Writers and poets in the far western mountain area of North Carolina and bordering counties of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee post announcements, original work and articles on the craft of writing.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Curiosity Shop Bookstore, Murphy, NC, to host book signing Sat. 11/28/15, 11 AM to 3 PM for: It’s All Relative: Tales from the Tree, from 50 WNC Women Writers
Celia Miles, a native of Appalachia, was a long-time English instructor at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. She is retired and living in Asheville, does freelance editing and writing in various genres.
Nancy Dillingham is a writer, educator and a sixth-generation native from Big Ivy in Western North Carolina. She currently lives in Asheville, NC.
Local authors who contributed to It's all Relative, are from Clay County, Glenda Council Beall, M.C. Brooks, and Blanche L.Ledford. Cherokee County authors who contributed are, Lucy Cole Gratton, Mary Rickertson, and Peg Russell.
The Curiosity Shop Bookstore in Murphy, NC will host the book signing this Saturday, 11/28/2015, from 11 AM to 3 PM. Please come out and show your support for these local authors!
Glenda Council Beall, a Georgia native, lives in Hayesville, NC, and is the owner and director of 'Writers Circle Around the Table', a studio for writers. She also teaches writing in the continuing education department at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and in anthologies. Beall has also published short stories and personal essays. She has a poetry chapbook, entitled: Now Might as Well be Then, and a family history book Profiles and Pedigrees.
M.C. Brooks was a student in one of Glenda Council Beall's memoir writing class at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC.
Blanche L.Ledford is a native Appalachian poet, who co-authored the book Simplicity with her daughter Brenda Kay Ledford. Her work has been in many Old Mountain Press Anthologies, and the NCWN-West anthology, Echos Across the Blue Ridge. She also wrote the book, Planting by the Signs, which won the Paul Green Multi-media award from the NC Society of Historians, in 2012.
Lucy Cole Gratton, a native of Decatur, Georgia, has been writing for herself for many years, only lately seeking to publish with some success both nationally and internationally. She has been published in the Wild Goose Poetry Review, is the editor of the book, Red Fox Run, and has a chapbook published entitled, Inagehi.
Mary Ricketson has had her poetry published in many journals, has a chapbook called, I Hear the River Call my Name, and is the author of Hanging Dog Creek. She is also published in the NCWN-West anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge and in the book, Red Fox Run. She also has a chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name. Mary is the Cherokee County Representative for the North Carolina Writers Network-West and is the president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.
Peg Russell is a poet and writer. She is the former Prose leader for the NCWN-West Prose Workshop and is published in the NCWN-West anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Russell also writes short essays.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Glenda Council Beall and Karen Paul Holmes to read at the John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC, at 7:00 PM, Thurs., 9/17/2015
Glenda Council Beall is the owner and director of 'Writers Circle Around the Table', a studio that provides education for writers. She also teaches writing in the continuing education department at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. Beall also taught memoir writing at the folk school. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Wild Goose Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, Main Street Rag, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Red Owl Magazine and in the anthologies, Kakalak – Anthology of Carolina Poets, 2009, 2011 Poetry Hickory, FutureCycle, Lights in the Mountains, Women’s Places Women’s Spaces, On Our Own, Widowhood for Smarties, From Freckles to Wrinkles, and Reach of Song published by the Georgia Poetry Society. Her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then, published by Finishing Line Press, is available at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC, and online from Amazon.
Karen Paul Holmes is a freelance writer and poet. Karen has a full-length poetry collection, Untying the Knot, published through Kelsay Books and available on Amazon. Her poetry credits include Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Main Street Rag, Caesura, and The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. Poems have also appeared in anthologies such as American Society: What Poets See (FutureCycle Press), and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia (Texas Review Press). In 2012, Karen received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. She has taught writing at national business conferences, at ICL through Young Harris College, and at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Estelle Rice and Glenda C. Beall To Read At JC Campbell Folk School
ESTELLE RICE
GLENDA COUNCIL BEALL
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS, FEATURING GLENDA BEALL
COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS, FEATURING GLENDA BEALL
City Lights Bookstore is pleased to announce a program for readers and writers
on the third Thursday of each month, beginning June 17. Coffee with the Poets
will feature a guest poet each month, including an informal discussion and
reading. The program will begin at 10:30, with coffee and snacks provided.
Spring Street Cafe welcomes all attendees to come downstairs for lunch
afterward.
The inaugural event will feature Glenda Council Beall of Hayesville. Glenda
has published poetry, personal essays, memoir, and fiction, and she is former
Program Coordinator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NetWest).
Her background is in education and she continues to teach adults through
community services at Tri-County Community College and at the John C.
Campbell Folk School in Brasstown.
Glenda's book of poetry, Now Might as Well be Then, was recently published by
Finishing Line Press. Her blog, Writing Life Stories, at
http://profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com shares some of her own stories and
suggestions for writing your own.
City Lights Bookstore
828-586-9499
3 East Jackson Street
Sylva, NC 28779
more@citylightsnc.com
Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays
Browse and shop online at http://www.citylightsnc.com
Glenda Council Beall's new chapbook, Now Might As Well Be Then, from Finishing Line Press (http://www.finishinglinepress.com/) deserves many readers. I was honored to write a blurb for it. Glenda has worked wonders for NETWEST as Program Director and deserves our thanks for supporting the literary arts in Western North Carolina. Her new book would make a wonderful Christmas gift for family members. Several in my family will have this chapbook in their stockings!
Often those "supporters" are so busy making sure other writers find what they need to become better at the writer's craft that they don't have time for their own work. That's why I'm so pleased to honor Glenda as Poet of the Week. She's a great SW Georgia girl, and, naturally, I believe those girls have a leg up when it comes to writing poetry!
Here are a few of my favorite poems from her new chapbook.
Woman in the Mirror
What happened to seventeen,
when I rode my mare
free as the river flows,
jumped over downed trees
splashed through narrow streams?
What happened to twenty
when I danced in the moonlight,
my slender form dressed in a gown
white and shimmery as pearl?
What happened to thirty
when I rode my Yamaha
down fire roads, mountain trails,
long black hair flying free?
What happened to those days
I ask the woman in the mirror.
Gone, she says, all gone, unless
you remember it.
In The Dark
Lying in bed, my cheek against your shoulder,
I remember a night, long ago, on your boat.
I was afraid. I felt too much, too fast.
But love crept over us that summer
like silver fog, silent on the lake.
We were never again the same.
We stepped like children through that door that led
to long passages unknown, holding hands, wide-eyed, but brave.
Here I am years later, listening to your soft breath
and feeling your warm smooth skin.
In the dark, now might as well be then.
My Father's Horse
Stickers tear my legs, bare and tan
from South Georgia sun. Long black braids
fly behind me as I sprint like a Derby winner
down the path.
Harnessed with hames, bridle
and blinders, Charlie plods down
the farm road. Tired and wet from sweat,
he is perfume to my nostrils.
My father swings me up. I bury
my hands in tangled mane. My thighs
stick to leather and damp white hair
high above the ground.
I want to sing in glorious joy,
but only croon a child's nonsensical
words, grinning for a hundred yards
between field and barn.
My father's arms are strong.
His hands are gentle. The horse
is all we ever share. For he has sons
and I am just a daughter.
A Long Lost Year
Music making was his talent
taken for granted like water
gushing from our well until
the surgeon’s knife nicked a nerve.
The purple wreath of grief hung
over us until one day above the strum
of his guitar, his notes rang true ?
a lovely instrument restored.
We wept with joy.
His voice is who he is,
has
always been.
He sings to me again, that same
rich baritone that won me on that first
day we met. I listen with a new ear,
and like a Sinatra fan,
I mellow out.
Friday, April 30, 2010
POET OF THE DAY: GLENDA COUNCIL BEALL
WOMAN IN THE MIRROR
What happened to seventeen,
when I rode my mare
free as the river flows,
jumped over downed trees
splashed through narrow streams?
What happened to twenty
when I danced in the moonlight,
my slender form dressed in a gown
white and shimmery as pearl?
What happened to thirty
when I rode my Yamaha
down fire roads, mountain trails,
long black hair flying free?
What happened to those days
I ask the woman in the mirror.
Gone, she says, all gone, unless
you remember it.
In The Dark
Lying in bed, my cheek against your shoulder,
I remember a night, long ago, on your boat.
I was afraid. I felt too much, too fast.
But love crept over us that summer
like silver fog, silent on the lake.
We were never again the same.
We stepped like children through that door that led
to long passages unknown, holding hands, wide-eyed, but brave.
Here I am years later, listening to your soft breath
and feeling your warm smooth skin.
In the dark, now might as well be then.