The Literary Hour at John C. Campbell Folk School, Thursday, August 17, 2017, in Brasstown, NC, to feature local writers Glenda Council Beall, Glenda Barrett, and Jo Carolyn Beebe

On Thursday evening, August 17, 2017 at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, and North Carolina Writers Network-West will co-sponsor The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading in the library of Keith House. This event is held on the third Thursday of the month, unless otherwise indicated.  It is free of charge and open to the public, and the reading will be followed by an open Mic.  Poets Glenda Council Beall and Glenda Barrett, with poet and prose writer Jo Carolyn Bebe, will be the featured readers.  This month is unique in that we have three members of NCWN-West entertaining during The Literary Hour.

Glenda Council Beall

Glenda Council Beall’s writing has been published in numerous literary journals including, Reunions Magazine, Main Street Rag Poetry Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Journal of Kentucky Studies and online journals, Your Daily Poem, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and Wild Goose Poetry Review. Robert Brewer, editor at Writers Digest published one of her essays online. She read her work with Carol Crawford on the Writer's Radio Program, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Her poems have been anthologized in The Southern Poetry anthology: Volume VII: North Carolina 2014,  Lights in the Mountains, The Best of Poetry Hickory Series, 2011, Kakalak: North Carolina Poets of 2009, and Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places, among others. Her poems have won awards in the James Still Poetry Contest and the Clay County NC Poetry Contest. Her poetry Chapbook, Now Might as well be Then, is available at Finishing Line Press.

She serves as Program Coordinator of North Carolina Writers’ Network West She is also a Clay County Representative for NCWN-West, and in that capacity she hosts Coffee with the Poets and Writers once each month.

Glenda is Owner/Director of Writers Circle where she invites those interested in writing poetry or prose to her home studio for classes taught by some of the best poets and writers in North Carolina and Georgia.  Find her online at www.glendacouncilbeall.com and www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com

 

Glenda Barrett

Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia is an artist, poet and a visual writer.  Her work has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and journals.  These include Country Women, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Farm and Ranch Living, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Deep South Magazine, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Woman’s World, Greensilk Journal and others.  

Barrett's Appalachian artwork is for sale on fineartamerica.com and her poetry chapbook, When the Sap Rises, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008.  She now has a full-length poetry book titled, The Beauty of Silence, that was published in July of this year by Aldrich Press, and is available on Amazon.com

Jo Carolyn Bebe           

Jo Carolyn Beebe is a native of Mississippi. Many of her poems and stories are based on her recollections of conversations with her grandparents. Her Grandmother Anderson said, "The Bartletts are kin to Daniel Boone. They came through the Cumberland Gap with him." Great-grandfather Ricks showed her a greasy circle in his front yard where no grass would grow. "This is where the Indians cooked their food," he told her.

She also has her own memories of life in a small, rural town. Her story, "The Way You Hypnotize a Chicken," really happened when she and a friend hypnotized one of Grandmother's hens. And where else but in a small town could two little girls play in the funeral home and pick out their everyday casket and their Sunday casket?

Jo Carolyn has been published in Main Street Rag, Clothes Lines, Women's Spaces Women's Places, Lonzie's Fried Chicken, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge and by Abingdon Press. She has been most gratified with her family history book The Beekeepers and Sons of Ander.

She is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford and has been a resident of Towns County for 21 years.

Poet Glenda Barrett to read at Coffee with the Poets & Writers on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

This Wednesday, July 19, 2017, poet Glenda Barrett will read at Coffee with the Poets and Writers, at 10:30 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC. This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and is open to the public. An open mic for all attendees will follow Barrett's reading.

 Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is an artist, poet, and writer. Her work has been

widely published yearly since her first writing class in 1997 and has appeared in: Woman's World, Farm & Ranch Living, Country Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Journal of Kentucky Living, Nantahala Review, Rural Heritage, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Kaleidoscope Magazine and many more.

Barrett's poetry chapbook, When the Sap Rises, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. She has completed two more books since that time, a book of poetry with Kelsay Books, The Beauty of Silence,  available on Amazon, and a book of Appalachian essays. Glenda worked many years in various healthcare system jobs and retired due to a form of Muscular Dystrophy.

She is very grateful to be able to devote her time to the two things she loved as a child, painting and writing. She has two grown children and lives with her husband of forty-two years in the North Georgia mountains.

Barrett is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network-West. For more information on this event, contact Glenda Council Beall, Program Coordinator of NCWN-West, at 828-389-4441.

Appalachian author Glenda Barrett publishes a new book, The Beauty of Silence, with Kelsay Books

Appalachian author Glenda Barrett has published a book of poetry with Kelsay Books. The Beauty of Silence, is available on amazon. Here is what writers Nancy Simpson, Mary Ricketson, and Janice Townley Moore say about Barrett's book:

In The Beauty of Silence, Glenda Barrett reveals the most authentic Appalachian voice to rise out of the southern mountains in years. “The Gist of the Matter,” invites us in, as she sits at a table with her kinfolks, peeling and eating an apple. The reader listens as this wise family elder recounts the then and now of her mountain heritage. In her poem, “Sorting it Out,” she affirms, “In hindsight, my best lessons were learned not in good times, but in deepest sorrow. I learned pain would not destroy me.” Her hope is to share specific truths. This nugget of wisdom emerges from, “Serenity,” “I’ve learned the comfort and peace found in solitude.” I chose, “The Fork of the River,” as my favorite. “My best lessons have been learned not in chaos, but in places of silence. Like the Cherokee before me, I seek direction in the quietness of the morning."

—Nancy Simpson, author of Across Water, Night Student, and Living Above the Frost Line, New and Selected Poems


Glenda Barrett’s poems reflect a wisdom that grows from a life-long relationship with nature. The gentle flow of a mountain stream, the hardship of ice in winter, and a sudden drought in summer contribute to her perspective. In The Beauty of Silence, Barrett plants seeds for the reader through a garden of strong people, simple ways, and the wisdom of experience. From her grandmother, her ancestors, flowers in a garden, to the trail tree of the Cherokee, she sifts her life to find nuggets of country wisdom. She “stands knee deep in the cool, clear waters of Owl Creek.” A quiet simplicity feeds her, feeds the reader. “Clods of dirt are busted, large rocks rolled aside, tangled vines uprooted, and brambles turned under,” until it’s time to return to my complicated life.” Barrett is a “homegrown girl” who couldn’t leave her roots for long. Her poems provide the reader a wealth of perspective, a wisdom long remembered.

—Mary Ricketson, M. E. Ed., Licensed Professional Counselor, author of I Hear the River Call My Name, and Hanging Dog Creek

In clearly crafted poems, Glenda Barrett connects a literal geography, the North Georgia mountains of her heritage, to a landscape of honest and varied emotions. There is elation in, “I can almost feel the pulse beat of my ancestors who hoed this ground,” balanced with sorrow, “I felt searing pain like deep furrows plowed slowly back and forth across my heart.” As a poet who finds meaning in the ordinary, she often surprises the reader with insights such as, “For the soil to be useful it has to be broken.” Always close to the natural world, her poems reveal that she is a professor of the five senses, as when she describes spring, “Even the red tulips . . . with their mouths wide open seem to be shouting with the rest of creation, 'Hallelujah.'" As seen her lines reflect a triumphant spirit that is certain to be transferred to readers.

—Janice Townley Moore, author of Teaching the Robins



 Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is an artist, poet, and writer. Her work has been

widely published yearly since her first writing class in 1997 and has appeared in: Woman's World, Farm & Ranch Living, Country Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Journal of Kentucky Living, Nantahala Review, Rural Heritage, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Kaleidoscope Magazine and many more.

Barrett's poetry chapbook, When the Sap Rises, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. She has completed two more books since that time, a full-length poetry book which is currently under review by a publisher and a book of Appalachian essays. Glenda worked many years in various healthcare system jobs and retired due to a form of Muscular Dystrophy.

She is very grateful to be able to devote her time to the two things she loved as a child, painting and writing. She has two grown children and lives with her husband of forty-two years in the North Georgia mountains.

Barrett is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network-West.