Meet Janet Benway and Nancy Purcell of Transylvania County, NC

Nancy Purcell
on left.




Right: Janet Benway
Netwest is fortunate to have Nancy Purcell and Janet Benway, writers in Brevard, NC. as representatives in Transylvania County, NC.
Janet is happily transplanted from Connecticut to Brevard, where she lives, walks and writes while enjoying the Blue Ridge Mountains. A former editor and college English teacher, Janet now teaches creative writing at Brevard College. Her poems appear in Lucidity, Bereavement and Long River Run.

Nancy Purcell writes and teaches a writing course for Brevard College's Creekside Program. Nancy studied Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University, attended the Iowa Summer Workshops, and served as a North Carolina Writers Network/Elizabeth Squire Daniels Writer-in-Residence at Peace College in Raleigh, NC, under the guidance of Doris Betts.

Her stories have appeared in various literary magazines including: RiverSedge, The MacGuffin, Pangolin Papers, Trioka, LongStoryShort, The Square Table, Bereavement, and have been read on "Writers Radio Show" out of Chattannooga State College, TN.

Nancy organized a writing group, Wordsmiths, and Janet is a member. They meet every other Wednesday at Quotations, a local coffee shop. The meeting time is 11am - 1pm. Nancy can be reached for specific dates at mailto:nansea@citcom.net or 828-862-8117.
Contact these Netwest representatives if you live in Transylvania County, and they will help you with membership questions, or with information about Netwest (NCWN West) a chapter of the North Carolina Writers' Network.
Janet: 828-884-8830 and Nancy: 828.862.8117

Nancy Purcell will teach Brevard College's Creekside creative writing program

Nancy Purcell, Netwest Transylvania County Representative, will be teaching a creative writing program for Brevard College's Creekside community education series. The program, "ABC's of Creative Writing," will begin Oct. 16 and continue every Thursday evening, from 6:30-8:30pm in the college's McLarty Building. Fee- $60.
Learn the ABC's of creative writing in an interactive setting. Designed for beginners and intermediate writers, these comprehensive basics will develop your writing skills through class exercise and craft interpretation. One-on-one critiques will be offered. Maximum enrollment: 8

For registration contact: Carol Persek, Coordinator of Community Education, Brevard College. Phone (828) 884-8251 or email: persekca@brevard.edu

Transylvania County writing group is growing

Nancy Purcell Connects with Writers in Transylvania County

Good news from Transylvania County Wordsmith group: Just a few months ago we had 6 members in our new writers’ group and I was overjoyed! Now I’m really excited because our six has turned into 11. The group is varied not only in personalities but in craft and skill level. What has been so great is having these new people join the group because of our acceptance of diversity! Janet Benway and Alexandra Burroughs, craft-intelligent writers, have added their valuable opinions to our roundtable and we have somehow managed to maintain that important level of sensitivity in the group. Everyone learns from everyone else!

The Brevard College Creekside program for Fall will be offering a new poetry class, double taught by Ms. Benway & Ms. Burroughs, subject matter: Poets as Activists: The importance of giving voice to what goes on around us in a world that seems to be spinning ever faster. I will be teaching a Fiction Craft program, The ABC’s of Creative Writing, during Creekside’s Fall session.

We are growing and, with this growth, I hope the new writers will seek membership in the NCWN & Netwest. We will definitely encourage everyone to come to the Netwest Picnic, September 14th, at Konaheta Park, in Murphy, NC.

Nancy Purcell
Transylvania County Rep.