The western mountains of North Carolina are home to an arts community whose denizens show surpassing talent in literature, poetry, art and philosophy. The founders of CMLitFest, however, look beyond the mere gathering of authors and speakers to promote book sales; theirs is a deeper calling - to review historical events, some of which caused great hurt and are in need of healing, and in other instances to explore the human response to unique circumstances via words. I have added a few pictures to augment the thousands of words that were shared over a magic weekend in September.