Showing posts with label Glenda Beall author of Now Might as Well Be Then. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenda Beall author of Now Might as Well Be Then. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories at JCCFS, Thursday Evening June 16

Reading this month at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, are two long time members of NCWN West. Glenda C. Beall and Brenda Kay Ledford.
The reading begins at 7:00 PM at the Keith House.  Everyone is invited to attend and we hope you will.There is no admission charge.

Glenda Council Beall lives in Hayesville, NC. Glenda finds memories come to surface in her writing. Many of her poems, such as Clearing New Ground, from her poetry chapbook, are narratives that tell stories she remembers from childhood.
She is a multi-genre writer, but she first began publishing poetry in 1996, shortly after moving to the mountains. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Main Street Rag, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Heritage, Red Owl Magazine, and online in Wild Goose Poetry Review. One of her poems was chosen for Kakalak, North Carolina Poets, 2009.
Glenda’s poetry can be found in numerous and various anthologies including the recently released, Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places, and in From Freckles to Wrinkles from Silver Boomer Books. In 2009, her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press. Two poems from that book were recently re-published online by Future Cycle Press. Her poems will also appear in the Poetry Hickory anthology for 2010.
Her short stories have been published in online journals, Muscadine Lines; A Southern Journal and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Her personal essays have been published in Echoes across the Blue Ridge, Reunion Magazine, and in Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers.
Breath and Shadow, an online journal will publish a non-fiction article, Pass it on,  in their July issue.

Glenda is past Program Coordinator for North Carolina Writers Network West, and now serves as Clay County Representative for Network West.

A graduate of the University of Georgia, she earned her BS degree in education. She began studying writing in 1996, attending classes taught by teachers in the writing program at the Folk School. She has attended workshops and writing conferences through the North Carolina Writers’ Network for fifteen years and has learned the ends and outs of writing and publishing. When she isn’t working on her own poems and stories, she enjoys teaching others the joy of writing.  She is on faculty at John C. Campbell Folk School and will teach a writing class this summer, August 21 – 27. She is Director of Writers Circle, a writing studio at her home.



Brenda Kay Ledford is a native of Clay County, NC. Her work has appeared in many publications including Yestersdays Magazette, Our State, Pembroke Magazine, Appalachian Heritage, Broad River Review (Gardner Webb University), Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, The Reach of Song and other journals and anthologies. She is listed with  A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers and is a member of North Carolina Writers' Network West, North Carolina Poetry Society, Georgia Poetry Society and Byron Herbert Reece Society.

Ledford received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her three poetry chapbooks. She co-authored the book, "Simplicity," with her mother, Blanche L. Ledford.
Ledford's readings are  performances.  She is a story teller as well as a poet and writer and you never know what surprise she has for her audience.

Thursday evening, June 16, promises to be an evening of fun for those who enjoy writing and writers. .

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS, FEATURING GLENDA BEALL






COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS, FEATURING GLENDA BEALL


City Lights Bookstore is pleased to announce a program for readers and writers
on the third Thursday of each month, beginning June 17. Coffee with the Poets
will feature a guest poet each month, including an informal discussion and
reading. The program will begin at 10:30, with coffee and snacks provided.
Spring Street Cafe welcomes all attendees to come downstairs for lunch
afterward.

The inaugural event will feature Glenda Council Beall of Hayesville. Glenda
has published poetry, personal essays, memoir, and fiction, and she is former
Program Coordinator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NetWest).
Her background is in education and she continues to teach adults through
community services at Tri-County Community College and at the John C.
Campbell Folk School in Brasstown.

Glenda's book of poetry, Now Might as Well be Then, was recently published by
Finishing Line Press. Her blog, Writing Life Stories, at
http://profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com shares some of her own stories and
suggestions for writing your own.



City Lights Bookstore
828-586-9499
3 East Jackson Street
Sylva, NC 28779
more@citylightsnc.com
Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays
Browse and shop online at http://www.citylightsnc.com

From "My Laureate's Lasso" Poet of the Week:

Glenda Council Beall's new chapbook, Now Might As Well Be Then, from Finishing Line Press (http://www.finishinglinepress.com/) deserves many readers. I was honored to write a blurb for it. Glenda has worked wonders for NETWEST as Program Director and deserves our thanks for supporting the literary arts in Western North Carolina. Her new book would make a wonderful Christmas gift for family members. Several in my family will have this chapbook in their stockings!


Often those "supporters" are so busy making sure other writers find what they need to become better at the writer's craft that they don't have time for their own work. That's why I'm so pleased to honor Glenda as Poet of the Week. She's a great SW Georgia girl, and, naturally, I believe those girls have a leg up when it comes to writing poetry!




Here are a few of my favorite poems from her new chapbook.


Woman in the Mirror


What happened to seventeen,

when I rode my mare

free as the river flows,

jumped over downed trees

splashed through narrow streams?


What happened to twenty

when I danced in the moonlight,

my slender form dressed in a gown

white and shimmery as pearl?


What happened to thirty

when I rode my Yamaha

down fire roads, mountain trails,

long black hair flying free?


What happened to those days

I ask the woman in the mirror.

Gone, she says, all gone, unless

you remember it.


In The Dark



Lying in bed, my cheek against your shoulder,

I remember a night, long ago, on your boat.

I was afraid. I felt too much, too fast.

But love crept over us that summer

like silver fog, silent on the lake.

We were never again the same.


We stepped like children through that door that led

to long passages unknown, holding hands, wide-eyed, but brave.

Here I am years later, listening to your soft breath

and feeling your warm smooth skin.

In the dark, now might as well be then.



My Father's Horse



Stickers tear my legs, bare and tan

from South Georgia sun. Long black braids

fly behind me as I sprint like a Derby winner

down the path.


Harnessed with hames, bridle

and blinders, Charlie plods down

the farm road. Tired and wet from sweat,

he is perfume to my nostrils.


My father swings me up. I bury

my hands in tangled mane. My thighs

stick to leather and damp white hair

high above the ground.


I want to sing in glorious joy,

but only croon a child's nonsensical

words, grinning for a hundred yards

between field and barn.


My father's arms are strong.

His hands are gentle. The horse

is all we ever share. For he has sons

and I am just a daughter.


A Long Lost Year

Music making was his talent

taken for granted like water

gushing from our well until

the surgeon’s knife nicked a nerve.


The purple wreath of grief hung

over us until one day above the strum

of his guitar, his notes rang true ?

a lovely instrument restored.


We wept with joy.

His voice is who he is,

has

always been.


He sings to me again, that same

rich baritone that won me on that first

day we met. I listen with a new ear,

and like a Sinatra fan,

I mellow out.









Saturday, April 10, 2010

LEAH MAINES OF FINISHING LINE PRESS

Often we take for granted things we should put on the “I’m so grateful for” list. When I submitted my poetry chapbook manuscript to Finishing Line Press for the second year in a row, my only concern was having the press accept my book for publication. My mind did not take me further than the day an envelope would arrive in my box with my acceptance letter.

Now, a year later, I have to say I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Leah Maines as my editor for Now Might As Well Be Then. From day one, the entire experience went as smoothly as anyone could expect. Having no clue as to how the publishing world works, I did not know what to expect. Kevin Maines never failed to respond to any question I had and made sure I sent everything Leah would need for editing.

I had sent the wrong copy of a poem, and at the last minute, Leah exchanged it, without complaint, for the correct poem. In fact, she did everything I asked for my book. I am proud of the finished product. My family and my friends tell me they think the book is lovely. Some of my friends, Glenda Barrett, Janice Moore, Mary Ricketson, and Brenda Kay Ledford also had poetry chapbooks published by Finishing Line Press.

The information sent to me by Finishing Line Press helped me with promoting my book, and Leah has helped in other ways on Facebook.

Recently, I asked Leah if she would take time from her busy schedule and answer a few questions for me. Even though she had been ill for a week, she responded. Below is my interview with Leah Maines, Sr. Editor of Finishing Line Press.


GB: How long have you been writing and why did you start in the first place?

Leah: I started writing in college. I'm not sure why I started writing. I was working on the Licking River Review as their business manager. I loved reading the submissions. I started writing.


GB: Who or what inspired you to write?

Leah: The first few poems I wrote in college were really terrible. However, I had a friend who saw some glimmer of talent in them in spite of the "O, how I love thee" in one stanza. He told me I should keep writing, and he handed me a copy of Poetry. I turned to the poem "Splitting Wood" by Billy Collins. That single poem changed my writing life and got me forever hooked on poetry. My friend's kindness led me to the poem. He didn't tell me to forget poetry; he just gently led me down the right path.

GB: What would you say is the hardest thing about writing?

Leah: One must keep writing. Sometimes the writer loses his or her voice. This is what we call "writers block" and it can become difficult to find it once you have lost it. Life tends to get in the way once one falls into that trap. I've found that keeping a journal helps, and not putting high expectations on the craft.


GB: What do you enjoy most about writing?

Leah: The release. Just the letting go of the words. My poems tend to come to me early in the morning. They wake me from my sleep and won't allow me to go back to bed until I put pen to paper. It's the release of the words that gives me some peace and satisfaction. I don't care if anyone ever reads them now. There was a time in my life when I had to prove something--when publication meant everything to me. It doesn't matter to me anymore about my own work. I'm happy to help other people get published now. I get the same satisfaction.


GB: What advice would you give a struggling new writer or poet?

Leah: Keep submitting, and don't allow rejection letters to get you down. Everyone gets rejection letters -- everyone. Just keep at it and keep writing. And keep reading good contemporary poets. Learn from the best, and then find your own voice. Then write and keep writing. You will find publication if you don't give up.

Leah Maines served as the Northern Kentucky University Poet-in-Residence in 2000, funded in part by the National Endowment for Humanities and the Kentucky Humanities Council. She served in the position with poet Joseph Enzweiler. Leah’s book Looking to the East with Western Eyes (Finishing Line Press, 1998)was a Cincinnati/Tri-State regional Bestseller. Another book, Beyond the River (Kentucky Writers Coalition Press, 2002)was the winner of the Kentucky Writers’ Coalition Chapbook Competition.

GB: Thank you, Leah, for giving us your time and answering questions for www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com

Sunday, April 4, 2010

COME CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

6:30 April 6, 2010 EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
AT Hayesville High School Lecture Hall

sponsored by the Clay County Arts Council with a
poetry reading by the contest judge Glenda Beall.

Open to the public.