In case you missed Karen Paul Holmes & Bill Ramsey at Coffee with the Poets and Writers on June 15, 2016, enjoy some video excerpts

 

 Karen Paul Holmes reading at CWTP&W on June 15, 2016

 

Bill Ramsey reading at CWTP&W on June 15, 2016 

You can find other videos of these writers, and other NCWN'West writers, on the network's YouTube page, at: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu63wy0hyAFhgTPRo7by4og

Ronald Moran and Jonathan Rice entertained at Writers' Night Out, NCWN-West event, June 10, 2016, at Blairsville, Georgia

Ronald Moran

Jonathan K. Rice

Ronald Moran, former Clemson professor, dean, and a Fulbright
Lecturer, joined Editor Jonathan K. Rice at Writers’ Night Out on Friday, June 10 at the Union County Community Center in the heart of Blairsville. Moran read first, not only featuring published poems from Eye of the World, but also recently written ones. Quite a bit of his work was witty and met with laughter and acknowledgment. Rice followed and read from Shooting Pool with a Cellist (Main Street Rag), and Killing Time (Main Street Rag). Rice’s love of music was apparent in his poems, as was his keen eye. The poets were followed by open mic, where several writers in attendance shared both poetry and prose.

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by NC Writers' Network-West and takes place on the second Friday of the month. 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 hosts the event at 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092. Food is available for purchase in The View Grill, but please arrive by 6 pm to get served.
Rosemary Royston

https://theluxuryoftrees.wordpress.com/about/

Reminder: Call for Submissions North Carolina Writers’ Network–West Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest, ends August 31, 2016

Who’s Eligible: Members of NCWN-West whose dues are paid up to date.   

Original Work: The entry must be the author's original work and not previously published.

Eligible Genres: All fiction except children’s fiction. 

Dates: Submissions will be accepted beginning June 1, 2016. All entries must be emailed or postmarked by August 31, 2016.

Entry Fees: An individual writer may enter up to three submissions. A fee of $5.00 must accompany each entry. Entry fees will be used for awarding prizes to the winner or winners.

Length: The word count (excluding the title) may not exceed 300 words.

How to Enter: No entry form is required. Electronic and paper entries are acceptable. Handwritten copies cannot be accepted.

To submit by email, copy and paste the manuscript into the body of an email or send the manuscript as an email attachment to novelistapproach@gmail.com.

Checks for email and paper entry fees, as well as paper manuscripts, should be submitted by mail to Pat Meece Davis, 23 Tutor Lane, Brevard, NC 28712.

Author’s Identifying Info: The author's identifying information and manuscript title should appear on the subject line of the email or on a separate sheet of paper if entering by mail.

You may enter up to three manuscripts, but each entry must be submitted separately with a $5.00 fee for each.

Judges: Judging will be non-biased. Writers’ identities will not be shared with the judges.

Agreement: By entering this contest, the author agrees NCWN-West may publish the winning entry/entries on its website. Polish and proofread your work.  

The winner will be asked to provide a short paragraph biography to accompany the published manuscript.

Coffee with the Poets & Writers features Karen Paul Holmes & Bill Ramsey, Wed. June 15, 2016, 10:00 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Karen Paul Holmes splits her time between Atlanta and the Blue Ridge Mountains, and her two Welsh Terriers do too. 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 through the Side Door Poets group she founded/hosts in Atlanta and the Writers’ Night Out she founded/hosts in Blairsville, GA (second Saturday of the month at the Union County Community Center).

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

Karen has a full-length poetry collection, Untying the Knot, forthcoming from Kelsay Books (California).
Her poetry credits include Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Main Street Rag, Caesura, and The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. Poems have also appeared in anthologies such as American Society: What Poets See (FutureCycle Press), and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia (Texas Review Press).

In 2012, Karen received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. She has taught writing at national business conferences, at ICL through Young Harris College, and at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

Karen's Poetry on Facebook
Karen's website: Simply Communicated, Inc.

Bill Ramsey: Says, "writing is never easy but it helps when you have done it all your life." In his high school years, Bill Ramsey wrote sports columns for the local newspaper. During his forty year professional career, he wrote advertising copy, technical manuals, magazine articles and business newsletters.

Now seventy one years of age, his small town upbringing continues to influence his thinking. Like many older citizens, Bill enjoys reflecting on life experiences and being free to share his thinking in complete candor. This has served as a bridge into retirement from writing for pay to writing as play.

With three books published, he has two more in the development stage. A strong supporter literacy and literature, he is involved with readers and writers in the mountains of western North Carolina where he lives with his wife of forty eight years. Bill is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and is on the board of the North Carolina Writers' Network.

Learn more about Bill and his books at his websites:

www.authorbillramsey.com

www.billramseyblog.wordpress.com

Fourteenth Annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize (2016) open for submissions

SUBMISSION PERIOD FOR THE
FOURTEENTH ANNUAL DOGFISH HEAD POETRY PRIZE OPENS MAY 15, 2016!
Submission Guidelines

The fourteenth annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for the winning book-length manuscript by a poet residing in the Mid-Atlantic states (DE, MD, VA, PA, NJ, NY, WVA, NC and District of Columbia) will consist of $500, two cases of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Beer*, manuscript publication by Broadkill River Press, and 10 copies of the book (in lieu of royalties).

The rules are: Manuscripts must be received by midnight, August 15, 2016.  Manuscripts received after the closing date will not be considered.  Eligible poets must reside in the above listed states and be twenty-one years of age by the date of the award. *  The manuscript is to be submitted electronically in one MS Word document attachment.  Send to Prize coordinator Linda Blaskey at dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net.  Snail mail submissions will not be accepted.

 Send two title pages with each submission: the first with the title of the manuscript, author’s name, address, phone numbers and e-mail address; the second with just the manuscript title.   No manuscript is to have any author-identifying information other than the one title page and will be rejected if it does. Judging is blind and double-tiered. The manuscript must be book-length (between 48 and 78 pages of original work – no translations) and no more than roughly thirty lines to a page, including the poem’s title and two line-spaces between the title and the body of the poem.  A poem may be more than one page.  The book’s dimensions will be 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches, with a minimum of half-inch side margins, and printed in 12 point type, so avoid very long lines.  One submission per entrant.  There is no entry fee.

The award will be presented to the winner on Saturday evening, December 10, 2016 at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware.  The winner must agree to attend this event and to read from their winning book at a reception honoring the winner.  The prize will be officially awarded by Sam Calagione, Founder and CEO of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Distillery, or by another company official.

The author of the winning manuscript also agrees to provide, within ten days of notification, a color head-shot photograph, with photographer’s credit, for the back cover and a dedication page for the interior of the book. Also, an acknowledgement page of poems previously published, and in which publications and/or websites they appeared will need to be provided. The winner agrees to travel to Delaware at the winner’s expense for awarding of the prize.   Dogfish Head will provide the winner two nights lodging at the Dogfish Inn in the beach resort town of Lewes, Delaware.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales retains the right to use any of the winning work in promotional materials.
Co-workers of Dogfish Head and their families are ineligible to enter.  Previous winners of the prize are ineligible to enter.

For questions and more information contact Linda Blaskey, Prize coordinator, at linblask@aol.com
or at dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net

In case you missed him, here is a video of Bob Grove reading a selection of his prose at Coffee With The Poets and Writers, May 18, 2016, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC.

Bob Grove

Here is a video of Bob reading a selection of his prose from the May 18, 2016 meeting of Coffee With the Poets and Writers, at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. This program was sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West.

Prose writer Bob Grove to read at Coffee With the Poets and Writers, at the Moss Memorial Library, Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at 10:00 AM

This month, Coffee With the Poets and Writers welcomes Bob Grove. Bob is very entertaining, and will read some of his prose on Wednesday, May 18th, 2016, at 10:00 AM.


Coffee With the Poets and Writers meets every third Wednesday at 10:00 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, at 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC. The reading will be followed by open mic and the public is invited to attend.

North Carolina Writers' Network-West sponsors Coffee with the Poets and Writers. Please be sure to attend and to bring a friend! Coffee and cookies will be provided. For more information, please call Glenda Beall at: 828-389-4441, or the Moss Memorial Library at: 828-389-3734.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob Grove now lives in the mountains of North Carolina. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at Kent State University and his Master of Science at Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum enabled him to teach courses in English, journalism, creative writing, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology.

Bob has been an ABC-TV public affairs director, an on-air personality, and the founder and publisher of Monitoring Times magazine. A prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network and an officer with the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he has published seventeen books and hundreds of articles in sixteen national magazines.

Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, an international supplier of radio communications equipment, Bob has more time to write. Most recently, he has published a mystery novella (Secrets of Magnolia Manor), his memoir (Misadventures of an Only Child), a collection of children’s stories (Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy) and has written several flash fiction stories as well as some forgettable poetry. He has been awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in the Silver Arts literature competition.

Bob’s public readings are popular as a performance art form, typified by his annual December reading, in costume and dialect, of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

His collected writings on technical topics (Antenna Basics, Antenna Anthology and Ask Bob) are now available, as is his informative overview of deviant mental behavior (Abnormal Psychology) which he uses as a teaching text in continuing education classes.

All Bob’s publications are available on Amazon Kindle, and you are welcome to visit him at bobgrove.org.

 

The Literary Hour to be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC, features poets Gene Hirsch and Maren O. Mitchell

On Wednesday evening, May 18, 2016 at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and N.C. Writers' Network-West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. Normally scheduled for the third Thursday of the month, this month the event will be on Wednesday. Poets Dr. Eugene Hirsch and Maren Mitchell will be the featured readers, both of whom are accomplished poets. This should be an excellent program and greatly anticipated by writers and poets in our area.

Gene Hirsch is a physician who, for many years, has taught human values in patient care, and in dying people, to medical students and doctors. His major interests are people in health and sickness, and poetry. Hirsch initiated the writing program at John C. Campbell Folk School in1992 and, with Nancy Simpson, co-founded NC Writers’ Network West, and he has been active in both. Hirsch conducts workshops for interested poets twice a year, as well as Glenda Beall’s Writers Circle.

Gene’s poetry has appeared in medical and non-medical journals such as: Pharos (Medical Honor Society), Journal of the American Medical Assn., Hiram Poetry Review, Human Quest, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Anthologies include: Atahita Journal, Blood & Bone (poems by physicians), Behavioral Medicine, Crossing Limits (Afro-American and Jewish Poets), Tyranny of the Normal, and Echoes across the Blue Ridge. He has edited five volumes of Freeing Jonah (poetry from J.C. Campbell Folk School and the surrounding community) and two books. Two more books will appear this spring.

Maren O. 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 southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

Although a native of North Carolina, Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany, as a child.. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia, on the edge of the national forest.

Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Iodine Poetry Journal, The Lake (UK), Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Hotel Amerika, Southern Humanities Review, Town Creek Poetry, Pirene’s Fountain, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Skive (AU), The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Journal, The Arts Journal, The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V: Georgia & VII: North Carolina, Sunrise from Blue Thunder, and elsewhere. Work is forthcoming in Hotel Amerika, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Crafty Poet II, Chiron Review, Poetry East, and Tar River Poetry.

Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012) www.lineofsightpress.com, available on Amazon.