The Literary Hour Readings at John C. Campbell Folk School to feature poets Richard M. Cary, Maren O. Mitchell, and Ryvers Stewart, on Wed., June 12, 2019, in the Community Room

On Wednesday, June 12^, 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. This event is now held in the community room. 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 Richard Cary, Maren O. Mitchell, and Ryvers Stewart.

Richard Montfort Cary began writing poetry in high school and continues to this day. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1964 with a BFA in Theatre Arts. He spent six years in regional theatres, before moving year-round to Nantucket Island MA, as a designer & builder of custom homes. In 1985, he founded Actors Theatre of Nantucket and served as Artistic Director for twenty years. Richard and his wife Cheryl moved from Asheville NC to Hayesville NC in 2017. 

Cary’s claim to fame is that his Great Aunt, Olive Dame Campbell, founded The John C. Campbell Folk School. Cary is currently editing over 60 years of his poetry for a collection.

Maren O. Mitchell, a North Carolina native, lived in Bordeaux, France, in her childhood, and in Kaiserslautern, Germany.  She now lives with her husband on the edge of a national forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. For over thirty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. 

Mitchell’s poems appear in The Cortland Review, The MacGuffin, POEM, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Journal and elsewhere. Work is forthcoming in POEM, Slant, The Comstock Review, Poetry East and Chiron Review. Two poems, “X Is a Kiss on Paper” and “T, Totally Balanced,” have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. In 2012 she received 1^st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. Her nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide, (Line of Sight Press, 2012), www.lineofsightpress.com is on Amazon. 

Ryvers Stewart has been writing poetry since middle school, but it was in high school she truly fell in love with it (and acting). She is in the graduating class of 2019 at Tri-County Community College with an Associates in Arts degree, she plans on graduating 2020 with an Associates in Fine Arts. 

On the weekends Stewart can be found playing D&D and Pathfinder. She is currently working on her first poetry book.

For more information on this event please contact Mary Ricketson at maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

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.

Poets Joan M. Howard and Rosemary R. Royston to read at the John C. Campbell Folk School Literary Hour, Brasstown, NC, Wed., May 17, 2017 at 7:00 PM

 On Wednesday, May, 17, 2017, 7:00 PM, two local poets will read at the John C. Campbell Folk School's, "The Literary Hour", at Brasstown, NC. Poets Joan M. Howard, and Rosemary Rhodes Royston will be reading selections of their poetry, and the public is invited.

Joan M. Howard’s poetry has been published in The Lyric, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, Our Pipe Dreams, Aurorean, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Miller's Pond, the 2012 Georgia Poetry Society's anthology Reach of Song, POEM, Wayfarer, and others.

Howard recently published a book of poetry, Death and Empathy: My Sister Web, a tribute to her sister Webster, and to Howard's husband, Jack. The book focuses on Howard’s grief and the gift of life itself, through nature, animals, travel and love. 

 She is a former teacher, member of North Carolina Writers' Network West, has studied German and English literature. Howard goes birding and spends time in Athens, GA, and on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge, in Hiawassee, Georgia.

Rosemary Rhodes Royston holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University, is a lecturer at Young Harris College, Georgia, and is a Rep for North Georgia for the NCWN-West. Royston’s poetry has been published in journals such as The Southern Poetry Review, The Comstock Review, Main Street Rag, Coal Hill Review, FutureCycle, STILL, New Southerner, and Alehouse. Her essays on writing poetry are included in Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets, McFarland. 

Royston’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she was the recipient of the 2010 Literal Latte Food Verse Award. Her chapbook, Splitting the Soil, is available at Finishing Line Press. 

Most recently, she received Honorable Mention in the George Scarbrough Poetry Contest, Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, along with her short fiction being selected as Honorable Mention in the Porter Fleming Literary Awards, 2012. Royston blogs at The Luxury of Trees.

The Literary Hour at JCCFS is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West.

Don't miss The Literary Hour at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, March 16,2017 at 7:00 PM

On Thursday, March 16th, 2017 at 7:00 PM, John C. 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 reading is usually held on the third Thursday of the month. It is free of charge and open to the public. Poet Joan Howard and writer Bob Grove will be the featured readers. Both of these authors are residents of the area and published extensively. It should be an entertaining evening.

Joan Howard: Her poetry has been published in The Lyric, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Victorian Violet, Our Pipe Dreams, Aurorean, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Miller's Pond, the 2012 Georgia Poetry Society's anthology Reach of Song, POEM, Wayfarer, and others.

Joan is a former teacher, a current member of North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and has studied German and English Literature.  Howard goes birding and kayaking and spends time in Athens, Georgia, and the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, Georgia.

Bob Grove: Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob now lives in the mountains of North Carolina. Including studies at Cleveland State University, Baldwin-Wallace College and the University of South Florida, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Kent State University and his Master of Science degree at Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum enabled him to teach courses in English, journalism, creative writing, general science, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, space science and psychology.

Bob has been an ABC-TV public affairs director, an on-air personality, and the founder and publisher of Monitoring Times magazine. A prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers Network and a director of the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he has published 19 books and hundreds of articles in 21 magazines.

Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, an international supplier of radio communications equipment, Bob has more time to write. He has published a mystery novella (Secrets of Magnolia Manor), his memoir (Misadventures of an Only Child), a collection of children’s stories (Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy), and has written several flash fiction stories as well as some poetry. He has been awarded several gold medals in the North Carolina Silver Arts literature competition.

Bob’s public readings are popular as a performance art form, typified by his well attended annual reading, in costume and British dialect, of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the John C. Campbell Folk School. He has been a featured speaker at 14 national conventions and a U.S. Congressional committee.

His collected writings on technical topics (Antenna Basics, Antenna Anthology and Ask Bob) are now available online, as is his informative Abnormal Psychology which he uses as a teaching text in continuing education classes, and Antiquing: A Collector’s Guide for appraising and auctioneering.

Several of Bob’s books are available on Amazon Kindle, and a sampling of his shorter works may be viewed on his website: bobgrove.org.