Poet Scott Owens to Teach Workshop at Moss Memorial Library June 16

We are fortunate to have Scott Owens teach a workshop for us at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC, Friday, June 16, 2:00-4:45 PM.

Scott Owens writes poetry as if he were a painter. Painters see more than other people see. They look beyond the obvious. Scott sees and invites the reader to visualize images, actions, beliefs, purposes, motives, and results of what he has gleaned from his life as a child, a husband, a father, a teacher, a human being who took notice.

Workshop Title: Inspiration Surrounds Us: How to Have Enough to Write About for at Least 4 Lifetimes.

Fee: $45.00 A portion of the fee goes to NCWN-West.

Send a check before June 10, made to Glenda Beall, and mail to 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904

Scott Owens

Scott is the author of 19 collections of poetry, and more than 1200 published poems. He has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the NC Writers' Network, the NC Poetry Society, the Poetry Society of SC, and many others.

His poems have been featured on "The Writers' Almanac" 7 times, "Poetry in Plain Sight" 4 times, and "Your Daily Poem" 13 times.

He is Professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University and has taught creative writing for more than 20 years, including in excess of 40 community or conference workshops.

His books cover a wide range of topics including a love of nature, surviving an abusive childhood, growing up on a farm, writing, religion, dreams and nightmares, parenting, politics, philosophy, existentialism, and of course, love.

He has collaborated with poet, Pris Campbell, on two novels in poetry; with artist, Missy Cleveland, on an illustrated collection of poems for children; and with photographer, Clayton Joe Young, on two collections featuring images of the North Carolina Piedmont. 

In his spare time, Scott owns and operates a successful coffee shop in downtown Hickory. He serves as President of the Hickory Downtown Development Association. He has hosted Poetry Hickory at his coffee shop for 17 years. Several of our NCWN-West poets have read there.

Scott has always loved the NC mountains. In his younger days he was an avid hiker, who spent one summer hiking the mountains to more than 100 waterfalls. He is also an avid birdwatcher, and on a recent weeklong visit to the Smokies, saw 23 bald eagles.

Born and raised on farms and in mill villages in and around Greenwood, SC, he now lives on an acre near downtown Hickory where he constantly weeds his garden, prunes his trees, and tends his flock of 8 egg-producing chickens.

He says you can take the boy off the farm, but you can never take the farm out of the boy.

Poet and Writer Abbie Taylor to be Featured Reader for Mountain Wordsmiths

By Carroll S. Taylor
Guest Writer

 

Abbie Taylor

            Wyoming writer and poet Abbie Johnson Taylor will be the featured reader for this month’s gathering of Mountain Wordsmiths. The group will meet Thursday, March 23, at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. One of the benefits of meeting online is the ability to host writers from all areas of the country. Taylor attends our gathering each month despite the early time difference between North Carolina and her home in Wyoming.
            She is the author of three novels, two poetry collections, and a memoir. She is currently working on a short story collection she hopes to publish this year. Her work has appeared in The Weekly Avocet, Magnets and Ladders, and other publications.
            Taylor is visually impaired and lives in Sheridan, WY, where for six years, she cared for her late husband who was totally blind and partially paralyzed by two strokes soon after they were married. With a BA in music, she worked as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents for 15 years before getting married and writing full-time. She also taught Braille, facilitated a support group for blind and visually impaired adults, and served on the advisory board to a trust fund that provides adaptive equipment and services to blind and visually impaired children and adults. To learn more about her, visit her website at: https://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com
            NCWN-West is continuing to stay in touch by using technology to share our writing. We continue to offer writing events and writing classes both online and in person. Many writers are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of Zoom meetings because of the ability to join our gatherings from other locations.
           Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. Our group is informal, and we welcome those who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing. All who attend are encouraged to enjoy their morning cup of coffee or tea as we share our thoughts about writing.

                                         

A Good NIght at Writers' Night Out

We were fortunate to have Dana Wildsmith as our featured guest for Writers' Night Out on Zoom. 

She writes poetry and prose and I enjoy all of her books. The memoir, Back to Abnormal, begins with her stepping on a rattlesnake and being bitten. Tonight she told us how upsetting it was for her when people took it so lightly and made it seem to be her fault. Most of us think it just takes a shot of anti-venom and you are fine, but she explains in her book just how painful the whole thing is and that it continues for days and weeks. And she said you take many anti-venom shots, not just one. But, she didn't take the anti-venom shots because she was told that if she was allergic she could die from the shots. It was a horrible experience.

Dana lives on an old family farm in Bethlehem, Georgia, a town where people come at Christmas to have their holiday cards stamped. 

Dana's newest book is One Light, a book of poems that centers on the caregiving of a loved one.

Her mother, Grace, probably saved Dana's life when she was fourteen and her nightgown caught fire as she stood too close to the fireplace. The child had massive burns all over her body and needed extensive care as she recovered. But her mother never left her side. In the book, One Light, Dana writes poetry about her mother's care. But she also writes poems about caring for Grace in later life who developed a terrible form of dementia. 

Anyone who has cared for a loved one with any kind of brain disorder knows the sorrow and frustration that occurs. I found it enlightening when Dana wrote poems in her mother's voice and in her own voice exploring the situation. 

Dana teaches often at the John C. Campbell Folk School online and in person. She will be teaching a class in person in January 2023.

https://folkschool.configio.com/pd/809/writing-in-a-changing-world?st_t=2077&st_ti=2516&cid=2527&returncom=productlist&source=search

Register early to be sure you can get in. If you live in local surrounding counties, you may get a discount on the price.

We thank Dana for being our guest at WNO and look forward to reading her books which are available at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC, and can be purchased at most local bookstores. You can also order them from the publishers. Go to Amazon.com to learn more.

We welcome you to join us for Writers' Night Out no matter where you live. Writers from Florida, Wyoming, and distant counties in North Carolina attend each month. They often read at Open Mic. Contact Karen Paul Holmes or Glenda Beall if you don't receive an invitation with the link to the Zoom meeting. 

 

North Georgia Writer Dana Wildsmith to be Featured Speaker for October WNO

Writers' Night Out - Oct. 14, 7 p.m. EST

Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic 

Dana Wildsmith

Poet, essayist, novelist and educator

    North Georgia poet, essayist, novelist, and educator Dana Wildsmith will be the featured speaker at Writers’ Night Out Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m.

    Dana Wildsmith’s writing has its roots in literal soil: the earth of the old farm she works to keep alive, as documented in her collection of poems, One Good Hand, and through her environmental memoir, Back to Abnormal, or along the desert sands of our southern border, as told in her novel, Jumping, a story which grew from Wildsmith’s work as a teacher of English Literacy to non-native speakers.

    Her most recent collection, One Light, follows the journey of her mother, Grace, down dementia’s rocky road. 

"One Light is a book about a Georgia mother and a daughter who must each take a turn at caregiving. In the first half of the book, the daughter tells of surviving near-fatal burns at age fourteen and describes with stark straightforwardness the healing process, during which her mother serves as one of her primary caregivers.

In Part II, where both voices are alternately and jointly heard, the daughter moves reluctantly into the role of caregiver as her mother travels dementia’s haunting paths. Their shared love of singing and a stubborn tenacity serve as thematic threads."

    Wildsmith has a new book forthcoming from Madville Publishing which took root as the pandemic flourished and we all searched for tools to help us cope with this unprecedented epic. With Access to Tools explores the role of tools in our lives: traditional farm tools, tools of the digital age, and cerebral tools such as patience and memory. 

    Wildsmith is a highly sought-after teacher of creative writing and has garnered residencies at the Hambidge Center, the Lillian E Smith Center, Grand Canyon National Park, and Everglades National Park.

    Her website, www.danawildsmith.com, is the home of a widely read blog mostly centered on teaching and writing.

Open mic readers are welcome to read poetry or prose for up to 4 minutes (2-poem maximum, please).

Zoom link and Open Mic sign-up: Contact Glenda Beall glendabeall@msn.com

Writers' Night Out is a monthly event sponsored by the NCWN-West. 

A Statement of Belief

We believe that writing is necessary both for self-expression and community spirit, that well-written words can connect people across time and distance, and that the deeply satisfying experiences of writing and reading should be available to everyone.

Congratulations to Maren O. Mitchell

Maren O. Mitchell

Maren O. Mitchell, a County Representative of NCWN-West for Georgia, has had the following poems published lately: the November, 2021 issue of POEM: "I'd Like to Forget" and "I See the Sounds of Time" - the December, 2021 issue of The Orchards Poetry Journal: "February 6, second." - the #102 issue, The Optimist, of Poetry East: "Hope, you stay with me when I have nothing else" - and the January 2022, issue of The Lake: "Green" and "Orange, my-favorite-color."

 Her chapbook, In my next life I plan... is forthcoming in 2022 from dancinggirl press. 

 Maren's poems appear in The Antigonish Review (Canada), Cider Press Review, Chiron Review, The Cortland Review, POEM, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Journal and elsewhere.

Three poems, “X Is a Kiss on Paper," “T, Totally Balanced,” and "Bears, Ants and Avocados" have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

 A North Carolina native, in her childhood, Maren O. Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany.  After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband on the edge of a national forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

 

Poet, Dr. Eugene Z. Hirsch, 12/18/31 -- 9/3/20

This post written by Mary Ricketson

Gene Hirsch, MD, a poet of our mountains, died September 3, 2020, after a long struggle with cancer.  

He was a well-known writer in western North Carolina.  He taught poetry at John C. Campbell Folk School for many years, and helped Nancy Simpson start North Carolina Writers Network West 25 years ago or more.  He regularly attended critique groups, read at organized events, and taught small groups of poets at his home in Murphy.  Gene was teacher and mentor to be remembered.  He lived in Pittsburgh PA and in Murphy NC, and visited Murphy often, until May 2019.

Gene was known as a loving man who listened deeply to every poem from any kind of writer, rustic beginner to polished expert.  He cared about the craft of writing and also cared about the person writing the poem.  As a physician, he had a long career practicing medicine.  In later years he taught doctors and medical students to provide the best of medical and human help to dying patients.  The following is a quote, introduction to his long essay, Intimacy and Dying, written earlier this year, unpublished.

I am a retired geriatrician who, for thirty five years, taught humanistic values in Clinical Medicine to medical students and doctors. From 2000 to 2010, at Forbes Hospice in Pittsburgh, I guided students through the ancient clinical art of responding to struggles and needs of dying people. Among other curricular activities, with permission, we (2 -4 students and I) visited patients in their homes, not to learn procedures for obtaining medical histories, but for the specific purpose of listening to their thoughts, feelings, ordeals and supports. They understood that they were being placed in the role of teachers rather than patients. This proved to be important to all.

Gene kept his illness private, made no apology for that request.  He asked me to talk with him late in his dying process, asked me to be “ears to listen, for some day my dying to be worth my life.”  I will have more to say about that after I have settled enough to review the scratchy notes I kept of this time.  He also asked me to organize a memorial after his death. He said he wants to be remembered in our mountains.  Once the world is safe to gather in person, when the pandemic is over, we will have a memorial for memory, poems, and a celebration of his life.

His body has been cremated.  At some time, in respect for his request, his family will spread his ashes privately at his former home in Murphy.  He gave that home to his wife’s son and family, a family who loves the mountains and the privilege to vacation there. 

During the final months of Gene’s illness, he engaged the help of a friend and poet in Pittsburgh, Judy Robinson, to organize and seek publication of his poems.  The result of that effort is indeed a book, published 7-15-20, available from Amazon, details below.

Cards and words of sympathy may be sent to Gene's wife, Virginia Spangler, 139 Overlook Drive, Verona PA 15147.

In fond memory of Gene Hirsch,  

Mary Ricketson

Speak, Speak, pub July 15, 2020
Paperback $30, Amazon

Dr. Eugene Hirsch, Gene, to all who know him, has extended to me the privilege of editing his poetry, an assignment I accepted with pleasure. This collection, “Speak, Speak,” is the culmination of Gene’s long career of writing, and reflects the complexity of his mind and experience. As a physician/writer he joins a distinguished list, and in my opinion as a reader/editor, he earns his place among the others, notably Maugham, Chekhov, William Carlos Williams.

Judith R Robinson, editor

https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Gene-Hirsch/dp/939020240X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=gene+hirsch&qid=1598800059&sr=8-1

Bryson City Open Mic at Nantahala Brewing Company Thursday, April 11

PINTS, POEMS, & PROSE

Writers Open Mic at Nantahala Brewing Company

Nantahala Brewing Company,61 Depot Street, Bryson City, NC, in collaboration with North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, is thrilled to announce its first writers' open mic, which will be held on Thursday, April 11—recurring every second Thursday of the month.

Open to the public, PINTS, POEMS, & PROSE is an effort to cultivate and celebrate the rich culture of poetry and storytelling that exists in Swain County and the surrounding communities of western NC.

Join award-winning poet and author of The Geese Who Might be Gods, Benjamin Cutler, and award-winning novelist and author of her forthcoming novel Even As We Breathe, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, for an evening of good words and good drink.

Writers in all stages of development are welcome to read their work, and everyone is welcome to listen and enjoy. Event begins at 7:00, and open mic sign-ups will begin at 6:45 for ten-minute reading sessions. Share a poem, share a story, share a beer.

Contact Ben Cutler at benjamincutlerpoet@gmail.com for more information.
https://www.facebook.com/events/652293538542509/

NCWN-West mourns the passing of a fellow writer and member, Donald "Newt" Newton Smith, Jr.

We at NCWN-West are saddened at the loss of our fellow member, poet, and treasurer, Newt Smith. He passed away on September 26, 2018.

Donald Newton Smith, was Emeritus Professor of English at Western Carolina University, and was the current Treasurer of NetWest and Chair of the Board of the Liars Bench. He taught many of the courses in the Professional Writing program at WCU as well as American Literature and Modern Poetry courses. Smith designed the Appalachian Literature course and helped create the Appalachian Studies minor at WCU. 

He was President of the Appalachian Writers Association for four years and had published both poetry and academic articles throughout his career. Smith was a founding poetry editor of Lillabulero magazine and press, the president of the Appalachian Writers Association, and was a Staff Writer for the Asheville Poetry Review.

 Please find the link to Newt's Obituary here:

https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/obituary/donald-smith-jr?fh_id=11748

Photo of Nancy Simpson Gifted to the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Glenda Council Beall and Mary Fonda

On Tuesday, August 7, 2018, the Moss Memorial Library received a photo of late poet, Nancy Simpson Brantley, given from the North Carolina Writers’ Network (NCWN), in Simpson Brantley’s, honor for her many achievements, most of which were in Western NC. Librarian Mary Fonda received the photo from North Carolina Writers’ Network-West’s (NCWN-West) Program Director, Glenda Council Beall. Simpson Brantley's work was written under her maiden name, Nancy Simpson.

Nancy Simpson Brantley was a poet, teacher, and mother of three children. She taught in Clay County Schools for 28 years, in the Exceptional Children’s programs. She received a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University. 

A member of the NCWN, Simpson Brantley served on its executive board, and in 1991 co-founded the NCWN-West, a program of NCWN, to serve writers in the remote NC mountains. She was NCWN-West’s Program Director for over 21 years.

She taught writing at Tri-County Community College, Murphy, NC, The Institute for Continuing Learning at Young Harris College, Georgia, at John C. Campbell Folk School (JCCFS), Brasstown, NC, and was Resident Artist for Writing at JCCFS 1998-2010. 

Simpson Brantley’s poems were widely published in Literary Journals, and she had three published books: Living Above The Frostline, New and Selected Poems, Night Student, and Across Water. Simpson Brantley won first place for her poem, “Night Student,” at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, GA, in 1978, received the NC Arts Council Writing Fellowship for Poetry in 1991, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Tri-County Community College in 1998. She was named a SIBA Poetry Award Finalist in 2011. Simpson Brantley co-edited Lights in the Mountains and edited Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, both anthologies with Western NC writers. Simpson Brantley has been included in several editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, and Who's Who of American Women. In 2018, she was given the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.

Nancy Simpson Brantley passed away on February 17, 2018. A memorial in her honor was held at the John C. Campbell Folk School on May 5, 2018. You can visit her blog at: http://nancysimpson.blogspot.com/

We say Goodbye to a Founder of NCWN-West, Nancy Simpson

It is with deep sadness that I write to you of the passing of Nancy Simpson. Nancy was an important member of the writing community, a practicing poet, a teacher, and a friend.
 
She was an active member of the North Carolina Writers' Network since its inception in 1985 and served on the Executive Board. In 1991 she co-founded the North Carolina Writers' Network-West, a program to serve writers in the remote areas of the North Carolina mountains. She served as program coordinator for 10 years.

A long time English educator and poet, Nancy Simpson spent 26 years teaching in the exceptional children's programs in North Carolina. Retiring in 2001, she simultaneously spent 14 years as an instructor of creative writing at the Tri-County Community College from 1989 to 2003, in Murphy, NC.

She taught poetry part-time at the Institute for Continued Learning at Young Harris College, creative writing in the middle school grades and English composition, and American Literature.

For 15 years Simpson was employed part-time as a Resident Writer at John C. Campbell Folk School where her job was to schedule writing classes and to teach Poetry and Historical Novel.

Her books include: Across Water, Night Student, and Living Above the Frost Line, New and Selected Poems. Ms. Simpson and Shirley Uphouse co-edited Lights in the Mountains: Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Simpson also served as editor of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, an anthology released in 2010. Simpson authored numerous poems published in literary publications. Some were reprinted in anthologies such as The Poet's Guide to the Birds, Word and Wisdom – 100 Years of North Carolina Poetry. Also, 7 of her poems were reprinted in a textbook of Appalachian poets.

Here is a link to Nancy's obituary page:  http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Nancy-Brantley&lc=4946&pid=188221106&mid=7765502

Nancy had requested that donations be made to NCWN-West, in lieu of flowers. If you are interested in donating in her name, please send a check made out to: NCWN-West, with donation in memory Nancy Simpson in the subject line, and send it to:

Newton Smith, Treasurer
6875 Canada Road
Tuckaseegee, NC 28783

The NCWN-West will hold a memorial for Nancy sometime in the spring of 2018.

Simpson blogged at : http://nancysimpson.blogspot.com/.

Here is a video link of Nancy reading two of her poems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ikS2s5Mq9g

Joan Ellen Gage
Admin NCWN-West