Join thousands who attend the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC July 8,9,10

 FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE is a weekend celebration of mountain crafts, mountain music, and food. On July 8, Friday afternoon, Jim Davis and Knute Rarey, members of NCWN-West will set up a tent canopy, tables, and chairs on a 10 x 10 plot reserved for our use on the square in beautiful Hayesville, NC. We are the only group representing literary arts at this event. The mountain writers west of Asheville and in bordering counties of Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee make up the membership of NCWN-West. The remaining copies of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge will be on sale at a discount. This anthology of western NC writers dedicated to Byron Herbert Reece includes poems and stories by some of the best writers in the Appalachian Mountains area.

Saturday morning at 10 AM, three of our members will staff the booth. They will meet and talk to anyone who comes by to say hello. They are authors of books that will be available for purchase. On the tables will be brochures that explain what we are and who we are. These authors will answer questions about how to join NCWN-west and what new members can expect to have offered them. 

Our purpose for being there is to expose writers and readers to what local writers have written and have on sale. This tri-state area is brimming with very good writers and poets, published and unpublished.

We are also there to introduce our professional organization to anyone who is interested. Often people don't realize that NCWN-West is welcoming and wants to embrace new writers and help them follow their dreams. A number of our members found NCWN-West at the Festival on the Square. Carroll Taylor, author and poet, as well as Marcia Barnes, author, columnist, and poet discovered this organization while at the festival and now both are in leadership positions helping others and publishing their work.

This annual festival has been ongoing for forty-one years and is sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council which is supported by the NC Arts Association. There is no charge to attend and the vendors open up at 10 AM on Saturday and on Sunday.  Mountain music entertainers will be on stage in the Gazebo on both days.

Pat Zick, author

NCWN-West will hold drawings to give away books and other writerly things several times each day. To register, write your name on a strip of paper with your phone number and email address. Drop it in the large bowl on the table in the booth. You will be called if your name is drawn. If you are not still at the festival, we will make arrangements to get the gift bag to you.

Joan Howard, poet

On Saturday you will find Carroll Taylor, Lorraine Bennett, Marcia Barnes, and Brenda Kay Ledford in the booth. Saturday afternoon Glenda Beall, Pat Zick, and Gene Vickers will be there to greet you.

Lorraine Bennett, author

Sunday CarolLynn Jones and Joan Howard will sit at the table throughout the morning. Raven Chiong and Sandy Benson, will sit in for an hour. Pat Zick and Glenda Beall will be there in the afternoon with David Plunkett. 

 We invite you to come to the festival for a good time and be sure to stop by the NCWN West Writers Booth. Sign up for a free gift. 

Carroll Taylor

   

Brenda Kay
Ledford

Marcia Barnes

                                                 

                                                                                                             Gene Vickers, author

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Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center Visit

For those who have not visited the Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center outside Blairsville, GA, this is a wonderful time of year to spend an hour or more learning about life in these mountains as it was 100 years ago, and to learn about the interesting poet, Byron Herbert Reece. He grew up here and lived on the farm where the center has been built. He taught at Young Harris College. His story tells the story of this land, of Choestoe, where he was born in a cabin in 1917.

The anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, is dedicated to Reece and several of his poems are in the book. I was fascinated to read Reece's actual letters and the newspaper articles I found at the center. The lost art of letter-writing is a window to the writer's heart. My appetite has been whetted and I want to read all of them.
On the day I visited the center, Mrs. John Kay was there and filled our heads with interesting facts about the noted poet.

My guests and I watched a video about Reece's life told by poets, Mildred Greear and Bettie Sellers, and other well-known people of this area. I hope to get back over to continue my tour and purchase some of the books on sale at the gift shop, but I must go soon. They will only be open a few more weekends.

(from the Reece website)
The remaining days of fall


We’re back to clear blue skies, and while the wind was hard on the leaves, it’s still lovely at the Reece Farm and Heritage Center. We’ll be open just a few more weekends, so be sure to stop by soon. The Gift Shop is full of unique items for gift giving, and Shelley will be glad to guide you through the selections. The Farm and Heritage Center is located south of Blairsville on the Gainesville Highway (Hwy 129), just north of Vogel State Park. Watch for the signs! We’re open the remaining weekends in November, including the weekend following Thanksgiving, on Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 to 4:00.

JIM CLARK'S NEW CD SETS BYRON HERBERT REESE'S POEMS TO MUSIC

Poet, musician, and professor Jim Clark has just released The Service of Song: Words by Byron Herbert Reece/Music by Jim Clark.

The cd includes the text of the poems set to music by Clark, including I Go by Ways of Rust and Flame, The Elm and the Moon, and The Altitudes of Love.

I Go By Ways of Rust and Flame

I go by ways of rust and flame

Beneath the bent and lonely sky;

Behind me on the ways I came

I see the hedges lying bare,

But neither question nor reply.

A solitary thing am I

Upon the roads of rust and flame

That thin at sunset to the air.

I call upon no word nor name,

And neither question nor reply

But walk alone as all men must

Upon the roads of flame and rust.

The cd is $10.00 (plus $2.00 for shipping) and may be ordered from Eternal Delight Productions, P.O. Box 7861, Wilson, NC 27895.