Special Closing Program to Literary Hour at Campbell School

  The Literary Hour at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, will close out its 2023 season with a special program.  Instead of having a featured poet and writer, everyone who attends will have an opportunity to present and talk about a personal or favorite poem or prose piece.  The program will start at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Kieth House library on the Folk School campus.

Readers will have up to five minutes to present either an original piece they have written, or a piece by another author they especially love.  Each reader should be prepared to briefly describe the piece after reading it and, if an original work, talk about what inspired it, what went into writing it or the intent behind writing it, etc.  If it is a favorite piece by another author, then discuss why it is memorable or special.

The program is intended as an open session where everybody has an opportunity to share and exchange motivations, inspirations, and ideas which led them to love and produce literature.  I hope you will make plans to attend and present (if you want to) or just enjoy an evening listening to others read and talk about the meaning and love of literature.

The Literary Hour season for 2024 will start again in March and continue every third Thursday of the month through November bringing local writers to the campus to share their work with the community.  The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to members of NCWN-West and Folk School students and faculty.

The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling.  For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/

Mary Jo Dyre featured guest reader at Oct. 26 Mountain Wordsmiths

      Author Mary Jo Dyre will be the featured reader for this month’s gathering of Mountain Wordsmiths on Thursday, October 26, at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. The monthly event is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.

     Dyre, a talented author based in Western North Carolina, is a former educator, now working in insurance. She first finished and published her deceased brother Arnold Dyre’s half-completed manuscript of "Dark Spot," the fourth book in the Jake Baker series.

Mary Jo Dyre

     Next came a plotline of her own. "Springheads" combines multiple genres of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure, and fantasy to create a compelling story of self-discovery.

     Dyre's novel takes readers on a journey through time and space, from Mississippi to Arizona, and even South America, as the protagonist, Sarah Baker Bryant, discovers herself through connections to land and water that cradle home and deep-running family roots. Vivid descriptions transport readers to the westernmost mountains of North Carolina and a special piece of river property that holds great power and significance. Sense of place becomes a compelling character in its own right.

     Dyre says, "Dreams from real life inspired the writing of this particular book. These sequel dreams, so-called visions of the night, produced the creative, intriguing flow of tales mixed and connected through time in the plot of 'Springheads.' My characters revealed lives of their own making throughout the writing process, discovered only as I listened intently enough to bring them to the page through my words."

     NCWN-West is continuing to stay in touch by using technology to share our writing. We offer writing events and writing classes both online and in person. Writers are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of Zoom meetings because they can join our gatherings from other locations across America. Attendees are welcome to bring a poem or short prose piece to read during Open Mic. Please limit the reading to 3-5 minutes.

     Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com or ncwngeorgiarep@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link.  Mountain Wordsmiths is informal, and welcomes anyone who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing. All who attend are encouraged to enjoy their morning cup of coffee or tea as the group shares thoughts about writing.

Poet and Writer Kory Wells Featured at Writers' Night Out May 12

    Kory Wells will be the featured reader at Writers' Night Out on Friday, May 12, at 7 p.m. EST.  This is a Zoom meeting.

Kory Wells

    Wells is a poet and writer, storyteller, and arts advocate from Tennessee. She is the author of two poetry collections, most recently Sugar Fix from Terrapin Books. Her writing has been featured on The Slowdown podcast from American Public Media and appears in The Strategic Poet, Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications.

    In 2017 Kory was selected the inaugural Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she nurtures creative community through arts and literature initiatives. She also mentors poets from across the nation through MTSU Write, a from-home creative writing program. Find her online at https://korywells.com.

    Her reading will be followed by an Open Mic session during which anyone joining the Zoom meeting may have 3 to 4 minutes to read poetry or prose (2 poems only, please).

    To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda Beall an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you) by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com.

Writers Night Out Resumes April 14 with poet, teacher, cancer survivor Michael Diebert

Michael Diebert

      Update: Please note that due to technical difficulties with Zoom on April 14, Michael Diebert has been rescheduled for June 9. Details will be posted at at a later date. We apologize to those who tried to tune in for the April event. 

Writers Night Out via Zoom resumes Friday, April 14, at 7 pm featuring poet, editor, teacher, and cancer survivor Michael Diebert.  The reading and discussion will be followed by an open mic session.  Writers Night Out is a North Carolina Writers' Network-West event.

    Michael Diebert, a native of Kingsport, Tennessee, is the author of the collections Thrash (Brick Road, 2022) and Life Outside the Set (Sweatshoppe, 2013). He has served as poetry editor for The Chattahoochee Review, led workshops for the Chattahoochee Valley Writers' Conference and the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference, and served as president of Georgia Poetry Society. 

    Micheal teaches writing and literature at Perimeter College, Georgia State University. Recent poems have appeared in EcoTheo Collective, Book of Matches, Anti-Heroin Chic, and River Teeth. A two-time cancer survivor, Michael lives in Avondale Estates, Georgia with his wife and dogs.

    An Open Mic session will follow Diebert's reading, offering anyone joining over Zoom an opportunity to read their own works.  Please plan for a 3-4 minute maximum time for poetry or prose and limit reading to two poems only, please.

    To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you) by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com.  To get the Zoom link email Glenda. 

Harvard Alum Kerry Garvin of Bryson City Featured Sept 9 on Zoom

Writers' Night Out - Sept 9, 7 p.m. EST

Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic 

Kerry Garvin, MA in Creative Writing & Literature, Harvard University
Publisher, writer, editor, professor

Hosted by Karen Paul Holmes

Gloria Steinem, on Garvin's book:

"When someone is ill, many old cultures say that they have lost their story. I believe that reading the stories in What Doesn't Kill Her will help each of us to trust and tell our own."

Kerry Garvin left New York City in 2020 and now lives in Bryson City, North Carolina, after spending much of her childhood in the mountains. She's a published writer, editor, and professor. Her book, What Doesn’t Kill Her: Women’s Stories of Resilience, a collection of triumphant survival stories written by women, was published in 2021 and hailed by Gloria Steinem.  Garvin and the book's co-editor, Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, sent out a call for true stories. Sixty brave women rose to the call, and What Doesn't Kill Her was born. 

In 2020, Garvin graduated summa cum laude with a Dean’s Award of Achievement from Harvard University with a Master’s of Liberal Arts in Creative Writing and Literature. That year, she was Harvard University’s Thomas Small Prize Recipient, awarded annually at the university's commencement for both character and academic achievement. She had also earned her Bachelor’s of Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology and minor concentration in Creative Writing from Harvard in 2017. 

Garvin co-founded Harridan and Strumpet Books, a women-author run publishing collective with a passion for progressive art that pushes established bounds and publishes voice-driven, high-quality books by a diverse array of writers.  Learn more about her on her website.

 
Open mic readers are welcome to read poetry or prose for up to 4 minutes (2-poem maximum, please).

Zoom link and Open Mic sign up: Contact Glenda Beall glendabeall@msn.com

Appalachian Naturalist Brent Martin Virtual Reading July 8

Writers' Night Out - July 8, 7 p.m. Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic  Brent Martin, conservationist & multi-genre writer   Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, on Martin's new book: "If I were making a personal top ten list of important Appalachian artists, writers, and musicians, I'd include--along with more well-known names like Doc Watson and Nikki Giovanni--photographer George Masa. Brent Martin's introduction splendidly places Masa and his work in the context of the mountains they both love so much--a perfect match since Martin, like Masa, has spent most of his adult life studying the southern mountains, protecting them, exploring them." NCWN-West invites you to join us via ZOOM (see link below).

Brent Martin's book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina (Hub City Publishing), has just been released. Martin is also the author of three chapbook collections of poetry and of Hunting for Camellias at Horseshoe Bend, a nonfiction chapbook (Red Bird Press, 2015). His poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News, and elsewhere. He has recently completed a two-year term as Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the West. He is also the author of The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present.   Martin a lifelong conservationist and educator, having worked over a decade as Southern Appalachian Regional Director for The Wilderness Society, and prior to that serving as Executive Director for Georgia Forestwatch and Associate Director for the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee. He has led outings for over 20 years for the above organizations, as well as Carolina Mountain Club, NC Bartram Trail Society, the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, Highland Biological Station, and many, many more. He lives in the Cowee community in Western North Carolina, where he and his wife, Angela Faye Martin, run Alarka Institute.  For the Zoom link and to sign up for Open Mic: click here: glendabeall@msn.com Open mic: 3-4 minute max, poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

Multi-Talented Carrol Taylor: Zoom Reading June 10, 7 pm

Writers' Night Out - June 10, 7 p.m. Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic  Carroll Taylor, multi-genre writer "When Sissie Stevenson reluctantly begins her fifth grade year at Slippery Branch Elementary School, she has lots of questions that need answers. How can she stop the class bully from picking on her cousin and best friend Spud McKenna?" —Chinaberry Summer, Young Adult Novel by Carroll Taylor NCWN-West invites you to join us via ZOOM (see link below).

Carroll S. Taylor is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side. Both books emphasize themes of generational storytelling and anti-bullying, interwoven with learning about reptiles and amphibians. Her children’s book, Feannag the Crow, teaches children about making friends and appreciating both their diversity and their unique talents. Her poetry has appeared in the Georgia Poetry Society’s Reach of Song, yourdailypoem.com, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International online art gallery, Old Mountain Press, and the anthology Poems to Lift You Up and Make You Smile. In November 2021, Taylor and three other local Appalachian authors were honored by their illustrator with a mural featuring animals and characters from their children’s books. The mural was installed on the outside wall of Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, GA, to encourage children to read. Taylor is also a member of Scribes On Stage, and she co-wrote and directed a one-act play about the history of Clay County, NC; Hayesville; and the Cherokee Trail of Tears. “Beneath the Sky and Waters” was performed onstage at the Peacock Performing Arts Theatre in April 2022. After teaching in high school and university settings for more than forty years, Taylor retired with her husband in Hiawassee, GA. To learn more about her, visit chinaberrysummer.com. Sign up for Open Mic: 3-4 minute max, poetry or prose (2 poems only, please) by emailing glendabeall@msn.com

Writers' Night Returns March 11 with Rosemary Royston on Zoom

Writers' Night Out - March 11, 7 p.m. Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic  Rosemary Royston, poet NCWN-West invites you to join us via ZOOM.  Request Zoom link and sign up for Open Mic by emailing glendabeall@msn.com

Praise for Rosemary's new book, Second Sight: "This collection of Royston’s is honest, timely, and beautiful. It is a love letter to Appalachia and rural people everywhere who often don’t get their stories told in such a powerful and compassionate manner."      - Angela Jackson-Brown, author  Rosemary Royston, author of Second Sight (2021, Kelsay Press) and Splitting the Soil (Finishing Line Press, 2014), resides in the northeast Georgia mountains with her family. Her writing has been published in journals such as POEM, Split Rock Review, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry South, Appalachian Review, and *82 Review. Her photography has been published in A Rose in the World, Bloodroot, and New Southerner. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Young Harris College.  Visit her website  https://theluxuryoftrees.wordpress.com/ Writers' Night Out is a North Carolina Writers' Network-West event on the second Friday of the month. We will continue via Zoom for now.

Oct 8 Seattle Poet: Online Reading, Discussion, and Open Mic

Writers' Night Out - Oct 8, 7 p.m. Online Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic via ZOOM "What teaching poetry to children has taught me about writing." with Debby Bacharach, poet, editor, & teacher

Debby Bacharach is the author of Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015).   Her poems and essays have been published in journals nationally and internationally, including Midwest Quarterly, Poetry Ireland Review, Vallum, Cimarron Review, New Letters, and Poet Lore, and she has received a Pushcart prize honorable mention.  Debby has been the featured reader at poetry readings in Boston, Oberlin, Seattle, South Bend, and Minneapolis. Educated at Swarthmore College and the University of Minnesota, Debby lives in Seattle with her family. She is a college writing instructor, editor, and tutor and teaches poetry workshops for children.  Find out more about her at DeborahBacharach.com. For Zoom link and Open Mic sign-up, email  Glenda: glendabeall@msn.com Writers' Night Out is a North Carolina Writers' Network-West event on the second Friday of every month. We will continue via Zoom for now.    Sometime we hope to continue in person at our new location: The Ridges Resort on Lake Chatuge  so please check your email.   But don't wait, join the fun and camaraderie on Zoom!  Upcoming guests: Nov 12: Ed Southern, NCWN Executive Director & Author Ed's new book is Fight Songs: A Story of Love & Sports in a Complicated South December, January, February: winter break

Zoom Writer's Night Out & Open Mic, August 13

NCWN-West presents
Kanute Rarey
Storyteller, Poet, Writer, Teacher

Writers' Night Out via Zoom

August 13, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

Kanute Rarey has performed oral and written stories and poetry in North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina and from Texas to Florida; Vermont to Minnesota; and parts in between. His stories range from personal to family, to sacred, to scary, to a tall tale or two. While Rarey has officially been a storyteller since 2015, his family and friends would say, “He has been telling stories all his life.”
 
Rarey’s personal goals are to write and perform stories, to promote the storytelling revival in America, and to work with and support aspiring storytellers, writers, poets, and singer-songwriters to encourage and create opportunities and audiences for the performance of their arts. 
 
He is the founder and producer of a weekly Zoom-based TELL IT LIKE IT IS Story Swap and STORIES ON THE SQUARE, a monthly open mic night at a coffee and wine shop in his hometown in historic Hayesville, NC. He also founded FRESH AIR Stories and Music – a four-concert series at the gazebo on the Courthouse Square in Hayesville. 

Rarey is currently working with a small group of leading prose and poetry writers, authors, storytellers, and singer-songwriters to produce a new, yearlong four-performance series for 2022, SCRIBES ON STAGE, with the regional theater, Peacock Playhouse, in Hayesvile, NC. 
 
He is a member of the Board of Directors of John C. Campbell Folk School and the southeastern regional organization, Southern Order of Storytellers, and a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. His wife Kathy and he have lived in the mountains, including Georgia, Alaska and North Carolina, for over thirty years. Visit his website for more info. 

Open Mic
3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you): glendabeall@msn.com 

Dr. Bill Everett Featured at Writers' Night Out, July 9 ZOOM

NCWN-West presents
Bill Everett
Writer, Woodworker & Former Ethics Professor

Writers' Night Out via Zoom

July 9, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

With a Yale Divinity School BD and a Harvard PhD, William Johnson Everett taught ethics in theological seminaries and graduate schools for over 30 years. During that time, he published seven books and many articles in English and German on ethical issues in religion and society. His teaching took him to Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Boston as well as Germany, India, and South Africa. In 2001 he turned to literary fiction, poetry, and woodworking.

This fall Everett’s “expository memoir” Making My Way in Ethics, Worship, and Wood is forthcoming. He frames the book around the cultural contexts that have shaped his life. In Red Clay, Blood River (2008), Everett put his inter-continental experience into a wide-ranging historical novel about connections between America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s “Great Trek.” The book is written from an ecological standpoint, in which Earth is the narrator. Everett’s poetry collection is Turnings: Poems of Transformation (2013). Both his ethics and his poetry explore the ways we give shape and meaning to our thoughts, feelings, and actions within the mysterious powers of creativity and love that undergird our existence. He also co-authored with his friend John de Gruchy, Sawdust and Soul: A Conversation about Woodworking and Spirituality. For more of his writing, you can follow Everett's blog, www.WilliamEverett.com.

Everett also creates furniture for worship settings, focusing on round communion tables that symbolize circle dynamics of reconciliation. Visit www.WisdomsTable.net for more information and to see photos of his work and also the textiles and mosaics of his wife Sylvia, who uses these media to explore spiritual, religious, and feminist themes. He and Sylvia live in Waynesville, NC.  

Zoom Link & Open Mic
3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

For the Zoom link, please email Glenda Beall.  To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email with a sentence she can use to introduce you. glendabeall@msn.com

Writers' Night Out is on the second Friday of every month.

We will continue via Zoom for now. 
 

 Some time in 2021, we hope to continue in person at our new location:

The Ridges Resort on Lake Chatuge 
so please check your email.

 

But don't wait, join the fun and camaraderie on Zoom! 

Upcoming guests:
Aug 13: Kanute Rarey
September 10: Michael Diebert
Oct 8: John Clarke (from England!)

Writers' Night Out - Come ZOOM with us, June 11 at 7 pm

Please join us for 

P.C. Zick
a writer with a passion for sharing
& helping other writers

Writers' Night Out via Zoom

June 11, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

P.C. Zick’s passion for sharing her stories and helping aspiring writers realize their dreams motivates all her projects. And that’s whether she’s serving as an editor to others or creating her own books that entertain and inform her readers.

 
Zick writes in a variety of genres, including romance, contemporary fiction, and creative nonfiction. She’s had works in each of these genres published and has won various awards for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and novels.
 
Setting plays a significant role in her fiction, beginning with the three contemporary novels in her Florida fiction series, which explore the people and landscape of the Sunshine State. Her romances transport readers to some of her favorite places from Long Island to Chicago to Florida to the Smoky Mountains. Her four separate romance series explore various social issues as people of all ages navigate the complicated road to romance.
 
Zick has also written a variety of nonfiction books, which include a primer for beginning writers for drafting, writing, and publishing a book. Her book on vegetable gardening combines her husband’s passion for growing food and her love of cooking it. She has also published and annotated the journal of her great-grandfather based on his experiences as a Union soldier during the Civil War.
 
She and her husband split their time between Tallahassee and the Smoky Mountains near Murphy, where they enjoy gardening, kayaking, golfing, and hiking. To learn more, please visit www.pczick.com.
 

Open Mic Sign-up & Zoom Link 

to sign-up and/or get the link to the free event, 
please send an email to glendabeall@msn.com 

For open mic, include a sentence she can use to introduce you. 
3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

Writers' Night Out is sponsored by NCWN-West
on the second Friday of every month

Writers' Night Out is Zooming along

 

Please join us for  Sally Stewart Mohney prose & poetry Writers' Night Out via Zoom March 12, 7 pm Reading & Discussion + Open Mic An award-winner writer and NC native, Sally Mohney will read and then discuss poetry's influence on prose and vice versa.    Sally majored in fiction writing at UNC-Chapel Hill and has taken graduate fiction classes at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop as well as the University of Florida. She has published short stories in journals such as the Boston Literary Review, and she is the recipient of the Jesse Rehder Writing Prize from UNC-Chapel Hill. Currently, she is searching for a home for her full-length literary manuscript, Migratory Spirits, set in North Carolina and Cumberland Island. Sally was invited to read an excerpt of Migratory Spirits at the Southern Women Writers Conference.    Her new poetry book is eventide (Kelsay Books) -- see the quote next to the book cover below. Her previous book, Low Country, High Water, (Texas Review Press) won the Southern Poetry Anthology Prize: North Carolina. Other publications include A Piece of Calm (Finishing Line Press) and pale blue mercy, (Main Street Rag, Author’s Choice Series). Sally's poems have appeared in the Broad River Review, Charlotte Observer, Cortland Review, James Dickey Review, North Carolina Literary Review, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and elsewhere. A North Carolina native, she now lives a thousand feet from the Chattahoochee River in Georgia.   "From the low country to the Appalachians, to the River Thames and the North Sea, Sally Stewart Mohney seeks solace and bears witness to water—from wetlands to dry waterfall during her intriguing journey."  - NC Writers' Network If you are not a member of NCWN, contact Karen Holmes or Glenda Beall and we will  send your invitation to join us on Friday night. Members should have received the link to the Zoom program. Open Mic 3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please) To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you) by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com  ZOOM Helpful Hints: You can join Writers' Night Out by cell phone, notebook, laptop, or computer and use audio only or audio and video. You can do a test for yourself anytime at zoom.us, where you'll see yourself on video and be able to test your audio too.  The night of WNO, try to get on before 7 pm to make sure everything is working on your end. You will be in a waiting room until the host opens the door. Sign up for Open Mic by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com

Writers' Night Out is the second Friday of every month. We will continue via Zoom for now.  April 9: Annette Clapsaddle, novelist, Even as We Breathe   The North Carolina Writers' Network is not allowing in-person events right now. Some time In 2021, we hope to continue in person at our new location: The Ridges Resort on Lake Chatuge  but please check your email.   But don't wait, join the fun and camaraderie on Zoom!    Stay well, friends,  - Karen Karen Paul Holmes www.karenpaulholmes.com www.simplycommunicated.com www.facebook.com/karenholmespoetry www.instagram.com/sharing_poems/