Congrats to Kay Byer and her recent induction to the NC Literary Hall of Fame!!

Gary Carden Recognized for Lifetime Achievement

On Friday, November 9, friends of Gary Neil Carden will honor the playwright with a gala event at the Jackson County Library. A reception begins at 6:00 pm in the library's atrium with a program of presentations, proclamations and speeches to follow at 7:00 pm in the Community Room of the old Jackson County Courthouse.

Dave Waldrop, local author and personal friend of Carden's said “Gary has worked hard for many years writing and producing plays, teaching Appalachian culture, and realistic portraying Appalachia and its people across multiple genres. He deserves recognition from his friends and community.”

Recognitions planned to be given to Carden include proclamations/awards from Commissioner Doug Cody of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, Town of Sylva Mayor Maurice Moody, and Cherrrie' Moses, Chair of the Jackson County Historical Commission. 

The Jackson County Friends of the Library will host the reception with food and beverages. Southern Appalachian music will be provided by Eric Young, Paul Iarussi, and Adam Bigelow. All are invited.

JUST FOR FUN

Let's have some fun. Choose one of the questions in red and in blue, below. In the comment box, answer it in fifty words or less. Your name will be included in a drawing and the winner of the drawing will receive a free gift. If you answer both questions, make two separate comments and your name will be included in the drawing two times.

We will check the blog each day and monitor the comments so they go up quickly. Remember, your comment will not show up on the blog until one of the administrators reads it and accepts it. We have to do that to keep down the Spam that comes in. Believe me -- you don't want to read those comments.

To make your comment easy to send, you can click on anonymous and not have to list a google address, etc. But we will have to contact you if you win the drawing so include an email address and your name in the box for your comment.

Here are the questions.

A. What author, living or dead, would you most like to have lunch with and why? Answer in 50 words or less. 

B. What is the first book you remember reading and why is it memorable?
Answer in 50 words or less.

Subscribe to this post, in the sidebar on the right, and each new post with comments will appear in your Email Inbox. If you have any problems, contact nightwriter0302@yahoo.com.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

In my files, I have pictures taken at NCWN West events and photos used in articles I've written about our members. I thought I'd share some of them today.

Remember?

Glenda Barrett on right with her guest

Glenda, Wayne, Jayne, Lana, Nancy S, Nancy P, JC Walkup

Jo Carolyn Beebe 

Janice Moore, Karen Holmes, Brenda Ledford, Jo Carolyn Beebe, Carole Thompson

Lana Hendershott 

Paul Donovan, Karen Holmes, Glenda Beall

Gary Carden

Ed Southern, Executive Director of NCWN, at City Lights Books in Sylva

Leave a comment if you remember when or where the picture was taken.

Katherine Scott Crawford Reads from New Novel

Katherine Scott Crawford will be reading from her debut historical novel, Keowee Valley (published in September by Bell Bridge Books) on Saturday, October 27th at 2 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, N.C. She'll also be signing books. Crawford will also be speaking on a panel of Appalachian writers at the Dahlonega Literary Festival in Dahlonega, Georgia on Saturday, November 10 at 2 p.m., and will be working a book booth for Keowee Valley all day. She'd love to meet readers!

PAUL GREEN AWARD WINNERS

Brenda Kay Ledford and Blanche L. Ledford received this year's Paul Green Multimedia Awards from North Carolina Society of Historians.

An award's ceremony was held in the Hilton Garden Inn at Mooresville, NC on Saturday, October 20, 2012.

A distinguisted panel of judges selected Blanche' collection of poetry and prose, PLANTING BY THE SIGNS, for the award.

Brenda also won the Paul Green Award for her blog:  http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com.

For more information, contact:  www.ncsocietyofhistorians.org.

Amazon's CreateSpace - cost effective self-publishing

Saturday afternoon
October 27, 1:00 - 4:00

Ronda Birtha –  

Self-publishing Using Amazon's CreateSpace

We will discuss how and why it may be useful, how it has benefited authors, and how cost-effective it may be, as it has a "built-in" advertising infrastructure. Discussion on E-books.

$25.00 registration fee

Now taking registrations for this class. Mail your check to Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904

Ronda knows her stuff and is passionate about helping others learn.  She's practical, fun and nice too. … Karen Holmes

 I gained valuable social networking information through a class taught at Writer's Circle by Ronda Birtha, a teacher in best sense -- easy to learn from, informed and patient.        Maren O. Mitchell

Opening in Will Wright's Poetry Class

Attention Poets

We have a cancellation in Will Wright's class on poetry Saturday, October 13. One space is open. Contact Karen Holmes, 404 - 316-8466, or kpaulholmes@gmail.com

Call Glenda Beall - 828-389-4441. Leave your name and phone number on the voice mail and say Will Wright's class.

Don't let this opportunity pass you by.

William Wright, Ph.D., To Do Poetry Reading and Workshop

On October 12 at 7 pm, audiences can hear the well-known poet and editor, William Wright, read his poetry at Writers’ Night Out at Brother’s Willow Ranch Restaurant in Young Harris, GA. The following day, October 13, he will teach a poetry workshop at Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

William Wright, editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology series, is author of five collections of poems: the full-length Night Field Anecdote (Louisiana Literature Press, 2011), Bledsoe (Texas Review Press, 2011), Dark Orchard (Texas Review Press, Winner of the Texas Review Breakthrough Poetry Prize, 2005), and the chapbooks The Ghost Narratives (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Sleep Paralysis (Winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, 2011, forthcoming from Stepping Stones Press). Wright recently won the Porter Fleming Prize in Poetry. His work appears in Shenandoah, North American Review, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Louisiana Literature, Beloit Poetry Journal, New Orleans Review, and Southern Poetry Review, among other literary journals. In addition to writing and editing, Wright translates German poetry. He holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Poetry) & Literature from The University of Southern Mississippi and is Founding Editor of Town Creek Poetry (www.towncreekpoetry.com).

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month. The event includes a featured reader and also an open microphone for local authors. For open microphone, readers of prose or poetry can sign up at the door, and each person has three minutes. Brother’s Willow Ranch Restaurant is located at 6223 Hwy 76 West across from Brasstown Valley Resort, phone 706-379-1272. The event is in the upstairs room, accessible via stairs inside the restaurant or the ramp (no stairs) from the upper parking lot. Food and beverages will be available for purchase; please come by 6:15 pm to order.

In Wright’s workshop “What Makes ‘Good Poetry’ Good?” on October 13, he will give poets specific tips on improving their work through sonic texture, imagistic richness, and the balance of sound with sense. Time will also be spent on critiquing students’ poems to help poets more carefully attune their voices so that they stand out from the crowd.

The workshop costs $30 and requires advance registration. Writers’ Circle is located at 581 Chatuge Lane in Hayesville. See the Writers’ Circle web site at http://glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com/

For more information on either event, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

ANOTHER POETRY BOOK FOR AWARD WINNING POET

David Manning doesn't live in the Netwest region. He lives in Cary, N.C. where the NCWN Fall Conference will be held in November. He is one of the most prolific poets around. He has been winning awards in poetry since 1996.

His new poetry chapbook, Genes, can be ordered now for shipping by Finishing Line Press around January 4, 2013. The number of copies ordered before November 9, 2012 will determine the size of the press run, so please reserve your copy now. 

"Throughout Genes David Manning traces his family through a generation. People and places vanish but memory leaves a long trail...Here, language is so well-crafted it lifts each family member's story off the page..."---Gail Peck, author of Counting the Lost

David Treadway Manning, a California native, lives in Cary, North Carolina and was winner of the North Carolina Poetry Society's Poet Laureate Award in 1996, 1998 and 2006. Twice a Pushcart nominee, his poems have appeared in New Orleans Review, Southern Poetry Review, RATTLE, 32 Poems Magazine, Slipstream, Tar River Poetry and other journals.

His seven chapbooks include Out After Dark (2003), Detained by the Authorities (2007), and Light Sweet Crude (2009), all from Pudding House; The Ice-Carver, winner of the Longleaf Chapbook Competition in 2004, and, most recently, Continents of Light (Finishing Line Press, 2010). His full-length collection, The Flower Sermon, was a finalist in Main Street Rag's poetry book competition  in 2007. Yodeling Fungus, an excursion in comedy,  was released in 2010 from Old Mountain Press  in North Carolina.


_

New Poetry book by Kathryn Stripling Byer

Kathryn Stripling Byer's new book of poetry, Descent,  is coming in  October.  Outstanding cover. Great poetry.
She will read from this book when she is inducted in the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame at Southern Pines. 
The book launch for the public will be at Malaprop's Bookstore, November 11.

Descent is Byer's sixth book of poetry, and it won rave reviews from the best poets. You can read about it on her new website.  www.kathrynstriplingbyer.com/

Congratulations, Kay! Your fellow NCWN West members are extremely happy for you.

  

Congratulations to Susan Snowden

Atlanta native, mountain writer, Susan Snowden's novel,  Southern Fried Lies is on shelves at your local bookstores.

Southern Fried Lies (a novel)

Author: Susan Snowden
Publisher: Archer Hill Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9853301-0-1
266 pages; soft cover
$16.95

Available in bookstores and from online booksellers


Told in the clear, strong voice of Sarah Claiborne, a precocious teenager who reads Kafka and Camus, Southern Fried Lies is the story of a well-to-do Atlanta family in crisis.
The Claibornes appear picture-perfect: Edward, a successful architect; Catherine, active in the church and community; four model children. But life at “Tara” is not what it seems. Catherine’s sole focus has always been her oldest son, Ben; it is as if her other offspring and husband are invisible. When Ben suddenly moves away and refuses to communicate with his mother, Sarah becomes the target of Catherine’s wrath. Her father is too busy to help, and when Catherine’s behavior threatens the safety of all her children, Sarah takes on the task of “fixing” her.
The novel is set in Atlanta and New Orleans in the early 1960s.

About Susan Snowden:
An Atlanta native, Susan Snowden has lived in the Asheville area since 1995. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. A grant from the NC Arts Council
supported this project.

THE NATURE OF THINGS

"Nature never did betray the heart that loved her," wrote William Wordsworth.

Sixty four writers expressed their love of nature in THE NATURE OF THINGS.  Old Mountain Press just released this fabulous anthology as fall paints a masterpiece from the mountains to the foaming ocean waves.  It's a celebration of nature.

The cover photo was taken by Publisher Tom Davis from the front porch of the Old Mountain Press overlooking the Tuckasegee River in Webster, NC.  Anyone who loves nature will savor this collection of prose and poetry.

You'll find birds, flowers, insects, animals, plants, and a blackberry patch in this book.  Each piece forms a patchwork quilt about the splendor of nature.

Tom Davis describes "The Great Blue Heron":

glides with wings six feet tip to tip
along the winding Tuckasegee
flairs and lights on the bank
among the mountain rhododendrons...

Another poem by Celia Miles captures the splendor of "Owl":

Solitary, perched in twilight
watching, in the guise of
meditating, the world go by,
I am wise or indifferent
in my daytime Penseroso pose...

Barbara Ledford Wright tells about a hummingbird building a nest in her front door wreath in "Unrelenting Resident."  Other works about hummingbirds include Phyllis Jean Green's poem, "Birdsong"; Al Manning's, "Boss Bird," and Charlotte Wolf writes in "Imagine":

yourself perched
at the edge of a great precipice
feeling lighter than air, imagine

being not exactly weightless but spare
at barely three grams of bone and heart
beating 260 times a minute with wings folded
holding on with barely useful feet...

Poetry about flowers also were included in this collection.  Terri Kirby Erickson paints a painting with "Irises":

By the stone wall on top
of which my mother balanced as a child,

grow the purple irises
my grandmother planted still blooming...

Stuart Burroughs also describes beautiful flowers in "The Tulips":

On a damp and foggy morning
when my feelings slide inside
then I think about the tulips--
how they leaned into the air
and nodded with the wind--
and I smile within...

The splendor of springtime was also addressed in Blanche L. Ledford's poem, "Bluebird":

Early this morning a bluebird
cuts through the cobalt skies
and lands on the power lines.

Taste the moment:
strawberries ripen in the cove,
purple crocuses peep

through the verdant grass,
daffodils dot the pasture
like churned butter...

The theme of animals was also addressed in this anthology:  "Squirrels at Play," Thomas Gluzinski; "Bison," Claudette Cohen; "The Squirrel Proof Feeder," Ines Illgen; and Lynn Veach Sadler goes ANIMALISTIC in "Playing Possum."

Insects buzz in this collection, too.  The poetry ranges from "Learning From Bees," Marian Kaplun Shapiro; "Natures's Humble Bumblebee," Robert Hewett, Sr." and in Barbara H. Kenyon's poem, "Ants in the Kitchen," there were five hundred 'n' seven, five hundred 'n' eight that show up.

You'll also find poetry and prose about the seasons that writers like best.  Susan Sadowski writes a fabulous poem about "Courting Summer":

Impatiently, I have dreamed
Of your faithful return.
Hot for me, we are entwined
From dawn through dusk.

Growing in lusciousness, you flirt,
Until ripe with ruby skin, I taste you.
Entice me; beg for further freedom, Dearest,
Until you burst within my mouth,
Tomato-on-the-Vine...

But Jordon Rhodes addressed in his prose that the way of nature is hard to explain.  It's magnificent and breath taking, but without warning nature tears off the roof of a home or business.  Who can explain the mystery of nature?  "The Puzzlement of Nature" best concludes THE NATURE OF THINGS.

To order copies of this anthology, THE NATURE OF THINGS, contact:  www.OldMountainPress.com.

NCWN Fall Conference venue in Cary NC

The NCWN 2012 Fall Conference will be November 2 – 4 at the Embassy Suites on 201 Harrison Oaks Boulevard in Cary, NC

Members will soon receive the NCWN Newsletter with all the details about this annual conference. 

Charles Fiore checked for me and the Embassy Suites said we can request the room we reserve NOT be sprayed with "air freshener" if that bothers us.  If they have the chemical fragrance automatically spraying into the halls and elevators like the hotel in Asheville last year, people with multiple chemical sensitivities, and I am not the only writer with the problem, will still be in danger of becoming ill.

This conference lineup of speakers is certainly enticing, but Cary is a long way from south western NC. Many of the writers we hear about and read about will be on the schedule for this event. Once again I wish we had the technology to stream those sessions to some place near us. Wouldn't that be cool? 

Visit www.ncwriters.org for more information. 

Local Writers Read at Writers Night Out

Sept 14, 2012 –Writers’ Night Out features Clarence Newton and Linda Grayson Jones reading their poetry at 7 pm, September14 at Brother’s Willow Ranch Restaurant in Young Harris, GA. This free monthly event also includes an open microphone for local authors.

An Associate Professor of Biology and the Dean of Math and Sciences at Young Harris College,Jones has read and written poetry since childhood. She has a B.S. in Biology from Stetson University, an M.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Pathology from Vanderbilt University. Her career path has been primarily in academic biomedical research, but she has now returned to her first love—teaching. She remains a reader and writer of poetry and this past spring was published in    Appalachian Heritage.

Newton, who lives in Hiawassee, GA, puts both humor and wisdom into his writings. Once a guest writer for several newspapers, he has turned his love of writing toward poetry.He has studied under former Poet Laureate of Georgia Bettie Sellers and under poet Nancy Simpson. His poetry book, Short Glances Forward And A Long Look Back was recently published, and his work appears in Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.After a long career in aviation, Clarence now finds inspiration in the things of retirement, such as fishing, gardening, and birding.                             

Writers’ Night Outtakes place on the second Friday of each month. Open microphone prose or poetry readers can sign up at the door, and each person has three minutes. Brother’sWillow Ranch Restaurant is located at 6223 Hwy 76 West across from Brasstown Valley Resort, phone 706-379-1272. The event is in the upstairs room, accessible via stairs inside the restaurant or the ramp (no stairs) from the upper parking lot. Food and beverages will be available for purchase; please come by 6:15 pm to order.

For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.