MOUNTAIN WOMAN: TSUGA, BY ADAM BIGELOW

MOUNTAIN WOMAN: TSUGA, BY ADAM BIGELOW: A dam Bigelow is a horticulturalist, amateur botanist, organic gardener, musician, community activist, environmentalist and c...

Coffee with the Poets: Pat Riviere-Seel

February's Coffee with the Poet features Pat Riviere-Seel, a friend who graced my poetry class in the Great Smokies Writing Workshop several years ago.  Pat has become a vibrant presence in our North Caroiina Literary community, offer her talents and her time to her readers and the literary organizations that help draw us all together.  Please joing us at City Lights Bookstore on Feb. 16 at 10:30 to meet Pat and listen to her read and talk about her work.  Our gatherings are always informal and, yes, fun.  Afterward, I highly recommend lunch downstairs at City Lights Cafe!

Here is a poem of hers that I love.   You can find more on her website by clicking on the link above.

The Bears 

The bears returned last night.

 The mother and her three cubs 

slept in the mound of leaves. 

They left deep indentations

 where summer-sated bellies 

A snowy evening last winter.

and massive paws lay curled

 beneath the maple’s outstretched limbs

and the quarter moon’s pale light.

All day, while I raked leaves into piles,

 the bears were watching. They moved 

silent and unseen among evergreens,

 gray trunks, and branches as they had

all summer. Preparing for winter sleep, 

 they stuffed themselves on acorns and grubs.

One late summer day they came  into 

 the orchard. The cubs shimmied

up the young apple trees, bent 

 one bough to the ground and broke

another in their play. The mother

 took her time selecting fallen apples,

and those she could reach balanced 

 on her hind legs. She carried these

one by one to her cubs, gently 

 urged them to taste and chew. 

She knows how long winter lasts. 

   

Pat Riviere-Seel

Pat Riviere-Seel has published two poetry collections, The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Main Street Rag, 2009), winner of the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry and No Turning Back Now (Finishing Line Press, 2004), nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry at UNCA in the Great Smokies Writing Program.

Pat is a 2003 graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Queens University of Charlotte. Her poems have been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies including Asheville Poetry Review, Passager, Tar River Poetry, and Kakalak, an Anthology of Carolina Poets, among others. Recent poems  appear in Boomtown, the Queens University MFA Program 10^th Anniversary Anthology, Cloudbank, and Poetry of Love, an anthology published by Jacar Press. 

Her poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and was a finalist in the Press 53 Open Awards and a semi-finalist in the first James Applewhite Poetry Prize in 2011. The Serial Killer’s Daughter premiered as a staged reading in March 2011 with a 4-member cast. 

Pat is a former award winning journalist, lobbyist, publicist, and editor. She worked as a political reporter for daily newspapers in Fayetteville, NC, and Annapolis, Maryland until 1987 when she established her own public and government relations firm. She represented nonprofit organizations in the Maryland General Assembly, designed public relations campaigns for private businesses and political candidates.

In 1992 she returned to her native North Carolina to take a position as Editor of Voices, the bimonthly journal of Rural Southern Voice for Peace. She married Ed Seel in 1997 and moved with him to Germany for two years. During that time, Pat attended the Spoleto Writers Workshop in Spoleto, Italy.

She has lived in Asheville, NC, since 1999 and served as President of the North Carolina Poetry Society and Chair of the North Carolina Writers Conference. Pat is an avid runner, hiker, and gardener.

from  The Serial Killer's Daughter
Winner of the Roanoke Chowan Poetry Award from the NC Literary and Historical Association

I. About the Daughter
The serial killer's daughter hangs damp sheets on the line.
She likes the yeasty way the wind fills the cloth and how the sun sweetens the
threads.
When she holds the clothespins between her teeth, she tastes bread and salted butter.
She no longer worries about trying to hold on to the brass pole of the carousel.
The serial killer's daughter can hold anything - or anyone - she pleases.
Preferring familiar company, she surrounds herself with dahlias and lavender.
She always rides the wooden tiger because there is no bear.
Why are the animals always one step ahead of the humans?
The serial killer's daughter knows how frightening a creature walking upright can be, so
she always walks as if she were about to waltz.
Her hands write a language only she can read.
She's not a figment of anyone's imagination. 
She is sunlight striping murky swamp water.

II. More About the Serial Killer's Daughter




The serial killer's daughter wears tight curls made of cypress roots and washes them in
buttermilk from the moon.
When mud oozes between her toes she no longer worries about wiping her feet before
stepping through the door.
She likes to touch people she loves on the nape of the neck and feel the rocky landscapes
of their spines.
Her heart measures her intentions and stretches them in a chain around her wrist so she
will not forget.
The serial killer's daughter waits for no one.
It never matters if she is on time. Whose time?
Time is irrelevant, like memories she saves and forgets.
Because her life needs seasoning she grows spearmint, basil, and lemon balm.
The serial killer's daughter is always leaving Robeson County.
For her, the stone covered with moss and mica that she carries in
her pocket contains a galaxy.

(Available from Main Street Rag Press )

Updates on events, Murphy/Hiawassee Area

PROSE CRITIQUE --Prose Critique is Thursday, February 9 at Tri-County Community College.   It starts at 7:00 PM and is in the McSwain Building, Room 152.

WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT UPDATE - Writers’ Night Out will be held at the Center for Appalachian Studies and Community Engagement [across parking lot from Young Harris Family Restaurant in Young Harris.  It is a tall green house with white trim and a big front patio with 2 rocking chairs.). It will NOT have a guest reader but will be Open Mike for Poetry and Prose.  It starts at 7:00 PM this Friday night, February 10th.

JOHN CAMPBELL - Glenda Barrett will not be able to read at John Campbell next week, but Glenda Beall will take her place. So come on out and support Glenda Beall and Mary Ricketson at John Campbell next Thursday, February 16th, 7 pm, Keith House.

Liars Bench Benefit

The Liars Bench has done over 20 free shows, and its next program, "Coy," is a benefit. Mark you calendar for either February 16th or 23rd to see "Coy," a dramatic monologue by Gary Carden. "Coy" will be held at the Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10 each, and on sale at City Lights Bookstore- 828-586-9499 and Mountain Heritage Center- 828-227-7129. "Coy" stars Tom DeWees, and also appearing are Lloyd Arneach, Paul Larussi, William Ritter, Barbara Duncan, Eric Young & the Young'ns, and Gary Carden.

JC Campbell Folk School Readings

Mark your calendars now for the following readings, held at the JC Campbell Folk School, Keith House. Readings are at 7:00 pm, free, and open to the public. Announcements will also be made in local papers and online. Thanks to Linda Smith for overseeing these readings!

Feb 16 - Mary Ricketson, Glenda Barrett

March 15 - JC Walkup, Glenda Beall

April - Nancy Simpson, Maren Mitchell

May 17 - Robert King, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

June 21 - Brenda Kay Ledford, Linda Smith

August 16 -Nancy Purcell, Karen Paul Holmes

Sept 20 - Carole Thompson, Bob Grove

October 18- Jo Carolyn Bebee, Lucy Cole Gratton

Nov 15- Joan Howard, Rosemary Royston

Atlanta Poet at Writers' Night Out

Atlanta poet Rupert Fike will be the featured reader at Writers’ Night Out at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee on Friday, February 10 at 7 p.m. Audience members can also participate in an open microphone if they’d like to share their own poetry or prose. This is a free monthly event for people who love the written and spoken word.

Fike’s collection, Lotus Buffet (Brick Road Poetry Press), has earned him a nomination for Georgia Author of the Year 2011 in poetry. Two of the poems in the book have also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Writer Barbara Hamby says, “What happens when you cross a Southern raconteur with a Buddhist monk? You get Rupert Fike’s exhilarating poems.” His work has been published in Rosebud, The Georgetown Review, Natural Bridge, The Atlanta Review, The Cortland Review, storySouth, The Blue Fifth Review and others. He has a poem inscribed in a downtown Atlanta plaza, and his non-fiction work, Voices from The Farm, accounts of life on a spiritual community in the 1970s, is now available in paperback.

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month and is open to the public. The event draws approximately 30 people from four counties. Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor Plaza across from Towns County High School. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Each open microphone reader can sign up at the door and has two-and-a-half minutes to read.

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

NEW PROSE CRITIQUE GROUP

We all need helpful commentary as we prune our prose. Not criticism, just good critique. Writing comes from the heart, and other experienced writers often have helpful suggestions to make it even better.

 

I have agreed to facilitate the meetings as outlined by NetWest. The first session of the prose critique group will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 9th, at Tri County Community College, Room 152. Bring some samples of your work to read; printed copies for distribution are recommended. Time allotments for the readings will depend on the number of readers for each session.

 

Future meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month. Mark you calendar; it's free!   

ROYCE RAY POETRY AWARD

Brenda Kay Ledford won the Royce Ray Poetry Award for her poem, "Lake Chatuge," from Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, NC.

Her poem was published in the January, 2012 issue of "Aires: A Journal of Art and Literature." She also received a monetary prize.

The Royce Ray family of Columbus, NC, has given lifelong support and contribution to the literary arts in North Carolina.

For information about the Royce Ray Poetry Award, contact: aparker@sccnc.edu.

Mary Michelle Keller to Read at Writers' Night Out

Writers’ Night Out is a free monthly event for people who love the written and spoken word. On Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m. at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, Mary Michelle Keller will read her entertaining and heartfelt work. Audience members can also participate in an open microphone if they’d like to share their own poetry or prose.

Keller lives in Hiawassee, Georgia, is active in the North Carolina Writers’ Network and has taught at Writers Circle in Hayesville. In her writing, she draws inspiration from something she has seen or an incident that intrigues her — a casually spoken phrase becomes the cornerstone of an essay, short story or poem. Her poetry appears in several anthologies including Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Keller also plays the piano, guitar and dulcimer and paints in oil, water color and pastels.

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month and is open to the public. The event draws approximately 30 people from four counties. Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor Plaza across from Towns County High School. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Each open microphone reader can sign up at the door and has two-and-a-half minutes to read.

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

NCWN Annual Competitons Open!

The North Carolina Writers' Network is now accepting submissions for three annual competitions. Postmark deadlines are fast approaching, and we encourage you to send in your submissions soon.

January 17 marks the deadline for the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, which encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine. Award-winning author Anne Clinard Barnhill will be the final judge.

January 30 is the deadline for the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honoring internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The competition is open to all writers regardless of geographical location or prior publication. Acclaimed author Josephine Humphreys will serve as the final judge.

Finally, as of January 1, the Network is accepting submissions for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. This competition honors acclaimed author and North Carolina native Doris Betts. The prize awards the first-place winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Finalists will also be considered for publication in NCLR. The postmark deadline is February 15.

For more information on all three contests, including submission guidelines. visit www.ncwriters.org.

Children's Literature Symposium, Chapel Hill

You are most cordially invited to join us in Chapel Hill on Friday, January 13, and/or Saturday, January 14 for a rousing gathering, "Between the Dark and the Daylight": A January Symposium Dedicated to the Creation of Children's Literature.

On Friday afternoon at the UNC-CH Wilson Library five faculty and curatorial staff members will present opportunities for us to see, hear, and learn about rare children's books (including textbooks controversies) from the Southern Historical, North Carolina, and Special Collections. Friday evening offers a special opportunity for "An Evening with Children's Book Authors
Stephen Messer and Allan Wolf" at Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill's newer independent bookstore at
752 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

On Saturday, the Symposium continues with 12:30 p.m. Registration and nine Experts and Authors on panels, followed by fellowship, booksignings, refreshments, and Writing Workshops. Presnters include Brian Sturm, Karin Michel, Susie Wilde, Sarah Carr, Stephen Messer,
Jane Baskerville Murphy, Jacqueline K. Ogburn, Barbara Younger, and Allan Wolf.

This Symposium is offered to the community without charge, presented through a generous grant from Province IV, Province of Sewanee, and sponsored by the Environmental
Stewardship Committee of Chapel of the Cross, Episcopal, 304 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill.

For information about Block-rate hotel accommodations, parking and program specifics, please E-mail childrensliterature@aol.com or telephone (919) 286-2565 or (919) 929-2193. You are most welcome to join us for this happy occasion.

Poetry Contest

Byron Herbert Reece Poetry Contest

Once again, the Byron Herbert Reece Society will hold a poetry contest in order to support the mission of the Reece Society. Similar to last year, poets in NC, KY, GA, TN, VA, and WV are encouraged to submit up to three poems for the fee of $15. Deadline for entry is Friday, May 4, 2012. There is no theme for contest. Val Nieman, author of Blood Clay, is the final judge. The winner of the contest will receive $300, and the winning poem will be published on the new and improved Byron Herbert Reece Society website. For more information and a link to the entry form, visit the website.

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MERIDIAN EDITORS' PRIZE CONTEST DEADLINE APPROACHING

 

A final reminder that MERIDIAN is now accepting online entries for its twelfth annual Editors’ Prize Contests in fiction and poetry until December 30. Genre winners receive a $1,000 prize and publication; all entries receive a one-year electronic subscription. Entry fee: $8.00.  Deadline: midnight (EST), Dec. 30, 2011.

 

Please note a few significant changes in our 2012 contest:

1) Our entry fee is now only $8 

2) Entrants receive an electronic version of the journal (.pdf or ePub) rather than a print subscription

3) We are only allowing two submissions per genre per entrant

 

We believe this new contest model is better for you, and better for us. Rather than having you pay substantial entry fees to cover the cost of a print subscription (and mailing fees), we’re trying a lower $8 entry fee and will e-mail you electronic versions of the January and May 2012 issues. Fewer trees, less cost … and we’ll still have print-on-demand versions ofMeridian available at an inexpensive rate for those readers who want something tangible.

 

We expect to announce winners toward the end of March 2012.

 

All submissions will be considered for publication in Meridian.

 

Fiction writers may submit one story of 10,000 words or fewer. Poets may submit up to 4 poems totaling 10 pages or fewer.

 

For full eligibility rules and submission guidelines see http://readmeridian.org/?page_id=47

 

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MOUNTAIN WOMAN: DAY 18 OF FORTY DAYS OF PRAYER FOR OUR MOUNTAINS

MOUNTAIN WOMAN: DAY 18 OF FORTY DAYS OF PRAYER FOR OUR MOUNTAINS: Today, Rev. William Boys and members of the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, are praying for creation… ...