Maren O. Mitchell Featured At Writers' Night Out Sept 13

Come hear Maren Mitchell, prize-winning, nationally published poet and author of Beat Chronic Pain: An Insider’s Guide.

Writers’ Night Out

Friday, Sept 13

Brothers Willow Ranch Restaurant, Young Harris, GA
(upstairs private room, park in back and walk in via the ramp)

• 6:00-7:00 eat dinner or munchies and socialize (come early to order dinner)
• 7:00-ish announcements and featured reader
• Break
• 7:45-ish Open mike, sign up at door, limit 3 minutes per poetry or prose reader (Please time yourself at home, let's make it fair to everyone. Prose readers can often eliminate some details and still captivate the audience with their piece).

Maren’s Bio:

Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Southern Humanities Review, The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, Appalachian Journal, Red Clay Reader #4, The Arts Journal, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and Pirene’s Fountain and elsewhere. Her work is included in The Southern Poetry Anthology, V: Georgia; Sunrise from Blue Thunder; Nurturing Paws; and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and is forthcoming in Hotel Amerika. Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012), and is available at the Curiosity Shop bookstore in Murphy, NC, and on Amazon.

Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. For over twenty years, across five states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

A native of North Carolina, in her childhood Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia.

Venus... the planet

Finally. Clear skies have dared to show themselves after the rainiest and cloudiest summer in years. I almost forgot the sun's warming touch and what it looked like. And the moon and stars? It's been so long, it's like a whole new experience.

But what's that bright star in the west just after dusk? No star at all, it's Venus shining brightly. On September 8th the young crescent moon will be close to Venus and the star Spica. Also on the 8th and 9th another faint 'star' will be close to Venus. This is actually another planet, Saturn, getting close to the end of its viewing season as it starts its leisurely slide behind the sun. The two planets are 3.5 degrees apart. This appears about three fingers in width on your outstretched hand. Check these two out with the wide-field view of binoculars.

Venus is somewhat of an enigma through the telescope, not much to look at because of its cloudy surface, bright and shimmering in the unstable atmosphere close to the horizon. What's interesting, however, is that it goes through phases like the moon and the planet Mercury. Sometimes Venus is a dazzling thin crescent shape and other times nearly full with plenty of variations in between. A green Wratten filter helps steady the telescope view.

Venus is known as the bright morning star as well as the evening star. But you'll never find it overhead... only east in the mornings and west in the evenings. Why is this? Both Venus and Mercury are closer to the sun than we are. We orbit around them and the sun; they can't travel around us so they'll always appear only in the east or west.

If the night is clear check out the glittering jewel Venus, sparkling brightly in the west just after sunset.

By Paul M. Schofield, posted on his Goodreads blog.

Excitement is building for the NCWN Fall Conference

The North Carolina Writers' Network 2013 Fall Conference will be held November 15-17 at the Holiday Inn Resort in Wrightsville Beach. The Resort has reserved rooms with special rates of $99 for a harbor front king, and $119 for an ocean front king. Call the Resort directly at 910-256-2231 for more information.

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Here are some highlights from recent Network posts about the conference. 

 For the second year in a row, the Network will offer two scholarship opportunities: the Blonnie Bunn Wyche Memorial Scholarship and the Mary Belle Campbell Scholarship. Complete information is available on the NCWN website.

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For writers of all stripes and experience levels, it's one of the most inspirational weekends of the year. And much of it is made possible by the generosity of sponsors, such as:

• Welcome reception on Friday, sponsored by the Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County.
• Friday evening book-signing and reception, sponsored by Salt magazine.
• Saturday morning "Brilliant at Breakfast" panel discussion, sponsored by Ecotone/Lookout Books.
• Saturday luncheon Veterans Writing Collective reading, sponsored by Al Manning, a member of the NCWN Board of Trustees.
• Saturday faculty readings, sponsored by Bellamy Mansion.
• Sunday morning "Brilliant at Breakfast" panel discussion, sponsored by WHQR 91.3 FM Public Radio.8

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While the weekend will be full of workshops, panels, readings, and more, attendees have another reason to visit the coast this fall: to experience a bit of Hollywood history. Interested in touring some of the "Hollywood" locations in Wilmington? Book a location tour here. And for a complete list of television shows and movies shot in the Wilmington area, click here.

BRENDA KAY LEDFORD FEATURED AT JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

Brenda Kay Ledford will read from her poetry chapbook, BECKONING, published by Finishing Line Press, at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday, June 27 at 7:00 PM.  This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network West and the public is invited to this free event.

Clay County Native

A native of Clay County, NC, Ledford is a retired educator.  She received her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University and studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee.

          She’s former editor of Tri-County Communicator at Tri-County Community College and previous reporter for the Smoky Mountain Sentinel. She received an award from North Carolina Press Association for her feature on the John C. Campbell Folk School.

         Ledford belongs to North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Georgia Poetry Society, and a charter member of the Byron Herbert Reece Society.  She’s listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, North Carolina Literary Map, and Who’s Who in America.

Her work has appeared in many journals including “Lyricist,” “The Broad River Review,” “Pembroke Magazine,” “Asheville Poetry Review,” “Main Street Rag,” “Charlotte Poetry Review,” “Wild Goose Poetry Review,” “Town Creek  Poetry,” “Appalachian Heritage,” “Journal of Kentucky Studies,” “Our State,”  “Byron Herbert Reece Society Website,” and many anthologies.

Awards

Ledford received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her three poetry chapbooks and last year for her blog:  http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com.  She won the 2012 Royce Ray Award from “Aires.”  Her poem, “Velma,” received the Editor’s Choice Award from “Reflections Literary Journal.”  Three of her poems won the 2012 Writers’ Ink Guild’s Poetry Contest and were published in Fields of Earth Anthology.

Her latest poetry chapbook, BECKONING, was endorsed by Glenda Beall, director of Writers Circle, and Robert King, publisher of FutureCycle Press.

Says Beall, “Brenda Kay Ledford’s collection sings with color and harmony.  She lets us take a peek into her world as she shares her Appalachian roots in verse. We relate to the constancy of seasons in nature and in our lives. Digging in the dirt as her mother does each spring preparing her garden, lifts the spirit, and decorating graves of loved ones on Memorial Day perpetuate the love of generations. Throughout the snow, first greening of spring, summer’s roses, autumn’s harvest, and star-studded asters, the images in the book offer the reader the opportunity to feel, see, hear, and taste the beauty as well as the inevitable sadness of life.”

Ledford’s book, BECKONING, is available at the Clay County Chamber of Commerce and online at:  www.finishinglinepress.com and www.amazon.com.

Netwest Writers will be at Festival on the Square Saturday, July 13, Sunday, July 14

Festival on the Square

Date: Saturday and Sunday, July 13,14. 2013

Time: 10:00 AM  ·  Other dates and times

Venue: Downtown Hayesville on the Square, Hayesville, NC

Website: http://festivalnet.com/cgi-bin/subs/subsdb…

Clay County Historical Arts Council is hosting its 34th annual Festival on the Square in historical downtown Hayesville. Over 70 artists and craftsmen display handmade work, musicians play and sing a variety of music, and dance troupes perform for the crowd seated in chairs on the lawn while feasting on delicious barbecue. Come early to the Street Dance on Friday night at 7pm. 3,500 attendees expected. 

We are happy to have poet, Joan Howard, featured this month at Coffee with the Poets, June 12, 10:30 A.M. Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill hosts our group each month which is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network West. The public is invited.

Joan’s poetry has been published in Lucid Rhythms, Our Pipe Dreams, The Derondera Review, The Road Not Taken:the Journal of Formal Poetry, Victorian Violet Press, The Reach of Song:the 2012 poetry anthology (Georgia Poetry Society), The Lyric the Aurorean, Wild Goose Poetry Review and others.

When Joan is not writing she can be found kayaking, birding, or boating on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge.

Joan says, “I find my inspiration for poetry in nature, especially exquisite Lake Chatuge, the mountains of Georgia and North Carolina, and on my walks around Chatuge Dam. I like to sit in my comfortable chair or on a dock, watch the light change and all the theater that is constantly presented to all of us.”

Joan likes to write about her husband, who has passed away, and his many gifts in relation to the natural world around her. “I find him there!”

When Joan was in high school, she had a wonderful English teacher who recommended the book What Happens in Hamlet by John Dover Wilson. She was so amazed by this explanation of Shakespeare's work that, for months, she had a crush on Hamlet!

With her love for nature, it is no wonder that Joan’s favorite poets are Mary Oliver and Robert Frost, but she also enjoys the work of all her wonderful friends here in North Carolina Writers' Network West!

“I love this active, dedicated group and am so very glad to be a member,” Joan Says.

Come out and hear her read and bring one of your poems or a short piece to read at open microphone. We urge everyone to leave at least two dollars tip whether or not you order food. The waitress who works in the room with us is missing out on tips in the dining room, so, please, she needs some compensation. If we don’t support the restaurant, we can’t meet there. We often stay for lunch after, and would love for you to join us. The food is excellent.
Contact Robert S. King. rskingpoet@gmail.com  or Glenda Beall glendabeall@aol.com for more information.

Is Literature Succumbing to Greed?

Creative literature, like most everything in our society, is not free. It’s troubling, though, to watch more and more magazine publishers charge a fee to read individual works of poems or prose. It alarms me that poets in particular, who have no way to make money from their art, are now forced to pay from $1.00 to $5.00 to submit a few pages of their work. Most of the fee-based journals have academic ties, though sometimes even the smallest press expects payment. I fear that the trend is for these fees to become the rule rather than the exception.  As a long-time literary editor, I understand that presses must seek ways to fund their projects and operations. It’s not a profitable business, whether you are the publisher or the writer. In my opinion, however, there are boundaries we should not cross.

I must hasten to say that I have no problem with fees for contests. I also understand and support those presses that charge reasonable fees for reading a book submission, which takes considerable time and manpower to evaluate—not to mention the costs of publishing and marketing. But should they charge a poor poet five bucks to submit a few poems for an issue of their magazine? That sounds like good old greed to me.

In the case of some magazines, "established” ones in particular, I believe there is a bit of snobbishness and exclusion at work. It’s like they are saying "we are the elite; only those serious enough to pay need apply.” On the more benevolent side, perhaps, it’s also an attempt to curb the avalanche of submissions that some of these magazines receive. However, there are better ways to accomplish that task. For one, just close your doors to submissions for as long as necessary. I also worry about another motive: Charge a fee, get some funds, and reject the unknown poets who you’ve already decided have no chance in hell of getting into your publication. That smacks of con game to me.

To be fair, some fees are in place because the journals use online submission systems such as Submittable. These systems charge the journals a monthly fee for their services. However, the cost is comparatively low and in most cases does not justify the reading fees charged for submissions.

If fees become the norm for individual poems and short prose, I fear literature will become more divided and ultimately impoverished. In our society the gap between rich and poor is widening. So too in literature, publishing opportunities may be limited by the gap between elitist publications and the rest of us. Many of us poor poets and writers won’t be able to buy our way into those magazines, and those magazines will never have the opportunity to discover fresh new writing. I wonder, however, if they care. The literary world has always been a fraternity, but it is disturbing that it seems to be moving toward becoming a completely closed society.

Are You Feeling Isolated? You Don't Have to

As writers in this modern world, we have many opportunities online to read and reach out for information we can use. Our Network site, www.ncwriters.org is filled with places we can visit with a simple click. Many writers have their websites and their blogs listed. You would be surprised at how much you can learn by reading what these writers post.

As writers in North Carolina it helps us to read about what is happening in our government that affects us and our parent organization, North Carolina Writers Network. We have an active and supportive Arts Council which needs our support as literary artists. 

As writers we often become self-absorbed and expect to receive much but don't give much back in return. I enjoy visiting the website of the NC Arts Council and the site of NCWN. I learn about other writers in our state and what is happening in the literary world.

Here in the mountains we sometimes feel isolated, but we don't have to be. We can reach out to writers across the state. I enjoyed a recent email exchange with our former Haywood County Rep, Al Manning who is on the Board of Trustees for NCWN. He lives in Pittsboro now and we discussed how the writing world has changed no matter where you live. He holds Writers Morning Out in his area to keep everyone connected. We all yearn for those good times we have when we like-minded people can gather and talk about writing. We learn from each other and how nice it is to help another writer if we get the opportunity.

I urge everyone to visit our writing sites and connect with a writer who lives in another part of the state. In the world of cyberspace today we don't have to ever feel isolated. We simply have to reach out.

LET NCWN ANNOUNCE YOUR GOOD NEWS ON THE NCWN WEBSITE

For Hat’s Off!, Book Buzz, member readings/events for the Member Readings e-blast and website calendar, workshops/classes/literary events for the Literary Calendar e-blast and website calendar, and submission opportunities (including job opportunities), e-mail:

calendar@ncwriters.org

For Book Buzz, be sure to include the following:

• a paragraph description of your book

• author bio

• ISBN#, price, publisher

• title and author

• a jpg image of the jacket

When submitting workshops or literary events, please include all the above information, including the address of the venue.

Here’s a sample of an event in our Literary Calendar e-blast:

ASHE COUNTY

WEST JEFFERSON
NEW! JOSEPH BATHANTI CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
When: Saturday, April 20, 2:30 pm
Where: Ashe County Public Library, 148 Library Dr.
Website: www.arlibrary.org
Contact: Karen Moll at kandr@skybest.com or 336-384-4255
Dr. Joseph Bathanti, professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University in Boone and North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, will conduct the workshop for adults and high school students interested in developing their writing skills. The workshop is part of a daylong celebration of events at the library.

For Hat’s Off!, it’s nice to include a link to the publication or contest website.

The Loss of North Georgia Poet, Bettie Sellers

It is with deepest regret we learned of the passing on May 17, of Bettie Sellers, former Poet Laureate of Georgia.
Read more about Bettie Sellers here.

I met Bettie, loved her poetry and bought her books when I first came to Hayesville, NC in 1995. She was a wonderful speaker and an avid supporter of the Byron Herbert Reece Society in north Georgia. Her voice can be heard on the video played at the Reece center in Union County.

Our condolences to her family.

Great opportunity for Mountain Writers

If you don't know about the Squire Summer Residency at Western Carolina University sponsored by your NCWN, please click on the link below and see what is offered. You can apply for a scholarship to this exciting and interesting weekend with three of the best writers in their field.

"Those fifteen hours of workshop time will create a community of common ground, a safe place to refine and polish your work, and maybe the opportunity and inspiration to try something new. Morning and afternoon breaks between workshop sessions give writers a leisurely writing period." 

http://www.ncwriters.org/squire-summer-residency

Netwest member, Kathryn Stripling Byer, elected to NCWN Board of Directors

NCWN West member Kathryn Stripling Byer has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers' Network along with a writer from the far eastern part of the state and one from the Raleigh area. Read more here.

http://www.ncwriters.org/news/network-news/3567-three-elected-to-ncwn-board-of-trustees

Classes by Tracy Ruckman, editor and publisher of Write Integrity Press

Workshops - June 1 (fiction) and June 8 (nonfiction) at Unicoi State Park in Helen, GA. 

If you've been considering publishing your own books, these workshops are for you. A completed manuscript is not required, but we'll be looking at the publishing process from completed manuscript to publication. This is a hands-on one-day workshop, and it comes with 30 days of free coaching after the class is over (doesn't have to be the 30 days after the class, it can be any 30 day period within the next year - whenever you get ready to publish your book!)

June 1st: Unicoi State Park, logo room A, 9-5. How to self publish a novel

June 8th: Unicoi State Park, logo room A, 9-5. How to self publish your nonfiction

Classes are taught by Tracy Ruckman, editor and publisher at Write Integrity Press.

Each writer's how-to class is only $99. Register now at http://www.writeintegrity.com/

Early bird registration is $99. On Wednesday, the price goes to $119. 

Register now at http://www.writeintegrity.com/.

http://www.writeintegrity.blogspot.com/2013/04/summer-workshops-for-writers.html

Writing Is Good for your Health

Glenda Beall, owner and director of the Writers' Circle, will teach a series of classes entitled "Healing Through Writing." Classes will be held on Tuesdays, 2:00 to 4:00 pm, from May 14 to June 18.

Research from James W. Pennebaker, author of Opening Up, has proven that writing is good for your health. Evidence shows that writing, particularly about critical events in one's life, enhances the immune system.

For more information, including how to enroll in the course, see the Writers' Circle Schedule page.

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee hosts this year's Squire Summer Writing Residency

2013 Squire Summer Writing Residency will be July 11–14 on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

The Squire Summer Writing Residency is the Network’s smallest and most intensive conference. Admission is limited to the first fifty registrants who sign up for one of three three-day workshops:

• Poetry with Kathryn Stripling Byer, North Carolina’s first woman Poet Laureate. Byer has published six full-length collections of poetry, including Descent (LSU Press, 2012), her most recent. A re-print of her first, the AWP Award-winning The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, is forthcoming from Press 53. Her work has appeared in many journals and newspapers, including The Atlantic, Hudson Review, Boston Globe, and Georgia Review.

• Fiction with Elizabeth Lutyens. Lutyens returned to her native North Carolina after a career in the Boston area as a journalist in print and television. Her novel-in-progress, Medicine Island, was a semi-finalist in the 2011 William Faulkner – Wisdom Competition. A faculty member of the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC Asheville since 2006, she currently teaches its by-invitation Prose Master Class and is editor-in-chief of its online literary magazine, The Great Smokies Review.

• Creative Nonfiction with Catherine Reid. Reid is the author of Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst (Houghton Mifflin) and Falling into Place (forthcoming from Beacon Press); she has also edited two anthologies and served as editor of nonfiction for a literary journal. Her essays have appeared in such journals as Georgia Review, Massachusetts Review, Fourth Genre, and Bellevue Literary Review. She is currently the director of creative writing at Warren Wilson College, where she specializes in literary nonfiction and environmental writing.

The Residency will begin on Thursday evening, July 11, with registration and check-in. Workshops begin on Friday morning, July 12, and continue until the early afternoon of July 14. The Residency will also feature panel discussions and readings by faculty and attendees.

Registrants also will enjoy meals together and have the option of staying overnight in on-campus accommodations.

“The small class sizes and extended, intensive format of the Squire Summer Writing Residency makes it especially safe for writers to share their work, get to know other writers, and find inspiration,” NCWN executive director Ed Southern said.

Registration is available online at www.ncwriters.org or by calling 336-293-8844.

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.