Winter Writing Workshop in Cashiers, NC

Maren Mitchell Poems Published

 NCWN-West member Maren O. Mitchell has poems published in: 

Tar River Poetry, Vol. 62, No. 1, Fall 2022, "I have no earth-shaking news, my friend Janice." 
The Lake, an online UK journal, January 2023 issue, "Quantum Beats" and "To My Husband in the Time of Covid-19."
POEM, November 2022 issue, "Black Is Not the Lack of Light" and "We are all stray cats."
Twelve Mile Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2022, "Hickory Tree."

Her poems appear in The Antigonish Review, The Cortland Review, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, The South Carolina Review and Southern Humanities Review. Three poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her nonfiction is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide, (Line of Sight Press). Her chapbook, "In my next life I plan...," is forthcoming from dancing girl press. She lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

Brenda Kay Ledford's Work Published

 Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Snow Cream," will appear on  the " Written Tales" website on Christmas Day, December 25th, at 10:00 AM.

You may view her poem at:  https://writtentales.com

Additionally, her story, "Special Fashion Show,"  appeared in the "Good Old Days Magazine," January/February 2023  print issue.

www.GoodOldDaysMagazine.com

Congratulations to our western North Carolina Writers

 

Brent Martin of Macon County was awarded the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.

Network member and former Representative for NCWN-West, Brent Martin was selected as the winner of the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award by the Western North Carolina Historical Association for his nonfiction book "George Masa’s Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina" (Hub City Press 2022).

Annette Clapsaddle of Jackson County was voted Board President for the NC Writers Network.

Last year’s winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award was Network board member Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle for her novel, "Even As We Breathe"(University Press of Kentucky, 2020).

Clapsaddle was sworn in as the next board president of the North Carolina Writers’ Network on December 9, 2022 by a unanimous vote.

It is a pleasure to see our Western NC writers' accomplishments.

On December 13, an award ceremony will celebrate Brent Martin and all five finalists for 2022. The event will also be live-streamed via Zoom for those who cannot attend in person. Registration is available for this free event at: www.wnchistory.org.

https://www.ncwriters.org/news/blog/the-western-north-carolina-historical-association-recognizes-network-members-and-forthcoming-board-president-for-the-thomas-wolfe-memorial-literary-award/?fbclid=IwAR24m9k3fsvA0jqydw-Y_TSxBRm_an1YSaEvo9grC-KphYLdW8a9kV3ZlZs

Brent Martin Recognized at Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award Event

Brent Martin

    Author and conservationist Brent Martin who spoke to NetWest members on Writers' Night Out in July, is a finalist for the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  The award is presented by the Western North Carolina Historical Association to the best WNC author or book.  The ceremony is Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in a ceremony at 5 pm in the  at UNC-Asheville Reuter Center, , Asheville, 28804.

    The event will be held in the Manheimer Room at the Reuter Center at UNC-Asheville, 300 Campus View Rd, Ashville, NC. It will also be livestreamed via Zoom and recorded for those who cannot attend in person.

    Martin is author of George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina.  He spoke to NetWest members about his book and Masa and his photography. 

    Other finalists chosen from an original group of 34 nominations include:

Anne Chesky Smith - Murder at Asheville's Battery Park Hotel: The Search for Helen Clevenger's Killer;

Lance Greene - Their Determination to Remain: A Cherokee Community's Resistance to the Trail of Tears;

Heather Newton - McMullen Circle; and

John Ross - Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time.

    The event is free and open to the public but registration is required and a ticket/Zoom link will be emailed to attendees. If you are able, please consider making a donation with your registration. Donations are placed into a community fund and help us offer tickets to other events at no-cost for those who would be otherwise unable to attend.
       Originated by the Louis Lipinsky family and now supported by the Ruth Siegel and Jacques Sartisky Foundation and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Board, WNCHA has presented the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award annually for printed works that focus special attention on Western North Carolina since 1955 when Wilma Dykeman was presented the award for The French Broad.

    The December 13, 2022 award ceremony will celebrate the five finalists for the 2022 award with readings and remarks by each author.

John C. Campbell Folk School makes changes

 John C. Campbell Folk School has dropped COVID 19 restrictions. 

Read about it here.

Take writing classes at the Folk School with excellent instructors.

I am taking an online course next year from the Folk School. How nice it is to have the opportunity for both in-person and online classes with these top writers. 

The John C. Campbell Folk School changed my life in so many ways. I first took poetry classes with Nancy Simpson, Carol Crawford, Kathryn Byer, and many other writers. Later I taught writing at the folk school and that was a huge step in my life. 

Glenda Beall

Tom Hooker, Adair Sanders and Mike McCarthy to Sign Books in Brevard

Tom Hooker

    Local authors Tom Hooker, Adair Sanders and Mike McCarthy will sign their latest books at Broad Street Wines in Brevard, NC, on Friday Nov. 25th from 1pm to 4pm.  If you need a break from Black Friday shopping, plan to stop in and enjoy the perfect wine pairing for a cozy afternoon of reading.
        In Tom Hooker’s latest book, Year of the White Dog, the year is 1540.  Strangers wearing shells like turtles are on the rampage.  A young Chickasaw maiden named Swift Doe has a dream about a white dog.  Can her dream save her people?  Hooker lives in Hendersonville, NC, and his short stories and poems appear in a number of literary journals.  He is coauthor with Gary Ader of a novel, The War Never Ends, and author of another, Twenty-five Angels, in addition to his latest which he will be signing.
        Suspense soars when the body of a C.I.A Section Chief is found in the car trunk of a Supreme Court Justice.  Whodunnit?  Find out in Adair Sanders latest, And So It Ends.  Sanders, a Brevard, NC, lawyer and author is known for the Allison Parker Mystery series and Biologically Bankrupt, a memoir about generational dysfunction and addiction.  She has also published Out of the Ashes, A Collection of Essays.
        Some say working from home requires superpowers, and Mike McCarthy and his co-authors, Janis Allen and Gail Snyder, show you how to don your cape and fly over the challenges in Working From Home Is Your Superpower.  McCarthy has been a teacher and management consultant who writes books about business.  He is also author of two novels The Noah Option and The Rainbow Option.

Fall 2022 NCWN Conference Registration Closes Friday

Registration to attend Fall Conference 2022 closes Friday, November 11 at 4:00 p.m. EST (via phone or mail) and at midnight (via online).   The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn Resort, 1706 North Lumina Avenue, Wrightsville Beach, NC.

Four p.m. Friday is also the deadline for those already registered for the conference to cancel if necessary and receive a refund.

Learn more about Fall Conference and how to register here.

For recommended hotel accommodations, please visit the Venue section on the Fall Conference 2022 web page.

Listen to the WHQR, Cape Fear's NPR station, interview with Communications Director Katherine O'Hara about Fall Conference.

The 2022 Fall Conference of the North Carolina Writers' Network will open with a keynote address by Jason Mott, winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

He will be joined on the conference faculty by more than 20 other writers leading classes on the craft and business of writing, from “Cross-Country Flights and Hollywood Nights” to “Escape from Pompeii: How to Write While the World Around You Burns.” 

Instructors include acclaimed novelists Clyde Edgerton and Dana Sachs; poets Mark Cox, Melissa Crowe, Gabrielle Brant Freeman, and Amber Flora Thomas; journalists Russell Worth Parker and Brandon Sneed; editors Margaret Bauer and Emily L. Smith; and many more. 

Brenda Kay Ledford Receives Paul Green Award

 Brenda Kay Ledford; Photo by:  Seeing  Southern Photography

Author, blogger, and  poet Brenda Kay Ledford received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her book,  Blanche, Poems of a Blue Ridge Woman.

The Award's Ceremony was held at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina  on Saturday, November 5.  Ledford received the award for the book about her mother, Blanche.  Redhawk Publications released the poetry book in 2021.

According to Mary Ricketson, author and mental health counselor, "Blanche comes to life in this memoir of poems.  Ledford chronicles a story of her mother's life, flour sacks and all.  Blanche rises before dawn, dew soaks her brogans when she goes berry picking.  Hens scratch hieroglyphics in the front yard and the sun rises like a ruby over Shewbird Mountain."

Ricketson continues, "I can see the sparkling blue eyes of Blanche Ledford.  'My hands have served me well as blood veins crisscross the Blue Ridge Mountains.' These poems will make you fall in love with the amazing Blanche I knew."

Ledford's book is available at:  www.amazon.com and www.RedhawkPublications.com 

Novelist, Non-fiction Author P.C. Zick Featured at Writers' Night Out

P.C. Zick

P.C. Zick, a writer with a passion for sharing and helping other writers, will be featured at Writers' Night Out Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 pm.  This is a Zoom event.  To get the link contact Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com 

Zick’s passion for sharing her stories and helping aspiring writers realize their dreams motivates all her projects. And that’s whether she’s serving as an editor to others or creating her own books that entertain and inform her readers.

Zick writes in a variety of genres, including romance, contemporary fiction, and creative nonfiction. She’s had works in each of these genres published and has won various awards for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and novels.

Setting plays a significant role in her fiction, beginning with the three contemporary novels in her Florida fiction series, which explore the people and landscape of the Sunshine State. Her romances transport readers to some of her favorite places from Long Island to Chicago to Florida to the Smoky Mountains. Her four separate romance series explore various social issues as people of all ages navigate the complicated road to romance.

Zick has also written a variety of nonfiction books, which include a primer for beginning writers for drafting, writing, and publishing a book. Her book on vegetable gardening combines her husband’s passion for growing food and her love of cooking it. She has also published and annotated the journal of her great-grandfather based on his experiences as a Union soldier during the Civil War.

She and her husband split their time between Tallahassee and the Smoky Mountains near Murphy, where they enjoy gardening, kayaking, golfing, and hiking. To learn more, please visit www.pczick.com.

For open mic, please limit your reading to 3 to 4 minutes maximum for poetry or prose (2 poems only, please) so that everyone who wishes to read has an opportunity to share.  To sign up for Open Mic, send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you) by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com