Upcoming Events

Book Festival in Atlanta is Worth the Trip


Labor Day Weekend: Karen Paul Holmes and many other poets and authors will appear at the largest independent book festival in the country. September 2-4. Full schedule is here: Decatur Book Festival








Writers' Night Out: Jim May To Read from His New Book

Friday, Sept. 9: Young Harris College professors, Chelsea Rathburn and James May, will read their award-winning poems at Writers' Night Out at 7 pm. at the Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA.

The married couple are both well-published poets who moved to the area from Atlanta to teach English and creative writing at Young Harris College in 2013. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. (dinner available for purchase upstairs in The View Grill but please arrive no later than 6) with the reading at 7 p.m. in the ballroom. An open microphone follows for those who’d like to showcase their own writing.

Rathburn is author of two full-length poetry collections, A Raft of Grief (Autumn House Press, 2013) and The Shifting Line, winner of the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award, as well as a poetry chapbook, Unused Lines (Aralia Press, 2004). Her poems have appeared in many prestigious journals such as The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review, and her prose has appeared in Creative Nonfiction. In 2009, she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She directs the creative writing program at YHC.

May is the author of Unquiet Things (Louisiana State University Press, 2016).  The winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Cecil Hemley Memorial Award in 2016, his poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, Rattle, The Southern Review and elsewhere. The former editor of New South, he has received scholarships from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review.

JAMES DAVIS MAY Book Launch for poetry collection

Please join us at Young Harris College, Young Harris, GA, on Tuesday, March 15th for the book launch of James Davis May's first poetry collection, Unquiet Things, which was just released by Louisiana State University Press.  The reading, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., will be held in the Hatcher Room, located in the Rollins Campus Center. A book signing will follow the reading.   

Grounded in wonder and fueled by an impulse to praise, the poems in James Davis May's debut collection, Unquiet Things, to be published by LSU Press in March 2016, grapple with skepticism, violence, and death to generate lasting insights into the human experience. With compassion and humor, this second and final volume in Claudia Emerson’s Goat Island Poets series exposes the unseen tragedies and rejoices in the small, surprising moments of grace in everyday life.

May’s poems impart sincere astonishment at the natural world, where experiences of nature serve as "stand-ins, almost, / for grace." His poems seek to transcend cynicism, turning often to the landscapes of North Georgia, his native Pittsburgh, and Eastern Europe, as well as to his literary forebears, for guidance. 

For the poet, no force propels that transcendence more powerfully than love: love for his wife and daughter, love for language, and love for the incomprehensible world that he inhabits. These stylistically varied poems are by turns conversational, earnest, self-deprecating, meditative, and often funny, whether they're discussing grand themes such as love and beauty, or more corporeal subjects like fever and food poisoning.

Lyrical and strange, tragic and amusing, Unquiet Things traces an experiential journey in the ordinary world, uncovering joys that span from the lingering memories of childhood to the losses and triumphs of adulthood.

Originally from Pittsburgh, James Davis May now lives in the Georgia mountains. His poems have appeared in Five Points, the Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, New Republic, Rattle, and The Southern Review, among others. He is married to poet Chelsea Rathburn.

Submitted by Rosemary Royston, Georgia Co-Representative for NCWN-West

Award Winning Poets - Don't miss this workshop if you write poetry

Workshop Opportunity with Award-Winning Poets

Chelsea Rathburn and James Davis May are teaching a poetry workshop on Saturday, February 21, 10 am – 1pm, at Young Harris College in Young Harris, GA. The widely published poets, who happen to be married, are both assistant professors of English and creative writing at Young Harris College.

The workshop is geared to intermediate to advanced poets, and the fee is $20 per person.  Reservations are on a first-come/first-served basis.  Send your check, payable  to Rosemary Royston, POB 694, Young Harris, GA, 30582, along with your name, address, and email.  The class will be held on the campus of Young Harris College.  Once registration is received, further details will be provided. 

Rathburn is author of two full-length poetry collections, A Raft of Grief, published by  Autumn House Press in 2013, and The Shifting Line, winner of the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review, and her prose has appeared in Creative Nonfiction. In 2009, she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

May's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Five Points, The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, Pleiades, Rattle, The Southern Review and elsewhere. The former editor of New South, he has received scholarships from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review.

When the two poets read at Writers' Night Out last year, they were well-received and we were urged to have them teach a workshop. Here in our mountains, we are fortunate to have poets of their quality available for classes. 

For more information, please contact Rosemary Royston at 706.897.6667 or rosemary28rr@gmail.com .