The Literary Hour Readings for October 18, 2018, at the JCCFS, Brasstown, NC, will feature writers Glenda Barrett, Lucy Cole Gratton, and Mary Michelle Brodine Keller

On Thursday October 18, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Glenda Barrett, Lucy Cole Gratton, and Mary Michelle Brodine Keller.

Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is a poet, writer, and visual artist. Her work has been widely published since 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. Barrett is the author of two poetry books, When the Sap Rises, published by Finishing Line Press, in 2008 and The Beauty of Silence, published by Aldrich Press, in 2017. Both books are available on Amazon.com. Glenda's artwork is online at Fine Art America.

Lucy Cole Gratton is a retired CPA, moving to the mountains after retirement.  She was the Cherokee Representative for NCWN-West for five years.  She facilitated the program at John Campbell Folk School during that time.  She has written for many years but only in the past ten years has she been active in Poetry Critique and Prose Critique.  She has read at the Folk School many times.  Her poems have been published in various media including on-line, print, her college magazine and various small publications to which she enjoys.  Her focus is predominantly centered around the environment, incidents and images of her home of 35 acres of woods on Lake Apalachia outside Murphy NC.  She has lived there for 20 years and is in the process of moving to Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta GA.

Mary Michelle Brodine Keller, or Mary Mike as she is often called by her friends, writes poetry, essays and short fiction. She draws her subject matter from things she sees or experiences, putting meaning to them. She is also a visual artist, painting in oil, water color and pastels.  She likes to think of her poetry as painting with words. Her poems have been published in The Mountain Lynx, and in anthologies: Freeing Jonah III and IV, Lights in the Mountains, Echos Across the Blueridge, Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains and various other publications. She calls herself a reader. She reads to others in a variety of settings. She finds that more satisfying than publication, as it is a shared experience.