CWTPW on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, will feature writers Estelle Darrow Rice and Glenda Council Beall; event to be held at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers will meet Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 10:30 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. Estelle Rice and Glenda Beall will be featured this month.



ESTELLE DARROW RICE is a retired mental health counselor who lives in Marble, NC. She is a native of Charlotte and many of her stories center on her life there and in the mountains of western NC where she and her late husband, Nevin, lived the past twenty years. She is author of Quiet Times, an inspirational poetry chapbook and has published poems and stories in numerous journals and anthologies. She taught writing classes for NCWN-West and at Glenda Beall’s studio, Writers Circle around the Table.


 
GLENDA COUNCIL BEALL: In 1998, Glenda Beall published a family history book, Profiles and Pedigrees, Thomas C. Council and His Descendants based on the lives of her grandfather and his ten children. Her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then was published in 2009 by Finishing Line Press.

She has been writing and publishing poetry, memoir and short stories since 1996 when she moved to Clay County, NC. She teaches writing at her studio as well as the Institute of Continuing Learning in Young Harris, GA and Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC.

Her website is: www.glendacouncilbeall.com.


Estelle and Glenda will be reading from their forthcoming book, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins, which will be published this summer. Both writers are animal lovers and decided to collaborate and co-write a collection of poems and stories about the pets they have loved and also other non-human species including birds and fish.


The public is invited to attend Coffee with the Poets and Writers and to take part in Open Mic. Because of time constraints, readers are asked to read no more than two poems or a prose piece of about 1500 words.


This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network West, a program of the state literary organization, North Carolina Writers’ Network.


Contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com for more information.

Local Students receive awards for Simpson Beck Poetry and Songwriting Lyric Contest, April 23, 2018, Hayesville, NC

On Tuesday, April 24, 2018, Hayesville Middle and High Schools received awards for their entries in the Simpson Beck Poetry and Songwriting Lyric Contests. The Clay County Historical and Arts Council (CCHAC) and the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West (NCWN-West) gave awards. Joan Ellen Gage had spearheaded the effort representing NCWN-West, along with Carla Beck, English teacher at Hayesville High School, and Reba Beck, retired teacher from Hayesville High, and a member of the CCHAC.The event was Emceed by Carla and Reba Beck. Ms. Gage was unable to attend.

The Copper Door Restaurant, Brothers Willow Ranch Restaurant, Rib Country in Hayesville, Chevelle’s in Hayesville, and Bowl of Asia, donated NCWN-West’s awards for the judges.

Winners of the Middle School Contest for Poetry were: 1^st place, Dierks Tolley, 2^nd place,  Jasmine Scheuler, and 3^rd place, Addison Bunch.

There were no entries for Songwriting Lyrics for the Middle school.

Winners of the High School Contest for Poetry were: 1^st place, Piper Snowdon, 2^nd place, Paula Murcia, and 3^rd place, Isabella Rogers.

Winner of the High School Contest for Songwriting Lyrics was: 1^st place, Emily Long.

Rosemary Rhodes Royston

Judges for the contests included author Rosemary Rhodes Royston, and musicians and songwriters Rob Tiger, Wyatt Espalin, and Brian Kruger, who were the song-writing lyric judges.. Royston read from her book, Splitting the Soil.

Rob Tiger

Wyatt Espalin

Brian Kruger

Poetry and Song-writing Lyric Contest for Clay County Schools, NC, renamed Simpson Beck Poetryand Song-writing Lyrics Contest

Nancy Simpson

Reba Beck

The Clay County Historical and Arts Council and the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, in an effort to promote the arts in our community, are again co-sponsoring a poetry writing and a song-writing lyric contest for Hayesville High and Middle Schools this month. The writing contest has been renamed the Simpson Beck Poetry and Song-writing Lyrics Contest, in honor of its founders Nancy Simpson and Reba Beck. 

 

The winners will be announced Monday, April 16, 2018, and the award ceremony for them will take place on Monday, April 23, 2018, at 7:00 PM at the Hayesville High School Lecture Hall. The public is invited to attend this event, and their will be refreshments and cookies.

The poetry judge for the contests is Rosemary Rhodes Royston. She is the author of the book, Splitting the Soil, a widely published poet, a representative of the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, and a professor of English at Young Harris College.

Songwriting Lyric judges include Rob Tiger, local songwriter and singers, Brian Kruger, and Wyatt Espalin.

For more information, please contact Joan Ellen Gage, at: iamjellen1953@gmail.com

Loren Leith, Maren O. Mitchell, and Rosemary R. Royston to read at JCCFS, The Literary Hour, Wednesday, April 18, 2018

On Wednesday, April 18, 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:  Karen Paul Holmes, Maren O. Mitchell, and Rosemary Rhodes Royston.

Loren Leith is the author of MOSQ, by Shepherd Graham (pen name), winner of the Silver Royal Palm Literary Award and the Pascoe Award for Best Thriller of 2011. She is the recipient of the RPLA award for her short, nonfiction story, My Box Top Cat from God. Leith is known for her powerful, poignant, and often humorous nonfiction short stories, soon to be published in book-collection format.

Leith has published numerous professional and scientific articles and authored speeches given to nation-wide psychology-conference audiences.

She is the Founder and Director of Wordsworth Editing, and previously held a position as Literary Judge for the University of Montclair.

Maren O. Mitchell: A prolific writer,Mitchell’s poems appear in POEM, The Comstock Review, Slant, A Journal of Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, Chiron Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Lake (UK), Skive (AU), The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Appalachian Journal, The Arts Journal and Red Clay Reader #4.

Her work is included in The Crafty Poet II: a Portable Workshop; The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins; The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V & VII; Stone, River, Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poems; Sunrise from Blue Thunder; Nurturing Paws; and Echoes across the Blue Ridge.

Poems have been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize by the contributing editors of Pushcart.

Mitchell's nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide, is available on Amazon and through www.lineofsightpress.com.

Rosemary Rhodes Royston: Her chapbook, Splitting the Soil, is currently available through Finishing Line Press and amazon. Her poetry and flash fiction have been published in the following journals: Southern Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, NANO Fiction, The Comstock Review, Main Street Rag, The Museum of Americana, Razor Literary Magazine, The Kentucky Review, Town Creek, *82 Review, KUDZU, Coal Hill Review, STILL, Literal Latte, New Southerner, Flycatcher, Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Motif version 3, and Alehouse. 

Two of Royston's essays are included in the anthology Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets (McFarland). Books reviews have been published in Prairie Schooner and, most recently, Appalachian Heritage. 

She holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. Read an interview with Rosemary at Writer’s Digest. Royston blogs at: https://theluxuryoftrees.wordpress.com/.