Feb 12 Writers' Night Features Poet/Writer Lisa Ezzard of Tiger Mountain Vineyards

Writers' Night Out via Zoom
Lisa Ezzard
poet, writer & vinter

February 12, 7 pm

Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

Hosted by Karen Paul Holmes & Glenda Beall

For Zoom link and to sign up for Open Mic, please contact glendabeall@msn.com 

Lisa Ezzard is a poet, writer, and the current vintner (wine maker and grower) at Tiger Mountain Vineyards. As the 6th generation on her family farm, which is now a boutique winery, she chose to write poems that follow the growing seasons for her book Vintage (Native Press). Through beautiful imagery and personal details, we learn much about the joys and toils of cultivating grapes, caring for vines, and producing handcrafted, award-winning wines in the N. Georgia mountains. She also writes prose and has an essay in Appalachian Adventure: From Georgia to Maine-a Spectacular Journey on the Great American Trail, a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. 

Lisa taught literature and writing for 25 years in places as varied as the University of Bordeaux in France and the Idyllwild School of Arts in Southern California. She is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and has received writing grants from Casa Don Miguel in Mexico and Hambidge Art Center in Georgia. Most recently, her work appeared in the anthology, Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene (WVU Press). Other publishing credits include Wild Goose, Exit 271: Your Georgia Writer’s Resource, The Squaw Valley Review, and From the Web: A Global Anthology of Women's Political Poetry. 

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.

Writers' Night Out is the second Friday of every month.
Unlike previous years, we will continue through the winter (via Zoom): 
March 12: Sally Mohney poet & writer, Eventide
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.  

The true story of a miracle in an African slum: Writers' Night November 13 via Zoom

Special Guest Paul Higdon
Hope and a Future:
Life, Survival, and Renewal on the Streets of an African Slum

Writers' Night Out
November 13, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion
+ 
Open Mic

Join us on Zoom
You do not need a Zoom account nor a Zoom app.
Netwest members, check your email for the Zoom link and login. 

You may wish to purchase a copy of this fascinating book ahead of time.
All proceeds go to charity. 

During Paul Higdon’s 36-year career in international finance, he had the honor of serving for six years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of a children’s welfare operation in central Kenya. Based on that work, he was presented a Global Volunteer Award by Bank of America.

Since retiring from his banking career, he says the most rewarding endeavor has been composing his first book, Hope and a Future: Life, Survival, and Renewal on the Streets of an African Slum, which chronicles the true story of a street boy, John Maina, who lived in the slums of Nairobi. Eventually, John and Higdon became so close that in an African sense, they are now father and son. In conjunction with the book’s publication, Higdon created a public charity, Little Boost Children’s Fund, whose mission is “Giving vulnerable kids a little boost.” All proceeds from the book go directly to the fund.
 
Higdon holds degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics from Cornell, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins, and he continues to enjoy a wide range of intellectual pursuits, especially early Christianity, and modern history.
 
His wife, Linda, is a classical pianist, an award-winning filmmaker, and now runs a tour company offering a unique “Women’s Journey to Kenya.” They live on the edge of the Kettle Moraine forest in the southern lakes region of Wisconsin.

Netwest members, check your email for the Zoom link and login. 

Zoom along with Writers' Night Out!

 Robert Lee Kendrick 

in Conversation with Glenda Beall

Friday, September 11

7 pm

Open Mic Follows

NCWN members will received the Zoom link via email 

Join us for this month's Writers' Night Out featuring South Carolina poet, Robert Lee Kendrick. His third book, which is a novel in verse, is Shape the Bent Straight, recently published by Main Street Rag.  

Of Kendrick's first full-length collection, What Once Burst with Brilliance, former NC Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, said, "These poems are achingly elegiac – a deep, unslaked yearn for a past not vanished but resurrected through the time-honored autobiographical ‘I’ of the eye-witness dutifully chained to memory. Kendrick’s poems are at once documentary and unforgettably imagined.”

Kendrick grew up in Illinois and Iowa, but now lives in Clemson with his wife and dog. After earning his M.A. from Illinois State University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, he held a number of jobs, ranging from house painter to pizza driver to grocery store worker to line cook. Main Street Rag also published his second poetry book Winter Skin. His poems appear in Birmingham Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Tar River Poetry, Louisiana Literature, and elsewhere. 

Open microphone will follow for those who’d like to read their own poetry or prose with a time limit of three minutes. 

Those wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up to read by emailing Glenda Beall, glendabeall@msn.com.

Zoom invitations will be sent out again to NCWN-West members before the event. For more information, please contact Glenda Beall.

Carol Crawford and Glenda Beall hold a conversation at Writers' Night Out August 14

NCWN-West sponsors Writers' Night Out Friday evening, August 14, 7:00 PM. 

Carol Crawford

We will meet on Zoom for this reading and conversation with a published writer, a poet and editor, Carol Childers Crawford. Our guest lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia where she runs her own business. 

More about Carol:
Carol Crawford is the owner of Carol Crawford Editing and author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers.

Carol has led workshops and taught creative writing for the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Dahlonega Literary Festival, The Red Clay Writers’ Conference, Writers Circle Around the Table, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Carrollton Writers’ Club. She has been a volunteer with the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since it began more than twenty years ago.

Carol's essays and poetry have been published in the Southern Humanities Review, the Chattahoochee Review, and the Journal of Kentucky Studies among others. Originally from Texas, she holds a journalism and English degree from Baylor University. She loves to help people tell their stories.
She spends her free time doing needlepoint and badgering county commissioners about library funding.

Carol and Glenda will talk about editing and other things. Carol will read a couple of her personal essays. 

 Open microphone will follow for those who’d like to read their own poetry or prose with a time limit of three minutes.

Those wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up to read  by emailing Glenda Beall, glendabeall@msn.com.

Zoom invitations will be sent out again to NCWN-West members the week before the event. 

  For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com or contact Glenda Beall.

Writers' Night Out is Zooming on July 10

We are delighted to have Carroll S. Taylor, award-winning poet and author of three books, as our guest for Writers' Night Out Friday, July 10 at 7:00 PM.

 We will once again hold a Zoom event. I will send out the invitation to our members on July 5 or 6.
The event will include an Open Mic session. 

Writers' Night Out Has a New Home: The Ridges on Lake Chatuge

NCWN-West is happy to become associated with 

The Ridges Resort.  

3499 US-76, Young Harris, GA 30582

Writers' Night Out Begins April 10 at 7 pm with poet Rupert Fike

Joan Howard and I met with Andrea Allen of The Ridges Resort to confirm having our Writers' Night Out (WNO) there. Click here for their website. We'll continue with our normal schedule: the second Friday of each month, April through November, at 7 pm, featuring guest readers and an open mic. The resort is excited about helping make the event a success for our members, their guests, and the public. It's sure to be a win-win. 

The change of venue was necessary because our prior meeting place -- the Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA -- could no longer offer us a free room. We're grateful that they donated space for WNO for several years. 

Karen Paul Holmes, who has hosted WNO for 10 years, was touring the various meeting spaces at The Ridges for another event and had the thought that it could work very well for NCWN-West and WNO. Her idea met with much enthusiasm from their meeting planner Andrea and the resort's General Manager. They give us the room at no charge and will promote the event to their guests. In return we will tell everyone about the restaurant and the resort. 

I hope to see us meet for dinner at The Oaks Lakeside Kitchen, their farm-to-table restaurant, before we gather for WNO. It is fine dining and is not cheap, but once a month, you might want to splurge or at least try their appetizers and a cocktail. They open at 5 PM, and reservations are recommended. Their guests also give great reviews for the breakfasts served each day. 

Our writers will like that we can go to the bar in the restaurant, purchase a drink, and take it to the meeting room. 

On the marina side of the property is another restaurant, Marina Station, where they serve lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday (summer hours will likely be extended).

Originally the Fieldstone Inn, The Ridges was purchased by Duke Hospitality in 2017 and underwent extensive remodeling of all meeting spaces, lodge rooms, and restaurants in 2018.  All venues and restaurants have the most beautiful views of Lake Chatuge and the surrounding mountains. Weddings, family reunions, and conferences often enjoy the ambiance and friendliness of the staff.

For 2020, WNO will begin Friday, April 10 with a popular guest: Rupert Fike of Atlanta, whose last book was named a "Book Every Georgian Should Read." He will share his insights on writing, and this new aspect of the program will continue with each of our featured writers throughout the year. Open mic will take place after the reading/discussion. Because Karen has decided to step back a little due to scheduling conflicts, various members of NCWN-West will rotate as hosts.

At 6:45 we can enter the Blue Ridge Room adjacent to The Oaks Lakeside Kitchen for our meeting at 7:00 PM. If there is a change of room, the reception area of the restaurant will have the information for you. 

I urge you to drop by The Ridges for dinner or breakfast and see this lovely place. Stop in at the Marina Station Restaurant for lunch and a beautiful relaxing view of Lake Chatuge. 

I see many possibilities for NCWN-West to use facilities at The Ridges in the future. Let's support the businesses that support us, the writers in the area.

Nov. 8: Last Writers' Night of 2019, Blairsville, GA, 7 pm

Diana Anhalt + Rosemary Royston + Open Mic

Please join us for the last Writers' Night Out of the year!

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Diana will read from her new book. 

Diana Anhalt of Atlanta (by way of Mexico) has two full-length  poetry collections, Walking Backward (Kelsay) and Because There Is No Return, (Passager), and two chapbooks, Second Skin, (Future Cycle) and Lives of Straw (Finishing Line). She has lived in Atlanta for nine years, yet her poems colorfully depict people and places in Mexico, where she lived most of her life. Many of her essays, short stories, and book reviews have appeared in both English and Spanish along with her non-fiction book, A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico 1948-1965. Her poetry as also appeared in Nimrod, Concho River Review, The Connecticut River Review, The Atlanta Review, and Spillway, among many others.

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Rosemary Royston of Blairsville has been a Writers' Night Out favorite with her intelligent and interesting poems and compelling reading style. She's a lecturer and Vice President for Planning & Research at Young Harris College, where she periodically teaches a creative writing course. Author of Splitting the Soil (Finishing Line Press), her poetry has also been published or is forthcoming in journals such as Split Rock Review, Southern Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, Poetry South, KUDZU, NANO Fiction, and *82 Review.

After this event, Writers' Night Out will take a break for the winter and resume in April, 2020 on the second Friday of every month. To be considered as a featured reader of poetry or prose, please contact Karen Paul Holmes (kpaulholmes AT g mail dot com) who will begin working on the schedule in January. 

Here's a link to the Union County Community Center. Sign up at the door to read at open mic for 3 minutes of poetry or prose. Come early if you'd like to enjoy The View Grill. You can bring drinks to the room where the reading takes place.