Creator of the Netwest Program Concept - Marsha Warren

 Marsha Warren was executive director of the North Carolina Writer's Network when Nancy Simpson and Kathryn Byer began efforts to include the mountain counties in the literary community of North Carolina. Nancy Simpson gave the credit for our present NCWN-West Program to Marsha Warren.

After thirty years, Warren is retiring from heading the Paul Green Foundation where she moved on to after leaving the NCWN.

This is an excellent article about Marsha Warren:

https://www.ncwriters.org/whitecross/2020/11/17/happy-trails-marsha-warren/

We wish Marsha the very best in her retirement years and we thank her for helping to create NCWN-West all those years ago. 

To read more about the history of our program here in the mountains, click on https://www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com and select the Founding of NCWN West page. 

Writers' Night Out with guest, Joseph Bathanti

 December 11, Friday, 7:00 PM - Join Writers' Night Out on Zoom when our award-winning guest will be:

Joseph Bathanti , former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-14) and recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award for Literature. Bathanti lives in Vilas, North Carolina, with his wife, Joan, and two children. Bathanti and his wife met while both were working with the VISTA program.

·         He is the author of ten books of poetry, including Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints;

·         This Metal, nominated for the National Book Award, and winner of the Oscar Arnold Young Award;

·         Land of Amnesia;

·         Restoring Sacred Art, winner of the 2010 Roanoke Chowan Prize, awarded annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association for best book of poetry in a given year;

·         Sonnets of the Cross;

·         Concertina, winner of the 2014 Roanoke Chowan Prize;

·         The 13^th Sunday after Pentecost, released by LSU Press in 2016.

·         His novel, East Liberty, won the 2001 Carolina Novel Award. His novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award.

·         His book of stories, The High Heart, won the 2006 Spokane Prize.

·         They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007.

·         His more recent book of personal essays, Half of What I Say Is Meaningless, winner of the Will D. Campbell Award for Creative Nonfiction, is from Mercer University Press.

·         The novel, The Life of the World to Come, was released from University of South Carolina Press in late 2014.

A new volume of poems, Light at the Seam, is forthcoming in 2022 from LSU Press. Bathanti is the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education & Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College in Boone, NC.

He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, NC, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program.

 NCWN -West Members will be mailed the Zoom Link for the meeting. For those who want to read at open mic, contact glendabeall@msn.com

Joseph Bathanti will guest at Writers' Night Out

 If you are a poet, read poetry or listen to poetry, you don't want to miss Writers' Night Out on Friday, December 11. 7:00 PM. Carroll Taylor hosts former poet laureate of North Carolina, Joseph Bathanti. If you aren't familiar with Joseph, check out his website. 

We will post more in coming weeks.

Enter a contest in November - forty-four

 Attention all writers

Want to enter a contest? How about 44 contests in November? Prose, poetry, short story, memoir,  - 

some thing for all of us. Check them out at the link below.

https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2020/10/35-writing-contests-in-november-2020-no.html?fbclid=IwAR2gC-zrqxkSxKypklM5sZKrUGSS8qSIrfm2o9ZFT-vLjZ5q-Tjr6dHJ41c

Shout Out Atlanta features poet, Karen Paul Holmes

 

We are thrilled to see an interview with Karen Paul Holmes in an Atlanta publication, Shout Out Atlanta.

Karen came to success in writing poetry when she took a poetry class sponsored by NCWN-West. The late Nancy Simpson, co-founder of the mountain program, taught the all day workshop in Blairsville, GA. Many of our members live in North Georgia. Karen has a vacation home on Lake Chatuge where she spends much of her time. She attended our poetry critique meetings at Tri-County Community College where she honed her skills with published writers like Janice Moore and Nancy.

This is the link to this outstanding interview.

https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-karen-paul-holmes-poet-freelance-writer/?fbclid=IwAR0zbA8fG8OW1ZkiM_8QIzdou7aptsRN2zOyKxo65mF4Luzrm07xOCnU7RU

Leave a comment below, please. Support your fellow writers with you words.

 

Book by Glenda C. Beall review in Clay County Progress

 Marcia Hawley Barnes writes reviews for the Clay County Progress Newspaper. Recently she has been reading and writing books by local writers. 

I was delighted when she chose my poetry book, Now Might as Well be Then, published by Finishing Line Press for her October choice. Thanks to Marcia for this wonderful review.

I want to thank those who wrote such nice reviews on Finishing Line site for my poetry book. This book was available on Amazon.com but is no longer available there. The book can be ordered from Finishing Line Press or from me, Glenda Beall.

The true story of a miracle in an African slum: Writers' Night November 13 via Zoom

Special Guest Paul Higdon
Hope and a Future:
Life, Survival, and Renewal on the Streets of an African Slum

Writers' Night Out
November 13, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion
+ 
Open Mic

Join us on Zoom
You do not need a Zoom account nor a Zoom app.
Netwest members, check your email for the Zoom link and login. 

You may wish to purchase a copy of this fascinating book ahead of time.
All proceeds go to charity. 

During Paul Higdon’s 36-year career in international finance, he had the honor of serving for six years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of a children’s welfare operation in central Kenya. Based on that work, he was presented a Global Volunteer Award by Bank of America.

Since retiring from his banking career, he says the most rewarding endeavor has been composing his first book, Hope and a Future: Life, Survival, and Renewal on the Streets of an African Slum, which chronicles the true story of a street boy, John Maina, who lived in the slums of Nairobi. Eventually, John and Higdon became so close that in an African sense, they are now father and son. In conjunction with the book’s publication, Higdon created a public charity, Little Boost Children’s Fund, whose mission is “Giving vulnerable kids a little boost.” All proceeds from the book go directly to the fund.
 
Higdon holds degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics from Cornell, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins, and he continues to enjoy a wide range of intellectual pursuits, especially early Christianity, and modern history.
 
His wife, Linda, is a classical pianist, an award-winning filmmaker, and now runs a tour company offering a unique “Women’s Journey to Kenya.” They live on the edge of the Kettle Moraine forest in the southern lakes region of Wisconsin.

Netwest members, check your email for the Zoom link and login. 

Betty Jamerson Reed Interview

 Congratulations to Betty Jamerson Reed. She was interviewed for  Nonfiction Authors Association. 

Betty's book Soldier's in Petticoats can be found on Amazon

Betty Jamerson Reed unfolds the pioneer experiences of influential educational leaders, especially women and minorities. She leads readers on journeys into unnoticed Appalachian communities and shows how it takes a trailblazing visionary to create a village of successful learners.

Website URL:
www.bettyjamersonreed.com

https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com/author-interview-betty-jamerson-reed-author-of-soldiers-in-petticoats/

Brenda Kay Ledford's Poem Published

 Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Fall Festival," appeared on "Your Daily Poem," October 25, 2020.

www.yourdailypoem.com

NEW BOOK RELEASE

 

TWENTY-FIVE ANGELS

by Tom Hooker

The crew of the Reba Jean, a B-17 bomber in the U.S. Eighth Army Air Corps, take to the skies above WWII Europe. Flying at an altitude of twenty-five thousand feet (twenty-five angels), the crew, including a pilot with an overly acute sense of responsibility for his men, a Jewish officer, and an anti-Semitic non-com, strive to achieve victory over the elite German Luftwaffe, and survive. The events that occur along the way make for a compelling story, culminating in a breathtaking ending sure to leave you on the edge of your seat.

Tom Hooker 

            Tom Hooker was born and raised in North Mississippi, receiving a degree from the University of Mississippi. He and his family have lived in Hendersonville, North Carolina since 1988. Tom has had short stories and poems published in a number of literary journals across the nation. He and Gary Ader co-authored a novel entitled, THE WAR NEVER ENDS, and he has also written a non-fiction work entitled, CALVARY’S CHILD: THE LIFE OF AMANDA CAROL HOOKER.

            

• Paperback : $14.95
• Kindle E-Book: $4.99
• ISBN-10 : 1734675047
• ISBN-13 : 978-1734675047
• Product Dimensions : 6 x 0.77 x 9 inches
• Publisher : Escarpment Press (October 18, 2020)
• Language: : English
•