Popular NC poets to read on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, at the JCCFS, Brasstown, NC

At 7:00 PM on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, the John C. Campbell Folk School and the NC Writers' Network-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 usually 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 Linda Grayson Jones, Brenda Kay Ledford, and Maura Payne Way.

Linda Grayson Jones

Linda Grayson Jones has read and written poetry since childhood and recalls reading The Highwayman to her 3rd grade classmates. She has a B.S. in Biology from Stetson University, an M.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Pathology from Vanderbilt University. Her career path has been primarily in academic biomedical research, but in 2009 she returned to her first love—teaching. 

Jones is currently an Associate Professor of Biology and Dean of Math and Science at Young Harris College. She remains a reader and writer of poetry and is a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network.  She credits Nancy Simpson for encouraging her to use Grayson Jones as her published poet’s name.

Brenda Kay Ledford

Brenda Kay Ledford is a seventh-generational native of Clay County, NC.  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. 

Her work has appeared in many journals.  Her latest poetry collection, "Crepe Roses," won the 2015 Paul Green Multimedia Award from NC Society of Historians.  She's won this award 10 times for her books, blogs, and collecting oral history of Southern Appalachia.

Her life-experience essay, "The Front Porch," won first place in the 2018 Cherokee/Clay County Senior Games Silver Arts Literary Contest.  She qualified for the State Finals that will be held this fall in Raleigh.

Maura Payne Way: Originally from Washington, D.C, Maura now makes her home in Greensboro, NC. Her debut collection, Another Bungalow, was released by Press 53 in 2017. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, O. Henry Magazine, Verse, DIAGRAM, and The Chattahoochee Review.

Payne studied poetry at Mary Washington College and Boise State University. In addition to her being a poet, Maura teaches 9th and 10th grade English at New Garden Friends School. She has been a teacher for twenty years.

CWTPW on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, will feature writers Estelle Darrow Rice and Glenda Council Beall; event to be held at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers will meet Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 10:30 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. Estelle Rice and Glenda Beall will be featured this month.



ESTELLE DARROW RICE is a retired mental health counselor who lives in Marble, NC. She is a native of Charlotte and many of her stories center on her life there and in the mountains of western NC where she and her late husband, Nevin, lived the past twenty years. She is author of Quiet Times, an inspirational poetry chapbook and has published poems and stories in numerous journals and anthologies. She taught writing classes for NCWN-West and at Glenda Beall’s studio, Writers Circle around the Table.


 
GLENDA COUNCIL BEALL: In 1998, Glenda Beall published a family history book, Profiles and Pedigrees, Thomas C. Council and His Descendants based on the lives of her grandfather and his ten children. Her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then was published in 2009 by Finishing Line Press.

She has been writing and publishing poetry, memoir and short stories since 1996 when she moved to Clay County, NC. She teaches writing at her studio as well as the Institute of Continuing Learning in Young Harris, GA and Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC.

Her website is: www.glendacouncilbeall.com.


Estelle and Glenda will be reading from their forthcoming book, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins, which will be published this summer. Both writers are animal lovers and decided to collaborate and co-write a collection of poems and stories about the pets they have loved and also other non-human species including birds and fish.


The public is invited to attend Coffee with the Poets and Writers and to take part in Open Mic. Because of time constraints, readers are asked to read no more than two poems or a prose piece of about 1500 words.


This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network West, a program of the state literary organization, North Carolina Writers’ Network.


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

Popular YA and Children’s Author, Deanna K. Klingel to be featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC, December 20, 2017, at 10:30 AM

This month at Coffee with the Poets & Writers, the featured author will be Deanna K. Klingel. CWTPW is held at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC. Klingel calls Sapphire Valley, NC home. A compulsive writer all her life, she never sought publication until their seven children were grown and gone from home.

Klingel writes primarily, not exclusively, for young adult readers. She has thirteen books published and others in the que. One of her picture books is available in Spanish, and there are teacher/classroom study guides for two historical fictions. Klingel will be reading from her lastest book: Spirit the Tiny White Reindeer, a children’s book.

Klingel blogs twice a week at booksbydeanna.com, and travels with her books across the South and beyond, appearing at schools, museums, and events. Her books are widely distributed and are available wherever books are sold.

There will be an open mic following the author’s reading. Coffee is provided, and the public is always invited. Coffee with the Poets & Writers is an event sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.

Website: www.BooksByDeanna.com

http://booksbydeanna.com/spirit-the-tiny-white-reindeer.html