NC Poetry Society announces their annual NCPS Adult Contests are open for submission

 

The following information is for the 2019 NCPS Adult Contests for individual poems. Submissions will be accepted beginning November 15, 2018, and ending January 13, 2019. 

 

Judges will be the North Carolina Poet Laureate and distinguished poets residing outside North Carolina. The judge of the Bloodroot Haiku contest will be selected by the North Carolina Haiku Society.

Contest submissions this year may be emailed to jsabsherphd@gmail.com (See below for more detailed guidelines).  Fees for the Poet Laureate Contest and for non-members may be paid online using PayPal or credit card.

Winning poems (including honorable mentions, but excluding finalists in the Poet Laureate contest) will be published in the NCPS poetry contest anthology Pinesong. For more information about current and past issues of Pinesong, click here.

Winning poets will be invited to read their winning poems at Awards Day in May 2019.

Complete rules can be found here: https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/adultcontests/.

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Poets Joan Ellen Gage and Don Long to be featured at CWPW, Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 10:30 AM, Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature local poets Joan Ellen Gage, and Don Long. This event will be held at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC. The readings are free and open to the public, and an open mic will follow the readings. CWPW is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West.

Joan Ellen Gage is an author of humor and inspiration written from her own unique perspective. Her recipe for her writing focuses on staying upbeat and laughing at her own foibles. Joan’s photos are the spice in the mix that serve to punctuate the writing and add that special garnish to her creations. 

Joan has written and published five books: Water Running Downhill!, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!, A Redhead Looks At 60, Trinity's Adventures in Imagination, and a special edition of Water Running Downhill! the Rose Edition, as a tribute to her friend Rose Macedo Kull. All books are available as eBooks. Additionally, Ms. Gage has two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of Now, www.joanellengage.com/ and A redhead blogs at 60, at https://joans-zone.com/. Gage is working on a new book entitled, Words of Defiance and Empowerment.

Gage is a member of her area’s writing group, NC Writers’ Network-West, serving as the administrator for their blog. 

Donald Long is a retired army Lieutenant Colonel. He flew helicopters and airplanes, and had two tours in Vietnam. Upon retiring, he worked with the Federal Government as a Safety Professional. 

Starting in his teen years and all throughout his adult life Long has written poems, mostly for his consumption, but occasionally on request, for personnel at special occasions during his careers. For a short while after retiring from the Army he had a business called “People Poems” writing poems for others for a fee after they provided him with pertinent information. Although the business was doing well, his second career necessitated that he close it.

Long writes poems for personal reasons and likes to make them rhyme. One of his poems, “I’m Glad It’s Mine” has been used during citizenship swearing-in ceremonies in central Florida and for central Florida Flag Day ceremonies.  Another poem about being a Vietnam Veteran was featured at the 2013 Florida “Convention” for Vietnam Helicopter Pilots.  One story about his Vietnam Experience entitled “Combat in Chump Valley” has been published in two different military related anthologies, The Harsh and The Heart and Vietnam Helicopter Crew Member Stories, Volume 2.  The story has also been featured in the VHPA Aviator Magazine. Long’s other hobby is genealogy.

For more information, please contact Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com.

Delightful Reading, Nov. 9, Blairsville, GA, Writers' Night Out

Come hear Glenda & Estelle 

read these beloved stories. 

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Sign-up for Open Mic at the door

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It's the last Writers' Night Out of 2018. 

The Literary Hour Readings for October 18, 2018, at the JCCFS, Brasstown, NC, will feature writers Glenda Barrett, Lucy Cole Gratton, and Mary Michelle Brodine Keller

On Thursday October 18, 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 Barrett, Lucy Cole Gratton, and Mary Michelle Brodine Keller.

Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia, is a poet, writer, and visual artist. Her work has been widely published since 1997 and has appeared in: Woman's World, Farm & Ranch Living, Country Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Journal of Kentucky Living, Nantahala Review, Rural Heritage, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Kaleidoscope Magazine and many more. Barrett is the author of two poetry books, When the Sap Rises, published by Finishing Line Press, in 2008 and The Beauty of Silence, published by Aldrich Press, in 2017. Both books are available on Amazon.com. Glenda's artwork is online at Fine Art America.

Lucy Cole Gratton is a retired CPA, moving to the mountains after retirement.  She was the Cherokee Representative for NCWN-West for five years.  She facilitated the program at John Campbell Folk School during that time.  She has written for many years but only in the past ten years has she been active in Poetry Critique and Prose Critique.  She has read at the Folk School many times.  Her poems have been published in various media including on-line, print, her college magazine and various small publications to which she enjoys.  Her focus is predominantly centered around the environment, incidents and images of her home of 35 acres of woods on Lake Apalachia outside Murphy NC.  She has lived there for 20 years and is in the process of moving to Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta GA.

Mary Michelle Brodine Keller, or Mary Mike as she is often called by her friends, writes poetry, essays and short fiction. She draws her subject matter from things she sees or experiences, putting meaning to them. She is also a visual artist, painting in oil, water color and pastels.  She likes to think of her poetry as painting with words. Her poems have been published in The Mountain Lynx, and in anthologies: Freeing Jonah III and IV, Lights in the Mountains, Echos Across the Blueridge, Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains and various other publications. She calls herself a reader. She reads to others in a variety of settings. She finds that more satisfying than publication, as it is a shared experience.