CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE SOUND OF POETS COOKING

Now, what can poet make of this? A Butternut Poem, of course.




The Sound Of Poets Cooking - an anthology cookbook

WRITERS HELPING THE COMMUNITY

These are difficult times for everyone, and in an effort to produce a fun anthology/cookbook that will also address the needs of writers and the communities they live in, we are seeking poems that make reference to an item that might be used for food. The poems do not need to be about eating or cooking, they only have to mention something that can be eaten. There is no cost to submit one poem. If you wish to submit more than one, the fee is $1 per page.

The anthology will feature both well-known and lesser-known writers. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to provide writers grants to teach free writing workshops in their communities. There will be a simple, one-page application form at the back of the anthology to apply for this program. These grants will be available to all writers, not just the ones whose work appears in this anthology.

Although we are primarily looking for poems, if you have a favorite recipe, simple to moderate in preparation and cost, feel free to send that along as well.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Submissions Accepted Through June 1, 2009. Decisions made by July 1, 2009.

DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS

Submit poems to foodpoems@gmail.com. Put "Poetry Submission" and your last name in the subject line of your email. . Please paste your poem(s) in the body of the email. Include a one-paragraph biography at the bottom of the email. If you are sending a recipe, add the word 'Recipe" to the subject line. If you are submitting more than one poem, we will reply with directions on how to submit payment for the additional poems.

Previously published poems are welcome. Note when and where they were published.

Simultaneous submissions are fine.




EDITOR

Richard Krawiec has published 2 novels, a story collection, a collection of poetry, and 4 plays. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He won the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 for the online writing courses he teaches for UNC Chapel Hill. He has edited two previous anthologies that featured the work of well-known writers like Betty Adcock, James Applewhite, Kay Byer, Fred Chappel, Michael Chitwood, Reynolds Price, Lee Smith, Shelby Stephenson, Elisabeth Spencer and other writers, both celebrated and unknown. For more information on him visit his website.

http://home.mindspring.com/~rkwriter/

The Fog Came Alive with Michael Beadle

Thursday evening at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Michael Beadle of Canton, NC read and performed his poetry to a large group of quilters, writers, crafters and listeners who all enjoyed the hour program. Mary Mike Keller who schedules the readings at John Campbell now, gave Michael the entire time to share with us his craft.

He began by involving the audience in performing Sandburg's poem, Fog, and had all of us laughing at ourselves. I can imagine how he must create a learning environment for school children. He makes poetry images memorable with action for each line.

If you have not seen Michael in person, you have missed a treat.

Michael says he loves coming to the Folk School and it is obvious the folk school students loved Michael on Thursday evening.

Mountain Writers of North Carolina

It seems the Mountain Writers of North Carolina, a writing group in Waynesville, NC enjoyed a delightful meeting on March 10.
According to Netwest member, Sonja Contois, "there’s magic in well-crafted stories, and this meeting was dedicated to bespelling each other. With the beauty of the written word, the resonance of a voice, and the expression of the author, two hours in heaven passed quickly."

JC Walkup, Netwest Rep for Haywood County, read a story, All's Well, about a couple that use sickly-sweet conversation while each plans the demise of the other. JC is an excellent writer and has published many short stories.

Merry Elrick is the author of The Rhubarb which is a sailboat that carries the reader on the journey of three siblings through disease, denial, and death.

John Malone, Haywood County Netwest Rep, read the poignant last chapter of his Heading Home, a historical novel based on the life of John’s grandfather.

Sonja Contois' story was The Troxley Women about a woman’s childhood memory of her grandmother, her grandmother’s button box, and “God putting her down.”

Maybe Not the Well-Worn Way by Dawn Jones tells the story of
Beatrice’s experience as she busses to the office, begins her workday, and sees her own reflection as co-worker Bob has a heart attack. Great O’Henry ending.

Charley Pearson, president of this writing group, read his Sentient Choice filled with quips galore as the court decides whether or not to tax the earnings of an evidently male robot that (or who) is intimately involved in the lives of the women called as witnesses.

WCU Literary Festival Schedule

Here is the schedule for the WCU Literary Festival beginning on March 30. If you click on the title above, I promise it will work this time!



Note: all events are in the UC Theatre, except for DeBlieu's reading, which is in Coulter Auditorium

Monday, March 30
12:00 noon Robert Conley
4 PM Poets C.S.Carrier and Brian Brodeur
7:30 pm A. Manette Ansay

Tuesday, March 31
4 PM Jeffrey Lent
7:30 PM Steve Yarbrough

Wednesday, April 1
4 PM Scott Huler
7:30 PM Jewell Parker Rhodes

Thursday, April 2
12 PM Gilbert Chappell Distinguished Poetry reading (student poets)
4 PM Ron Rash and Pam Duncan
5:30 PM Reception (Illusions)
7:30 PM Jan DeBlieu

I HAVE COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Imagine walking into a bookstore like this one. It's a gray February day, with storms threatening, and you've just driven in the rain from Cullowhee over Winding Stair Gap and down into the town of Hayesville. You find the town square and park in front of a place called Crumpets, also known as Phillips & Lloyd bookstore. You're early. You sit in the car waiting for the doors to open, and when they do, you enter the store where you see one of the most welcoming interiors you've beheld in quite awhile.



But wait! It gets better. There's your old friend Nancy Simpson waiting to give you a hug. You are, after all, the special guest today, the poet who drove into the clouds and down again to get here for a morning of poetry.



Here are Brenda Kay Ledford and Carole Thompson waiting to say hello.



There's fresh coffee waiting, and oh my, all sorts of goodies being spread on a table in the room where ruffled curtains and quilts adorn the windows and walls. Soon other friends from Netwest arrive--Glenda Beall, Brenda Kay Ledford, and a little later, Janice Townley Moore, to name only a few. It's COFFEE WITH THE POETS morning. Wake up, wake up, the poets all around me seem to be saying, and after my reading and question/answer session, I listen to them read their own work in the open mic portion of this monthly event sponsored by Netwest.




(Michelle Keller, who coordinates Netwest's COFFEE WITH THE POETS, introduces me before my reading.)

Janice Moore sits to the side listening.



One by one the poets read their poems. "I want these," I declare, grabbing pages out of each poet's hand, and I carry them back home with me over the mountain. When I get home I realize I can't possibly type all of these for my blog! So, out comes my trusty digital camera, and I photograph each poem. Aha, the real thing, preserved by modern technology. Even the wrinkles in the paper.

Brenda Kay Ledford in her red-hot leather suit leads off the list.





Richard Argo flashes a big smile after reading his poem about being in a tent during rain. (I remember tent days--and nights---but mine weren't so romantic.)





Idell Shook introduces me to her book, Rivers of My Heart.





And Clarence Newton! What else to say about his "Adventure"?






One of the highlights of my day is meeting Lynn Rutherford, whose comments on this blog have delighted me over the past months. A Georgia girl herself, she knows about muddy rivers, squishy mud, sandspurs, and mosquitoes!








Nancy Simpson reads an old poem made new again through revision and recently accepted by The Pisgah Review.



Carole Thompson's poem set in St. Simon's Island, shows her gift for vivid imagery. It made me want to head south to the Golden Isles, where my favorite beaches wait.




Glenda Barrett, who lives just over the state line, promised to email me some of her poems. Here is one of them. Glenda is a widely published poet, with a recent chapbook to her credit. (more about that in a later post)




Flashback


The massage therapist

moves her slick palms

up and down my leg muscles

and notices a scar on my ankle.

Did you know every cell

in our body has a memory?

Experts say that simply touching

a scar can bring back the memory

of the trauma.

I listen as she speaks,

but I’m secretly glad

no one can touch my heart.

------------Glenda Barrett

Published in The Cherry Blossom Review in summer of 2008


If you are looking for crafty wit, look no further than Dorothea Spiegel's "X ON."





And Linda Smith's voice was well-suited to the "mystery" she unfolded in her poem "Mystery Memory."






Karen Holmes read a memorable poem about the circles life makes.





And after the open mic, we made our way to the delicacies arranged on the table. Poetry makes you hungry, after all. And COFFEE WITH THE POETS will make you hungry for more such mornings when friends and lovers of poetry gather to celebrate and enjoy the magic of each and every poem.

Your Life - Your Stories

Your Life—Your Stories Instructor: Glenda BeallUse your life experiences, favorite photos or keepsakes to help you develop stories and personal essays.Your stories are unique. Write to publish or to save for your children and grandchildren. Share your work and get feedback that will help polish each piece you write. This class is for beginning and intermediate writers.May 17-23, 2009

WCU LITERARY FESTIVAL

Mark you calendars now for the WCU Literary Festival! It begins on March 30 with a reading by Cherokee novelist Robert Conley and continues till April 2, concluding with a reading by naturalist writer Jan DeBlieu.

If you go to the festival website (litfestival.org), you can find the schedule, authors' bio's, and photos. I'll be sending more information as the festival draws closer.

Season's Gems by Linda M. Smith

Season’s Gems

Drizzly remnants of hurricanes
stretching like big beads on a necklace
across the Atlantic
chased summer away a day early.
I resent Autumn’s untimely arrival,
robbing itself of its own magnificence.

No more floating in Lake Chatuge,
face up, absorbing white hot aura,
splashing liquid diamonds
over my tanned skin and sapphire suit.

Reluctantly, I shut windows,
don wool socks and fuzzy sweater.
Still cold, I curl under ruby colored throw,
unsuccessfully attempt happiness
by thinking of Christmas.

Gloomy rain and gray thoughts for days prevail,
but, at the end,
golden, topaz rays of sunset
sparkle across my yard,
where dogwood’s leaves turned garnet,
red berried, glowing in crystal cool air.
Autumn’s glory is here.

--Linda M. Smith

Previously published in Freeing Jonah V

Poets nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore Were Honored at Coffee With the Poets

Nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore, were honored at Coffee With the Poets, sponsored by N.C. Writers Network West, March 11, 2009 at Phillips and Lloyd Book Store on the town square in Hayesville, NC. These two poets were recognized for having poems included in the recently released anthology, THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, edited by Judith Kitchen and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, (2009 Anhinga Press, Tallahassee.)

Janice Townley Moore read poems from the anthology, most of them related to sounds of birds, for example, “ Songbird” by John Brehm, which she said was the best poem in the book. Moore also read “Cardinal” by Bruce Bond, and she read her poem, “Teaching the Robins,” which is the title poem of her own chapbook, published at Finishing Line Press, (2005 Gergetown, Kentucky.) The poem, “Teaching the Robins,” gives readers the image of an English teacher attempting to teach students in her classroom, specifically trying to teach them the grief poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Nancy Simpson read several poems from the anthology, including Linda Pastan’s “The Birds,” and Gray Jacobik’s “ Flamingos.” She also read , “Cranes in August,” by Kim Addonizio and she dedicated the crane poem to poet Maren O. Mitchell who is a proficient poet as well as accomplished at making paper cranes. Nancy Simpson also read her poem chosen for the anthology titled, “Carolina Bluebirds.”

The editors of THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS presented 151 contemporary American poets. Nancy Simpson said, “This is a different kind of field guide. You see a bird but when you look it up in this “poet’s guide”, you will find ten poems listed under Cardinal, thirteen under Crow, only one under Carolina Bluebird, and only one under Nuthatch and so on. Twenty-five poems are listed under Birdsong/Sound.

Editor Ted Kooser expressed the hope that “readers will enjoy this book just half as much as if they’d actually seen all the birds these poems represent.”

Poets attending Coffee With the Poets read their original poems in the open mic reading. Some of those poets celebrating birds were: Karen Holmes, Carole Thompson, Brenda Kay Ledford, Ellen Andrews, Maren O. Mitchell, Ann Cahill, Linda Smith and Glenda Barrett. 

THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS can be ordered at www.anhinga.org, or www.amazon.com, or at Phillips and lloyd Book Store on the square in Hayesville, N.C.

Angela Dove launched a new book

We are happy to welcome new member of Netwest, Angela Dove, author of No Room for Doubt. Angela launched her book at Osondu Booksellers last weekend. Those who attended the Netwest picnic in Maggie Valley a couple of years ago will remember Angela who was our special guest.

The book is selling well, according to Margaret, owner of Osondu in Waynesville, NC. She said Angela is not only a good writer, but also a good reader. Angela will soon be visiting California where she will sign her book in various locations.

NC English Teachers Association Writing Awards

(At the annual NCETA convention in Winston-Salem last October: the three High School Poet Laureate Winners: from left Anuja Acharya, Katherine Indermaur, and Sarah Bruce.)


The North Carolina English Teachers Association sponsors three writing awards for students. The deadline for entries is April 15, so it's time for teachers to begin encouraging students to polish the poems, prose, and short fiction they've already written--or write something new!--that their schools may enter for these awards. To find out more about the awards, please go to ncenglishteacher.org and click on the student awards link for entry forms and contest guidelines. The guidelines for the Student Poet Laureate Awards may be found on the side bar of my ncpoetlaureate blog.



(JOHN YORK, former English Teacher of the Year, at the NCETA banquet)

In the fall of 2007, my family and I helped endow a new award through the NC English Teachers Association, the North Carolina Student Poet Laureate Awards for both high school and middle school students. I felt that poetry needed a special award to take its place beside the Wade Edwards Fiction Award and the essay awards handed out every year at the NCETA annual convention. The current state Poet Laureate will serve each year as final judge in the two categories, selecting the students who will serve as our Student Poetry Ambassadors until the following year. Students are invited to submit, through their teachers, their poems, which a member of NCETA will read, in order to make final recommendations to the current Laureate. This past year my preliminary reader was John York, whose splendid poem, "Naming the Constellations," won the 2008 NC Poetry Society's Poet Laureate award and was featured on this blog. He will again serve as preliminary reader, offering his recommendations to me.

John and I were delighted to be able to give the 2008 Laureate award to "Downtown After Dark" by Katherine Indermaur, Honorable Mention to "Death by Chocolate," by Anuja Acharya, and a Special Commendation to "yellow" by Sarah Bruce. All three students were nominated by Priscilla Chappell at Enloe High School in Raleigh and all three spoke of how much Ms. Chappell had opened up the world of poetry to them. We at NCETA and the Arts Council are excited about this new award and the excellent poetry these three young women have given us. We did not have enough entries for middle schoolers last year to have a real competition in that category. THIS YEAR we hope to have many more submissions from both levels.



(Our first NC Student Poet Laureate, Katherine Indermaur, with her mother, after the NCETA Awards banquet.)



(Our Honorable Mention winner, Anuja Acharya with her parents.)



(Judges Special Commendation winner Sarah Bruce with her parents.)

POEMS BY OUR 2008 WINNERS WILL BE POSTED ON TOMORROW'S BLOG.

Michael Beadle performs his poetry at John Campbell Folk School March 19

One of the brightest poets on the horizon is Michael Beadle who lives in Canton, NC. He is a performance poet, and he teaches poetry workshops across North Carolina, mostly with students but also with adults.

We are delighted Michael sent a few poems for the Netwest blog. He tells about them in the following words.
"A Town Too Small For Maps" describes the small town in Eastern NorthCarolina where I grew up. "Morning at Fontana Lake" is an imagist poem about an unforgettable early morning scene I once beheld while staying at a mountain cabin near Fontana Lake. "A Town Too Small For Maps" won 1st place in a writing contest last year at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. It was also chosen by Kay Byer for the "Poet of the Week" feature on http://www.ncarts.com/ .

A Town Too Small For Maps

Folks used to call her Sauls’ Crossroads,
but the postal service said the name was too long.
So, somebody thought on it, yelled “Eureka!”
Eureka, that ancient exclamation of inspiration.
The name stuck long enough to celebrate
her centennial. They say Sherman marched through
once, stopped for a drink, Atlanta ash still on his boots.

There’s time to think on a lot of things here.
The stoplight stays red long enough for drivers
to look both ways at boarded up storefronts.
Post office doubles as a town hall. Over there
used to be Sauls’ General Store. After school,
we’d meet for 3-cent gum and a 12-ounce coke,
maybe a run at Gallaga or Ms. Pac-Man.
In the pine-draped house a quarter mile down
lived Miss Nancy, a state representative.
I once sat in her house, a spell of dark wood.
Thick, bronzed plaques lined her walls. They say
she could match wits with the best in Raleigh.
The only grocery in town shut down last year.
A few gas stations keep a steady business
for the families and farms that remain.
The elementary school closed after consolidation.
Weeds spike through faded lines in the parking lot.

Outside town long rows of tobacco
lined the highways. How I’d pray
the harvester would get to the end.
Reach down, curl a hand around
the stalk, break off three, four leaves
from the bottom, dump it in the tray again
and again. Hands and forearms turned gummy black.
‘Baccer dew wet our shirts, dried stiff as blood.
Early mornings we’d top and sucker,
break off flower tops, pinch out buds,
flick fat, green worms from the leaves.
We’d stop mid-morning when the boss man
or the boss man’s son brought us
Little Debbies and a coke bottle I’d tilt sideways
to suck down faster, feel the burn in my cheeks.
By August, we’d be at the bulk barns, sifting
through crispy, golden leaf, toss out what’s burnt.
Burlap bundled plump, knotted, bound for market.
Stack ‘em high in the big trucks, boys!
Leaves littered the sides of highways,
like money spilled out of a stolen bank truck.
And the best brand of flue-cured that season
paid for school clothes and car payments.

Now those fields yield cotton, far as the eye
wants to see, rows that end in dark woods.
The sharecropper shacks and tin barns lean
like old men waiting to fall, ready to die.
Fields stretch on for miles to other crossroads —
Patetown, Nahunta, Faro, Black Creek.
When a lady asks me where home is,
I pause a moment to give her an approximation,
knowing she won’t stray too far to find
what lies in a town too small for maps.
Near Goldsboro, I say, about an hour east of Raleigh.



— Michael Beadle


Morning at Fontana Lake


ghost gods of fog
float in the coves
shade a vague horizon

dawn blooms
gauzy sun
scratches of gray

stars burrow
back into
their holes

a motorboat
unzips the flesh of lake
with its wake

things stir between trees
jazzy bees
bushy-tailed thieves
birds the size of fruit
perch on the deck
jerk their necks

silver creeks
mint stone coins
plenty for skipping


— Michael Beadle

FREELANCE WRITERS NEEDED FOR MOUNTAIN MAGAZINE

Smoky Mountain Living is looking for freelance writers, especially from the far corner of the state and north Ga.
The magazine's website is http://www.smliv.com/
You will find guidelines there for submitting stories. Please send sample stories of your work and a cover letter to...

Scott McLeod, editor-in-chief
Smoky Mountain Living
P.O. Box 629
Waynesville, NC 28786

Payment ranges from $150-$450 per story (depending on the length of the story) and comes after publication. Contributing writers get a free copy of the magazine. The publication goes all over the country, but is mainly found in NC, SC, GA and FL. Currently, they publish four issues a year, but next year, they're planning to come out every other month.

Poets, Simpson and Moore, will read at Coffee with the Poets

Janice Townley Moore




Nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore are two of the NC poets who had poems included in the new bird anthology titled THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS. Both of these poets live and write in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The anthology contains only bird poems, some of them by the most noted poets writing in America today. It was edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser and published at Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, Florida, 2009.
Janice Townley Moore's poem is "Teaching the Robins." This is the title poem of her chapbook Teaching the Robins published at Finishing Line Press, 2005.
Nancy Simpson's poem is a previously unpublished poem titled "Carolina Bluebirds."The Poets Guide to the Birds is available at http://www.anhingapress.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, and at Phillips and Lloyd bookstore on the square in Hayesville, NC.

Both Simpson and Moore are featured readers of their poetry at Coffee with the Poets in Hayesville, NC at Phillips and Lloyd bookstore on March 11, 10:30 AM.
Poets reading at open mic are invited to bring their poems about birds. Everyone is invited to come and listen or read while munching on delicacies from Crumpets Dessertery.