Sunday, May 15, 2011

May Folk School Readings

Mark your calendar now for Thursday, May 19, 7:00 pm, Keith House at the John C. Campbell Folk School. May's readers are Carole Thompson and Karen Paul Holmes. Both Carole and Karen are published poets whose work you will enjoy hearing. The event is open to the public and there is no fee. Hope to see you there!

Friday, May 13, 2011

20TH ANNUAL CLAY COUNTY HISTORICAL AND ARTS POETRY CONTEST Names the Winners

First Place, Brenda Kay Ledford, Second Place Linda M. Smith. Third Place Kim Chastain (not pictured)

Winners of the Clay County Historical and Arts Council Poetry Contest read their poems and received their awards on May 5, 2011 at Hayesville High School Lecture Hall. The contest was judged by poet Nancy Simpson.

Nancy Simpson was presented a painting and plaque from the Clay County Historical Arts Council which read: To Nancy Simpson in appreciation for her years of devotion to the creative and cultural development of student and adults in Clay County.














painting by Reba Beck.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

COFFEE WITH THE POETS: NANCY DILLINGHAM & CELIA MILES


THIS MONTH'S SYLVA COFFEE WITH THE POETS (10:30 A.M. , MAY 19, AT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE) WILL WELCOME POET NANCY DILLINGHAM AND FICTION WRITER CELIA MILES. SHE AND CELIA ARE THE EDITORS OF THE ANTHOLOGIES CHRISTMAS PRESENCE, CLOTHESLINES AND A FORTHCOMING ANTHOLOGY FOCUSED ON WOMEN FINDING THEIR "PLACE." NANCY AND CELIA WILL DISCUSS THEIR ADVENTURES AS EDITORS, AND NANCY WILL READ FROM HER NEW BOOK OF POETRY. THIS PROMISES TO BE A FASCINATING PROGRAM, SO PLEASE JOIN US FOR COFFEE AND TREATS, BOTH EDIBLE AND LITERARY.



Celia's novels are A Thyme for Love, ThymeTable Mill, Mattie’s Girl: An Appalachian Childhood, Sarranda, and (in 2010) Journey to Stenness. Two short story collections are On a Slant: A Collection of Stories and Islands One and All: Stories and Otherwise. Nancy's books of poetry include include Home, recently nominated for a SIBA book Award in Poetry. Here's an interesting post from Kaye w. Barley's blog. http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2010/09/movin-on-by-nancy-dillingham.html.



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Glenda Beall presided over "Coffee With the Poets" on Wednesday, May 11. It was held in the new location at Cafe Touche, Main Street, Hayesville, NC. Several writers attended the event.

Wayne Drumheller of Brevard, NC, and NCWN Board Trustee, visited "Coffee With the Poets." He spoke about current happenings with the Network and the upcoming Fall Conference in Asheville and encouraged everyone to attend.


Mary Ricketson was the featured poet this month. She also recently won the gold medal for a poem with the Cherokee County Silver Arts Contest. Congratulations, Mary!


Liz Bleaurer, owner of Cafe Touche, welcomed people to her lovely cafe.


Mary (Mike) Michelle Keller read a poem filled with beautiful imagery.


Clarence and Lorraine Newton, and Blanche L. Ledford attended "Coffee With the Poets." Clarence also read a poem.


Bob Grove chuckles during a light moment at "Coffee With the Poets." He also read a poem during open mic.


Carole Thompson enjoys a snack at "Coffee With the Poets."

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

EVENING WITH THE ARTS

Nancy Simpson judged this year's Clay County Historical and Arts' Council Poetry Contest. She read from her book, LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, during "Evening With the Arts" at Hayesville High School Lecture Hall on May 5. She and retired art teacher, Reba Beck, formed this annual event 20 years ago to celebrate the arts in our community and schools.

Nancy Simpson's book, LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, was published by Carolina Wren Press.



Linda Smith's poem, "Josie's Sunday," won second place.


Bob Grove's poem about an old house received honorable mention.


Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Beckoning," won first place in the Clay County Historical and Arts' Council Poetry Contest. She read her poem during "Evening With the Arts" at Hayesville High School Lecture Hall on May 5.


Other adults who won the poetry contest include: Amber Johnson, honorable mention and Mrs. Lamar Chastain, third place.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Mountain Writers of NC

Jacquelyn Frank, a NY Times best selling author, will speak at the Mountain Writers meeting, Tuesday, May 10 at 1:00 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, NC.
A paranormal romance writer, she'll talk about building worlds--creating the worlds in which our characters live. Check out her website, http://www.jacquelynfrank.com/, to see her work.



Contact Merry Elrick for more information

Mountain Writers of NC

http://www.mountainwritersnc.com/

merryelrick@mac.com

Thursday, May 5, 2011

May's Writers' Night Out

Friday the 13th of May will be lucky for audiences who come hear poet Robert W. Kimsey at 7 p.m. at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee. To celebrate the first anniversary of Writers’ Night Out, one lucky audience member will win a book. Also, those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction can participate in the
open microphone portion of the program following Kimsey’s reading.

Kimsey is a retired technical writer and illustrator who lives in McCaysville, GA. His poems have appeared in print and online publications including Kudzu, Pegasus, Southern Ocean Review, New Southerner and various anthologies. He is a member of the Georgia Poetry Society and was the judge for their youth contest in 2010. He is also a member of, and has won various awards from, the Kentucky Poetry Society. Robert has taught workshops in Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia, as well as at the Blue Ridge Writer’s Conference. Paths From the Shawnee Spring is the title of his first poetry chapbook. His new chapbook, Air Swimmer, is due out in May.

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month at Mountain Perk Coffee House, 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor Plaza across from Towns County High School. The evening is free and open to the public. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Those interested in reading at the open microphone may sign up at the event. Each writer can read for up to
three minutes.

Writers’ Night Out moved to its current location last month when Green To Bean Coffee House closed. The event began a year ago and has steadily grown in popularity. Mountain Perk offers a larger space to accommodate the usual audience of 30 or more people from four counties. It’s a relaxed and fun atmosphere for anyone who loves the written word.

For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or
kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Mountain Perk at (706) 896-0504.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Which Lit Journal Shall You Read?

We all know that to be good writers we must constantly be readers. A colleague of mine recently directed me to this website, Every Writer’s Resource.com. This entity has selected “Top 50 Lit Journals” (see the website for criteria and list). If you are looking to subscribe to a new journal, I recommend this list, along with the website itself. As opposed to my other favorite website (www.newpages.com), Every Writer’s Resource.com takes a more historical approach to the written word, which I like - -it helps fill in any gaps we may have particularly as poets. If you click on the Poets section, you’ll find Thomas Hardy, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Phillis Wheatley, and Matthew Arnold to name just a few.

Back to the lit journals, I have been or am a subscriber to a few of them. My personal favorites include Crazy Horse (nice shape, interesting voices), Black Warrior Review (for its very oddness), Poetry (for the “comment” section as much as for the poetry), the Georgia Review (always something good in its pages), and the Southern Review (always something fresh). If you subscribe to the others on the list, I'd love to know your opinion. I’ve let a lot of my subscriptions slip lately due to the economy, but I’m going to choose a new one for this year…and it’ll be one I haven’t read yet. Here’s to happy reading and happy writing!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

MARY RICKETSON READS AT COFFEE WITH THE POETS IN HAYESVILLE

Coffee with the Poets has moved to Cafe Touche,  at 82 Main Street in Hayesville, NC. Liz Bleauer, owner of the shop  serves the best coffee and has an ample menu of other goodies. She has outside seating available, but we will meet inside.The next meeting is on Wednesday, May 11, at 10:30 AM. with Mary Ricketson as the featured reader.




Mary Ricketson  has a long career as a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor in rural western North Carolina. She has a special interest in women’s issues, victims of abuse, and family and couple relationships. Her work is well known locally. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women.

She lives in a hand made house in the woods where she planted and maintains an organic blueberry farm. Her poems reflect her connections with a wealth of people and her close bond with the earth.
Mary has been writing poetry for twenty years and has completed a chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name, published in 2007 by Finishing Line Press.
Her poetry has been published in Lights in the Mountains, Freeing Jonah IV, various magazines, and in Disorgananza, a private collection distributed among family and friends in 2000. For fifteen years she has written a monthly column, Woman to Woman, for a weekly newspaper in Murphy, NC, The Cherokee Scout. She is a member of North Carolina Writers Network.

With a new venue, comes a new format for CWP. We will be inviting out of town guests to read along with our local poets in the future. This month we expect a visit from Wayne Drumheller, member of the  NCWN Board of Directors. Wayne didn't indicate that he planned to read, but he would like to meet members in the area, so please come  and enjoy the morning with him and other writers.
This event is open to the community and everyone is urged to bring a poem or a short prose piece to share at Open Mic.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Social Media? Who Needs It?

Ronda Birtha talks about her upcoming class on Social Media and its importance to writers.

A pre-class prep talk to ease the nerves of non-tech-savvy attendees. This is not a technology class!
Overview: 3 hours.
1. Introduction to Social Media for marketing (1 hr)
Why Social Media is Necessary for your Marketing Strategy?
What do you mean, ‘be social’?
2. What you need to Start and Maintain a Blog (1hr)
3. Getting started with Facebook (1hr)
What kind of writer are you? Is your satisfaction complete when you pen your last word, or make your final edit? Are you the kind of writer that is completely satisfied with having friends and family read your manuscript? Or do you want more? Do you want people to talk about your book (favorably, of course)? Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool, but let’s consider how it works today.
When someone has some juicy information, a valuable recommendation, meaningful insight (or, not so meaningful), even a scathing review, it is talked about, not just in someone’s ear, but online, in the powerful and pervasive social media context. If you want people to talk about your book then that is where you have to get the conversation going: in the social media pool.
If you are concerned about getting started because of having limited computer knowledge or experience, rest assured, the most difficult part of engaging in social media is the commitment you will need to stick with it. The first word in Social Media Marketing, is, indeed, Social, and that is where our classroom conversation will begin. What does it mean to be social, how does one become social? The answers to these often-neglected, yet highly important questions, will help fortify your nerve and strengthen your resolve to stick with your social media marketing efforts.
Technologically speaking, what do you need at minimum to start?
Access to a computer that has an internet connection (preferably more than dial-up). Computer access will not be needed for this class, however, so breath easy (at least for now).
I don’t want to oversimplify the process or the methods, especially since many aspects of social media marketing are still very much an art form and not a science (like medicine), and are prone to surprise and confound us. But if we remember that many things in life surprise and confound us, we will not inflate our expectations.

There is no magic button that will set everything up for us. There is no secret preference that we have to click on to make people visit our site, comment on our blog, respond to our Facebook status updates. It takes work, and effort … like most worthwhile things.
So bring a positive attitude and a pen to take notes.

Ronda L. Birtha is a freelance photographer, writer and social media consultant. She can be contacted at rbirtha@rondabirtha.com. Her photography can be viewed at www.rondabirtha.com

The class will be held at Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC
Contact glendabeall@msn.com for registration information or visit www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS BOOK STORE IN SYLVA,NC

Thurs. 4/21 at 10:30 a.m.

Coffee with the Poet This Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Coffee with the Poet 
will meet on Thursday, April 21st at 10:30 a.m. and will feature poet Rosemary Royston from Young-Harris, Georgia. The monthly third-Thursday-of-the-month event features an opportunity to meet a local poet and hear an informal reading. It is co-sponsored by NetWest and City Lights.

Rosemary received her MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, KY. Her poetry has been published in The Comstock ReviewMain Street Rag,AlehouseLiteral LattePublic Republic, and Dark Sky Magazine. A chapbook,Splitting the Soil, will be published in late 2011 or early 2012. Her essays on writing poetry are forthcoming in Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets. She was the recipient of the 2010 Literal Latte Food Verse Award, and she was the 2004 recipient of first and third place in poetry, Porter Fleming Literary Awards. She currently serves as the Program Coordinator for the North Carolina Writers Network-West. Her blog can be found at http://theluxuryoftrees.wordpress.com/
 

Monday, April 18, 2011

April Folk School Reading

Come out to the Keith House at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday, April 21st, at 7 pm to hear Nancy Simpson and Peg Russell read their work. The event is free and open to the public. You are guaranteed to enjoy what you hear and also to meet people who are taking classes during the week at the Folk School. In May NCWN-West readers will be Karen Holmes and Carole Thompson. Hope to see you there!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Spring Conference in Greensboro, NC

Have you lived - or found - a fascinating true story, but need help capturing it on paper so that it reads like a great novel? You can find that help at the North Carolina Writers' Network's upcoming Spring Conference, Saturday, April 30, at UNC Greensboro.




Marianne Gingher's all-day workshop will inform you how to analyze a narrative's possibilities and how to mine " forgotten stories." You will also learn how to create suspense and make your story truly distinctive, however weird, wild, or provocative it might be. Gingher is the author of highly acclaimed nonfiction and fiction, and has taught at some of the top writing conferences in the United States. Currently, she is professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Award-winning journalist Paul Cuadros's workshop will give you the nuts and bolts of nonfiction memoir and narrative writing: researching the idea, crafting a nonfiction book proposal, and employing narrative journalism techniques of reporting. He will use his book, A Home on the Field, as a template. It has been described as "a parable in the tradition of Stand and Deliver and Hoosiers-a story of one team and their accidental coach who became certain heroes to the whole community." He will also discuss selling your manuscript to a publisher and effectively promoting your book.


For several years I attended the NCWN Spring Conference in Greensboro and enjoyed all the classes, meeting the faculty and other writers from "all over."
Ed Southern and Virginia Freedman are there bright and early on Saturday to get things underway. One year I volunteered to help  give out the folders. It is a fun day and everyone goes home with tons of ideas swirling in their brains. I hope our Netwest members will attend if they aren't planning to be at Writers Circle for a workshop with JoAnn Dropp on April 30. (: )

The website where you can read about the faculty and register online is
http://www.ncwriters.org/

Friday, April 15, 2011

Photos of Netwest Members at CWP on Wednesday

Carolyn Johnson, a long time member of Netwest Linda Smith posts Netwest events in local newspapers and schedules the John C. Campbell Folk School readings Marjorie Hobkirk listens intently to Brenda's reading at Coffee with the Poets.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Coffee with the Poets - Last time at Phillips and Lloyd

Wednesday was our last time to meet at Phillips and Lloyd Books in Hayesville. Elizabeth Rybicki, who has graciously hosted us at the Dessertery in her store, is remodeling and bringing in the Yarn Shop as part of her store now. Our last day was memorable and who better to end our stint at the book store than Brenda Kay Ledford. She not only shared work from Simplicity, her collabration with her mother, Blanche Ledford, but she played harmonica as part of her presentation. Once again, Brenda surprised us with another facet of her various abilities. Bob Grove (above) read a piece from his yet to be published memoir. Karen Holmes (above) read one of her poems. Karen also shared with us the delightful time she had at the Gathering of Poets last weekend.


Brenda Kay played harmonica between poems and stories.
We are all saddened that we won't be meeting at Crumpet's Dessertery with Elizabeth (above) but Coffee with the Poets will continue next month on the second Wednesday of the month, as usual. Check this blog for more information later.