Award Winning Poets - Don't miss this workshop if you write poetry

Workshop Opportunity with Award-Winning Poets

Chelsea Rathburn and James Davis May are teaching a poetry workshop on Saturday, February 21, 10 am – 1pm, at Young Harris College in Young Harris, GA. The widely published poets, who happen to be married, are both assistant professors of English and creative writing at Young Harris College.

The workshop is geared to intermediate to advanced poets, and the fee is $20 per person.  Reservations are on a first-come/first-served basis.  Send your check, payable  to Rosemary Royston, POB 694, Young Harris, GA, 30582, along with your name, address, and email.  The class will be held on the campus of Young Harris College.  Once registration is received, further details will be provided. 

Rathburn is author of two full-length poetry collections, A Raft of Grief, published by  Autumn House Press in 2013, and The Shifting Line, winner of the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review, and her prose has appeared in Creative Nonfiction. In 2009, she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

May's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Five Points, The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, Pleiades, Rattle, The Southern Review and elsewhere. The former editor of New South, he has received scholarships from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review.

When the two poets read at Writers' Night Out last year, they were well-received and we were urged to have them teach a workshop. Here in our mountains, we are fortunate to have poets of their quality available for classes. 

For more information, please contact Rosemary Royston at 706.897.6667 or rosemary28rr@gmail.com .

Netwest Member Janice Moore Honored

YHC Senior-Most Faculty Member Janice Moore Receives Special Honor  

Young Harris College's senior-most faculty member Associate Professor of English Janice Moore recently received a unique gift to commemorate her 50 years of dedicated service to the College. During a special ceremony in November 2012, YHC faculty unveiled a reserved parking spot in the Goolsby Center parking lot that names her "YHC Poet Laureate." 

Moore teaches creative writing and poetry at YHC, and her special areas of interest include contemporary poetry and Southern literature. In addition to her teaching duties, she was chair of the YHC Humanities Division for eight years and served 12 years as poetry editor for the Georgia Journal. Moore claimed first prize in the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards and was awarded first place in the Georgia Poetry Society's annual competition in 2011. Her work has appeared in more than 60 esteemed journals, anthologies and textbooks, including The Georgia Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology: Contemporary Appalachia, Contemporary Georgia Poets, Women Writing in Appalachia and the Southern Poetry Review.

Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center Visit

For those who have not visited the Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center outside Blairsville, GA, this is a wonderful time of year to spend an hour or more learning about life in these mountains as it was 100 years ago, and to learn about the interesting poet, Byron Herbert Reece. He grew up here and lived on the farm where the center has been built. He taught at Young Harris College. His story tells the story of this land, of Choestoe, where he was born in a cabin in 1917.

The anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, is dedicated to Reece and several of his poems are in the book. I was fascinated to read Reece's actual letters and the newspaper articles I found at the center. The lost art of letter-writing is a window to the writer's heart. My appetite has been whetted and I want to read all of them.
On the day I visited the center, Mrs. John Kay was there and filled our heads with interesting facts about the noted poet.

My guests and I watched a video about Reece's life told by poets, Mildred Greear and Bettie Sellers, and other well-known people of this area. I hope to get back over to continue my tour and purchase some of the books on sale at the gift shop, but I must go soon. They will only be open a few more weekends.

(from the Reece website)
The remaining days of fall


We’re back to clear blue skies, and while the wind was hard on the leaves, it’s still lovely at the Reece Farm and Heritage Center. We’ll be open just a few more weekends, so be sure to stop by soon. The Gift Shop is full of unique items for gift giving, and Shelley will be glad to guide you through the selections. The Farm and Heritage Center is located south of Blairsville on the Gainesville Highway (Hwy 129), just north of Vogel State Park. Watch for the signs! We’re open the remaining weekends in November, including the weekend following Thanksgiving, on Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 to 4:00.

Mitchell and Newton read poetry October 8

WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT FEATURES TWO POETS, OCTOBER 8

Writers’ Night Out will feature poets Maren O. Mitchell and Clarence Newton followed by an Open Microphone for those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction.

The event takes place October 8 at 7:00 p.m. in Wilson Lecture Hall at Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia.

Maren O. Mitchell has worked as a proofreader, managed a group home, taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. A North Carolina native, she now lives in Towns County, GA with her husband and two cats. Her poetry publishing credits include Red Clay Reader, The Richmond Broom, The Arts Journal, Appalachian Journal, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Southern Humanities Review and the anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.

Clarence Newton, who lives in Hiawassee, GA, puts both humor and wisdom into his writings. Once a guest writer for several newspapers, he has turned his love of writing toward poetry. He has studied under former Poet Laureate of Georgia Bettie Sellers and under poet and resident writer at John C. Campbell Folk School, Nancy Simpson. His work appears in Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. After a long career in aviation, Clarence now finds inspiration in the things of retirement, such as fishing, gardening, and birding.

Writers’ Night Out takes place the second Friday evening of every month from 7-8:30 p.m. Formerly at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, the event now takes place at Young Harris College in Wilson Lecture Hall, which is located in the Goolsby Center on the campus. Parking is free.

Those interested in reading at the Open Mic may sign up at the event. Each writer will have three minutes to read fiction or poetry. The evening is free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact Writers’ Night Out coordinator, Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.