Named in honor of his late wife, this award is funded by Ron Ellis, a Kentucky author who is a long-time supporter of Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nature plays a leading role in Ellis’ works, which include Yonder: Tales from an Outdoor Life, Cogan’s Woods, and Brushes with Nature: The Art of Ron Van Gilder. He is also the editor of two anthologies, Of Woods and Waters: A Kentucky Outdoors Reader and In That Sweet Country: Uncollected Writings of Harry Middleton and wrote the foreword for the Pruett Publishing edition of Middleton’s On the Spine of Time, which celebrates fly fishing and hiking in the Smokies. Ellis’ work has appeared in a variety of anthologies and periodicals, and he is the recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and Professional Assistance Award. He is currently working on a memoir inspired by his life with Debbie.
