LEDFORD RECEIVES PAUL GREEN AWARD

Brenda Kay Ledford received the 2009 Paul Green Multimedia Award for her poetry book, SACRED FIRE, from North Carolina Society of Historians at the History Place in Morehead City, NC, during their award’s ceremony in October.

This is the fourth time Ledford has received the prestigious Paul Green Award. She got the 2005 award for her poetry book, PATCHWORK MEMORIES; the 2006 award for collecting oral history on Velma Beam Moore; and in 2007, for SHEW BIRD MOUNTAIN.

A native of Clay County, NC, Ledford was an honor graduate of Hayesville High School. She earned her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University and studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee. She’s former Creative Writing Editor of “Tri-County Communicator,” at Tri-County Community College.

Ledford is a member of North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Georgia Poetry Society, Byron Herbert Reece Society, North Carolina Storytelling Guild, and listed with “A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers.” She’s appeared on “A Common Cup,” over Windstream Communication channel 4 television and read her poetry.

Her work has appeared in “Our State,” “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” “A Journal of Kentucky Studies,” “Appalachian Heritage,” and many other journals. Finishing Line Press published her poetry books, SHEW BIRD MOUNTAIN and SACRED FIRE.

For details about the Paul Green Award, go to: http://www.ncsocietyofhistorians.org/; http://www.brendakayledford.com/; http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com.

FASHIONS FROM THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

Recently I acquired a copy of Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham's new anthology, Clothes Lines, a book filled with stories and poems about, what else, clothes.


Among the writers I know in this book are Nancy Sales Cash, author of three novels and she is working on number four. Nancy is a native of Murphy, NC and spends much time in the Cherokee and Clay county areas. We met at the Daily Grind and Curiosity Shop Bookstore, had a cup of coffee and discussed readings of Clothes Lines and my poetry book Now Might As Well Be Then.



Some of the writers in the far southwest area of North Carolina and north Georgia who have work in Clothes Lines are Kathryn Stripling Byer, Joyce Foster, Nancy Sales Cash, Karen Paul Holmes, Carole R. Thompson, Glenda Barrett, Jo Carolyn Beebe, Janice Townley Moore, Blanche Ledford and Brenda Kay Ledford, and Peg Russell.

A number of our Netwest members throughout the region also appear in this interesting book by 75 western North Carolina Women.

Celia and Nancy published Christmas Presence last year through Catawba Press and used the same press for Clothes Lines. The book is made more interesting by the use of a few black and white pictures all done by Mary Alice Ramsey.
Be on the lookout for readings from this anthology in your town.

A Reflection on the Summer of 1968 - Remember?

Recently Lana Hendershott submitted the following to her hometown newspaper when the editor asked for glimpses of life in the summer of 1968. Many of us remember that summer. Where were you and what were you doing then?


A Girl's Take on Summer of '68
by Lana Hendershott

I was in love with a boy I dated during my freshman year at Northwestern, and I was not excited about returning to Enid, Oklahoma. Going home meant trading an active social life for monastic mores and gainful employment.

The employment angle didn’t pan out. Boys harvested wheat, mowed grass or had paper routes. Their jobs paid well and left time for swimming at Champlin’s pool. My choices were babysitting, waitressing, or car hopping in miniskirts and roller skates at the A&W.

Babysitting paid fifty cents an hour and entailed caring for a neighbor’s three children all under the age of seven. I’m talking ten hours a day, Monday through Friday, with laundry service and ironing thrown in as freebies for Mrs. T. I actually slaved away at that job the previous summer and decided surrogate motherhood was not my gig.

I was eager to carhop or wait tables. Those jobs offered shorter hours and paid three times better than babysitting even if customers didn’t tip. I began fantasizing about my soon-to-be-earned wealth. Managers, however, expected experience, and I had zero. They questioned whether a ninety-eight pound novice, regardless of enthusiasm and robust health, was a good fit for transporting weighty platters of food and drinks. My mother ended my job search by declaring, “She’s worth more than $1.50 an hour to me.” I suspect she didn’t like the miniskirt idea.

Plan B was attending summer school at Phillips University and helping Mom with errands, meals, and housework. I enrolled in General Psychology taught by Dr. Jordan, Biblical Religion with Dr. Simpson, and U.S. Government, a requirement. I don’t remember anything about government—not the teacher, not classmates, not one discussion. I had no interest in politics. Dr. King was murdered in Memphis, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in California, and the evening news was all about Viet Nam. The violence appalled me, but the broadcasts were like watching movies or events happening in a parallel universe leaving me uninvolved.

Psychology class started at seven o’clock A.M. Sipping coffee, I watched the sky lighten as I drove east on Broadway with the windows rolled down. I listened to Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” on WKY and looked forward to watching Dark Shadows in the afternoon.

An earlier version was printed in the Enid News and Eagle on Sunday, July 13th, 2008.

Lana Hendershott represents NCWN West in Henderson County. Anyone who lives there can contact her for information about Netwest and writing events in that area.

CLOTHES LINES IS HERE!

No, not my clotheslines, which right now have damp garments hanging because I forgot to bring them inside last night. No, I mean the anthology edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. These clothes lines don't have anything soggy about them. Take a look at the cover. It looks like a shawl to be thrown over the shoulders when you are heading out to make the scene! The poem on the back cover (below) by Nancy Dillingham is worth wearing! (I've always wanted to wear a poem.)

More about this book tomorrow.

Finding Our Line

Every day
we shape our clay
from the inside out
giving it cachet.

But sometimes
it’s the clothes we wear
that give us away
that give us sway

Curves, straight lines
diagonals, in-your-face style
au courant, de rigueur
faux, retro

Similarly
we define ourselves as writers
shape our style

The curve of the plot
the turn of the phrase
the tone of the prose--
it’s the pattern of patter that matters

We preen, we pose
give color to character
and landscape
decorate and align

weaving a provocative story
stitching a tall tale
spinning a yarn
threading a theme

piecing a poem
with precision and panache
punctuating with élan
finding our line

Nancy Dillingham

CLOTHESLINES
Edited by Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham ISBN 978-1-59712-355-690000

THE CLEANSING, NEW NOVEL BY BEN ELLER

Congratulations are in order for Ben Eller, Netwest member and author. His second novel, The Cleansing was runner-up in Fireside Publishing 2008 mystery/thriller novel contest. It is always good to see our writers succeeding in this business of publishing and winning awards. The Cleansing can be found in local bookstores in western North Carolina.

Coffee with the Poets features Maren O. Mitchell, poet

Maren Mitchell, Netwest writer, will be featured October 14 at Coffee with the Poets. The reading is held at 10:30 a.m on the second Wednesday of each month at Phillips and Lloyd Book Store on the square in Hayesville, NC.

Maren's poetry has appeared in the Red Clay Reader, The Arts Journal, Applachian Journal, and Journal of Kentucky Studies. One of her poems is forthcoming in Southern Humanities Review.  She has worked as a proof reader, was a house manager of a group home in Brevard NC, taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historical Site. She teaches origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. A North Carolina native, she has lived in France and Germany and throughout the southeastern part of the United States. Presently, she lives with her husband and her two cats in Young Harris, GA.

Coffee with the Poets was begun in 2007 as a networking and reading event sponsored by North Carolina Writers Network West (Netwest) to promote poetry and poets in the mountain area. Anyone who writes poetry is invited to come and share their work at open mic. A delicious array of desserts is available from Crumpets Dessertery, along with numerous flavors of tea and a pot full of coffee.

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS BOOKFAIR

It's that time of year again, when the season begins to turn toward hot cups of tea and a good book to go with them. Not to mention Christmas gifts!
The Great Smoky Mountains Book Fair is ready to meet your needs, and then some. Go to http://www.gsmbookfair.org/ to find out what to expect--authors, presentations, animals--yes, we will have some, maybe a hound dog or two--and lots of folks wandering around looking at books. I'll be writing poems on demand; there will be a bookmaking table, ongoing story-telling, good music, and, we hope, fine fall weather.
I'll have more about all this a little later. VISIT OUR WEBSITE!

Netwest member, Pat Workman writes a beautiful blog

Click on this link to read an original poem by Hayesville Poet, Pat Workman. She has been out of the Netwest group for some years but she is back with a lovely blog and some of her original work.You will love the photos.

Cup Of Comfort is excellent place to submit essays

Share Your Story in Cup of Comfort!


Calling all Love Birds and Golf Lovers! The submission windows for A Cup of Comfort for Couples and A Cup of Comfort for Golfers are still wide open. We're most interested in well-crafted narrative essays that convey a universal truth in a personal and creative way. Stories can be humorous or serious, but always uplifting or inspiring.

You'll find complete details in the online Call for Submissions and in the Writers Guidelines.



Submit your stories now!

Poetry Workshop and Critique Session

The Poetry Workshop with Critique Session sponsored by NCWN West will meet the first Thursday of each month from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Tri-County Community College, McSwain Building, Murphy NC. Contact Janice Moore, 828 389-6394 for more information. The meeting is open to all NCWN members within driving range. Observers are welcome. Check in library or call Janice for room number.

fresh is new literary magazine

It looks like a new literary magazine will be hitting the newstands in western North Carolina very soon. The editors have begun with a bang with some big names among the authors represented.



fresh…stories, ideas, poetry

What is fresh?

It is a new quarterly literary magazine distributed in selected locations in five counties of Western North Carolina and soon to be available on the internet. Thanks to our advertisers and generous sponsors such as John Buckley and Dr. Darryl Nabors the first issue is free.

Our mission is to present fine writing through stories, ideas and poems from excellent writers across the nation and our region. Contributing writers in the first issue include Robert Morgan, prize winning author of Gap Creek, Boone and others; Keith Flynn, publisher of The Asheville Review, and prolific author of poetry; Kathryn Magendie, author of Tender Graces; and Eric S. Brown, author of World War of the Dead, plus hundreds of short stories. We believe it is important to offer a publication for fiction, essays and humor which reflect contemporary ideas and opinions.

fresh will be available in locations where people gather…restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops, libraries.

Comments and recommendations from readers are welcome. Future issues will have space for a readers’ forum. If you wish to participate, please e-mail your thoughts to: jcwalkup@bellsouth.net.

SOUTHWESTERN TRIBES CULTURAL ARTS CELEBRATION

SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES CULTURAL ARTS CELEBRATION WILL TAKE PLACE RAIN OR SHINE!! September 18-19.

SCHEDULE AT http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/events-set.html

CATHERINE CARTER: NETWEST ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING CONTEST

Catherine Carter, who lives in Cullowhee, is one of the most interesting poets writing today. Also one of the best. Her poems about the environment go beyond cliche into the biological realities of the world around us without missing a lyrical beat. "Swarm" pulls us into the universe of a honeybee swarm with language that connects us with the real living "other" around us. When you read her first book, The MEMORY OF GILLS, that won the Roanoke-Chowan award from the NC Literary and Historical Association, your learn a lot about the natural world. I hope we have more poems of this caliber submitted to Netwest's Environmental contest. This is a contest we mustn't let die.

CATHERINE CARTER

(Third Place Winner)

SWARM

Twenty-five years back, at home,
the summer hour was late when the afternoon
light began to hum, and a thousand
specks came arrowing out of the west,
the air waxed thick with honeybees up in swarm.
They crept and crawled on our closed
screens, stormed and boomed around the old
maple: one of the things you remember
forever, a sign you can’t read, alien,
and yet down in your bones you know
you want this. Want to open the screen and go
out there, breathe the wind of gauze
wings, pet striped velvet, feel
the sisters’ feet prick your skin.
I didn’t know then that swarming
bees don’t sting, and working bees hardly
sting, and bumblebees let you stroke
their black satin as they drink the blooms.
I didn’t know how little harm
most things mean, how even the dangerous
snake tries to slide away, how safe
we were. But I think of it now, stirring
the soft bees barehanded, shaking
down this week’s thrumming swarm,
hoping they’ll come home. The summer
hour is late, but not too late.

JOHN EHLE READING IN ASHEVILLE

 John Ehle Reading in Asheville, NC

       Internationally acclaimed author and Asheville native, John Ehle, will read and sign books on October 10 at 2 pm. The event, sponsored by The Writers' Workshop, will be held at the West Asheville Public Library at 942 Haywood Street. It is free and open to the public. A reception follows, hosted by Friends of West Asheville Library. Books will be available for purchase at the book-signing.

 Mr. Ehle is the authorof seventeen books, including Winter People; The Journey Of August King; and Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. He will read from his novel, Last One Home, first published in 1984 and recently re-issued. It is the last in a seven-book series about the settling of the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina.

 Ehle is a member of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, and has received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Thomas Wolfe Prize and the Lillian Smith Award for Southern Fiction. He is a five-time winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and has  received the Mayflower Award; the Governor's Award for Meritorious Service; and the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities. Mr. Ehle holds honorary doctorates from UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Asheville, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Berea College.

He also serves on the Advisory Board of The Writers' Workshop, a non-profit organization founded in 1985. A luncheon for Mr. Ehle will be held at noon, prior to the reading. For more information about the reading or luncheon, please email writersw@gmail.com, or call 828-254-8111.

CONNOTATION PRESS FIRST ISSUE NOW ONLINE

    John Hoppenthaler has just notified me that the first online issue of Connotation is up.  This is a free-wheeling e-zine that features drama, essay, poetry, fiction, as well as visual art.  Give it a looksee.  One of the poets in this first issue is Catherine Carter, 3rd place winner in Netwest's Environmental Writing contest.  Her three poems are well worth your reading time.  Catherine is a Roanoke-Chowan Winner; one of her poems won the recent Randall Jarrell Poetry Award from NCWN.  She teaches at WCU.  

    If you to to the Guest Editor section, you will find a couple of my poems, one for my father, the dedicatory poem in my new manuscript.

     Enjoy!  And submit to Connotation.   (www.connotationpress.com)

Connotation Press accepts submissions in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, play writing, screenplay, graphic or visual arts, interview, book review, music review, video (for spoken word or music or…), etc. Basically, we′re looking at virtually every genre or crossover genre you can create.

Connotation Press only accepts online submissions, and we read submissions all year long. We generally will respond to submissions within six weeks; if you don′t hear back from us by then, feel free to inquire about the status of your manuscript. Please wait for a response before sending a second submission in any one genre.

We encourage simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

We only accept original, previously unpublished work. Translations should be submitted with original texts. Indicate that you have copyright clearance and/or author permission.

If your work is chosen for publication, we may ask for a brief interview, conducted by one of our editors, in addition to or in lieu of a traditional author′s bio, and a photograph.

What Digital Formats We Accept

Text Submissions: .doc, .pdf or .rtf files.
Visual Art Submissions: .jpg, .png, .pdf
Video Submissions: AVI, MPG, MP4

Guidelines by Genre

POETRY: Please submit not less than three and not more than five poems per submission.

FICTION: Please submit one short story or chapter at a time, or 1-5 flash fiction pieces.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Please submit one piece or segment of a piece at a time.

DRAMA: Please submit one complete play, act, or segment thereof.

SCREENPLAY: Please submit one complete screenplay, act, or segment thereof.

GRAPHIC/VISUAL ART: If sending Images - Send at 72 DPI and no wider than 800 Width.

INTERVIEW: Submit a short treatment about the subject before submitting

REVIEWS: We will read all unsolicited reviews. However, if you would prefer to submit an inquiry first, we welcome that as well.

VIDEO: Please submit one at a time due to file size restrictions on attachments.

UNDERGRAD: For the undergrad section we are asking writing teachers around the world for their best and brightest new writers. Our hope is that the teacher will nominate the undergrad and work with the undergrad to compile a submission. For some new writers this will be their first submission process, and we gratefully welcome those writers.

When documentation is required for any submission, please use MLA style format.

Connotation Press holds first serial rights for material that we publish. The copyright automatically reverts to the author upon publication. We do not require that material be copyrighted prior to submission. 

Go to Connotation Press for more guidelines.