Gratton & Jones Featured at Writers' Night, Blairsville, GA

Brasstown, NC's John Campbell Folk School readings Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, to feature writers Mary Michelle Keller & Lucy Cole Gratton

Mary Michelle Keller

Lucy Cole Gratton

On Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 7:00 PM, the John Campbell Folk School and NC Writers Network-West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading held at Keith House on the JCFS campus, Brasstown, NC. This is being held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise notified. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. Poets and writers Mary Michelle Keller and Lucy Cole Gratton will be the featured readers, returning to the Folk School as one of the more entertaining pair of readers.

Mary Michelle Keller has lived in Town County 20 years. It is here that she began to write poetry followed by the natural progression into prose. She is a musician, artist and photographer. Keller says that all those loves give root to her poetry as inspiration. Her poem, As The Deer, published in the anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, was inspired by an old hymn by the same name that she plays on the dulcimer.

Keller enjoys words; moving them around on paper until a poem, short story or essay emerges. She finds pleasure in reading to a few or many, be it her own words or those of others, and says reading at the Folk School is always a treat. Keller always enjoys reading her pieces to locals and students of the school.

Lucy Cole Gratton is a retired CPA who has lived in the Murphy area over 20 years. She received her BA in mathematics from Agnes Scott College, her MEd in secondary math from the University of Florida and her accounting hours from Florida Atlantic University.

Since her retirement she served as Executive Director for the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition, Inc for several years and continues to assist with the accounting and tax preparation for the Coalition as a volunteer. She is a member and serves as Treasurer of the Mountain Community Chorus Inc., which rehearses at Young Harris College, presenting a concert each spring and Christmas.

Gratton is a Cherokee County representative for NCWN and a member of NCWN-West. She coordinates the program at John Campbell Folk School for NCWN-West and serves as moderator. Her poems include various topics but predominantly center around her concern for the environments and her home in the woods of Lake Appalachia. Gratton’s writing has been published in various venues but has had limited publication since she writes predominantly for the love of writing, sharing it with family and friends.

Contact: Lucy Cole Gratton, Cherokee County Representative –NCWN-West

828-494-2914 
lgratton@hughes.net

Photos from NCWN-West's booth at the Festival on the Square, Hayesville, NC, July 2016

North Carolina Writers' Network West's booth at the Festival on the Square, Hayesville, North Carolina hosted poet and writer attendees including: Tom and Polly Davis, Glenda Council Beall, Mary Ricketson, Rosemary Royston, Marcia Hawley Barnes, Joan M. Howard, Lucy Cole Gratton, Janice Townley Moore, Staci Lynn Bell,Bob Grove, and Joan Ellen Gage. Below are some photos of the event.

Rosemary Royston

Glenda Council Beall

Bob Grove and Lucy Cole Gratton

Glenda Council Beall, Bob Grove, Lucy Cole Gratton, Janice Townley Moore, and Lucy Rozier. Hidden is Joan M. Howard

Tom Davis and Janice Townley Moore

Marcia Hawley Barnes

Curiosity Shop Bookstore, Murphy, NC, to host book signing Sat. 11/28/15, 11 AM to 3 PM for: It’s All Relative: Tales from the Tree, from 50 WNC Women Writers

Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham, are co-editors and contributors of a new anthology by 50 women writers from western North Carolina, entitled: It’s All Relative: Tales from the Tree – celebrating the lives of women and their connections with their families.

Celia Miles, a native of Appalachia, was a long-time English instructor at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. She is retired and living in Asheville, does freelance editing and writing in various genres.

Nancy Dillingham is a writer, educator and a sixth-generation native from Big Ivy in Western North Carolina. She currently lives in Asheville, NC.

Local authors who contributed to It's all Relative, are from Clay County, Glenda Council Beall, M.C. Brooks, and Blanche L.Ledford. Cherokee County authors who contributed are, Lucy Cole Gratton, Mary Rickertson, and Peg Russell.

The Curiosity Shop Bookstore in Murphy, NC will host the book signing this Saturday, 11/28/2015, from 11 AM to 3 PM. Please come out and show your support for these local authors!

Glenda Council Beall, a Georgia native, lives in Hayesville, NC, and is the owner and director of 'Writers Circle Around the Table', a studio for writers. She also teaches writing in the continuing education department at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and in anthologies. Beall has also published short stories and personal essays. She has a poetry chapbook, entitled: Now Might as Well be Then, and a family history book Profiles and Pedigrees.
 
M.C. Brooks was a student in one of Glenda Council Beall's memoir writing class at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC.

Blanche L.Ledford is a native Appalachian poet, who co-authored the book Simplicity with her daughter Brenda Kay Ledford. Her work has been in many Old Mountain Press Anthologies, and the NCWN-West anthology, Echos Across the Blue Ridge. She also wrote the book, Planting by the Signs, which won the Paul Green Multi-media award from the NC Society of Historians, in 2012.

Lucy Cole Gratton, a native of Decatur, Georgia, has been writing for herself for many years, only lately seeking to publish with some success both nationally and internationally. She has been published in the Wild Goose Poetry Review, is the editor of the book, Red Fox Run, and has a chapbook published entitled, Inagehi.
 
Mary Ricketson has had her poetry published in many journals, has a chapbook called, I Hear the River Call my Name, and is the author of Hanging Dog Creek. She is also published in the NCWN-West anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge and in the book, Red Fox Run. She also has a chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name. Mary is the Cherokee County Representative for the North Carolina Writers Network-West and is the president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

Peg Russell is a poet and writer. She is the former Prose leader for the NCWN-West Prose Workshop and is published in the NCWN-West anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Russell also writes short essays.

Highlights of the John C. Campbell Folk School Reading from August 20, 2015

Maren O. Mitchell and Joan Howard read their poetry to a nice-sized audience that included Folk School students, local poets, and friends of poets. Highlighting Joan’s reading were two poems honoring two of her neighbors, and the neighbors were in attendance.

After reading a few poems, Maren turned her presentation into an “audience participation” by explaining she had written 26 poems, one for each letter of the alphabet and asking the group to call out a letter. She then read a poem for each of the several letters called out.

Lucy Cole Gratton ably hosted the program by introducing the featured poets with thoughtful, personal observances about the poet and her work.


Karen Paul Holmes

Keller and Gratton read at JCCFS October 16

Thursday, October 16^th 7:00 p.m.
John C. Campbell Folk School
Brasstown, N C

Mary Mike Keller and Lucy Cole Gratton
will read their poems and stories 

The reading is  free and open to the public.