Staci Lynn Bell's poem, "The Best of Times," appearrs in Kakalak 2017

Hats Off! to Staci Lynn Bell whose poem "The Best of Times" will appear in Kakalak 2017 (Main Street Rag, December).

 Staci Lynn Bell is a Chicago native who attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She relocated to South Florida, gaining popularity as a 25 year radio and television personality. Bell’s poetry and prose have also been published in Wild Goose Poetry, Wolf Warriors Anthology,and 234 Journal. She lives with the loves of her life, her two dogs, in Hayesville, NC.

KAKALAK reading scheduled for Jan. 23, 2016, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC is cancelled due to inclement weather

Due to inclement weather conditions, the KAKALAK reading scheduled for Jan. 23, 2016, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC is cancelled.

City Lights has agreed to work with us in attempting to reschedule the event for April. We'll be posting updates on Facebook from time to time, in addition to email communication.

The next Kakalak Poetry and Art Contests start March 1. We hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Richard Allen Taylor

Editor, Kakalak - A Journal of Poetry and Art

Contributors to Kakalak are reading on Jan. 23, 2016, 3:00 PM, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC

Several authors who were published in Kakalak, an anthology of North Carolina poetry and art, will be reading at City Lights Bookstore , 3 Jackson St., Sylva, NC 28779, on Saturday, January 23, at 3:00 PM.

The public is invited to attend and it should be a nice gathering of poets and writers.

EASTER MORNING ON THE HAIRPIN CURVE

Easter Morning on the Hairpin Curve
Smoky Mountains

Is it water or
phacelia that tumbles
down the banks,
overflowing its rocky
creel, water
or trillium,
merging this morning
in one brim-
ful flagrant
resounding of
yes, She lives,
does the Earth,
our longsuffering
handmaiden raising
up dipper
by dipper the day
for us out of
her dark womb.

----KS Byer
(first published in Kakalak)

John Campbell Folk School Reading in September

Jo Carolyn Beebe

and Michael Beadle

Michael Beadle, poet and teaching artist, from Canton, NC, and Jo Carolyn Beebe, writer from Hiawassee, Georgia will read at the monthly Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories at the John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC Thursday, September 18, 7:00 PM.
Beadle’s first poetry collection, An Invented Hour, was published in 2004, and his poems have been included in various journals and anthologies such as The New Southerner, Kakalak, and Sow's Ear. Michael tours the state teaching poetry and creative writing workshops as an artist-in-residence. He also performs original, classical and contemporary poetry for schools, festivals, elderhostels, and church and civic groups.
His most recent poetry collection is Friends I’ve Never Met. Michael is a contributing writer and an award-winning journalist for the Smoky Mountain News, a weekly newspaper in Western North Carolina. Read some of his poems online at http://www.ncarts.org/ and http://www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com/.

Jo Carolyn Beebe was born in Baldwyn, Mississippi. She majored in Religion and Creative Writing at Miami University of Ohio. Her work has been published in Main Street Rag, Lonzie’s Fried Chicken, an anthology, Lights in the Mountains and in Heroes of Hackland. Abingdon Press published a short story and children’s play written by Beebe.
This busy writer has several pieces completed and waiting for the right publisher to take them.
“Most of my stories are based on oral family history handed down by my grandparents and great-grandfather. Their tales were rich in Civil War experiences of their parents and the hard life of the rural south,” said Beebe. “Besides writing fiction, my other passion is genealogy. When I'm writing fiction, I wish I could be tracking down an elusive ancestor. When I'm doing research, I wish I could be writing a story or a poem. I combined those two elements in my "waiting-to-be-published" novella, PIECES OF YESTERDAY. One literary agent said before it can be published, I need to purge my adverbs. I like adverbs. I absolutely, positively, really do.”

This night with this writer and this poet will be one of the most interesting events sponsored by NCWN West this year. Michael will share poems from his new collection and he'll be happy to sign books after the reading. Admission is free and the community is invited. Contact Glenda Beall 828-389-4441 for more information