Award Winning Authors Ricketson and Westwood to Read at Campbell School

Two local award-winning authors, Poet Mary Ricketson and novelist David Westwood, are slated to read from their works Thursday, June 26, at the Literary Hour in the Keith House on the J.C. Campbell Folk School campus.  The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.

Mary Ricketson

Mary Ricketson’s poems reflect the healing power of nature, a path she follows rooted in Appalachian tradition, with the surrounding mountains serving as the midwife for her words.  “Tall Flowers and Living Long” is a new collection of poems written day by day, capturing her life closely intertwined with the natural world.  Among her many awards for poetry is a first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th Anniversary National Poetry Contest and gold and silver medals for poetry in the 2024 Literary Arts division of the NC Senior Games.

Ricketson is a mental health therapist in private practice in Murphy, NC, and enjoys writing groups, hiking mountain trails, and tending to her garden of vegetables, flowers, and blueberries. 

David Westwood

Hayesville resident David Andrew Westwood specializes in historical fiction.  His novel “Emmerspitz, 1938” was awarded the gold star by the Military Writers Society of America, and two other novels have been awarded silver stars.  Additionally, one was the MWSA Book of the Month.  Between novels he writes short stories, and one was recently a finalist for North Carolina's Doris Betts Prize.  He has just released his 19th novel, “If These Walls.”

Mary Jo Dyre of Murphy will serve as host.  She is author of “Springheads” a novel combining elements of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and fantasy to create a story of self-discovery.

The Literary Hour at the folk school is offered every third Thursday of the month through October and brings local writers to the campus to share their work with the community.  Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.

The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling.  For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/.

Hat's off to NCWN-West member David Andrew Westwood--new book, The Paisley Tree House

Check out NCWN-West member's new book, The Paisley Tree House



Sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll ... and a distant place called Vietnam. 1968 is shaping upto be a tumultuous year in America, though in Topanga Canyon, northwest of Los Angeles, little of the tumult is visible. Freaks coexist with straights and bikers, the sound of dulcimers and the smell of weed is in the air, and young men quietly disappear to serve in a war in Indochina. One Topanga family embodies the conflict sweeping the nation-—the Sobieskis. But unlike most, it’s parents Maddy and Bret who are laid-back hippies, and elder son Jackson who perversely yearns to prove himself in battle. Middle children Sundown and Robbie are, like their parents, well entrenched in the counterculture, while young Charity just tries to make sense of everything. Soon, the family’s ties are tested by the worst upheaval they can imagine. And at the center of it all is the paisley tree house.


David Andrew Westwood was in an L.A.-based band in the early seventies, and as a transplant from London the whole experience seared itself into his memory, turning itself into textural detail for The Paisley Tree House. Nevertheless, this is not an autobiography. Westwood is the author of thirteen other novels.

You can find Westwoods work at Amazon.com, and at:

 https://www.davidwestwood.com/writings