Steven Harvey, Beloved Teacher & Writer at Writers' Night, Blairsville, GA

Don't Miss this Special Guest

Friday, October 9

Dr. Steven Harvey

Writers’ Night Out features retired Young Harris College professor, Steven Harvey, PhD, on Friday night, October 9. An open microphone will follow for those who’d like to read their own poetry or prose. The event takes place at the Union County Community Center in Blairsville and is free and open to the public. Food and drinks are available for purchase. The program begins at 7 p.m., but attendees should arrive by 6 p.m. if they plan to eat.

Harvey’s most recent book is The Book of Knowledge and Wonder, a memoir about coming to terms with the suicide of his mother. It was published by Ovenbird Books as part of the “Judith Kitchen Select” series.  A section of the memoir appeared in The Best American Essays 2013.  He is also the author of three books of personal essays, A Geometry of Lilies, Lost in Translation, and Bound for Shady Grove and edited an anthology of essays written by men on middle age called In a Dark Wood.  Harvey is a professor emeritus of English and creative writing at Young Harris College, a member of the nonfiction faculty in the Ashland University MFA program in creative writing, a senior editor for River Teeth magazine, and the creator of The Humble Essayist, a website designed to promote literary nonfiction.  He lives in the north Georgia mountains.  You can learn more about Steven and his work at his web site:  www.steven-harvey-author.com .

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through November. Prose writers or poets wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read for three minutes. In its fifth year, the event draws audience members from four counties. The Union County Community Center is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course, 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Scott Owens & Glenda Beall at Writers' Night Out, Sept 11

Join us for this dynamic duo on Friday evening, September 11 at 7 p.m.

Glenda Beall

Scott Owens

Dinner in The View Grill: please arrive by 6 p.m. or earlier*

Program in the Ballroom: 7 p.m. followed by open mic

Union County Community Center

129 Union County Recreation Center Road (near intersection of 129 and 76)

Blairsville, GA

map (note: the Holiday Inn on the map is now a Comfort Inn)

The readings are free and open to the public. 

Sign up at the door for open mic, limited to 3 minutes per reader. 

*Optional food/refreshments are self-pay. 

Join the Beebes for Writers’ Night Out, July 10

Husband and wife writers, Jo Carolyn and John Beebe, will entertain the audience with their fiction, poetry, and memoir.

       An open microphone follows their reading for those who’d like to share their own writing. Writers’ Night Out, takes place at the Union CountyCommunity Center in Blairsville, GA on Friday evening, July 10. The event is free and open to the public. Food and drinks are available for purchase, but attendees should arrive by 6 pm to allow time to be served before the program starts at 7 pm.

John and Jo Carolyn Beebe have lived in Towns County, GA for twenty years. They recently celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary. They have three daughters, six grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

Jo Carolyn was born at the tip of the Appalachian Mountains in northeast Mississippi where oral family history was handed down to her by her grandparents and great-grandfather -- history rich in tales of the early settlers, Civil War encounters, and the hard life of the rural south. While studying creative writing at Miami University, she discovered those family legends provided material for short stories and poetry. Her publication credits include MainStreet Rag, Lonzie’s Fried Chicken, Lights in the Mountains, Heroes of Hackland, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Clothes Lines, Women’s Spaces Women’sPlaces, View from the Top, and Abingdon Press.

John Beebe comes by his personal essays naturally. His mother was a poet and journalist for local newspapers, and his grandfather also was a writer. John is a retired civil engineer having worked in the paper industry in Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio. He has enjoyed choral music most of his life and sang with the Atlanta Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony for a total of thirteen years. In recent years he sang with the Mountain Community Chorus. John was born in South Bend, IN, grew up in Zion, IL, and graduated from the University of Illinois

Writers’ Night Out, sponsored by the North CarolinaWriters’ Network-West, takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through November. Prose writers or poets wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read for three minutes. The Union County Community Center is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course, 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  

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

Writers' Night Out Returns April 10

Hope to see everyone after the long winter. We're springing forward with a special program with a prestigious guest: Ronald Moran, award-winning poet and former professor/dean at Clemson University. And a very special local writer: Maren Mitchell.

We're back on Fridays (the second of each month), due to popular demand. Also, The View Grill has a new menu, so come at 6 pm for food/drink/friendly chat.

Featured reader bios:

Ronald Moran has published 12 collections of poetry, the most recent being The Tree in the Mind (Clemson University Press, 2014); two books of criticism (one coauthored); and more than 500 poems, essays, and reviews in many journals, including Connecticut Poetry Review, Emrys Journal, Evening Street Review, Louisiana Review, Northwest Review, South Carolina Review,  Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Thomas Wolfe Review, and The Wallace Stevens Journal.  He has won several awards and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Moran’s writings and memorabilia about them are archived in Special Collections of the James B. Duke Library at Furman University.  He lives in Simpsonville, SC.

Maren Mitchell’s poems have appeared in many journals, including The South Carolina Review, Hotel Amerika, Southern Humanities Review, The Classical Outlook, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Skive (Australia), Town Creek Poetry, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and The Arts Journal, Red Clay Reader Vol. 4. Her work has been, or is forthcoming, in anthologies such as The Southern Poetry Anthology, V: Georgia, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Negative Capability Press Anthology for Georgia Poetry. Mitchell’s nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012), is available at the Curiosity Shop bookstore in Murphy, NC, and on Amazon. A native of North Carolina, Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France; Kaiserslautern, Germany; and throughout the southeast U.S.  She now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia.

News News News

Hello, Karen Paul Holmes here. I've been saving up news items, so here is a mishmash:

Give yourself the gift of time to write: Come to my all-genre writing class at the wonderful John C. Campbell Folk School, May 3-9. Locals may qualify for half-price tuition, so get on the list today! Bring a friend for any number of other arts/crafts classes offered that week -- it's like summer camp for adults.   https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=17708

Writers' Night Out will resume in April. We may be switching back to Friday nights, so please let me know your preference.

Some of you know that my dog Watson loves watching TV.
Well, he loves looking at my laptop screen as I type too,
and he's pretty good at grammar.

Have you Googled yourself lately? Recently, I was surprised to find that the poem "Rug" from my book, Untying the Knot, was included in a list of the Top 10 "Red" Poems by Tweetspeak Poetry on Oct 14. Go figure! You an read it and the other top poems using the color red here: http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2014/10/16/top-ten-red-poems/

I've been busy doing readings from my book and workshops, including the Georgia Poetry Society meeting in Gainesville, the Decatur Public Library (as part of the Georgia Center for the Book), and an upcoming reading with Michael Diebert (editor of the Chattahoochee Review) at Callanwolde Arts Center in Atlanta on Feb 11 at 8 pm. My book is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. If you'd like a personalized copy, please let me know. I'm running out of my supply, which is a happy problem for poets.

A new publication is accepting submissions: Sling Magazine. My poem about my mom and dad meeting in Australia during WWII is in the second issue (page 7) here: http://www.slingmag.com/

My mom and dad in Australia, WWII

As It Ought to Be featured two poems on their Saturday Poetry Series, November 15. You can read "Drawn into Circles" (my most published poem) and "Teaching Mozart in Stone Mountain Prison" here:  http://asitoughttobe.com/2014/11/15/saturday-poetry-series-presents-karen-paul-holmes/

OK, folks, I think that's it for the new news. Hope your writing will flourish in 2015.

Writers Night This Saturday: Scott Owens, Staci Bell

September 13

Featured on Writer's Almanac and winner of many poetry awards, Scott Owens once again travels from Hickory, NC to read for us. He'll also teach a workshop at Writers Circle in Hayesville on Saturday.

Joining him at Writers' Night Out on September 13, will be writer and former talk-show host, Staci Bell, from Murphy.
An open mic follows the featured readers. Sign up at the door.

We meet at the lovely Union County Community Center in the heart of Blairsville.  Come early for dinner and drink (optional, for purchase).

Important Update (/12/14): This month, we will meet in the A/B Conference Rooms on the ground floor where we were last month. Dinner is optional and served upstairs in the View Grill (great view of the golf course and mountains!). There will be complimentary iced tea and water served in our room. You can bring food and a drink (alcohol included) down with you if you'd like, but there will be no waitress service in our room.  

Program starts at 7:00, so please plan enough time to order/eat if you're having dinner there. The Union County Community Center is gracious enough to not enforce a minimum food order for our group, so you don't need to feel obligated to have anything (but the socializing is fun!).

For more info: kpaulholmes@gmail.com

"Writers on the Writing Process," an Interview with Karen Paul Holmes

A chance meeting on Facebook results in a San Fransisco writer interviewing a Netwest member. 

Writer, Laura E. Davis, who lives in San Fransisco, and Netwest Rep for Georgia, Karen Paul Holmes, met through an international women's writers' group on Facebook. Learning of Karen's new book, Untying the Knot, Laura offered to interview her for the series called "Writers on the Writing Process."  Read the interview here

The Lake Chatuge view that inspires Karen Paul Holmes to write

Untying the Knot is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, and also at City Light Bookstore in Sylva, NC.

On August 9, Karen Paul Holmes and Co-Netwest Rep, Rosemary Royston, will be the featured readers at Writers' Night Out in Blairsville. Rosemary also has a new book, Splitting the Soil (available on Amazon and from Finishing Line Press). The two poets plan to try a new approach to their reading: They will pair their poems in some logical/artistic way and read them alternately, rather than each poet reading alone. The event takes place at the lovely Union County Community Center at Butternut Creek Golf Course (map here). Food and beverages (including alcohol) are available for purchase at 6 pm during the social hour. An open mic follows after the reading. Sign up at the door to read 3 minutes of prose or poetry. Writers' Night Out takes place on the second Saturday of every month.

Come Hear Lucy Cole Gratton, July 12 Writers' Night Out

Don't miss Lucy!

She writes poetry and short essays of interest and misadventures about activities around her property on Lake Apalachia. The program begins with a social hour at 6 p.m. (dinner available for purchase) and reading following at 7 p.m.. There’s also an open microphone for those who’d like to read their own writing (limit 3 minutes of prose or poetry).

Union County Community Center

129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512 

Behind Holiday Inn Express near the intersection of US 76 and Highway 129
phone (706) 439-6092

We usually meet in the upstairs ballroom (alternate location is A-B conference room on first floor). Click here for the map.

Writers' Night Out Nov 8

Our last Writers’ Night Out for 2013

features

Katie Chaple & Travis Denton

Two entertaining readers who are university poetry instructors, editors and husband & wife: You’re in for a treat.

Oh yeah, an Open Mike too!

 

Last month, we had a small group of 10 in attendance, so please come this Friday to give these wonderful poets a large and enthusiastic audience as we usually do for Writers' Night Out. November is our last meeting of the year -- we'll resume in March 2014.

Writers’ Night Out
Friday, Nov 8

Brothers Willow Ranch Restaurant, Young Harris, GA
Private Room upstairs (can access by ramp from upper parking lot)

6:00-7:00 eat dinner or munchies and socialize (come early to order dinner)
7:00-ish announcements and featured reader
Break
7:45-ish Open mike, sign up at door, limit 3 minutes per poetry or prose reader (Please time yourself at home, let's make it fair to everyone. Prose readers can often eliminate some details and still captivate the audience with their piece).

Featured Poets' Bios:

Katie Chaple is the author of Pretty Little Rooms (Press 53, August 2011), winner of the 2012 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award in Poetry through Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She teaches poetry and writing at the University of West Georgia and edits Terminus Magazine. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Antioch Review, Crab Orchard Review, Mead, New South, Passages North, StorySouth, The Rumpus, Washington Square, and others.

Travis Denton is the Associate Director of Poetry @ TECH as well as a McEver Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech. He is also founding editor of the literary arts publication, Terminus Magazine. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, such as Mead, The Atlanta Review, The Greensboro Review, Washington Square, Forklift, Rattle, Tygerburning, Birmingham Poetry Review, and the Cortland Review. His second collection of poems, When Pianos Fall from the Sky, was published in October 2012 by Marick Press.

Maren O. Mitchell Featured At Writers' Night Out Sept 13

Come hear Maren Mitchell, prize-winning, nationally published poet and author of Beat Chronic Pain: An Insider’s Guide.

Writers’ Night Out

Friday, Sept 13

Brothers Willow Ranch Restaurant, Young Harris, GA
(upstairs private room, park in back and walk in via the ramp)

• 6:00-7:00 eat dinner or munchies and socialize (come early to order dinner)
• 7:00-ish announcements and featured reader
• Break
• 7:45-ish Open mike, sign up at door, limit 3 minutes per poetry or prose reader (Please time yourself at home, let's make it fair to everyone. Prose readers can often eliminate some details and still captivate the audience with their piece).

Maren’s Bio:

Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Southern Humanities Review, The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, Appalachian Journal, Red Clay Reader #4, The Arts Journal, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and Pirene’s Fountain and elsewhere. Her work is included in The Southern Poetry Anthology, V: Georgia; Sunrise from Blue Thunder; Nurturing Paws; and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and is forthcoming in Hotel Amerika. Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012), and is available at the Curiosity Shop bookstore in Murphy, NC, and on Amazon.

Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. For over twenty years, across five states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

A native of North Carolina, in her childhood Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia.

WRITERS' NIGHT OUT

WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT

Brenda Kay Ledford will read her poetry at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, GA on Friday, August 13.

“Writers’ Night Out” begins at 7:00 p.m. with Ledford’s reading. An open microphone follows for people who wish to read their work.

A native of Clay County, NC, Ledford’s work reflects her Appalachian heritage. She recalls her Hayesville High School English teacher, Mrs. Josephine Thurman, encouraged students to write what they know.

Ledford’s poem, “Lake Chatuge,” received the 2010 honorable mention award from Georgia Poetry Society. Her poem was published in the societies’ anthology, The Reach of Song.

She’s a member of Georgia Poetry Society, Byron Herbert Reece Society, Appalachian Writers’ Association, North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, and listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers.

Her work has appeared in Our State, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Heritage, North Carolina Humanities, Broad River Review (Gardener-Webb University), Chicken Soup For the Soul, Country Extra, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and other publications.

Ledford received third place from the North Carolina Press Association for Feature Writing in 1999. She also won the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her three poetry chapbooks, Patchwork Memories, Shewbird Mountain, and Sacred Fire. Her books are available at the John C. Campbell Folk School Craft Shop, Phillips & Lloyd Bookshop and online at: http://www.amazon.com/.

Finally, those interested in participating in the open microphone, may sign up at “Writers’ Night Out.” Each person has three minutes to read prose or poetry. The event is free and open to the public. It also includes musical interludes.

Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 195 Main Street next to Mull’s Motel in Hiawassee, Georgia. Come early for a light dinner. The café features espresso and other coffee drinks, smoothies, sandwiches, and sweets.

For more information, contact Mountain Perk owner, Mary Lawrence at: (706) 896-9385, or “Writers’ Night Out” coordinator, Karen Paul Holmes at: (404) 316-8466, or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

WRITERS' NIGHT OUT TO FEATURE KAREN HOLMES

HAVE A FUN EVENING AT WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT, JUNE 11

HIAWASSEE – June 1, 2010 – Come hear authors reading their work at the new monthly event, Writers’ Night Out at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, GA. This month, Karen Paul Holmes of Hiawassee/Atlanta will read her poetry on June 11 at 7:00 p.m. Her reading will be followed by an Open Microphone for those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction. These light literary and musical evenings take place on the second Friday of every month from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Please arrive early as the event has drawn a full house in its first two months.
Karen Paul Holmes is an award-winning business writer who began focusing on poetry after moving to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her publishing credits include journals such as Poetry East, Atlanta Review and Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and anthologies, including the upcoming Echoes Across the Blue Ridge: Stories, Essays & Poems Written by Writers Living in & Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Karen enjoys reading her poetry in public, classical music, Ikebana and contra-dancing. She’ll be teaching a writing class at John C Campbell Folk School next January.

Those interested in participating in the Open Mic will have a chance to sign up at the event. Each writer will have three minutes to read fiction or poetry. The evening, which also includes musical interludes, is free and open to the public.

Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 195 Main Street, next to Mull’s Motel. The café features espresso and other coffee drinks, sandwiches and sweets.

For more information, please contact Mountain Perk Owner, Mary Lawrence at (706) 896-9385, or Writers’ Night Out coordinator, Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.