Author Sandy Benson and Poet Richard Cary to Read at Campbell School

Author Sandy Benson and Poet Richard Montfort Cary will read from their work at the Literary Hour Thursday, April 20, at 7 pm in the Keith House Living Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.

Benson will read selections from her first book, “My Mother’s Keeper: One Family’s Journey Through Dementia,” and the book she is currently working on, “Girls Can’t Do That,” a collection of

Sandy Benson

mostly humorous short stories about her life as one of America’s first female foresters.  Cary will read selections from his forthcoming chronological autobiography of his poetry.

Benson is a soon-to-be-retired professional forester with a background in journalism.  She has worked as a forester in Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska, while moonlighting as a reporter, editor, publisher, and freelance non-fiction writer.  Numerous newspapers and magazines have published her articles, and she received several awards from the Nebraska Press Women’s organization.

She has lived with her husband, Barry, in Warne, NC, since 2018 and enjoys sharing tales at local storyteller gatherings and writing publicity releases for the Peacock Performing Arts Center in Hayesville.

Cary began writing poetry in high school and continues to this day.  He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1964 with a BFA in Theatre Arts, and spent six years in regional theatres, before moving year-round to Nantucket Island, MA, where he became a designer and builder of custom

Richard Cary

homes.  In 1985, he founded Actors Theatre of Nantucket, the island’s professional theatre company, and served as Artistic Director for twenty years.

His claim to local fame is that his great aunt, Olive Dame Campbell, founded the Campbell Folk School.  In April 2022, he wrote and directed “The Birth Of The John C Campbell Folk School” which received generous praise when it was performed at the Peacock.  The theatre hosted an encore production this year.  He and his wife Cheryl moved to Hayesville NC in 2017.

Local poet and author Joan Howard will host the event.

The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling.  For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/.  Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.

Famous Hometown Poet Brenda K. Ledford Will Speak at Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature award-winning poet Brenda K. Ledford on Wednesday, September 14, at 10:30 A.M. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, N.C.

The event is free and open to the public.  

An open mic will follow the presentation. Bring a poem or short prose piece of about three minutes to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers' Network West (NCWN-West) which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

Brenda K. Ledford is a seventh-generational native of Clay County, NC. She was an honor graduate of Hayesville High School and earned a Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University. She's done post-graduate work in Journalism at the University of Tennessee and holds a degree of highest honor in Creative Writing from Stratford Career Institute.

Ledford's work has appeared in many publications including Our State, Asheville Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, 50 Old Mountain Press anthologies, and many other journals.  She's received the Paul Green Multimedia Award thirteen times for her blogs, books, and collecting oral history on Southern Appalachia. 

Her children's book The Singing Convention received the "Children's Book Award" in 2021 from the North Carolina Society of Historians. Her poetry book, Leatherwood Falls, is upcoming with Kelsay Books.

Besides writing, her hobbies include storytelling, playing the keyboard and harmonica, singing Gospel music, and reading.  She also enjoys photography and has won awards for her landscape and nature photos.

Her award-winning blog can be reached at https://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com/

Coffee With the Poets and Writers will meet every second Wednesday from June until December 2022.

Please do not park in the Book Store parking lot. For information contact Joan Howard joanhoward121@gmail.com.

Written by Joan Howard

Catherine Carter Will Speak at Coffee With the Poets and Writers

Catherine Carter Will Speak at Coffee With the Poets  and Writers on August 10 at Moss Memorial Library

Catherine Carter, professor at Western Carolina University

 Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poet Catherine Carter on Wednesday, August 10, at 10:30 A.M. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, N.C.

The event is free and open to the public.  An open mic will follow the presentation.  Bring a poem or short prose piece of about three minutes to participate.  CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers' Network West (NCWN-W), which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

Raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Catherine Carter is now a professor of English at Western Carolina University.  On a good day, she can roll a whitewater kayak and re-queen a beehive; on less good days, she collects stings, rock-rash, and multiple contusions. 

Catherine also "enjoys cooking, especially vegetable and beans, because it's probably the original human art and it produces something everyone can enjoy; and I'd probably enjoy some kind of crafting if I weren't a complete clutz with my hands; I get Wordle most of the time but not always."

Catherine Carter’s collections of poetry with LSU Press include The Memory of Gills (2006) The Swamp Monster at Home (2012), and Larvae of the Nearest Stars (2019); she has one chapbook with Jacar Press, Marks of the Witch. 

Her poetry has won the North Carolina Literary Review’s James Applewhite Prize, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Society’s Roanoke-Chowan Award, Jacar Press’ chapbook contest; it has also appeared in Orion, Poetry, Ecotone, RHINO, North American Review, Southern Humanities Review, Poetry South, Tar River Poetry, and Ploughshares, among others.  

Coffee With the Poets and Writers will meet every second Wednesday from June until December 2022.  Masks are optional.  

Please do not park in the Book Store parking lot. 

For more information, contact Joan Howard, joanhoward121@gmail.com

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

Joan Howard and Gene Hirsch are featured at CWPW June 19

Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poets Joan M. Howard and Eugene Z. Hirsch, MD, on Wednesday, June 19, at 10:30 a.m. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. The event is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow their presentations. Bring a poem or a short prose piece to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West (NCWN-W) which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

           

Howard's poetry has been published in POEM, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, the Aurorean, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, the Wayfarer and other literary journals.  She published the book Death and Empathy: My Sister Web in 2017. Her latest book is Jack, Love and the Daily Grail.

Howard is a former teacher with an MA in German and English literature.  She is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network West and North Carolina Writers Network.  She enjoys birding and kayaking on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge near Hiawassee, Georgia.

           

Hirsch has taught clinical medicine for forty years. During his career he volunteered at the Cleveland Free Medical Clinic, conducted poetry workshops for health professionals as a way of dealing with emotional stresses of patient care, and lectured medical students on death and dying. He has published two poetry books and assembled six anthologies. Dr. Hirsch has been a valuable asset to the local writing community for twenty-five years. His poetry has appeared in medical and non-medical journals. He received First Prize in the 2019 Westmoreland Cultural Society He instituted and taught poetry at the John C. Campbell Folk School and co-founded the NCWN-West with poet Nancy Simpson with whom he was a close friend for many years. Hirsch professes that Murphy, North Carolina, is his second home (perhaps even his first).

            For more information about this event, please contact Glenda Beall at: glendabeall@msn.com.

CWPW 2019 SCHEDULE OF READERS

Schedule for Coffee with the Poets and Writers for 2019

March  20 –Knute Rary  and Bob Grove

April   17--  Brenda Kay Ledford

May 15--   Charley Pearson   

June  19—Joan Howard  and Gene Hirsch

July  17--  Patricia Zick   

August  21—Don Long and Carroll Taylor

September  18--   Richard Cary and Fred Tarr 

October  16  -- Glenda Barrett and Roy Paine

November   20 --  Mary Ricketson and Jim Davis

December –  18 --  Christmas Luncheon – Open Mic

 If you are on this list and have not done so, please send your bio, less than 200 words, along with a photo (300 DPI) at least a month before your reading. Send now and Carroll Taylor will put it in her file and you can forget about it.

If you would like to be put on our waiting list to read if someone cancels, send your bio and photo and tell us you want to be put on the list.

We hope you all will come out to hear these writers and storytellers share their work. We meet the third Wednesday of the month, March - December at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. We often give door prizes so come and maybe you will get lucky.

Joan Howard is the facilitator of this group. Carroll Taylor handles publicity. 

Don't Miss the Georgia Author of the Year

NCWN-West & Georgia Poetry Society Team Up for Two Events, July 13 & 14

Jane Simpson, Georgia Author of the Year (Chapbook)

Writers' Night Out, July 13, features Georgia Author of the Year for Poetry (Chapbook) Jane Simpson. Also featured is NCWN-West member with two new books, Joan Howard.  The event takes place at 7 p.m. at the Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA. There will also be an open microphone where audience members can share three minutes of their own poetry or prose. The event is free and open to the public.

The next day, July14, the Georgia Poetry Society will hold their quarterly meeting from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Young Harris College. Featured Georgia poets are Chelsea Rathburn, Jim May, Karen Paul Holmes, and Perry Ivey. The day includes presentations on craft and an open mic session—plus the camaraderie and good spirits of fellow writers. Breakfast items will be provided, and lunch is available by advance reservation. While the meeting, which is free for members and $10 for non-members, will be geared toward poetry enthusiasts, all writers are welcome.

Joan Howard's poetry has been published in The Lyric, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, the Aurorean, Miller's Pond, Georgia Poetry Society's Reach of Song (2012), POEM, The Wayfarer, and others.  She has recently published two books: Death and Empathy: My Sister Web and Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail (Kelsay Books, 2018) both available on amazon.com.  She is a former teacher, has an MA in German and English literature, enjoys birding and kayaking on beautiful Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee.  She is a member of North Carolina Writers Network West, North Carolina Writers Network, Ridgeline, and the Georgia Poetry Society.

Jane Simpson's first chapbook, On the Porch, was awarded Georgia Author of the Year for 2018. Her previous chapbook was Under the Eave (FutureCycle Press, 2017), and her full-length book, Blessings of the Beasts, will be published this fall. Her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, BorderSenses, The Chattahoochee Review, Main Street Rag, POEM, The Penwood Review, Poet Lore (Honorable Mention, Ratner-Ferber-Poet Lore Prize), and elsewhere. She was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize. In addition, she is the Chief Development Officer for a non-profit organization and lives in Atlanta and Blue Ridge, GA. 

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through November. The Union County Community Center is located at Butternut Creek GolfCourse at 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092. Food is available for purchase in The View Grill, but please arrive by 6 pm to get served.  For more information on Writers’ Night, contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Details of the Georgia Poetry Society meeting are in their newsletter, available on the News page at http://georgiapoetrysociety.org/contests/news/ (select Summer from the list). For more information, and to reserve lunch, contact GPS Treasurer Lyn Hopper, gpstreas@gmail.com by July 2.

Coffee with the Poets and Writers, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, 10:00 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Hayesville, NC

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016, 10:00 AM

MOSS MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Our first meeting this year of Coffee with the Poets and Writers will feature two members of the North Carolina Writers’ Network West.  This event will be held at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson St, Hayesville, NC 28904.

Joan Howard, well-published poet from Hiawassee, Georgia will share her poetry with us.  Her poems have been published in the Aurorean, Miller's Pond, The Road Not Taken:The Journal of Formal Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Eclectic Muse, Victorian Violet, the Deronda Review, Our Pipe Dreams, The Lyric, GPS The Reach of Song, a chapbook, Red Fox Run, and POEM.

Miriam Jones Bradley, from Henderson County, NC, is the author of a children’s book series, The Double Cousins Mysteries, a memoir, All I Have Needed-A Legacy for Life, and You Ain’t From Here, Are Ya, Reflections on Southern Culture from an Outsider. Miram' link is: http://www.miriamjonesbradley.com/

The latter is a collection of articles by Bradley, from a South Carolina newspaper. She will read and speak about her writing experience.

Glenda Beall, a Clay County Representative for NCWN West, facilitates this monthly event each year from March – December. 

Everyone is invited. You can meet other writers, learn about writing events in the area and read a short prose piece or a couple of poems during Open Mic. There is no charge.

Join some of us for lunch after the meeting at Angelo’s on the square.

We appreciate the Moss Library providing a room for us. Coffee with the Poets and Writers is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West which is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. 

For more information contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441.