On Thursday, September 19, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C.
Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary
Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the
JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. This event is now held in the community room.
The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise
indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's
featured readers will be Martha O. Adams, Glenda Barrett, and Loren Leith.
Raised in Ohio, Martha O. Adams graduated from Bowling Green
State University with a major in education and minor in music. Her poetry
arises from wide roots in ten states, though she has lived in Hendersonville,
NC for nearly 2 decades. She has worked as an educator, a mother of four
children, retreat leader and reverent farmer in her vegetable garden. In this
day of dawning realization that the Earth will suffer only so much before
leaving all life diminished, Adams believes poetry, art and beauty may save us
with their wake-up call. Her poems, like mirrors, reflect the scale and impact
of our human lives within the interconnectedness of all things.
Adams is author of a non-fiction book for caregivers of the
Alzheimer afflicted, Courage for Those Who Care, United Church Press,
2nd edition, 1999. She has published, with House of Myrrth, three collections
of poems: Buried Seed; 2015, What Your Heart Needs to Know; 2008,
and Peeling the Rind; 2000. Her Readers’ Theatre Play epic poem, “She
Rises Through the Sickle Moon” from Peeling the Rind, has been performed
from New England to Florida.
Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is a poet,
writer, and visual artist. Her work has been widely published since 1997 and
has appeared in: Woman's World, Farm & Ranch Living,
Country Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Journal of Kentucky
Living, Nantahala Review, Rural Heritage, Wild Goose
Poetry Review, Kaleidoscope Magazine and many more.
Barrett is the author of two poetry books, When the Sap
Rises, published by Finishing Line Press, in 2008 and The Beauty of
Silence, published by Aldrich Press, in 2017. Both books are available on
Amazon.com. Glenda's artwork is online at Fine Art America. She is very
grateful to be able to devote her time to the two things she loved as a child,
painting and writing. She has two grown children and two grandchildren, and
lives with her husband of forty-two years in the North Georgia mountains.
Loren Leith is the author of MOSQ, by Shepherd Graham
(pen name), winner of the Silver Royal Palm Literary Award and the Pascoe Award
for Best Thriller of 2011. In 2018, she
won first place in the RPLA competition for her nonfiction short story, “Basement
Level.” She has also received an award for her short, nonfiction story, My
Box Top Cat from God, and two of her other stories are finalists in a
national competition. Leith is known
for her powerful, poignant, and often humorous nonfiction short stories, soon
to be published in book-collection format and CD formats. She recently transformed three of her works
into scripts for live-performance Old Time Radio Shows. She lives in the mountains of Western North
Carolina, surrounded by nature and wild animals, which are often the subjects
of her writing.
Leith is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and Criminal
Justice Specialist in private practice for 34 years.
For more information on The Literary Hour event on September
19, 2019, please contact Mary Ricketson, at maryricketson311@hotmail.com.
