Coffee with the Poets and Writers will feature poet Richard M. Cary, and Author and poet Carroll S. Taylor, on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, at 10:30 AM at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 10:30 AM, Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poet Richard M. Cary, and author and poet Carroll S. Taylor. This event will be held at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street,  in Hayesville, NC, and is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow the presentation. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NCWN-W).

Richard Montford Cary has a MFA with a BFA in Theater Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, and spent six years in regional theaters (Antioch Area Theater Yellow Springs OH, Hartford Stage Company CT, Arena Stage Washington DC, and StageWest Springfield MA) as a master carpenter, technical director, resident designer, and actor. He became Artistic Director of Community Theatre, in Nantucket in 1980, and founded Actors Theatre of Nantucket, serving as Artistic Director for 20 years. 

Richard began writing poetry during high school and continues to this day. Currently, he is completing the editing of almost 60 years of his output. Seeking publication is his next goal. His claim to fame here in Hayesville is that his Great Aunt was Olive Dame Campbell, founder of the John C Campbell Folk School; he took a class there last fall and, using his life-long carpentry skills, built a beautiful yellow pine trestle table. He is also an accomplished harmonica player. He loves reading his poetry out loud.

Carroll S. Taylor holds graduate degrees in English and French as well as an EdS in Educational Leadership. She taught secondary French, English, Journalism, Creative Writing, and ESL. As a journalism advisor for high school students, she assisted in the publication of school newspapers and yearbooks, teaching both writing and layout/design. After retiring as a secondary teacher, she became a part-time instructor at Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia, teaching freshman composition and freshman seminars. Taylor is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side, published by New Plains Press, Auburn, Alabama. She is currently writing the third novel in the series, Chinaberry Summer: Down by the Water. 

Taylor enjoys writing in all forms, including poetry and novels. She loves reading, gardening, and studying nature, especially reptiles and amphibians. Readers may find her journal blog at chinaberrysummer.com and follow her at facebook/chinaberrysummer.

For more information about this event, please contact Glenda Beall at: glendabeall@msn.com.

Friday, Oct 12 Writers' Night Features Loren Leith

Please join us for the entertaining prose of award-winning local writer, Loren Leith. She is our featured reader along with Atlanta poet Danielle Hanson. As always, open mic follows -- sign up at the door. Union County Community Center map here.

JCCFS's The Literary Hour to feature poets and writers Glenda Council Beall, Karen Paul Holmes, and Estelle Darrow Rice, on Thursday, September 20, 2018, in the Keith House, Brasstown, NC

On Thursday, September 20, 2018, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Glenda Council Beall, Karen Paul Holmes and Estelle Darrow Rice. 

Glenda Council Beall has been writing and publishing poetry, short stories and personal essays since 1995. In 1998, she published a family history book, Profiles and Pedigrees, Descendants of Thomas Charles Council (1858 – 1911). In 2009, her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press. 

Beall is owner/director of Writers Circle around the Table, a writing studio in Hayesville, NC. She opened the studio in 2010 after her husband passed away. She teaches there and brings in top rated instructors to hold classes at reasonable rates for local writers. Beall also teaches at the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris College and at Tri-County Community College in the Community Enrichment department.

Animal lover Beall, along with writer Estelle Rice, produced their first book together. Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. Filled with color pictures of family pets and family members, these stories will entertain, and bring a smile or a tear.

Karen Paul Holmes splits her time between Atlanta and the Blue Ridge Mountains. With an MA in music history from the University of Michigan, she eventually made her way to the warm south and became Vice President-Marketing Communications at ING, a global financial services company.

Karen now leads a kinder gentler life as a freelance writer and poet. She finds joy participating in poetry readings and supporting poetry.

A member of the North Carolina Writers' Network, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Georgia Poetry Society, she has studied with poets: Thomas Lux, Denise Duhamel, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, William Wright, Carol Ann Duffy, and Nancy Simpson (whom she counts as her first poetry mentor).

Karen Paul Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, 2014). In 2012, Karen received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. She was chosen as a Best Emerging Poet in 2016 by Stay Thirsty Media. Publications include Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Review, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore and other journals and anthologies. Holmes hosts a critique group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in Blairsville, which she founded. She also teaches writing classes at the Folk School, Writer’s Circle, and other venues.

 

Estelle Darrow Rice is a poet and writer of short stories and personal essays.  She holds a BA degree in Psychology from Queens University, Charlotte, NC and a MA degree in counseling from the University of South Alabama, Mobile AL. Her work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies.  She published a popular book of spiritual poems, Quiet Times.

She is originally from Charlotte, NC, but she and her late husband, Nevin Rice, lived in Mississippi before retiring to Cherokee County. She has resided in Marble, NC for the past twenty years. Before her husband became ill, Rice taught writing classes for NCWN-West and at Writers Circle around the Table. She was always a favorite instructor.

Estelle is an animal lover and with co-writer Glenda Council Beall, wrote and published a collection of poems and stories about family pets and other non-human species, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins.

Brent Martin, poet, and Angela Faye Martin, singer-songwriter, to be featured at CWPW, Wednesday, September 19, 2018, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, at 10:30 AM, the NCWN-West’s Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poet Brent Martin. Martin’s wife, Angela Faye Martin, a singer-songwriter and artist will perform after Brent’s reading. CWPW is held at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC. The reading and entertainment are free and open to the public, and an open mic will follow the reading and performance.

Brent Martin is the author of three chapbook collections of poetry, Poems from Snow Hill Road (New Native Press, 2007), A Shout in the Woods (Flutter Press, 2010), and Staring the Red Earth Down (Red Bird Press, 2014), and is a co-author of Every Breath Sings Mountains (Voices from the American Land, 2011) with authors Barbara Duncan and Thomas Rain Crowe   He is also the author of Hunting for Camellias at Horseshoe Bend,  a non-fiction chapbook published by Red Bird Press in 2015. 

Brent Martin’s poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News, and elsewhere. He lives in the Cowee community in western North Carolina where he and his wife Angela Faye Martin run Alarka Institute, a nature, literary, and art-based business that offers workshop and field trips.  He has recently completed a two-year term as Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the West.  

Angela Faye Martin is a singer-songwriter, artist, and naturalist, and has worked for The Wilderness Society, Georgia Forestwatch, Armuchee Alliance, and the Pacific Rivers Council. She has written and recorded two lP's and one EP - One Dark Vine, Anniversary, and Pictures from Home, which was produced by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse fame. She recently wrote and narrated the documentary, The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse, which is currently screening internationally at various film festivals and in the US.

When Angela Martin is not leading phenology and nature outings in the wilds of the Great Smoky Mountains, she is drawing 'tree portraits', writing songs, letters and spending time with her sagacious mutt, 'Isabella Queen of France.’

CWPW is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Association-West, which is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. For more information, please contact Glenda Beall at: 828-389-4447.