CLOTHES LINES - BOOK SIGNING AT HIGHLAND BOOKS

From left: Betsy Craig; Peggy Bresnahan; Janet Sloane Benway; Nancy Purcell, Transylvania Rep for Netwest;Alexandra Burroughs;

Celia Miles, editor, seated.

 
These writers signed the anthology, Clothes Lines, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham, at Highlands Books. From Birkenstocks to bras, red shoes to pink pants suits, prom dresses to funeral gown, our garments, our mother's closet, 75 women writers from western NC reflect in poetry, memoir, story, and essay on their fascination and feeling for the clothes they wear, remember, revere, or reject.

Netwest Contest First Place Winner

Janet Benway's poem, Childhood of an Environmentalist, is our first place winner in the Netwest Environmental Contest. Theme for this contest was showing a love for the environment in which we live, the land where we live, the earth.





Childhood of an Environmentalist

Raised in a playworld of cowboys and Indians,
he did not understand
my act of slipping the fish
back into the stream.

He appealed to parents; there were reprimands--
at ten, I had done wrong to someone younger.
Yet I saw the fish gasp
wriggle
struggle
fight
flapping her tail relentlessly against the walls
of a tin can filled with water.
And when the fish reached her natural element,
I thought I heard--above the little-boy tears--
a song of joy.

Years later, he's a hunter,
killing deer and birds for sport.
Years later, I'm a poet with Earth's wonders to report.
Two lives diverged from a common source
of family and town.
While he still kills, the fish is free,
and I must write that down.



Janet Benway is happily transplanted from Connecticut, where she was an editor and college English teacher. Now she sometimes teaches creative writing in the Creekside program at Brevard College. Her poetry has been published in magazines such as Lucidity, Bereavement, and Long River Run.

NETWEST CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

NETWEST recently held a contest asking members to write a poem, story or essay that is environmentally focused. The work should evoke a love of the land.

Lana Hendershott, our representative in Henderson County, volunteered to manage the contest. She accepted the emailed entries and forwarded blind copies of them to our judge, Robert Kimsey, a former Netwest member who was our representative in Georgia.

Lana Hendershott, Henderson County, NC








We are happy to congratulate the winners of the contest.
The winning entry “Childhood of an Environmentalist”, was submitted by Janet Benway of Brevard, NC.
The second place poem, “Think of a Forest”, was submitted by Peg Russell of Murphy, NC.
The third place poem “Swarm”, was submitted by Catherine Carter of Cullowhee, NC.

All of the submissions were excellent and I'm sure choosing the winners was difficult. We will post all the winning entries here and in the Netwest News in the coming months.
Thanks to those writers who submitted work. We hope you all will continue to enter the contests held by Netwest in the coming months.

Transylvania County writing group is growing

Nancy Purcell Connects with Writers in Transylvania County

Good news from Transylvania County Wordsmith group: Just a few months ago we had 6 members in our new writers’ group and I was overjoyed! Now I’m really excited because our six has turned into 11. The group is varied not only in personalities but in craft and skill level. What has been so great is having these new people join the group because of our acceptance of diversity! Janet Benway and Alexandra Burroughs, craft-intelligent writers, have added their valuable opinions to our roundtable and we have somehow managed to maintain that important level of sensitivity in the group. Everyone learns from everyone else!

The Brevard College Creekside program for Fall will be offering a new poetry class, double taught by Ms. Benway & Ms. Burroughs, subject matter: Poets as Activists: The importance of giving voice to what goes on around us in a world that seems to be spinning ever faster. I will be teaching a Fiction Craft program, The ABC’s of Creative Writing, during Creekside’s Fall session.

We are growing and, with this growth, I hope the new writers will seek membership in the NCWN & Netwest. We will definitely encourage everyone to come to the Netwest Picnic, September 14th, at Konaheta Park, in Murphy, NC.

Nancy Purcell
Transylvania County Rep.