Brenda Kay Ledford will read at "Coffee With the Poets," on Wednesday, April 11, 10:30 a.m.; The Cafe Touche, Main Street, Hayesville, NC.Brenda won the 2012 Royce Ray Poetry Award from "Aries: A Journal of Art and Literature," at Southeastern Community College; Whiteville, NC.
A native of Clay County, NC, Brenda started writing poetry in 1996. Her first poem, "Patchwork Memories," won The Cameo Award and was published in "The Lyricist," at Campbell University.
Brenda was an honor graduate of Hayesville High School. Her English teacher, Mrs. Josephine Thurman, introduced Brenda to literature and was her creative writing mentor. Brenda received a MA in Education from Western Carolina University. She studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee and Tri-County Community College.
Dr. Carl Dockery was Brenda's mentor in Journalism at Tri-County Community College. She was Creative Writing Editor of "Tri-County Communicator" at the college. Brenda won the Journalism Award for Feature Writing in 2000 from North Carolina Press Association.
Her work has appeared in "Our State Magazine," "Asheville Poetry Review," "Main Street Rag," "Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel," "Appalachian Heritage," "Pembroke Magazine," "Journal of Kentucky Studies," "Echoes Across the Blue Ridge," "Pirenes Fountain," "Women's Spaces/Women's Places," "Fresh Magazine," "Moonshine Literary Magazine," "The Reach of Song," "Old Mountain Press" anthologies, "Naugatuck River Review," "The Broad River Review" (Gardner-Webb University), and other publications.
Her poetry chapbooks, SHEW BIRD MOUNTAIN and SACRED FIRE, were published by Finishing Line Press.
Brenda received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for these poetry chapbooks. She also won the 2011 Paul Green Award for her book, SIMPLICITY, co-authored with Blanche L. Ledford.
Brenda is a member of North Carolina Writer's Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Georgia Poetry Society, and listed with A DIRECTORY OF AMERICAN POETS AND FICTION WRITERS.
She gives poetry readings across the Southeast. Brenda has been featured on "The Common Cup," over Windstream Communications cable televison/website many times.
Finally, Rosemary Royston, director of North Carolina Writer's Network-West (NETWEST), compared Brenda's poetry in ECHOES ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE to Ralph Waldo Emerson's work in a thesis that Rosemary presented to Appalachian Writer's Association at East Kentucky University on March 11, 2011.
For more information about Brenda Kay Ledford's writing, go to:
http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com
http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com "Happy Birthday Clay County North Carolina"
