Showing posts with label Karen Paul Holmes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karen Paul Holmes. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Friday, February 2, 2018

Now Available: Second Book by Karen Paul Holmes

"Like a circus aerialist who makes us gasp one moment and laugh the next, the poet takes us from her immigrant father’s Macedonian roots to her own maturity, to the life of a woman who is smart and well-read yet knows her way around a Coney Island hot dog..."
- Poet David Kirby




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"Her title may signal quantum physics, but it’s also how close this poet whispers in her reader’s ear."

- Poet Denise Duhamel


Now available
click for link to purchase:





Wednesday, November 8, 2017

This Friday Night, Nov 10 Writers' Night Out


Award-Winning Writers
Dana Wildsmith & Christopher Martin


7 pm
followed by Open Mic
(limit 3 minutes of poetry or prose)

Brought to you by NCWN-West and hosted by Karen Paul Holmes




Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Writers' Night Out Oct 13, Blairsville, GA

Mary Michelle Keller and Natalie Grant Featured
+ Open Mic


Please join us this Friday night at the Union County Community Center.

The next day, Oct 14, all are invited to the Georgia Poetry Society meeting at the Choestoe Schoolhouse in Blairsville, 9:30-3:30. See the GPS website for more info.


Saturday, September 23, 2017

NCWN-West and Georgia Poetry Society Team Up for Two Events

An exciting weekend is in store in Blairsville, Georgia (a lovely mountain community on the border of NC)

October 13: Writers' Night Out, 7 pm

October 14: Georgia Poetry Society meeting (non-members welcome), 9:30 am-3 pm


Writers' Night Out features two local writers, Mary Michelle Keller and Natalie Grant.
Open mic follows - sign up at the door to read poetry or prose for 3 minutes. 
Union County Community Center in the heart of Blairsville, GA. Food and drink available (self-pay) at the View Grill - please arrive by 6 pm if you're having dinner. 

The Georgia Poetry Society quarterly meeting takes place at the Choestoe Schoolhouse, Blairsville. 
Featured presenters: Georgia poets Travis Denton and Katie Chaple. NC poets, Tina Barr and Brett Martin

The day includes presentations on craft, hands-on writing exercises, poetry contest announcements, and an open mic—plus the camaraderie and good spirits of fellow writers. Breakfast items will be provided, and lunch from G & G Bakery and Café will be available for purchase on site. While the meeting will be geared toward poetry enthusiasts, all writers are welcome. More info here: GPS Fall meeting. If you plan on having lunch, please RSVP to Lyn Hopper by Oct. 10 at gpstreas@gmail.com 

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Holmes & Krawiec at Writers' Night Out, September 8

Please join us for this reading featuring poet, author, playwright and founder of Jacar Press, Richard Krawiec, and poet, Karen Paul Holmes. Share your work at open mic, too!  Union County Community Center, Blairsville, GA 

Richard will also teach at Writers Circle in Hayesville the next day. See Glenda Beall's Writers Circle Blog for more information.


Monday, June 12, 2017

Poets Karen Paul Holmes and Brenda Kay Ledford to read at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, on Thursday, June 15, 2017



JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 7:00 PM, John Campbell Folk School and North Carolina Writers' Network-West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading held at Keith House on the JCFS campus. This event is held regularly on the third Thursday the month. The reading is free of charge and the public is invited to attend. Poets Karen Paul Holmes and Brenda Kay Ledford will be the featured readers, both of which are widely published poets. This should be an excellent program and presents an exceptional opportunity to hear these two women read their poems, many of which are centered on the mountain area.

Karen Paul Holmes was selected for Best Emerging Poets, 2015 (Stay Thirsty Media), and her full-length poetry collection, Untying the Knot,was published by Aldrich Press in 2014 (available on Amazon.com). Her poems have appeared in journals, such as Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Poetry East, and Atlanta Review, and anthologies such as The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol 5: Georgia. Holmes serves as the Towns County Representative for the North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and is a member of the Georgia Poetry Society.

Formerly the VP-Communications at ING, Holmes now works as a freelance writer and teaches writing classes at John C. Campbell Folk School, Writers Circle, and elsewhere. She’s inspired by the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lake Chatuge, and her home in Hiawassee, GA. Holmes supports writers through a critique group she started in Atlanta, and the Writers Night Out she founded/hosts in Blairsville on the second Friday of every month.

Brenda Kay Ledford is a seventh-generational native of Clay County. She was an honor graduate of Hayesville High School, earned her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University, and received a diploma of highest honors in creative writing from Stratford Career Institute.

Ledford’s work has appeared in many journals including Our State, Woman’s World, Country Extra, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Angels on Earth, 30 Old Mountain Press anthologies and Blue Ridge Parkway Silver Anniversary Edition coffee-table book.

Aldrich Press published her poetry book, Crepe Roses, that won the 2015 Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians. Ledford has received this award nine times for her books, collecting oral history on Southern Appalachian and on her blogs: http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com and http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com.She also won the North Carolina Press Association’s Journalism Contest Award for her feature on the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1999.

Ledford is listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, North Carolina Literary Map, North Carolina Storytelling Guild, and Who’s Who in America. She has appeared on the “Common Cup,” talk show on Windstream Communication’s cable television, and also was interviewed on “The Blue Sky Show” over WJUL/WJRB Radio Station and gives regional poetry readings.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The View Grill Now Open before Writers' Night Out

Diana Anhalt - Friday, May 12
7 p.m. 
followed by open mic



1st floor conference room
Union County Community Center, Blairsville, GA

And... here's a word from The View Grill's new management:

Join us Friday, May 12 to celebrate Mother's Day with The View's first ever Grand Buffet! This spectacular feast will include Prime Rib, Crab Legs, Peel-n-Eat Shrimp, Oysters on the Half Shell, Herb Baked Chicken, Broiled Fish, and various sides, salads, and desserts. All you can eat, including non-alcoholic beverages, for only $25.99! Buffet served from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Regular menu not available for this special event.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Writers' Night Out, Blairsville, 2017 Schedule

Here's the revised schedule of distinguished readers. There's always an open mic too. 
The View Grill is open for dinner or refreshment -- arrive by 6 p.m. to be served.  


Friday, April 28, 2017

Writers' Night May 12: Viva México and more...



"Diana's poems leap with the color and music of Mexico, where she spent most of her life."

A former resident of Mexico—Diana Anhalt’s parents moved there from New York in 1950 in order to escape possible persecution during the McCarthy era­—she now lives in Atlanta. 
 
Her poetry books are Because There is No Return (Passager), Second Skin (Future Cycle), and Lives of Straw (Finishing Line). Her work's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Nimrod,  The Comstock Review, Atlanta Review, and many other literary journals. She's also the author of the non-fiction book, A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico 1948-1965 (Archer Books), as well as essays and book reviews published in both English and Spanish. She says, "I'm waiting for my writing to acquire a southern accent." 

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Writers' Night Out Features Newton Smith & Robert Lee Kendrick


Our 2017 Season Opens on April 14 in Blairsville, GA

You're invited to hear poems from two Ph.D. poets who have new, highly acclaimed books: Newton Smith will read from his Camino Poems: Reflections on the Way, and Robert Lee Kendrick from his Winter Skin. After the featured readers, there's an open microphone for anyone wanting to share their own poems or prose. All this takes place at 7 pm on April 14 at the beautiful Union County Community Center. Please note, we will be meeting in a first floor conference room this month rather than the ballroom, and the grill will not be open for dinner until May.

Of the two books, celebrated North Carolina author, Ron Rash, says: “Newt Smith’s spiritual journey is rendered with such attentiveness and fidelity that we become his fellow travelers. We too share the pain and effort but above all the wonder, and are reminded that in matters of the spirit the journey and destination can be one,” and “Robert Lee Kendrick’s poems transport the reader into the deep, dark souls of his narrators, but the elegance of his language gives the poems a rough, hard-earned grace.”

Smith, who lives in Tuckasegee, NC, received his Ph.D. from University of North Carolina. He's the treasurer of NCWN-West and a retired professor who taught creative writing, poetry and literature at Western Carolina University. He has been published widely in literary magazines including Southern Poetry Review, Carolina Quarterly, Ann Arbor Review, Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, and others. Smith now devotes his time to travel, gardening, Buddhist studies, mindfulness practices, and hiking in nature, especially in the Smoky Mountains. During his 2014 pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago he wrote a poem every day reflecting on the physical body, nature, and the spiritual.

Kendrick also has a Ph.D., earned from the University of South Carolina. He grew up in Illinois and Iowa, but now calls Clemson, South Carolina home, where he lives with his wife and their dogs. His poems have appeared in top journals, such as Tar River Poetry, Xavier Review, Louisiana Literature, South Carolina Review, The James Dickey Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Winter Skin, was released in 2016 by Main Street Rag Publishing.

Writers’ Night Out is a free monthly event, sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West. It takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through November. Open mic readers sign up at the door and can read for three minutes each. The Union County Community Center (map here) is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course 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, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

We're Back: Writers' Night Out 2017 Schedule

This little guy won't be reading but you can!

Union County Community Center

Blairsville, GA

2nd Fridays of the month at 7 pm

 

Reading followed by open mic



Here's our calendar:


April 14: Robert Kendrick and Newton Smith
May 12: Diana Anhalt
June 9: Glenda Beall
July 14: Christopher Martin
Aug 11: Tribute to Tom Lux + humorous poetry open mic
Sept 8: Andrea Jurjevic and Jason Allen
Oct 13: Natalie Grant
Nov 10: Dana Wildsmith

Open mic follows for poetry or prose readers (3 minutes each)

Contact Karen Paul Holmes for more info
kpaulholmesATgmailDOTCOM