Zoom Writer's Night Out & Open Mic, August 13

NCWN-West presents
Kanute Rarey
Storyteller, Poet, Writer, Teacher

Writers' Night Out via Zoom

August 13, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

Kanute Rarey has performed oral and written stories and poetry in North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina and from Texas to Florida; Vermont to Minnesota; and parts in between. His stories range from personal to family, to sacred, to scary, to a tall tale or two. While Rarey has officially been a storyteller since 2015, his family and friends would say, “He has been telling stories all his life.”
 
Rarey’s personal goals are to write and perform stories, to promote the storytelling revival in America, and to work with and support aspiring storytellers, writers, poets, and singer-songwriters to encourage and create opportunities and audiences for the performance of their arts. 
 
He is the founder and producer of a weekly Zoom-based TELL IT LIKE IT IS Story Swap and STORIES ON THE SQUARE, a monthly open mic night at a coffee and wine shop in his hometown in historic Hayesville, NC. He also founded FRESH AIR Stories and Music – a four-concert series at the gazebo on the Courthouse Square in Hayesville. 

Rarey is currently working with a small group of leading prose and poetry writers, authors, storytellers, and singer-songwriters to produce a new, yearlong four-performance series for 2022, SCRIBES ON STAGE, with the regional theater, Peacock Playhouse, in Hayesvile, NC. 
 
He is a member of the Board of Directors of John C. Campbell Folk School and the southeastern regional organization, Southern Order of Storytellers, and a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. His wife Kathy and he have lived in the mountains, including Georgia, Alaska and North Carolina, for over thirty years. Visit his website for more info. 

Open Mic
3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you): glendabeall@msn.com 

Don't missThe Literary Hour with host writers Carol Lynn Jones, Kanute Rarey, and Rosemary Rhodes Royston, Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 7:00 PM, at John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC

On Wednesday, May 15, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School (JCCFS) and NC Writers' Network-West (NCWN-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. 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 Carol Lynn Jones, Kanute Rarey, and Rosemary Rhodes Royston. For more information about event, please contact Mary Ricketson at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

Carol Lynn Jones received a full scholarship to study art and illustration at Syracuse University and worked in New York City illustrating books and magazines. Later, she started a greeting card business and sold cards to stores throughout the country. Her travels have taken her across Europe where she lived for two summers with her extended family in communist Czechoslovakia. She also lived with a family in St. Petersburg, Russia as part of a friendship force exchange program for professionals. This experience triggered an interest in Russian culture, language and history, resulting in her first novel, Danya. Organic gardening and photography give her much contentment. She lives with her husband in Murphy.

Kanute Rarey is a local storyteller. He told his first "official" story in 2015 at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, and later at the Swapping Ground at the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Since then he has also told stories at the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival, the Big Fibbers Festival, the Texas Storytelling Festival, the Moth Story Slam in Asheville, and the Stone Soup Festival. Born on a family farm in Ohio, Rarey began visiting the North Georgia mountains regularly about forty years ago and fell in love with the people, their stories, the wild rivers, beautiful lakes, and mountains. He moved to Hayesville in 1990 and lived here for ten years. Work then took him away. Four years ago, he retired back to Hayesville full-time. 

Rarey is a traveler, teacher, grandfather, and lifelong learner. Stories are from his personal life, from growing up on a farm in the Western Carolina mountains, from listening to family tales at breakfast gatherings and holiday meals, from the "characters" that make up his family, and from living with children and grandchildren. Some of his stories are established fables that hold life lessons that have been told over and over for many years. Other stories are works of his imagination.

Rosemary Rhodes Royston holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University and is a lecturer at Young Harris College, Georgia. She is the author of Splitting the Soil (Finishing Line Press). Her poetry has been published in journals such as Appalachian Heritage, Split Rock Review, Southern Poetry Review, KUDZU, Town Creek Review, and *82 Review. She’s the VP for Planning and Special Projects at Young Harris College, where she teaches the occasional creative writing course. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she was the recipient of the 2010 Literal Latte Food Verse Award, received Honorable Mention in a George Scarborough Poetry Contest, at the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, and her short fiction being selected as Honorable Mention in the Porter Fleming Literary Awards, 2012. Royston is treasurer for the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.

Coffee with the Poets & Writers features Author Joan Ellen Gage and Storyteller Kanute Rarey on Wednesday, August 16, 2017, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Wednesday, August 16, 2017, Coffee with the Poets and Writers will meet at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. North Carolina Writers’ Network-West sponsors this event which meets at 10:30 a.m. on the third Wednesday of the month.

Two members, Joan Gage, poet and Kanute Rarey, known for his storytelling, are featured on the program this month. Coffee with the Poets and Writers is open to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short prose, 1000 words or less, and read at Open Mic. Have coffee and cookies with us. 

Joan Ellen Gage is an author of humor and inspiration written from her own unique perspective. Her recipe for her writing focuses on staying upbeat and laughing at her own foibles. Joan’s photos are the spice in the mix that serve to punctuate the writing and add that special garnish to her creations.

Gage has written and published five books, Water Running Downhill!, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!, A Redhead Looks At 60, Trinity's Adventures in Imagination, and a special edition of Water Running Downhill! the Rose Edition as a tribute to her friend Rose Helena Macedo Kull, all available as eBooks.  

Joan Ellen Gage has given author talks, and had several radio interviews. She is a member of NC Writers’ Network-West, serving as an administrator for their blog. Additionally, Ms. Gage has two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of Now, www.joanellengage.com, and A Redhead Blogs at 60!    https://joanszoneblogalicious @wordpress.com. Gage lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and their Belgian Tervuren dog, Magnolia.

Kanute Rary lives in Clay County, NC and is a storyteller as well as a writer. He may have been born and raised on a farm in rural Ohio, but Kanute Rarey moved to the mountains as soon as he could.  After a quarter of a century in the mountains of Alaska and North Carolina, storytelling is second nature to him. He says most of his stories are true… more or less. 

Rarey has studied storytelling with Elizabeth Ellis and Bil Lepp. Folks have heard him tell at the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival, the Moth StorySlam in Asheville, John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, and the Swapping Ground at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN.  And you can find him regaling local folk around Hayesville, North Carolina at the Clay and Cherokee County care centers, the Clay County School System.  The guys at Pat’s Barber Shop will tell you Kanute is ready to compete in the Bigs. He is out to win the Whopper Hat.

Contact NCWN West Representative, Glenda Beall, at 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com  for more information.