Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Doe Branch Ink lists classes for spring/summer


We received this email from Memsy Price regarding Doe Branch Ink.

I'm working with Jim Roberts and Deborah Jakubs of Doe Branch Ink. We've just released our schedule of Spring/Summer Workshops for writers of fiction, nonfiction, and songs. We'll have week-long retreats in Marshall County with Philip Gerard, Cat Warren, Kate Campbell, and Marjorie Hudson. Cost varies depending on choice of accommodation and includes delicious meals and spectacular views. Our website is http://www.doebranchink.org. Many thanks!

Regards,
Memsy Price | memsy.price@gmail.com


This looks  like a great place to spend time learning from good writers. Check out the website.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Three poets from NCWN-West featured in ETSU's Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine

Three poets from North Carolina Writers' Network West have poems featured in East Tennessee State University's Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine. The issue is titled "The Future of Appalachia", Vol. 32, No. 2.  Here is the link for the publication: http://www.etsu.edu/cas/cass/nowandthen/.


Nancy Simpson's poem "Accounting" appears from her book, Living Above the Frost Line: New and Selected Poems, Carolina Wren Press.Simpson is the author of three poetry collections: Across Water, Night Student and Living Above the Frost Line, New and Selected Poems published at Carolina Wren Press. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a B.S. in Education from Western Carolina University. She received a N.C. Arts Fellowship and co-founded NC Writers' Network-West, a non profit professional writing organization serving writers living in the remote mountains west of Asheville. For more than thirty years she has been known as “beloved teacher” to thousands of young writers.


Simpson’s poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Southern Poetry Review, Seneca Review, New Virginia Review, Prairie Schooner and in other literary magazines. Her poem, “Night Student” was reprinted in the anthology Word and Wisdom, 100 Years of North Carolina Poetry and in Literary Trails of North Carolina. Seven of her poems are featured in Southern Appalachian Poetry, a textbook anthology published at McFarland Press. The Southern Poetry Review, Armstrong College in Savannah, Georgia included one of her poems in their 50th Anniversary issue, Don't Leave Hungry and a new poem in their recent issue featuring Georgia poets. Her poem “Carolina Bluebirds” was included in The Poets Guide to Birds, an anthology edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser, and her poem “Pink Pantsuit” was featured recently in Ted Kooser’s widely read “American Life in Poetry” newspaper column.



Kathryn Stripling Byers' poem "Last Light" is included from the book Descent, LSU press. Byer was raised on a farm in Southwest Georgia, where the material for much of her first poetry originated. She graduated from Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia, with a degree in English literature, and afterward, received her MFA degree from UNC-Greensboro, where she studied with Fred Chappell and Robert Watson, as well as forming enduring friendships with James Applewhite and Gibbons Ruark. After graduation she worked at Western Carolina University, becoming Poet-in-Residence in 1990.


Her poetry, prose, and fiction have appeared widely, including Hudson Review, Poetry, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Poetry Review. Often anthologized, her work has also been featured online, where she maintains the blogs "Here, Where I Am," and "The Mountain Woman." Her body of work was discussed along with that of Charles Wright, Robert Morgan, Fred Chappell, Jeff Daniel Marion, and Jim Wayne Miller in Six Poets from the Mountain South, by John Lang, published by LSU Press. Her first book of poetry, The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, was published in the AWP Award Series in 1986, followed by the Lamont (now Laughlin) prize-winning Wildwood Flower, from LSU Press. Her subsequent collections have been published in the LSU Press Poetry Series, receiving various awards, including the Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Poetry Award, and the Roanoke-Chowan Award.

Byers served for five years as North Carolina's first woman poet laureate. She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband and three dogs and is a Jackson County Representative for the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.



Glenda Barrett's poem "The Minnie Shook Place" appears from her book When the Sap Rises, Finishing Line Press. Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is an artist, poet, and writer. Her work has been widely published yearly since her first writing class in 1997 and has appeared in: Woman's World, Farm & Ranch Living, Country Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Journal of Kentucky Living, Nantahala Review, Rural Heritage, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Kaleidoscope Magazine and many more.

Her poetry chapbook, When the Sap Rises, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. She has completed two more books since that time, a full-length poetry book which is currently under review by a publisher and a book of Appalachian essays. Barrett worked many years in various healthcare system jobs and retired due to a form of Muscular Dystrophy.
 

Barrett is very grateful to be able to devote her time to the two things she loved as a child, painting and writing. She has two grown children and lives with her husband of forty-two years in the North Georgia mountains.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Poet Maren O. Mitchell has two letter poems published in The Lake, an online journal in the UK

Poet Maren O. Mitchell, a member of NCWN-West, has two letter poems published in this months online journal from the UK, The Lake.

Here is the Link:  http://www.thelakepoetry.co.uk/poetry/maren-o-mitchell/

Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry East, The Crafty Poet II: A Portable Workshop, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, Chiron Review, Hotel Amerika, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Lake (UK), Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, Skive (AUS), The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, Appalachian Journal, Pirene’s Fountain, Wild Goose Poetry Review and elsewhere. Her work is included in Negative Capability Press Anthology of Georgia Poetry, The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V: Georgia & VII: North Carolina and Sunrise from Blue Thunder.

Mitchell's poems are forthcoming in The Lake, Poem, Chiron Review and Appalachian Heritage. Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012) www.lineofsightpress.com and is available on Amazon.

Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. For over twenty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

Make sure to read Glenda Beall's "The making of a Writers Conference" on her blog


Please read Glenda Beall's blog post on "The making of a Writers Conference", on her blog, Writers Circle around the Table.

Writers Circle around the Table

Here is the link:



 http://www.glendacouncilbeall.com/

Also, note the NCWN-West's page for their writing conference, A Day for Writers, on May 6, 2017, at the Jackson County Public Library, in Sylva, NC:

http://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_6.html


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Open Mic in Sylva! January 27th

The Jackson County Netwest is holding its Open Mic night at City Lights Bookstore on Spring Street in Sylva this coming Friday night (January 27th) at 7:00 pm.  There will be beverages and desserts.  Readers generally read for about ten minutes, unless the group gets too large, in which case all readers get five minutes.  Signup for reading slots begins at 6:45.  It's a friendly and supportive group with all levels of experience, and we'd love to see you--come on out!

Saturday, January 7, 2017

New format for updating your bio information for the NCWN-West blog

Members:

I would appreciate your help in updating your bio information for the NCWN-West blog. I would prefer members create a full bio in a word document. The member should then save the document as a file called  Bio for (add name).

Whenever there is a change to the member's bio, that person should update the bio information in the word document, and send it to me with a request that the bio be updated. This will enable the admin to cut and paste the new document over the old bio.

I have a couple of members that are already using this format, and it works very well. However, if the member cannot create their bio in this manner, than admin will surely help them.

Thank you for your assistance!

Joan Ellen Gage,
Admin for the NCWN-West Blog

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Amazon has a good deal for you on two of Tom Davis' books.

The R-complex and  Helloooo Vietnam 364 Days and a Wakeup, books by Tom Davis, NCWN-West member, are showcased in a recent Amazon E-Blast.

The books are FREE if you participate in the Kindle Unlimited and/or the Kindle Owners' Lending Library:
NOTE Amazon Prime members who own a Kindle can choose one book from each month with no due dates.


This eBook is the second chapter of the Tom Davis' memoir: The Most Fun I Ever Had with My Clothes On: A March from Private to Colonel. In his memoir the author relates his experiences during the thirty-one years spent in the US Army, rising through the ranks from private to full colonel. Twenty of those years he served with US Army Special Forces (Green Berets). This book chronicles his time in three combat zones: Vietnam, Bosnia, and Iraq/Turkey. Included are his experiences commanding Special Forces Operational A Detachments which specialized in Underwater Operations, High Altitude Low Opening Parachuting, Mountaineering, and Small Atomic Demolitions Munitions as well as two Special Forces Battalions and a Joint Special Operations Task Force. Each chapter covers his duties and responsibilities at the Army Installation where he served. Sometimes funny. Sometimes sad. Always interesting.


What could happen when members of an Atlanta car theft ring, in the process of stealing her car, kill the pregnant wife of an ex Special Forces demolition expert?
John Crown believed that his Special Forces training and missions existed now only as distant memories. But when his pregnant wife is killed in an “accident” at the hands of cold-blooded, professional car thieves and racketeers, something else dies too: John’s new life as a husband, soon-to-be father, and successful software engineer in Atlanta, Georgia. To track down his wife’s unknown murderers, John sets a series of ingenious–and deadly–traps for unwitting, criminal prey. John fast becomes the underworld’s worst nightmare: a Special Forces-trained vigilante who obeys no law except the one that will bring him peace–the law of revenge. What he doesn’t know is that some of his prey welcomes the challenge, anxious and willing to play his deadly game–to win.
The R-complex is a fast-paced action adventure novel packed with organized crime, drug cartels, terrorist groups, revenge killings, brutal murders, improvised demolitions, a man who proves to be the ultimate killing machine, a female assassin, and a Special Forces A Team infiltrating Colombia, South America, to bring two villains to justice.



Friday, December 30, 2016

Two Excellent Poets for A Day for Writers

A Day for Writers, May 6, 2017

Kathryn Stripling Byer
We are delighted that the first woman Poet Laureate of North Carolina, Kathryn Stripling Byer, widely published and highly praised member of NCWN-West, will teach a two-hour workshop at A Day for Writers, Saturday, May 6, 2017. 

 Her poetry, prose, and fiction have appeared widely, including  Hudson Review, Poetry, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Poetry Review.  Often anthologized, her work has also been featured online, where she maintains the blogs "Here, Where I Am," and "The Mountain Woman."  

Her body of work was discussed along with that of Charles Wright, Robert Morgan, Fred Chappell, Jeff Daniel Marion, and  Jim Wayne Miller in Six Poets from the Mountain South, by John Lang, published by LSU Press. Her first book of poetry, The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, was published in the AWP Award Series in 1986, followed by the Lamont (now Laughlin) prize-winning Wildwood Flower, from LSU Press.  Her subsequent collections have been published in the LSU Press Poetry Series, receiving various awards, including the Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Poetry Award, and the Roanoke-Chowan Award. She served for five years as North Carolina's first woman poet laureate.  She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband and three dogs.


Catherine Carter


Catherine Carter, poet and teacher at Western Carolina University, will be a presenter at the conference giving us two of the finest poets in the region.  


“Catherine Carter’s unique poems are a joy to read and hear aloud, and they yield more and more subtle satisfactions the longer you live with them,” said Elizabeth Addison, head of the WCU English department. “It’s been an honor to share her department.”

A resident of Cullowhee, Carter coordinates the English education program at WCU. Her work has appeared in Poetry, North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River, Main Street Rag and Cider Press Review, among others.

She had work in the Best American Poetry 2009 anthology, and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first book, “The Memory of Gills,” won the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Award.


“The Swamp Monster at Home is a most valuable collection of poems. Catherine Carter treats the sometimes scary materials she addresses with poise and wit, humor and frankness. Her self-possession is not armor plate; she is as vulnerable as you and I, as the deer that come to drink at the darkest river. She speaks with the kind of grace that is gained only after facing daunting difficulties with resolute courage. I admire everything about this book. Everything.”—Fred Chappell





Thursday, December 29, 2016

Poet Maren O. Mitchell has work published in Pedestal Magazine Issue #79 with an audio link

Poet Maren O. Mitchell has had her poem "Camouflage Addict", published in issue #79 of Pedestal Magazine, an webzine of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and interviews. The poem is published with an audio link. You can access the poem here.

Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry East, The Crafty Poet II: A Portable Workshop, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, Chiron Review, Hotel Amerika, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Lake (UK), Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, Skive (AUS), The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, Appalachian Journal, Pirene’s Fountain, Wild Goose Poetry Review and elsewhere. Her work is included in Negative Capability Press Anthology of Georgia Poetry, The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V: Georgia & VII: North Carolina and Sunrise from Blue Thunder



Mitchell's poems are forthcoming in The Lake, Poem, Chiron Review and Appalachian Heritage. Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012) www.lineofsightpress.com  and is available on Amazon.


Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. For over twenty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

A native of North Carolina, in her childhood Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia, on the edge of the national forest.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

SAVE THIS DATE IN MAY 2017

A Day for Writers, one day conference sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West and the Jackson County Public Library.

When: Saturday, May 6, 2017, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Where:  Jackson County Public Library, 310 Keener St. Sylva, NC 28779


Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, YA and Children's Writing, Marketing and Publishing, something for all writers. 

Presenters include: Terry Kay, novelist and short story writer, Catherine Carter, Poet, Tara Lynne Groth, freelance writer and journalist, Deanna Klingel, author of YA and children's books, Glenda C. Beall, poet, writer and teacher, and Gary Carden, playwright, storyteller and author. 
Terry Kay

We held such an event in 2014 that was highly praised and well-attended. The Jackson County Public Library with the meeting space in the beautiful old Courthouse, is a perfect place, centrally located for those who live in the NCWN-West Region. 


Watch this site for a list of more presenters. 

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Writers--what we are doing now

With everyone thinking about Christmas and shopping, we writers often put our wordsmithing on the back burner. In my area, we stop most of our writing events until spring warms us up. Coffee with the Poets and Writers in Hayesville, NC starts anew March 16, Moss Memorial Library at 10:30 a.m.

Writers Night Out is cancelled until spring also. Karen Holmes, who does such a great job with this event, will notify us when that popular gathering for writers will begin in 2017.

The NCWN-West Poetry Critique group continues to meet each month. See the events page on this site to see how to contact Janice Moore, facilitator for the group which meets at Tri-County College in Murphy, NC.

The Prose Critique group that meets at TCCC has gone on hiatus until spring.

A DAY FOR WRITERS

The big news for our region is, A Day for Writers,  the conference on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva, NC. Several presenters are on board, but you will hear more after Christmas. Mark the date on your calendar now.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Brenda Kay Ledford Received Paul Green Award

Brenda Kay Ledford received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her blog:  Blue Ridge Poet.


NCSH held their Diamond Jubilee Celebration and Award Luncheon November 5, 2016 at the Stone Center in North Wilkesboro, NC.


For information:  www.ncsocietyofhistorians.org
                            http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com











Last Writers' Night of the Year, Nov. 11, Blairsville, GA


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Newton Smith featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers in Hayesville, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers meets Wednesday, November 16, 10:30 a.m. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. 

 

This month Dr. Newton Smith  retired professor at Western Carolina University will share his experience of walking El Camino de Santiago, the 500 mile pilgrimage in Europe. Smith wrote a poem a day reflecting on the physical body, nature, and the spiritual as he traversed the Way.

His book is Camino Poems—Reflectionson on the Way. "Because it was autumn, many days I gleaned blackberries, grapes, apples, figs, peaches and other fruit and chestnuts along the way. It meant that my attention was focused on the abundance of this earth instead of on my narrow self and its minor concerns. My attention often fell on butterflies, snails, ant hills and the abundance of rocks,” Smith said.

Poetry has been an essential part of Newton Smith’s life for more than fifty years. Wanting to write poems was what motivated him to leave Georgia Tech and major in English at UNC Chapel Hill. After a three-year tour in the Army as a Russian linguist, he returned to UNC for his Ph.D. 

In graduate school he was one of the founding editors along with Russell Banks and William Matthews of Lillabulero Magazine and Lillabulero Press, then one of the significant publications of the small press movement. His dissertation was The Origin of the Black Mountain Poets, one of the earliest studies of that movement. 

He has taught poetry to a wide range of writers, from second grade to retirees as well as undergraduates and graduate students. He has published widely in literary magazines beginning in the 1970’s, including Southern Poetry Review, Carolina Quarterly, Ann Arbor Review and others. His most recent poetry publications are in the Asheville Poetry eview, Rivendale, Main Street Rag, Pisgah Review, and Jonah. 

Bring a couple of original poems or a short prose piece for open mic which is a special part of the event. You will find a receptive audience. Join the group for lunch at Angelo’s on the square.


Sunday, November 6, 2016

Reading at the John C. Campbell Folk School November 16 - Beall and Bell

Glenda Council Beall and Staci Lynn Bell will read their work at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Wednesday evening, November 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the Keith House Library. No admission charge and the public is invited.
Glenda Council Beall

Glenda Beall has been writing for as long as she can remember. She wrote stories about horses when she was a child. She began writing poetry in high school after a teacher suggested she submit one of her poems to a magazine.
In 1996, after moving to Hayesville, NC, she became a student of Nancy Simpson, poet, at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Since that time she has published many poems in numerous journals and reviews, both traditional and online. Her poems have also been published in a number of anthologies.

She is a multi-genre writer and has published nonfiction and fiction in Reunion Magazine, Breath and Shadow, Living with Loss and in several online journals. Some links to her published work can be found on a page of her blog: www.profilesandpedigrees.blogger.com  

Glenda Beall is owner of Writers Circle around the Table, where she invites outstanding poets and writers to teach at her studio. She teaches memoir writing for senior adults at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC and at Writers Circle.

She served as Program Coordinator for North Carolina Writers' Network West in 2007 - 2009 and serves as a Clay County Representative for the organization now. She is also volunteer Coordinator of the Representatives of NCWN West.

Staci Lynn Bell with Echo

Staci Lynn Bell is a Chicago native who attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She relocated to South Florida, gaining popularity as a 25 year radio and television personality. Bell’s poetry and prose have been published in Wild Goose Poetry, Wolf Warriors Anthology,and 234 Journal. Her poem "Crayon Cardinals" was recently published in The Old Mountain Press "Yin Yang"anthology. She lives with the loves of her life, her two dogs, in Hayesville, NC.

Bell's poem, "Escape" has been published in Old Mountain Press Anthology, Wish You Were Here. Her poem, "Unanswered Prayers" has been accepted for publication in the fall edition of Kakalak 2016 and will go to press soon. Additionally, Bell's poem, "Time," won a bronze medal and her short story, "Cheyenne" won a silver medal in the North Carolina Cherokee and Clay County Silver Arts 2016.


Billy Collins at Malaprop's

Attention poets,
Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, will read from and sign his most recent collection of poems, The Rain in Portugal, at Malaprop's Bookstore Cafe in Asheville, NC.
The event is free and  open to  the public.
Thursday, November 10, 5:00 p.m..

Billy Collins is entertaining when he reads. My husband decided he  did like poetry after hearing Billy Collins read at Young Harris College.

Contact Virginia McKinley for more information.

Virginia McKinley
Community Outreach
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe
55 Haywood Street
Asheville, NC 28801

Friday, November 4, 2016

Third place winner of Flash Fiction contest



What Bugs Me!
By Tom Davis


Recently my daughter, Dixie the vegetarian, introduced me to the garbanzo bean. Not impressed.

My wife Molly declares Dixie takes after me. If something’s good for her, it’s gotta be good for everybody. Soon after her vegetarian transformation, she started bugging me. “Dad,” she would say, “I can’t believe you put that stuff in your stomach. Do you know how long it just sits there fermenting?” Or, “Dad I can hear your arteries slamming shut as you shovel that junk in.”

To shut her up, I tried eating better. With the exception of an occasional Mac Attack and a periodic close encounter with The Barbecue Hut, my behavior proved impressive.

At least, I did pretty well until Dixie stumbled upon a recipe for garbanzo bean soup. I’ve got several problems with the garbanzo bean.

No matter how long you boil one, it’s still crunchy. This may not seem like much, but I like crunchy cereal, not crunchy soup!

A Garbanzo bean doesn’t even look like a regular bean. Take your basic lima. Now there’s a bean-looking bean—kinda fat and oval-shaped. It lies there, begging you to eat it with corn bread. The garbanzo is round like a marble. When you drop a spoon full of these babies on your plate, they roll in all directions.

Finally, and most important, there’s the garbanzo’s taste. There isn’t any—at least not to me.

I’ve stated my position and have suffered rebuke and humiliation. Any opinion contrary to Dixie’s invariably draws inquires into the questioner’s mental status. Did I mention Molly says Dixie takes after me?

Oh, well, what the heck? I’m used to getting no respect around here. After all, what should a man expect who stares down into his soup bowl and gets mooned by a bean.



Friday, October 28, 2016

Newt Smith reads from Camino Poems, his poetry book that rates high praise.

Ron Rash said of Camino Poems--Reflections on the Way “In this superb collection, Newt Smith’s spiritual journey is rendered with such attentiveness and fidelity that we become his fellow travelers. We too share the pain and effort but above all the wonder, and are reminded that in matters of the spirit the journey and destination can be one.”

I am delighted to post about Newton Smith's new poetry book, Camino Poems. Newt has served as our trustworthy NCWN-West Treasurer since 2009. You might not know him, but he is always there behind the scenes taking care of our finances. I am delighted to learn more of Newt's history in his bio for this book.  

**************************************************************

Poetry has been an essential part of Newton Smith’s life for more than fifty years. Wanting to write poems was what motivated him to leave Georgia Tech and major in English at UNC Chapel Hill. After a three-year tour in the Army as a Russian linguist, he returned to UNC for his Ph.D. 

In graduate school he was one of the founding editors along with Russell Banks and William Matthews of Lillabulero Magazine and Lillabulero Press, then one of the significant publications of the small press movement. His dissertation was The Origin of the Black Mountain Poets, one of the earliest studies of that movement. 

He began teaching at WesternCarolina University with a focus on creative writing, contemporary poetry, modern fiction and American literature. He has taught poetry to a wide range of writers, from second grade to retirees as well as undergraduates and graduate students. His academic publications focused on the Black Mountain poets, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Robert Morgan, Fred Chappell, Jim Wayne Miller, William Matthews, Russell Banks, Ron Rash and others. 

He has published widely in literary magazines beginning in the 1970’s, including Southern Poetry Review, Carolina Quarterly, Ann Arbor Review and others. His most recent poetry publications are in the Asheville Poetry Review, Rivendale, Main Street Rag, Pisgah Review, and Jonah. 

Since retiring Newt Smith has had time to devote to travel, gardening, Buddhist studies, mindfulness practices, and hiking in nature, especially in the Smoky Mountains. During his 2014 pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago he wrote a poem everyday reflecting on the physical body, nature, and the spiritual as he walked along the Way.

Newt said about the pilgrimage, "Because it was autumn, many days I gleaned blackberries, grapes, apples, figs, peaches and other fruit and chestnuts along the way. It meant that my attention was focused on the abundance of this earth instead of on my narrow self and its minor concerns. My attention often fell on butterflies, snails, ant hills and the abundance of rocks."

Kathryn Stripling Byer says of Camino Poems, "What are these lines from "Bowing to the Sun" but prayer itself? "The day began with smells...the deep aroma of turned earth,/and then the allure of blackberries....Soon I want to taste everything:/rosehips, flowers, thistle,/even the pebbles at my feet." The blessing of absolute attention carries this pilgrim through every step of his journey, each poem inviting us to walk with him in faith and love."

"Part of the Camino traverses the part of Spain called the Meseta, high plains area dominated by vast fields of wheat. Here emptiness and silence became an opening, a recognition that we are held in a space that extends beyond all we can imagine. The expansiveness and abundance of this life were frequent subjects of these poems as they were for earlier pilgrims who walked from churches to cathedrals to Santiago and beyond to Finisterre," Newt recalled.  

 Emptiness
Ledigos toTerradillos de los Templarios

Here on the Meseta
the land stretches
in every direction
beyond the horizon.

Objects are swallowed up
in this vista.
What is most apparent 
is space 
and how it persists....

This flower
this stone
this hand that writes
all are held 
in this emptiness. 



 ***************************************************************
I learned about El Camino Santiago from my friend, Rebecca Gallo, who has walked the Way more than once. Now I read Newt's poetry and feel I am on the pilgrimage with him. Hear him speak and read from his book at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC on Friday, November 4, 6:30 p.m.



To reserve copies of Camino Poems, please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499.
Event date: 
Friday, November 4, 2016 - 6:30pm
Event address: 
3 East Jackson St.
Sylva, NC 28779

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Fall Conference Pre-Registration Deadline is October 28

Fall Conference happens November 4-6 at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley.  Registration is now open at www.ncwriters.org pre-registration ends Friday, October 28.


With some 200 writers in attendance, as well as dozens of faculty and publishing professionals, the North Carolina Writers’ Network 2016 Fall Conference is the largest writing conference in the state and one of the biggest and most inclusive in the country. It’s a great chance for writers to network, but more importantly, it’s a chance for beginners and bestselling authors alike to focus on writing for an entire weekend and quickly improve their craft.
2016 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Margaret Maron, of

Willow Springs, will give the Keynote Address.
Maron is the five-time Agatha Award-winning mystery writer of the Deborah Knott series, which is set in Johnston County. In 2015, she was given a lifetime achievement award by Bouchercon, the world mystery convention.

Saturday’s luncheon will feature three authors from UNC Press’ Savor the South series: Debbie Moose, Bridgette A. Lacy, and John Shelton Reed. They’ll talk about how good food writing is about so much more than just food.

2014 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee and current NC poet laureate Shelby Stephenson will be the featured guest at Saturday night’s banquet. He’ll talk about writing, read some poetry, and most likely strum a little bit on his guitar.


Program offerings include the second annual All Stories Connect panel discussion. This year’s theme is “A Conversation about Culture” with Shervon Cassim, Sheila Smith McKoy, Donna Miscolta, and Elaine Neil Orr. Sunday morning will once again feature the popular Brilliant at Breakfast panel discussion “Agents and Editors,” featuring Michelle Brower of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth; Robin Miura, editor of Carolina Wren Press; Emma Patterson of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.; and Kathy Pories, Senior Editor at Algonquin Books.

Poetry classes include “Image and Narrative” with Guggenheim and NEA fellow Joseph Millar; “Writing Haiku” with Lenard D. Moore, recipient of the 2014 NC Award for Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor; and “The Furniture of the Poem: The Space of the Page and How We Fill It” with Chris Tonelli, poet and owner of Raleigh’s So & So Bookstore.

Fiction writers will choose from a full slate of class offerings including “Minute Particulars” with Raleigh’s Kim Church, whose debut novel Byrd won the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the South; “Ending Well: Short Story Endings and Their Lessons” with Clare Beams, author of the forthcoming short-story collection We Show What We Have Learned (Lookout Books, 2016). Poet, playwright, and arts educator Howard L. Craft will teach “Developing Authentic Dialog”; and Art Taylor, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, will teach “Sharp, Succinct & Suspenseful: Crafting the Mystery Story.”

Other classes focus on some aspect of the publishing industry. Poet, NCWN trustee, and NCWN regional rep for Wake County, Alice Osborn, will teach “How to be a Rock Star at PR”; the Triangle Association of Freelancers will lead the panel discussion on “Freelance Writing 101”; intellectual property attorney Mitch Tuchman will talk to writers about “Copyright Infringement”; Ross White, poet and founder/publisher of Bull City Press, will lead “Grammar Gone Wild”; and Kim Church and Emma Patterson will chat about “How to Work with an Agent.”

Additional offerings will appeal to authors who write across genres: award-winning Young Adult and New Adult author Jen McConnel will ask “YA/NA: What’s the Big Deal?”; Zelda Lockhart, founder of LaVenson Press Studios, will guide attendees through “The Relationship Museum”; award-winning writer and folklorist Eleanora E. Tate will lead a class on children’s writing; and sci-fi writer Ian J. Malone will teach a class called “Beyond Vanity: How Indie Publishing Builds Professional Writers.”

2016 Fall Conference sponsors include March Graham, author of Ashes and Dust; Chatham-Lee Counties NCWN regional rep Al Manning; the North Carolina Museum of History; Alice Osborn: Editor/Book Coach/Author; The 2017 Piedmont Laureate Program; the University of North Carolina Press; and the North Carolina Arts Council.

For more information, and to register, visit www.ncwriters.org.
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Contact: Charles Fiore, Communications Director, North Carolina Writers' Network, Charles@ncwriters.org