Writers and poets in the far western mountain area of North Carolina and bordering counties of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee post announcements, original work and articles on the craft of writing.
Friday, May 13, 2011
20TH ANNUAL CLAY COUNTY HISTORICAL AND ARTS POETRY CONTEST Names the Winners
Winners of the Clay County Historical and Arts Council Poetry Contest read their poems and received their awards on May 5, 2011 at Hayesville High School Lecture Hall. The contest was judged by poet Nancy Simpson.
Nancy Simpson was presented a painting and plaque from the Clay County Historical Arts Council which read: To Nancy Simpson in appreciation for her years of devotion to the creative and cultural development of student and adults in Clay County.
painting by Reba Beck.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
SEE YOU AT THE BOOK NOOK
The store is located one block south of the Blairsville Square on Hwy. 19/129. Jeff Hansen, owner of the Book Nook recommends calling the store at 706-745-7076 to reserve copies of this popular book.
Bettie Sellers, former Poet Laureate of Georgia,
Carole Thompson, published author and poet, from Blairsville
and Jo Carolyn Beebe of Hiawassee, Georgia, will be there.
Nancy Simpson, who is well-known for her years of teaching poetry and mentoring writers, and Brenda Kay Ledford award-winning poet from Hayesville, NC will be there.
Many people are purchasing the book to leave in their vacation cabin or condo for guests to enjoy. Others like the price of only $16.00 and they buy several for Christmas gifts.
A photo by Philip Sampson of Blairsville was chosen for the cover from a large number of submissions by artists and photographers throughout the southern Appalachians. Inside pictures are by Tipper Pressley of Brasstown and Seth Russell, formerly of Murphy.
Echoes across the Blue Ridge has something for every reader from short stories or non-fiction and poetry with subjects as varied as hunting dogs to reclaiming and restoring rivers.
Other well known writers with work in Echoes across the Blue Ridge are Steven Harvey, essayist and professor at Young Harris College, Kathryn Stripling Byer, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina, Gary Carden, storyteller and legendary playwright, and Thomas Rain Crow who has written and published more than twenty of his own works, including Zorro’s Field.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
FOR POETS AND THOSE WHO LOVE TO READ POEMS
MESSAGE FOR POETS AND THOSE WHO LOVE TO READ POETRY BY SOUTHERN AND APPALACHIAN POETS
Friday, December 12, 2008
Poems and Stories of Christmas at Moss Library in Hayesville
C. Shirley Uphouse
The event is sponsored by Friends of the Library and Netwest.
Brenda Kay Ledford is one of the authors in the new anthology, Christmas Presence, published by Catawba Publishing. Brenda Kay, a poet and writer with two poetry books, Shew Bird Mountain and Sacred Fire, recently published by Finishing Line Press has been published in numerous magazines and literary journals such as Pembroke Magazine, Asheville Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Appalachian Heritage, and Our State Magazine. Her first poetry chapbook, Patchwork Memories, received the 2005 Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians.
Glenda Barrett's poetry chapbook, When the Sap Rises, was published earlier this year by Finishing Line Press. Her poems and stories have been widely published in magazines such as Woman's World, Yesterday's Gazette, and most recently accepted for the Journal of Kentucky Studies. Her story, The French Harp, one of the holiday stories in the anthology Christmas Presence, has been reprinted in The Georgia Magazine.
Shirley Uphouse, past Program Coordinator for Netwest, is author of a memoir, My Friends, My Dogs, and her work is widely published in magazines such as Dog Fancy, Smoky Mountain Living and others. One of the stories in her memoir can be read online in The Show Ring, http://www.blogger.com/. Shirley has been a professional dog show judge for over 25 years.
This event is a warm and inviting way to start the season each year. The audience gets involved by reading their own original poems and stories. While enjoying a table laden with a variety of refreshments served by Moss Library staff, attendees enjoy socializing with the writers and others from the community. Bring something to read or come and listen. Authors will be happy to sign their books.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Christmas Presence authors signing in Hayesville,NC Dec. 6
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Christmas Anthology of WNC Women writers
The signings are listed below--jus ignore the first two. We're hoping for an Osondu signing in Waynesville and one in Marshall.
AUTHOR EVENTS
10-12:00, Oct. 25, Highland Books, 277 N. Broad St., Brevard, NC ( 884-2424)---in conjunction with the college's homecoming, Celia with Nancy Purcell (and Lana Hendershott read) and former dean/author E. Roberts (sold 12 books and the store kept 8, plus sold 10 of my two novels)
10-3:00, Nov. 1, Sanctuary of Stuff, Farm N Art, Woodfin, NC---a first time, long-day event; come and see us
11-1:00, Nov. 7, AB Tech, Holly Library (254-1921)--refreshments
10-12:00, Nov. 8, Curiosity Shop, 48 Valley River Ave., Murphy (835-7433)---with Nancy Sales Cash; Carole, Barbara, Brenda, others in the area, please come and join us; also 1:00-3:00 in Andrews, Curiosity Shop.
6:00, Nov. 19, Accent on Books, 854 Merrimon Ave., Asheville, (252-6255)--Byron Ballard arranged this; all who wish to read, please let us know
1-5:00, Nov. 29, Mountain Made, Grove Arcade, downtown Asheville (350-0307)--come by and visit; we'll be outside the store--and at Mountain Lore in Hendersonville 10:00-11:30)
2-4:00, Dec. 2, Hendersonville Library--Sherry Austin will be moderating this event; refreshments offered; all you H'ville writers, let us know if you wish to read; a two-hour slot but an hour or so of readings should be sufficient. Susan Snowden is doing publicity in Henderson County.
12-3:00, Dec. 6, Book Fair, McDowell Public Library, Old Fort--this event was formerly held in the historic Carson House; Julia N. Duncan will read; others welcome
10:45, Dec. 10, Givens Estates, 2360 Sweeten Creek Road (274-4800)--Mary Lou Welther arranged this event; we're hoping those authors/storytellers nearby will participate
Authors' bios reveal they have more than 45 published books among them.
This article by Nancy Purcell, Netwest Rep from Transylvania County, Brevard, NC
Monday, November 3, 2008
Common Cup features Brenda Kay Ledford
Brenda discusses her mountain heritage and how Nancy Simpson started her on the road to writing her award winning poetry. The cover design of Brenda Kay's collection, Sacred Fire, published by Finishing Line Press, comes from her own photograph of the historical courthouse on the square located in Hayesville.
This show on Common Cup will be shown several times each day for a week. Readers in north Georgia mountains and in Clay County can see it if they subscribe to Windstream Cable TV.
Sacred Fire on sale at Phillips and Lloyd books in Hayesville, NC and the John C. Campbell Folk School gift shop. Order online from Finishing Line Press.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Blog Class
Saturday, September 20, 2008
AFTER A WEEK OF HEARING THE WORD
Friday, July 4, 2008
Glenda Barrett Publishes Poetry Chapbook
Like peeling an apple and slicing it, Glenda Barrett gets to the core in her poetry chapbook, WHEN THE SAP RISES. Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, KY published the book.
Barrett describes with her Southern voice hardships, heartaches, health issues, family, farming and fishing. She writes the way she lives—unpretentious. There’s a reverence for the land and her ancestors. She says in her poem, “Echoes”:
…I can follow in the footsteps
of my ancestors,
people who were truthful,
who held firm to their beliefs
and rose above their hardships.
People whose voices still echo
across these Blue Ridge Mountains.
“I was born here, and I’ll die here!”
Her ancestors worked hard on the farm to feed their family. They hoed the fields in the hot sun, but loved the land. In the poem, “Southern Soil,” they proudly said, “I own this land all the way to the top of the mountain. I’ll not sell one piece of this land the longest day that I live.”
A native of Hiawassee, Georgia, Barrett recalls hoeing the cornfield as a teenager. In her imagination, she can still hear the sharp click of her hoe hitting the hard, stony ground.
Her father was a farmer. He plowed gardens for neighbors, didn’t charge a dime. When Barrett sees corn ripening and bales of hay scattered across a pasture, she thinks of him.
Barrett has fond memories of her grandma. They fished together, had picnics of Vienna Sausage and soda crackers. She recalls walking barefoot as a girl over the dirt road to her grandmother’s house. It was a place filled with unconditional love.
It’s no wonder Barrett dedicated her poetry chapbook to her grandmother, Hattie Foster. She told Barrett wonderful stories and inspired her to become a writer.
The title of her book, WHEN THE SAP RISES, came from her grandmother’s sayings. She predicted the weather by observing nature. Barrett writes in her poem, “When the Sap Rises”:
... “See those thick corn shucks.
We can be on the lookout
for a rough winter.”
One day when I visited, she said,
“In the spring of the year, when the sap
rises is a hard time for sick folks,
another time is in the fall,
when the sap goes down.”
The sap seems to rise on the cover of Barrett’s poetry chapbook. She painted an old-time house including a rock chimney, tin roof, a giant tree in the yard, a front porch, and greens in the garden. A dirt road circles the farmhouse and merges with a lavender sunset over the misty mountains. It’s serene and flows with an undercurrent of faith.
Barrett took an oil painting class at Young Harris College and received an Associate of Arts Degree in 1969. She’s painted over thirty years and her art is displayed on the online art gallery, Yessy.com.
She also studied at North Georgia College and took creative writing under Nancy Simpson at Tri-County Community College. Barrett worked twenty years in the health care profession before she developed a neuromuscular disease.
The doctors echoed words like heredity and genetics before giving her the diagnosis. “At times, I am silent, stare into space, and retreat to a place no one else can go,” she says in her poem, “Family Ties”. It’s a place where she no longer wonders what her father thought.
Her poem, “Kindred Spirit,” describes a cardinal at the feeder. Barrett feels a deep connection with the bird because it is blind in one eye. She expresses her health issues in this verse:
…A feeling of knowing,
no matter what happens,
there will always be hope
and endless possibilities.
The moisture from my breath
leaves a circle on the windowpane,
and I watch from my scooter,
until the cardinal flies out of sight.
Barrett is recovering from a recent surgery on her foot. She’s in a scooter now, but hopes to walk soon. She finds comfort in her family and talking with friends on the telephone. She also enjoys reading and crafting poetry.
A member of North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, Barrett’s work has appeared in many magazines and five anthologies. Her poetry has been published in Kaleidoscope, Nostalgia, Wellspring, Hard Row to Hoe, Living with Loss Magazine, A Time of Singing, Mindprints Journal, Wordgathering Journal, Farming Magazine, Artists Against Domestic Violence, and Nantahala Review. She has poetry upcoming in Breath and Shadow.
According to Nancy Simpson, “Glenda Barrett gives us the most authentic Appalachian voice to rise out of the southern mountains in years. Whether she is eating an apple with a knife or if she is knee deep fishing in Owl Creek, here is a woman who is as immersed in her environment as in her daily existence. Barrett’s concerns for family and heritage go beyond what happened, for her poems celebrate life, transcend sorrow, and show the reader what was learned.”
Barrett’s books are available locally at Mary Ann’s Restaurant in Young Harris, Georgia. You may also order online at: http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.finishinglinepress.com/ .
Friday, March 28, 2008
COFFEE WITH THE POETS
Coffee with the Poets is held in Hayesville, NC
the 4th Wednesday of each month, on the town square
at Phillips and Lloyd’s Book Store.
On March 26th, Linda M. Smith was the featured reader.
Michelle Keller coordinated the event. The audience was
made of Hayesville folks and some visitors from
Andrews and from across the Georgia line. Coffee,
tea, pastry, and poems --all delicious.
During the open mic session, award winning poet
Brenda Kay Ledford read a newly completed poem.
NCWN West Consultant, Nancy Simpson
read her most recently published poem,
“ The Ghost of Candide” which is dedicated to former
Georgia Poet Laureate, Bettie M. Sellers. Simpson
said the poem was written in 1978 and finally, after
30 years, it has found it’s home in print at
Cooweescoowee Review at Will Rogers University
in Oklahoma.
Glenda Barrett, whose chapbook, WHEN THE SAP RISES,
is forthcoming in June 2008 from Finishing Line Press,
also read one poem in the open mic reading,
as did Maren O. Mitchell and others.
Mark your calendar on the 4th Wednesday in April,
and come enjoy Coffee with the Poets. All practicing poets
are welcome to read a poem in the open mic reading.
Glenda Beall. NCWN West Program Coordinator is the
founder of this innovative program.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Give a Good Reading, But First Sell Yourself
A professional writer knows the value of planning a performance of his work. A reading is a performance. As Tom Bradley says in “How to Give a Rousing Reading” from The practical Writer, “Literary events are theater, not literature per se.” Vocal quality is about 82% of everything. Some writers study drama to better project their voices. Bradley insists the writer should always stand but not behind a lectern, and never let anyone hand you a microphone without a stand. He says it is best to avoid a microphone entirely, even if your vocal ability is not the best. Personally I like a lectern to hold my script, especially when I’m reading poetry from different collections, but I enjoy moving away from it at times to be closer to my audience.
Brenda Kay Ledford, award winning poet and writer, is also a storyteller. Her southern mountain accent suits her tales of life in Appalachia. At a recent gathering she read a couple of poems from her chapbook, Shew Bird Mountain. She then stepped from behind the podium to dramatize a story of her childhood using all her storytelling skills. No minds ever wander during this woman’s readings.
An author who decides to read a chapter from his novel has the most difficult task. He must do an outstanding job of setting the scene, making the audience care about what he is going to tell them before he reads the first word. This kind of reading is hardest for a new, unknown author. His audience has not read any of his work; therefore, his job is to sell them on himself and his words. At a recent reading, I looked around at the group, mostly writers, as a long-winded fellow read chapter after chapter of dialogue between his fictional characters. His audience had no idea who these characters were or why they were important in this story. I was not surprised to see lots of heads bowed and eyelids drooping, nearly closed.
Carole L. Kelley, author of two books, And Now Hello, and its sequel, And Now Goodby, part of a trilogy, was in our town, reading and signing her first book. She began by telling how she, the owner of her own company, a business woman who had never written a book, made the decision to choose the setting of Brazil where she had never been, for her story. She told us how she developed the characters, and a brief synopsis of the entire book without giving away the ending. By the time she finished this buildup, we could hardly wait to hear her share parts, not complete chapters, but selected parts that sparked the curiosity of those present. This reading was designed purposely to draw the audience into the story, a little at a time, until we were totally hooked.
In all the years I’ve observed writers promote, read and sign books, I’ve learned one thing. Most Americans have and enjoy a sense of humor. You can’t fail if you begin and end with something humorous. Sandwich the most serious subjects in the middle. Just as a story needs a good beginning to entice an editor to turn the pages, you want the first words of your reading to intrigue your audience.
Some writers end their readings with a section from the book that stimulates extreme curiosity in the audience. This motivates the crowd to make an immediate bee line for the book table. Thomas A. Williams tells us in his book, Poet Power, how he prepares his audience before he reads. He encourages them to applaud whenever they feel they want to, not wait until the very last poem has been read. Williams even tells them to stamp their feet, call encouragement or do whatever the work inspires them to do. He makes friends with those eager faces who are expecting him to “entertain” them with his work. The smiling face and personal attitude of the poet or writer is often the first step to breaking the ice and winning over the crowd. Follow these suggestions to enhance your performance:
• Tell an anecdote about yourself or your writing.
• Read sure-fire work from other outstanding poets or writers, and tell stories about their struggles.
• Ask questions. Do anything to get your listeners involved.
• Introduce each poem or story before you read it.
• Lighten up the crowd with humor.
When you deliver an outstanding presentation or performance, your audience loves you and wants to read your book, and you will not have to wake them up when you finish.