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. 

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

Fike and Moore Headline Writers' Night in Blairsville, April 8

Writers' Night Out (WNO) begins its 6th year with two popular poets:

Janice Townley Moore

Rupert Fike

Reading begins at 7 pm
Open mic follows -- sign up at the door to read poetry or prose for 3 minutes.

Janice and Rupert are highly published poets and entertaining readers. Janice is a favorite local poet, and Rupert wows crowds in Atlanta. The venue is lovely.
What's not to love?

Writers’ Night Out In New Location, March 15

Writers’ Night Out starts its fourth year by featuring two local writers: poet Mary Ricketson and novelist Paul M. Schofield. The event takes place on Saturday, March 15 in its new location, the Union County Community Center at Butternut Creek Golf Course in Blairsville, GA. A social hour starts at 6 p.m. with the reading at 7 p.m. and open microphone following. Writers’ Night is free (food available for purchase) and open to the public. Writers can sign up at the door to read poetry or prose for three minutes in the open microphone.

Ricketson, of Murphy, NC, has been writing for 20 years. She is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in her chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name, as well as in Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Freeing Jonah, Red Fox Run, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Your Daily Poem, andJournal of Kentucky Studies.  She won medals for poetry in the Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts, and won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75^th anniversary national poetry contest. Ricketson writes a monthly column, “Woman to Woman,” for The Cherokee Scout, is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, and is president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

Schofield’s three action-packed books make up The Trophy Saga, based on ideas that are theoretically feasible. They feature time-travel, chase and battle scenes, fusion powered star-ships, a computer-controlled society, tender moments and scary episodes. Refreshing to read, they are free of explicit sex, profanity, graphic violence and paranormal themes. Schofield was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Murphy, NC with his wife Ellen.

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by NC Writers Network-West and is now at its new location: The Union County Community Center, located 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  Come to the upstairs banquet room, which is accessible via stairs or the elevator. Starting April 2014, Writers’ Night Out will move to the second Saturday of each month. For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.