Showing posts with label Glenda Beall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenda Beall. Show all posts

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Poet Nancy Simpson IN THE NEWS - ASHEVILLE CITIZEN - TIMES

Poet Nancy Simpson featured at Coffee With The Poets

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The North Carolina Writers Network West (Netwest) will feature accomplished poet, Nancy Simpson of Hayesville, at Coffee with the Poets at 10:30 a.m. June 8 at Café Touché, 82 Main St., Hayesville.
The North Carolina Writers Network West (Netwest) will feature accomplished poet, Nancy Simpson of Hayesville, at Coffee with the Poets at 10:30 a.m. June 8 at Café Touché, 82 Main St., Hayesville.
HAYESVILLE — The North Carolina Writers Network West (Netwest) will feature accomplished poet, Nancy Simpson of Hayesville, at Coffee with the Poets at 10:30 a.m. June 8 at Café Touché, 82 Main St.
Simpson’s most recent poetry collection, “Living above the Frost LineNew and Selected Poems,” was published by Carolina Wren Press in 2010. Her first books were “Night Student” and “Across Water.” She edited the recently published anthology “Echoes across the Blue Ridge.
She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a B.S. in education from Western Carolina University. She also received a North Carolina Arts Fellowship.
Known as a co-founder of N.C. Writers Network West, a non-profit, professional writing organization serving writers living in  the remote mountains west of Asheville, she is also known as teacher to poets and writers in this area.
Nancy Simpson's extensive body of poetry includes poems published in The Georgia Review, Southern Poetry Review, Seneca Review, New Virginia Review, Prairie Schooner and other literary magazines. 
Her poems are often chosen for anthologies. “Night Student” was reprinted in “Word and Wisdom100 Years of N.C. Poetry” and in “Literary Trails of N.C.” (2008). The Southern Poetry Review included one of her poems in their 50th Anniversary issue, “Don't Leave Hungry.” Her poem “Carolina Bluebirds” was chosen for The Poets Guide to Birds (Anhinga 2009), an anthology edited by Judith Kitchen and former Poet Laureate of the United States, Ted Kooser. Seven of her poems are featured in Southern Appalachian Poetry, a textbook anthology published at McFarland Press.
Her poetry is widely published in journals such as The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Cooweescoowee Reviewat Will Rogers University and Pisgah Review.
Through 2010 Simpson served as Resident Writer at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown. The literary community in Clay, Cherokee, Towns and Union Counties is largely made up of her students and students of writers she invited to teach at the Folk School. Presently she teaches at Institute for Continuing Learning at Young Harris College and continues to teach poetry writing at John C. Campbell Folk School.
Coffee with the Poets is open to all and any lover of writing is welcome to come listen or bring an original poem, short essay or story to read at open mic.
For more information,  Glenda Beall 389-4441.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Social Media? Who Needs It?

Ronda Birtha talks about her upcoming class on Social Media and its importance to writers.

A pre-class prep talk to ease the nerves of non-tech-savvy attendees. This is not a technology class!
Overview: 3 hours.
1. Introduction to Social Media for marketing (1 hr)
Why Social Media is Necessary for your Marketing Strategy?
What do you mean, ‘be social’?
2. What you need to Start and Maintain a Blog (1hr)
3. Getting started with Facebook (1hr)
What kind of writer are you? Is your satisfaction complete when you pen your last word, or make your final edit? Are you the kind of writer that is completely satisfied with having friends and family read your manuscript? Or do you want more? Do you want people to talk about your book (favorably, of course)? Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool, but let’s consider how it works today.
When someone has some juicy information, a valuable recommendation, meaningful insight (or, not so meaningful), even a scathing review, it is talked about, not just in someone’s ear, but online, in the powerful and pervasive social media context. If you want people to talk about your book then that is where you have to get the conversation going: in the social media pool.
If you are concerned about getting started because of having limited computer knowledge or experience, rest assured, the most difficult part of engaging in social media is the commitment you will need to stick with it. The first word in Social Media Marketing, is, indeed, Social, and that is where our classroom conversation will begin. What does it mean to be social, how does one become social? The answers to these often-neglected, yet highly important questions, will help fortify your nerve and strengthen your resolve to stick with your social media marketing efforts.
Technologically speaking, what do you need at minimum to start?
Access to a computer that has an internet connection (preferably more than dial-up). Computer access will not be needed for this class, however, so breath easy (at least for now).
I don’t want to oversimplify the process or the methods, especially since many aspects of social media marketing are still very much an art form and not a science (like medicine), and are prone to surprise and confound us. But if we remember that many things in life surprise and confound us, we will not inflate our expectations.

There is no magic button that will set everything up for us. There is no secret preference that we have to click on to make people visit our site, comment on our blog, respond to our Facebook status updates. It takes work, and effort … like most worthwhile things.
So bring a positive attitude and a pen to take notes.

Ronda L. Birtha is a freelance photographer, writer and social media consultant. She can be contacted at rbirtha@rondabirtha.com. Her photography can be viewed at www.rondabirtha.com

The class will be held at Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC
Contact glendabeall@msn.com for registration information or visit www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com

Friday, January 21, 2011

Poets Meet for Lunch

The best  cure for cabin fever in the dead of winter is to meet for lunch with fellow poets. That is what some NC Writers Network Poets did today. They met at the Copper Door in Hayesville, NC, shared a delicious meal and shared some of their recent publications.

Rosemary Royston, NCWN West Program Coordinator (below)






















Janice Townley Moore Leader of the Monthly Poetry
Critique Group, Nancy Simpson co founder of Netwest,
and Linda M. Smith Publicity Chairperson. (below)
Glenda Beall former Program Coordinator and 
Echoes Across the Blue Ridge Marketing Manager
(below)


Carole Thompson NCWN West Georgia Representative
(below)


Peg Russell monthly Prose Group leader and Linda M. Smith scheduling readers 

for Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories, at John C. Campbell Folk School
(below)


The poets passed around copies of their most recent poetry publications.
(below)


Maren Mitchell shared her recent publication in Southern Humanities Review.
(below)


Sunday, April 4, 2010

COME CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

6:30 April 6, 2010 EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
AT Hayesville High School Lecture Hall

sponsored by the Clay County Arts Council with a
poetry reading by the contest judge Glenda Beall.

Open to the public.



Wednesday, December 2, 2009

GLENDA C.BEALL: POET OF THE WEEK


                                            Photo by Valoree Luhr

GLENDA BEALL IS POET OF THE WEEK ON MY http:///site. Please drop by and enjoy the poems! K. Byer

Monday, August 3, 2009

BARRY AND GLENDA BEALL: A Celebration

Barry and Glenda Beall right away made me feel comforrtable in their presence. I can't recall which Netwest event it was. A reading? A picnic? No matter. I felt I'd known them all my life. When I found out they were originally from my childhood neck of the woods, SW Georgia, I counted them pretty close to family. Glenda's poems for Barry are among her best and made me like him all the more. He was what we call "salt of the earth," a person who was open to all sorts of things in the world around him, especially if his wife cared about those things. Consequently, Barry was a steadfast supporter of Netwest. I liked him tremendously, and I know all of us in the WNC literary community will feel his absence each time we come together. Glenda's new chapbbok will arrive a little too late for Barry to see, although he had already seen the poems and had celebrated their acceptance by Finishing Line Press. When at last we hold the book in our hands and read the poems, we will feel Barry's presence. He will be looking over our shoulders, giving the poems, and Glenda, a thumbs up!

Kay Byer

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Candy Maier Scholarship Fund

Mary Ricketson, Netwest Rep for Cherokee County, Mary Jo Dyre, Netwest Representative on the Board for NCWN Board of Trustees, Glenda Beall, Program Coordinator for Netwest, Gwendie Camp, Chairman of the Candy Fund, Cheryl Dietrich, treasurer of the Candy Fund stand in front of a beautiful quilt at the Curiosity Shop Bookstore in Murphy. The quilt was raffled off and a name drawn the day of our visit.

Recently Gwendie Camp and Cheryl Dietrich drove down to join Mary Jo Dyre who acts as a liaison for the Candy Fund, and her guests, Mary Ricketson and Glenda Beall to discuss the future of the new non-profit charity over lunch at Shoebooties' restaurant in Murphy. In the three years this fund has been active, they have raised $11,000 and given out 50 scholarships totaling $8, 000.
They are ready now to develop a website, send out a newsletter and hold a series of fundraisers. Gwendie says they have volunteer positions available on the Board of Directors and for regional coordinators to reach out beyond the boundaries of Asheville to women south and north of Buncombe county.

We offered our support from Netwest because we believe this to be a needed organization. The Candy Maier Fund provided scholarships to several of our members in the past couple of years. The Fund is seeking donations to help meet the growing need for Candy Fund scholarships. Donations, any amount is appreciated, are tax-exempt.The Candy Fund is the only scholarship program of its type in this area.
You can reach the Candy Maier Scholarship Fund for Women Writers by email: thecandyfund@yahoo.com or by snail mail: 4B Long shoals Road #164, Arden, North Carolina, 28704-7781.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Ed Southern meets with writers in Sylva NC

Photos by Barry Beall


Ben Eller, author of Children of Sherlock Holmes and Gary Carden, Jackson County Representative for Netwest, meet with other writers at City Lights Books in Sylva to discuss how NCWN and Netwest can best serve members in the area.
On the right above, John Quinnett who writes haiku, lives in Bryson City, NC.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Meet Ed Southern in Netwest territory October 16


Anyone interested in writing is invited to meet Ed Southern, executive director of the North Carolina Writers' Network when he visits the Netwest area on Thursday, October 16. His first stop will be at City Lights bookstore at 2:00 PM in Sylva, NC.


Netwest county representatives and Glenda Beall, program coordinator for Netwest will also be there. Come out and learn what NCWN and Netwest can do for the literary community.




At 6:00 PM, Ed Southern will be at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC to meet with writers in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and north Georgia. This is the first time a director for the NCWN has made the trip over this far west to speak with members and others interested in the writing community. Ed Southern has said Netwest is a model for what he'd like to see all over the state.






Friday, July 4, 2008

Tad, Jessica, Kathryn, Rebecca, Lynne, Lois, Paul and Pat at JCCFS


Lois Bertram to the right in photo.

Left: back row: Tad, Jessica, Kathryn, Rebecca, Lynne,
Front: Glenda, Lois, Paul and Pat
In March of 2008, eight students ranging in age from 25 to 66 plus, met each other for the first time in the new writing lab at JCCFS. I had expected older people to come to my class on writing your life stories, but to my surprise three of the students were young women 25 to 35 years old. I called them the young ones. Lois Bertram refers to them as The Girls in her essay below. To my surprise this class quickly bonded, and the older women and "The Girls" melded into a tight group with deep respect for each other. Paul and Tad, both men retired from successful careers, seemed to feel the same affection for the young women. Tad plans to write about "The Guys". All have kept in touch and shared writing by email for the past four months. Lois sent her essay for critique and I asked if I might share it with readers of this blog.



The Girls
Sixty-six years just flew by. How did I get to be so old – so fast? That reflection and question brought me to the realization that “this” was it: there would be no more “as soon as”. It was both a depressing thought and a liberating one. If “this” was it, what did I have to lose now? What had I not done because of so many foolish rules about failing or looking foolish or doing something non-productive – God forbid? What had I missed by following those rules? My creative soul had not been fed, I reasoned, that’s what I needed – to feed my creative soul.



I dabbled in various endeavors drawing, painting, photography but they were just appetizers. I wanted more. Then in North Carolina I found my entrée…writing. Your Life - Your Stories to be precise. Perhaps it was the timing - I needed to be sixty-six to understand my life in perspective and if I didn’t do it now - there was no “as soon as” any longer. For whatever reason or for all of them, here I was in a class of 8, a knowledgeable teacher and a beautiful environment.



As we met one another that first morning, I’m sure we all made assumptions and wondered if we would work well together. Our guard was up. Of the 8, two were men and I thought it great - to get a man’s perspective – life having already taught me that a man’s point of view would be different. But I questioned the three girls. If I thought anything in particular about their presence it was that they were so young to be writing about their lives. After all, you had to live it to write it…right?



Settling into our writing lab, our instructor Glenda, gave us our first assignment to write about some memento that we had brought with us. With little talk and heads down we began. Writing about the snapshot that I had brought was cathartic as I set down my deepest emotions on paper. It opened old wounds. It felt good, I thought, in re-reading what I had written but that was quickly changed as Glenda asked us to read them aloud to all the class. I had not anticipated this and I struggled to say aloud to strangers my painful private thoughts. The character of my classmates became instantly known as they created a safe haven for me with their patience and gentle attitude.
The girls impressed me as they each read their stories. All well educated, they wrote well, but it was the subjects and how they handled them – Kat’s sense of humor, Rebecca’s family memories and Jessica’s story of her father, which hinted at more. Perhaps these girls had lived more life than I would have thought or at least they recognized their lives in a way I hadn’t at that age. I seemed to have surged through my life. They appeared to have noticed theirs.
Days passed, and as we were given more prompts, read aloud, critiqued each other I found myself explaining to them my words and the past. It became obvious to me that one of life’s mysteries was being solved as I listened: How was the world going to survive with today’s young people in charge? Youth seemed to be so into themselves, didn’t take their jobs seriously, breaking rules, couldn’t count change! If they took over, the world would implode! For whatever reason, perhaps the setting and being so tuned in to really listening to the words and what was behind them, I began to see that it was no longer my world but theirs…it had already happened. I was free to enjoy what was left of my life; it was now their watch.
We had listed in class, world changing events in our lives, and they were missing wars, depression/recessions, Civil Rights, Watergate, Wounded Knee – even the atomic bomb! I worried, would they be able to lead without those lessons? The answer was yes, but in their own way and hopefully better. They seem to roll with life easier than we did. Rules are challenged, and their priorities seem different. And honestly, looking back at our world events list, it occurs to me that we didn’t do so well after all.
Free-spirited Rebecca who sees the world so unencumbered with “old people’s rules” anticipates the possibility, not the fear for what is to come, is in charge. Jessica, who was assigned to a prison for her first position, overcame her fear, discovered her strength and now leads others to a better life. And Kat, the young pastor who recognizes that old rules aren’t necessarily good rules, that goodness is better than righteousness, leads youth to a true understanding of “love one another”.
Today, I’m writing with the knowledge that I don’t have to please anyone and living an enlightened life with the knowledge that “the girls” and all like them are in charge. I wish them well.

Lois Bertram
29 June 2008

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Georgia Rep for Netwest


My name is Carole Thompson. I am pleased to be a member of the North Carolina Writers Network. My husband, Norm, and I moved to Blairsville, GA 18 years ago. Prior to that, we lived on St. Simons Island for 10 years, moving there after he retired as a career pilot in the US Air Force.
Network West Coordinator, Glenda Beall, asked me about becoming one of her GA Representatives. Glenda devotes so much of her own time working hard promoting programs and literary opportunities for writers in our area. I have accepted this opportunity to be of some assistance to her and her other representatives, as we work toward the goals laid down for this Network West chapter.

. Glenda thought I might tell you something about myself. If you were to ask me, “Who are you?” my first answer would have to be:”I am a wife, a mother of four children, a grandmother of five and great-grandmother of two.” Norm and I are celebrating our 56th anniversary this month. We wanted to do something special, so we’re visiting friends in England and then we’re all taking that train that zips under the English Channel and pops up somewhere near Paris! This is going to be a great adventure. I’m happy pursuing many interests right around my home, too. Most of my adult life I have worked in oil painting, particularly portraits. I also love to read, quilt and do crossword puzzles. Norm and I sing in the Mountain Community Chorus, and in our own church choir.

About 8 years ago, a friend invited me to take a writing class with her at Tri-County College in Murphy, N.C. I became a student in one of Nancy Simpson’s poetry classes. She totally liberated me by explaining the concept of free verse. I hung on her every word. In her next class, she pulled stories out of me like a painless dentist. The next year one of my poems was published in an anthology. After that, I submitted a short Christmas story to a well known Catholic magazine, and nearly had a heart attack when they bought it. Nancy Simpson was the first one I called. She continues to be my mentor and friend. Network West has so many wonderful, talented members!

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.