Festival on the Square was successful thanks to all of our writers and poets who volunteered

 For several years NCWN-West has rented a booth at the festival on the square in the beautiful downtown area of Hayesville, NC. 

The festival is sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. Their volunteers led by Joan Joppie do a fabulous job and work hard during the weekend hosting around 80 vendors. We are the only booth where books are sold and we are fortunate to be included.

Thousands of people come each year from faraway places to spend the weekend in the mountains. We talked with people from Texas, South Carolina, Florida and other states. Local authors, Lorraine Bennett, Carroll Taylor, Marcia Barnes, Raven Chiong, Glenda Beall, Joan Howard, David Plunkett, Lynda Farrell, and Sandy Benson staffed the booth for the two days. 

Kanute Rarey and David Plunkett set up the booth with a tent and tables on Friday afternoon and they took down the booth on Sunday afternoon.

When we work together we can do so much. Many books were sold, but we were there to explain who we are and what we do. Our banner caught the eyes of passersby who were curious and stopped to talk. Some of our best writers and volunteers found us at this festival, picked up a brochure, and joined NCWN.

 Joan Howard, poet in pink, Carroll Taylor, novelist and poet sitting behind her.

Lorraine Bennett and Marcia Barnes, Glenda Beall, waiting her turn at the table

Sunday, July 10, Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC

 Our photos were made by Raven Chiong and Knute Rarey.

On a very hot Sunday, Glenda Beall, Raven Chiong, and Pat Zick met
writers and readers, sold books and enjoyed each other's company.

David Plunkett, author of two novels Chessboard (2019) and Poisoned Pawn (2022) sitting with Glenda Beall author of Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins spent the afternoon wondering if the rain would hold off until time to go home.  It did!

Thanks to our local writers who staffed the booth at the festival, we sold a number of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, our anthology of Appalachian writers and poets, and shared the news about NCWN and NCWN-West. Quite a few people are moving to our region and they were excited to learn how many writing events are happening here. They took our new updated brochures and said they plan to join our organization. I expect to see some of them at Coffee with the Poets and Writers at Moss Library in Hayesville this month when Lorraine Bennett is our featured guest. 

We must thank Knute Rary, Jim Davis and Stu and Gay Moring for erecting the tent on the square that sheltered our writers and our books this weekend. Knute and Jim loaded up their vehicles with tent, tables, chairs and other paraphernalia and unloaded them on our 10 x 10 site on the square of our historic little town. Thousands of people from far and near poured onto the area Saturday in spite of warnings of rain. But, luckily, no rain marred our day. 

Sunday we were warned that the day would be filled with thundershowers and storms. We kept our plastic ready but we had no rain until right at 4:00 PM. With Raven, David, Pat, Gay, and me on hand, we had our books safely put away, our table cloths folded and were delighted to see Knute arrive to load up his truck again.

I can never say enough about how wonderful it is to have my sister and her husband here to help me. Gay and Stu are the very best.

Gay and Stu Moring

Glenda Beall with a cooling towel around her neck is with Pat Zick, author and Cherokee County Representative for NCWN-West. Pat has the personality needed to bring people to the table and is a great ambassador for Netwest. We are happy she will be leading the Literary Hour at the John C. Campbell Folk School beginning in August. 

The Festival on the Square is over for this year. Hope we can all be back in 2023.

SATURDAY AT THE FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE

Saturday morning staff: Lorraine Bennett, Carroll Taylor,
Marcia Barnes. We were happy to meet many new writers in the area who want to
become members of NCWN-West.

FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE 2022

Glenda Beall with Gene Vickers, author of several books you can find in local bookstores.
Gene lives in Young Harris, Georgia. This was his first Festival on the Square.


We will have more photos to share from this day and Sunday at the Festival. 

 

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

Please share this post with others who would be interested. Thanks for all your help.

FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE 2021

Carroll S. Taylor and Hugh Taylor

In spite of a rainy day Friday, Carroll and Hugh Taylor and I put up our tent, tables and chairs to create a booth at the annual Festival on the Square. 

This delightful event is sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council in Clay County North Carolina. Over 70 artists and crafters set up their booths around and on the historic square that surrounds the old Courthouse which has been renovated and is now a convention center with the name, The Beal Center. 

NCWN-West has been a part of this festival for years and this year has been one of the most successful for our authors and for Netwest. We gave away brochures and sold lots of books on both days.

Carroll Taylor was kept busy talking to those interested in her young adult novels and Feannag, the Crow, her picture book. Echoes Across the Blue Ridge was popular with the out of state visitors. Tourists wanted to take home this book from the mountains. Brenda Kay Ledford found visitors interested in her new picture book, The Singing Convention.

The small town of Hayesville, NC hosts thousands of guests as the folks from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and surrounding states vacation here in this scenic area. A young couple from California dropped by, extremely interested in our booth.

People signed up for our giveaways every two hours and asked to be put on our mailing lists. 

Appreciation goes out to Bob Grove,  Brenda Kay Ledford, Jim Davis, and Anne Wheeler for staffing the booth along with Glenda Beall and Carroll on Saturday.

On Sunday, a new member, Raven Chiong enjoyed meeting fellow members and talking with anyone interested in writing. She also used this opportunity to purchase books.

Joan Howard was another member who worked in the booth and was there when the big rain came. Joan is a supportive member of Netwest and volunteers to help when she is needed. She is a poet whose poems I recommend.

Caesar Campana, a member for only a year, helped with taking down the booth. His wife, Monica, sat at a book table. Check out his Amazon page to learn more about this novelist.

In spite of the on again and off again showers both days, the writers did not fold their tent and leave. When table cloths were soaked, they were removed and books were put back on the bare tables. 

This event is wonderful for networking with others. We met the new owners of Curiosity Books in Murphy, NC. They want writers to come by and talk with them. They are interested in books by local writers. 

All booths were directed to stay open until 4:00 PM Sunday. When the time came to break it all down, Hugh and Caesar made short order of folding the tent and chairs and loading it all in Hugh's truck. 

 

Carroll and Hugh endured rain showers but saved the books and brochures.

This event would not have happened without Carroll Taylor and the support of her husband Hugh. Carroll's novels sold well and her bright display drew attention to our booth. She is very good at meeting people and discussing NCWN-West. 

This event serves several purposes for writers. It shows we are a strong active part of the community and we welcome new people. Because we are open to the public, beginning writers and those who are a little hesitant to join a writers' group find they are comfortable with our members. That is very important when speaking to novice writers. I am sure we will have new members after this weekend.

Often out of state visitors discover NCWN at this festival and find that they can join even if they don't live in North Carolina. Our brochures, designed by Meagan Lucas, are filled with information, and they were in the hands of everyone who stopped to speak at our booth.

See photos of the booth and the people who managed it this weekend.

Brenda Kay Ledford and Carroll Taylor ready to meet festival-goers

Our poster, Books by Local Authors, 
drew attention from the passersby

 

Caesar Campana and Raven Chiong work the Sunday afternoon shift

Photos by Glenda Beall, Carroll Taylor and Raven Chiong.

Glenda Beall and Raven Chiong

Local poets and writers to read at Hayesville's Festival on the Square this weekend, July 9th and 10th, 2016

This weekend, Hayesville, North Carolina will offer their annual Festival on the Square.The festival begins Friday evening, July 8th, with a street dance. Music and many vendors will grace the square on Saturday and Sunday, July 9th and 10th. Included in this event will be our North Carolina Writers' Network-West booth, which will be on the North side of the square.

Several local poets and writers, members of NCWN-West, will be attending the booth, and will read periodically from their published works. Included in this line-up, are Tom Davis, Joan Ellen Gage, Mary Rickertson, Rosemary Royston, Marcia Barnes, Glenda C. Beall, Joan M. Howard, Bob Grove, and Lucy  Cole Gratton.

During the day, the booth will have books to give away. Please make an effort to come by and support the wonderful members, who are taking time to showcase our writers' network.


http://www.clayhistoryarts.org/
http://festivalnet.com/43539/Hayesville-North-Carolina/Festivals/Festival-on-the-Square

Photos from Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC

Deanna Klingel, Valerie Nieman, Joan Ellen Gage, Eva Mull Wike, Miriam Jones Bradley 

It was hot but we had fun and folks went home with books from our authors. NC Writers' Network West, a program of the North Carolina Writers' Network, sponsored this booth and volunteers staffed it both Saturday and Sunday. We handed out information about local events, registration for membership, and gave information about the Fall Conference in November in Asheville. We talked to people about NCWN, the state writers' group. www.ncwriters.org and gave away books twice each day of the festival. 

Val Nieman joins Joan Ellen Gage at the book table Sunday afternoon. 

Valerie Nieman, Joan Gage, and Glenda Beall 

NCWN-West at Festival on the Square

Our weekend at the Festival on the Square was delightful except for the high temperatures on Saturday. Deanna Klingel and Miriam Bradley drove down to Hayesville from Sapphire and from Hendersonville, NC. Both write books for children but have non-fiction books for adults as well. See their websites for more of their books. 

We all promote reading for children and it was heart-warming to see the kids visit Deanna and Miriam with their parents and then come back later with cash in hand to purchase the mystery series books from Miriam’s table or the Avery books from Deanna.

Deanna Klingel

Miriam Jones Bradley

Our many volunteers this year made it possible to have a booth at the Festival on the Square sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. Deanna and Joan Gage carried tables and chairs and boxes as we loaded up Rob’s truck on Friday afternoon and set up our tent. I counted on Joan all weekend to help me and to be there when I could not.  She also presented her books of inspirational and motivating poetry for women. Water Running Down Hill, Empowering Your Inner Cheerleader and her most recent, A Redhead Looks at 60.

Joan Ellen Gage

Karen Holmes and Carole Thompson volunteered so that on Saturday and on Sunday we had someone at the main table to give out brochures, answer questions about NCWN and NCWN West, discuss writing with visitors and give them information about local literary events and places where they can receive instruction.

Carole Thompson author of Enough

Valeria Nieman visited with us Sunday afternoon with her new poetry book, Hotel Worthy and her very interesting novel, Blood Clay. We are always happy to see Val here in our neck of the woods.

I want to thank Don and Marti Long for their help on Sunday afternoon. Although we were tired by Sunday afternoon, I had fun with my two guests, Deanna and Miriam at my house for the weekend. It is always great to see so many local friends at the festival on a typical summer weekend in a small mountain town in the beautiful western NC mountains. 

Netwest Writers will be at Festival on the Square Saturday, July 13, Sunday, July 14

Festival on the Square

Date: Saturday and Sunday, July 13,14. 2013

Time: 10:00 AM  ·  Other dates and times

Venue: Downtown Hayesville on the Square, Hayesville, NC

Website: http://festivalnet.com/cgi-bin/subs/subsdb…

Clay County Historical Arts Council is hosting its 34th annual Festival on the Square in historical downtown Hayesville. Over 70 artists and craftsmen display handmade work, musicians play and sing a variety of music, and dance troupes perform for the crowd seated in chairs on the lawn while feasting on delicious barbecue. Come early to the Street Dance on Friday night at 7pm. 3,500 attendees expected. 

FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE 2012 - NETWEST WILL BE THERE

We are very happy that the Clay County Historical and Arts Council has accepted Netwest as a vendor this year. That means Netwest will have a booth at the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC on Saturday, July 14 and Sunday, July 15.

President of CCHAC, Janice Padgett, contacted us recently and said that NCWN West could make application for a booth. The festival is on the historical square of our town, and each year every inch of space under the old trees around the Courthouse is filled with tents of artists and crafters. Painters, photographers, jewelry makers, colorful fabric work and iron sculpture catch the eye. Live music is played all day in the gazebo, and the cloggers perform on Saturday.This festival now includes all of the arts.

Writing is a literary art, of course, and for the first time in several  years, we will be there with our popular anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, edited by Nancy Simpson and filled with the words of mountain writers.

Our members who have published books are invited to bring a few copies for the table. We might hold periodic readings throughout the day. If so, we will post times.

We will also need volunteers, hopefully a few strong ones, to help erect the tent and set up tables Friday afternoon, and take down the booth on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to introduce the public to our anthology and to let them meet the writers in this area.

Contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 for more information regarding the Netwest booth.