Shelby Stephenson, Poet Laureate of NC, to read, Sat., Aug. 8th, with poets Robert S. King and Rosemary Royston at the Murphy, NC, Public Library

Ridgeline Literary Alliance, in cooperation with the NC Poetry Society, invites the public to hear Shelby Stephanson, Poet Laureate of NC, on Saturday, August 8th, at 2:00 PM at the Murphy Public Library, 9 Blumenthal St., Murphy, NC.  Joining Shelby Stephenson in this free reading will be poets Robert S. King and Rosemary Royston.

Shelby Stephenson, the current Poet Laureate of North Carolina, was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame last year. Previously he won the 2001 North Carolina Award in Literature, and his book, Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl, won the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize and the 2009 Oscar Arnold Young Award. He taught at UNC Pembroke, and edited an international literary journal for over thirty years. His ten chapbooks have won the 2001 North Carolina Award in Literature, the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize, the 2009 Oscar Arnold Young Award, as well as the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Memorial Award, North Carolina Network Chapbook Prize, the Bright Hill Chapbook Award, and the Brockman-Campbell Poetry Prize.

Mr. Stephenson will be joined by two other distinguished poets, Robert S. King, and Rosemary Royston.

Robert S. King is the former president of the Georgia Poetry Society, editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Review, who has eight collections of his poetry published will also be reading. King has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Net award, and is the founder of Ridgeline Literary Alliance. His poems have been published in hundreds of magazines. His latest books are Diary of the Last Person on Earth, 2014, and Developing a Photograph of God, also 2014.

Rosemary Royston, teaches English at Young Harris College where she is also Vice President for Planning and Assessment, is on the Board of Directors for the Byron Herbert Reece Society. She holds an MFA from Spalding University. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Appalachian Heritage, Southern Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Coal Hill Review, Flycatcher, Town Creek Review, and The Kentucky Review and on her blog The Luxury of Trees. Royston's book, Splitting the Soil, was published last year.

Both King and Royston have led writing workshops locally, and Royston served as 2015 Senior Games/SilverArts judge in the Literary Arts competitions.

Please bring your own poems to read at open mic, time depending, and celebrate poetry in Western North Carolina.