Janice Moore, Patricia Spinkle at Writers' Night June 14

for directions, see http://www.uccommunitycenter.com/location.html

Netwest Members offered discount on classes before deadline

Netwest members - take advantage of this opportunity to attend a workshop with well-published Atlanta author, Patricia Sprinkle.

Saturday, June 14 - Take individual classes, 10 - 1:00 and 2 - 5:00 p.m.,  or take both classes for $60. This writer speaks to large groups, teaches workshops and we are fortunate to have her come to our area. If you write fiction or nonfiction, you don't want to miss out on this one-time opportunity. We will have lunch together and you will have the opportunity to network with other writers and with Patricia.


Each class fee is $45 or both classes for $60.00 Netwest members - $40 for individual classes. 

Light lunch included for those who register for all day session 

 Deadline for registration: Thursday, June 11

Call 828-389-4441 or email glendabeall@msn.com 

Visit www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com for class description.

The Literary Hour at JC Campbell Folk School

On Thursday, June 26, 2014 at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and N.C. Writers Network-West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, a monthly hour of poetry and prose reading held at Keith House on the JCCFS campus. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. 

This month presents an exceptional opportunity to meet and listen to the featured readers, Nancy Simpson and Brenda Kay Ledford, whose poetry mostly centers around the mountains.

NANCY SIMPSON

 

Nancy Simpson is the author of three poetry collections: Across Water, Night Student, and most recently Living Above the Frost Line, New and Selected Poems (Carolina Wren Press, 2010). She also edited Echoes Across the Blue Ridge (anthology 2010). She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a BS in education from Western Carolina University. She received a NC Arts Fellowship and co-founded NC Writers Network-West. For more than 30 years, young writers have known her as “beloved teacher.” Simpson’s poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Southern Poetry Review, Seneca Review, New Virginia Review, Prairie Schooner and others. Her poems have been included in anthologies, Word and Wisdom, 100 Years of N.C. Poetry and Literary Trails of N.C. (2008). Her poems have also been featured in Southern Appalachian Poetry, a textbook anthology published at McFarland Press.

Nancy lives in Hayesville, NC. Through 2010 she served as Resident Writer at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Presently she teaches Poetry Writing at the Institute for Continued Learning at Young Harris College.

BRENDA KAY LEDFORD

Brenda Kay Ledford is a seventh generational native of Clay County, NC, and holds a Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University.

She writes about her heritage and has done post-graduate work in Appalachian studies. Brenda received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians seven times for her books, collecting oral history, and blog, Historical Hayesville.

Her work has appeared in Our State, Carolina Country Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Appalachian Heritage, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Asheville Poetry Review, Country Extra Magazine, Blue Ridge Parkway Silver Anniversary Edition Celebration, and many other journals.

Finishing Line Press published Brenda’s award-winning poetry books: Shewbird Mountain, Sacred Fire, and Beckoning. She co-authored Simplicity with Blanche L. Ledford. These books are available at the John C. Campbell Folk School Craft Shop. 

Coffee with the Poet and Writer, Estelle Rice

Estelle Rice, author of Quiet Times, a book of poetry, will be featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers on Wednesday, June 11, 10:30 a.m. at Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill. 

Rice is a well-published writer whose short stories have appeared in The Appalachian Heritage Journal, the Journal of Kentucky Studies, and in anthologies and magazines, including Lights in the Mountains and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.

She is a native North Carolinian, born in Rocky Mount and raised in Charlotte. She now lives in Marble, NC. Estelle received her BA in psychology from Queens University in Charlotte and a MA in counseling from the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama. She is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor.

Although she is a full-time caregiver for her husband now, she still attends writing workshops and continues to create poems and stories. Her poetry has been published in The Back Porch, the Freeing Jonah series and others.

Estelle has been a member of Netwest for as long as I have known her, around twenty years. Her positive personality has always endeared her to those who know her and is reflected in her poems such as the one below from Quiet Times.

Silence

When I am silent,

thoughts surge onto the shore

of my consciousness.

There is no place to hide

or deny my fears.

Silence endures my frailties,

nudges me toward the paths

where I will meet myself.

Silence encourages me

to listen to the universe,

that I may hear

the songs of angels.

             ---Estelle Rice

Come out to Blue Mountain, on the corner of Hwy 141 and Hwy 64 near Murphy Medical Center, and hear Estelle’s reading as well as participate in our regular open mic session. Stay for lunch. We pull the tables together and enjoy a social hour. This event is sponsored by NCWN West and is open to the public. Contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 or nightwriter0302@yahoo.com for further information. 

Untying the Knot is here... a book of poems by Karen Paul Holmes

Now Available

Untying the Knot by Karen Paul Holmes is a memoir in poetry about the end of a long marriage and the healing process.

“… . About half the people who have ever been married would be eligible to write on the subject but very few, if any others, could with such grace, humor, self-awareness, and without a dollop of self-pity, as Karen Paul Holmes has in Untying the Knot. This is a courageous deeply human book.” –Thomas Lux

Published by Aldrich Press, a division of Kelsay Books.

Available from Amazon (search for "Karen Paul Holmes") or through the publisher/Amazon at
http://astore.amazon.com/kelsbook-20/detail/0615998984

or order a personalized copy for $14, check or Paypal. Email kpaulholmesATgmail.com (replace AT with @) for details.

 

Karen Paul Holmes grew up in Michigan and has an MA in music history from the University of Michigan. She eventually moved to the warm south and worked her way into a career that involved her love of writing: She became Vice President-Marketing Communications at ING, a global financial services company. After 20-some years in the corporate world, she now leads a gentler life as a freelance writer and poet, mother of a smart adult daughter, and owner of two naughty Welsh Terriers. 

Karen finds joy participating in poetry readings and supporting poetry through the Side Door Poets group she founded/hosts in Atlanta and the Writers’ Night Out she founded/hosts in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2012, she received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. Her poetry has been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Main Street Rag, Caesura, POEM, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, American Society: What Poets See (FutureCycle Press), and the Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia (Texas Review Press).

You may contact her through her web site: www.simplycommunicated.com.

Meet Angela In a 28 Minute Video

Angela Leigh Tucker is the inspiring person whose recovery from a severe traumatic brain injury was the subject of Bill Ramsey's new book, "Me Now - Who Next?"

She is almost six years along and still making progress as this video will demonstrate: http://youtu.be/9EwgdcsP4bY. 

Bill invites you to invest 28 minutes in order to meet her and to better understand how brain injuries change lives. For those wishing to know still more, the book is available on all e-readers and in paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com. The audio book, read by the talented professional voice of Scott Pollak, will be available soon. If you have never tried an audio book, consider starting with this one. Hearing Scott and Angela read it will take the story to the next level for you. Audio books can be enjoyed on your computer or any other device used to deliver entertainment. Amazon, Audible and iTunes will be offering it.

Bill has often said that Angela changed his life and she can do the same for you. Her determined fight to recover proves that there is always hope.

Bill blogs at: www.billramseyblog.wordpress.com

For information about his books: www.LifesWrite.com

Lawrence Thackston Returns with a New Mystery

Lawrence Thackston, author of  the locally set, The Devil’s Courthouse, will visit City Lights Bookstore to present his new mystery, Tidal Pools on Friday, June 6th at 6:30 p.m.

 Making the most of incredible plot twists, dark settings, and the use of ancient religious rituals, Tidal Pools will keep readers on the edge of their seats through the final pages. In the Galeegi Islands along the coast of South Carolina, the former prime suspect in a 40-year-old, controversial murder case is found dead of a questionable suicide. Tyler Miles, a newly recruited patrolman with the Galeegi Police Department, becomes an unlikely part of the investigation and is immediately swept up in a tidal wave of violence and deceit that threatens to impact the entire Lowcountry. Working side-by-side with Chloe Hart, a research biologist for the EPA, Tyler must find a connection between the suicide and the old murder, all the while facing a new rash of killings and an imminent, destructive threat to the islands and the surrounding marshlands. From behind the screen doors of the island's most impoverished hovels to the marble floors and crystal chandeliers of its finest plantation homes, Tyler will race to unravel the mystery behind the chilling case. And, in his search for justice, he will come face to face with an evil as old as hatred itself, cryptically finding his answers only in what the tide leaves behind.

Born and raised in the palmetto state, Lawrence Thackston is a writer of Southern tales of mystery, suspense, loss, and redemption. His first novel, The Devil's Courthouse, was well-received by critics and has generated a faithful following among his readers. To reserve your copies of his books please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499.

COFFEE WITH THE POETS AND WRITERS

2014 updated schedule 

Second Wednesday of each month, 
10:30 a.m. Blue Mountain Restaurant in Peachtree near Murphy Medical Hospital and Tri-County College in Cherokee, County, NC. You might take home one of the door prizes offered each month. 

Stay for lunch when we pull the tables together and visit.

MARCH  12  Deanna Klingel

APRIL 9– Brenda Kay Ledford

MAY 14  -- Lucy Gratton and Joan Howard

JUNE 11 – Estelle Rice

JULY 9 -- Glenda Beall

AUGUST 13  -- Staci Bell and Linda Smith

SEPTEMBER 10 – Carole Thompson

OCTOBER 8 – Mary Mike Keller and Bob Grove

NOVEMBER 12 -- Karen Holmes – Paul Schofield

DECEMBER – open mic  and sign up for next year

Thanks to All Who Made the Writers Conference a Resounding Success

Our Writers Conference on May 10, 2014, at the historic Jackson County Courthouse Complex in Sylva was received with enthusiasm.

Many thanks to the volunteers and the faculty who worked together to make the day a success. Kathryn Byer for assembling the day's program. Joan Howard and Linda Smith for putting together the packets. J.C. Walkup for her diligence as our registrar. Glenda Beall for providing a delicious lunch, her sister Gay Moring and Lana Hendershott for helping with the clean-up. Paul M. Schofield for being our man Friday. Pat Davis for her willingness to help in any way. Vicki Lane for her inspiring Keynote Address. Gary Carden and Newton Smith for showing us how to use historical events as a basis for our writing. Catherine Reid and Susan Snowden for their stimulating workshops.   

Not only have Nancy Simpson, NetWest founder, and Kathryn Stripling Byer, both well-known poets, worked diligently for NetWest for many years, but they started our afternoon off by sharing their insight on how to build a readership for their writing. Many, many thanks to both of them.

The attendees made the day really special. One of the comments I received tells me that we achieved our goal of supporting and inspiring the writers who attended: "... what a thrill it was to win an amazing door prize!... how exciting it is to have been invited to contribute to an anthology about the history of Western North Carolina, a region I have been researching for more than 25 years. The wonderful invitation to submit previously published poetry for Nancy Simpson's Living Above the Frost Line made my day. The most thrilling part of attending the NetWest Writers Conference is that I came away with renewed enthusiasm to write, write, write...thank you for a venue which, surprisingly, has rekindled my creative spark." 

We also want to thank the library staff for their help, and City Lights Bookstore for facilitating the book sales and for hosting our reception. And last, but certainly not least, our thanks to those who completed the evaluation forms and provided us with valuable feedback for our next conference.

Kathryn Byer, Nancy Simpson and audience

The lobby, book sales, workshop leader Catherine Reid and registrar J.C. Walkup

 

Conference attendees browse through their book purchases

A group enjoying their lunch and networking

Long-time NetWest member Gene Hirsch and his wife Ginny

Ellen Schofield, NetWest Program Coordinator. For NetWest Writers

Enter the Mountain Memories Essay Contest to Win a Grandfather Mountain Prize Package

Share your favorite mountain memory for a chance to win a VIP visit for four to Grandfather Mountain, along with a Bridge Club membership to return again and again throughout the year to make new mountain memories.

The winning package,  valued at approximately $875, includes:

• Admission for four to Grandfather Mountain in Linville, N.C.
• Lunch for four at Mildred's Grill on Grandfather Mountain.
• Personal Behind-the-Scenes Animal Habitat Tour OR guided trail hike with an interpretive ranger.
• Two-night stay for four at Chetola Resort Lodge in Blowing Rock, N.C.
• $30 gift certificate to Foggy Rock Eatery & Pub in Blowing Rock, N.C.
• Group membership to Grandfather Mountain Bridge Club, good for free admission for six and other perks including discounts in the park for 365 days from date of issue.

Click here for more information and the contest entry form.

Brent Martin Releases New Chapbook

Writer, folk artist and historian Brent Martin has released a new chapbook of poetry, Staring the Red Earth Down. The chapbook can be purchased in person or online at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, N.C., by clicking here.

Martin, the Southeast Regional Director for The Wilderness Society, writes about the people and landscape of his native South: Poems from Snow Hill Road, A Shout in the Woods, and the co-authored Every Breath Sings Mountains. 

Vicki Lane's Keynote Address at the NetWest Writers Conference

The Keynote Speaker for our NetWest Writers Conference on Saturday, May 10, 2014 was Vicki Lane. She has graciously shared her address with us, and given us permission to post it. Here it is in its entirety:

"Will all the writers here raise their hands? . . . Congratulations! That means we’re all part of the Ancient and Noble Order of Memory Keepers and Truth Tellers – for whether we write fiction or poetry, memoir or nonfiction, we are the ones who preserve memories – we are the ones who strive to present Truth.

It’s a cliché to say that that writing is a lonely craft. Of course it has to be, to a certain extent, though Facebook and Twitter have made it less so. Still, when we writers come together – whether informally or in a class, at a writers’ retreat or at a convention like this -- an amazing thing happens. It’s called synergy – the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect greater than the sum of the individual elements. It’s why we come together – to be enriched by one another – for memoirists to learn from story tellers and poets and vice versa, for writers of nonfiction to learn from novelists and vice versa. If you take away one brilliant idea from this day; if some new approach to your craft suddenly makes sense to you – that’s synergy at work. You’re here to learn, not just from the speakers and workshop leaders, but from one another. A casual tip Jack Pyle gave me back when I was just beginning to write mysteries gave me a tool I’ve used ever since – Hide the clues in the middle of a paragraph. May someone today give you a tip that will be equally useful to your writing.

This Ancient Order of which we are members goes way, way back. Even before there was writing, there were stories – the history of the clan remembered with pride – say, the day Mrs. Og discovered that fire made mammoth meat tastier, -- or history remembered as a dire warning – the bad thing that happened when Og -who- is –called- Scarface tried to bring home the saber tooth kitty. There are the songs and sagas, the fairy tales, the myths, nursery rhymes, the Jack Tales – all of them attempts to memorialize or make some kind of sense out of the world we live in...no matter how changed in the telling those stories may become over the years.

It’s a proud calling, to be a writer. Behind us stand the shadowy forms of the ancient storytellers, the wise men and women, the bards and griots, the grannies on the front porch, the papaws by the fire in wintertime, and all the writers who ever struggled to put their stories into words—on papyrus or parchment, with stylus or quill, pencil on legal pad, typewriter, word processor, or computer – we are all engaged in the ongoing process of telling Mankind’s story.

So what’s your part in all of this? Which piece of the mosaic are you claiming as your own? What is the story YOU have to tell? Or, to put it another way, what is the story that has chosen you to tell it?

Perhaps you’re not quite sure yet – I know I wasn’t when I went to a basic writing class 14 years ago and the teacher challenged us to come up with a protagonist, setting, and genre for a novel by the next class. I went home that night and thought about dropping out of the course. I had no ideas.

Of course one of the first questions people ask an author is ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ and any number of folks have come up with smartass answers like Aisle 3 at Wal Mart – halfway down on the top shelf or . . . there’s an app for that . . . or they all come from Shirley down at the Cut ‘n’ Clip.

Back when I was searching for my subject, I wished that I had a quick and easy answer to that question but the truth is ideas are everywhere – they are the sea we swim in – that primordial soup of memory and experience.

But more than just an idea, as writers what we really hope for is that amazing moment when the bare bones of an idea take on reality and depth and form – when the writing flows seemingly from nowhere and out through your fingers, bypassing or out-running your brain. The characters take over; the story or poem writes itself. This is when writing turns from work to transcendent joy.

Which is not to say that there isn’t a lot of hard work in a 400 page novel – for me at least. Those moments of being Muse-possessed are fleeting – and even the Muse misspells things now and then. Perhaps a poem might arrive complete, courtesy of the Muse? Hmm, Kay is shaking her head no.

But though these moments may be fleeting and imperfect, I think that these times of possession – of almost subconscious, dream-like writing, are the grace notes of writing and well worth seeking.

I believe that the key to these moments is be found in sensory memories – such as Marcel Proust’s madeleine moment – a moment that inspired a seven volume novel.

For Proust, the memory inspiring object was a madeleine – a little scallop- shaped cake which, when he dipped it into his tea and took a bite, opened the floodgates of his memory.

And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray … my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it; 

… (I’m skipping bits because Proust is nothing if not wordy)

And once I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-flowers which my aunt used to give me …immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theatre to attach itself to the little pavilion, opening on to the garden, which had been built out behind it for my parents …); and with the house, the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I was sent before luncheon, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine. 

And just as the Japanese amuse themselves by filling a porcelain bowl with water and steeping in it little crumbs of paper which until then are without character or form, but, the moment they become wet, stretch themselves and bend, take on colour and distinctive shape, become flowers or houses or people, permanent and recognisable, so in that moment all the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann's park, and the water-lilies on the Vivonne and the good folk of the village and their little dwellings and the parish church and the whole of Combray and of its surroundings, taking their proper shapes and growing solid, sprang into being, town and gardens alike, all from my cup of tea.

That was some cup of tea! It worked for Marcel – seven volumes worth. But the magic isn’t in the madeleine for everyone --we each have to find our personal memory catalysts – the things specific to our own experience.

Now, memory is a tricksy thing – especially as we age. I may not remember where I put my glasses five minutes ago but a whiff of diesel exhaust and I’m on the back of a BSA Thunderbolt 650 motorcycle, riding through Europe with my husband -- forty some years ago.

And even when our memories are second hand, they can still be strong – how many of you remember things from your childhood – based on a photo you’ve seen rather than an actual memory? And of course we have memories from books -- for most writers the books you’ve loved can become almost as real in your memory as the actual life you’ve lived.

When I first visited Oxford, I swear, I ‘remembered’ certain places from having read about them in Dorothy Sayers. I kept more or less expecting to see Lord Peter promenading down the High Street or Harriet Vane gazing in a shop window at a Chinese chess set. Reading adds immeasurably to our little time on earth -- I have loved and lost, suffered famine and war – all without leaving my reading chair.

And now, as I write about the Civil War, better writers than I have given me the experience of living in that time. Of course I’ll do research with primary sources and history books but for the human reactions, I’ll be drawing on memories from Gone With the Wind, The Red Badge of Courage, Cold Mountain, and The Killer Angels to name only a few.

But let’s go back to our memories of our own experiences. Try this: Close your eyes and, in your mind, go to a place from your past – maybe your childhood room. Look around and note what’s there – what does the bed look like – what can you see out the window? 

Who’s remembering back over twenty years ago? Who can tell me something about that room? My room had a spool bed, a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt, and out one window I could see the top of a pine tree with one dead branch that looked like bleached bone against the blue sky. I could hear mourning doves…

Did anyone have memories of sounds or smells? You remembered a lilac outside your window, all purple against the various greens – I bet you remember the fragrance too. And someone else remembers the smell of her grandfather’s pipe tobacco . . . smell is so evocative.

How about the sense of touch? I can remember that the wall above the bathtub was scratchy -- in the house I lived in when I was four. And the coolness of the terrazzo floors in a friend’s house during a barefoot summer in junior high. . . who has a touch memory?

Memory improves as you exercise it. Here’s something I’ve found really helpful. About twenty years ago when my younger son was playing soccer and I spent a lot of time waiting at the soccer field for practice to be over, I kept a note book in which I began writing down everything I could remember about my childhood, beginning with the scratchy wall by the bath tub and my infant brother staring at me in the dark of the bedroom we shared. I remembered the ether dream I had when my tonsils were removed and the day we sat in the car outside the county courthouse and my mother was crying and threw her good handkerchief out the car window – I still don’t know what that was about but wouldn’t it make a nice beginning or ending for something?

When I slowed on writing childhood memories, I wrote down family stories – my own family and my husband’s. How my Aunt Pearl would chase my grandmother with the head of the Sunday dinner chicken and that was why my grandmother, who was still terrified of birds, wouldn’t allow me to let my parakeet out of the cage. And how my grandfather, who was 12 when his mother died, left home when his father remarried soon after and sharecropped on an uncle’s farm, living all alone and eating nothing but Irish potatoes for a year. . . . another great story waiting to be expanded.

The great thing about this memory exercise is that not only will you discover story ideas as you write but you’re preserving memories for others in your family.

Another memory exercise that I use on the rare occasions I have trouble sleeping is a House Prowl – pick a place – house or apartment – where you lived in the past and walk through it in your mind. I even like to open drawers and closets and see if I can remember what was in them – the silverware was here and the waxed paper was there . . . the olive oil and wine vinegar and garlic cloves were on the lowest shelf. I rarely make it through more than two rooms before I fall asleep but I highly recommend the exercise to stir up old half-forgotten memories.

All this remembering is a fine lesson in becoming aware of detail – the kind of detail that can bring a piece of writing to life. If you’ve experienced – and remember, that includes second-hand experience -- it yourself, it will add depth and texture to whatever you write – poetry, non-fiction, fiction, or memoir. It’s all part of being Memory Keepers and Truth Tellers.

When Kay emailed me on Tuesday to ask if I would fill in for Judy, I said yes, of course. Then I had to figure out what I was going to say. Out of curiosity, I Googled ‘key note speech’ and found myself on the website of a professional keynote speaker. He suggested that the keynote speaker might use humor, video clips, or song and dance. Oh, dear, thought I, I don’t have video clips, I can’t dance and I’m no singer. So I looked up keynote.

I’ve heard the term forever – heck, I’ve been a keynote speaker a couple of times before. But it had never occurred to me the origin of the term keynote.

It’s so obvious I’m embarrassed I didn’t realize it at once – but as I said I’m not a singer. Probably some of you know.

The keynote comes from the practice of a cappella, such as barbershop or shape note singers, playing a note before singing. The note played determines the key in which the song will be performed. So a key note speaker is tasked with setting the tone of the meeting. Of course.

So let me remind you again of your life membership in the Ancient and Noble Order of Memory Keepers and Truth Tellers. It’s you who remind us where we’ve been and it’s you who show us how it really was—and how it might someday be. And let me remind you too of the synergy that is lurking in the wings here today, waiting for all of you to catch fire at this grand meeting of our Ancient Order. 

And on that key note . . . may this gathering be truly energizing and instructive for all of us and may we always sing the true note." © Vicki Lane

The Literary Hour at JC Campbell Folk School

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 7:00 PM, John Campbell Folk School and N.C. Writers Network West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading. The reading, held in the Keith House, is free of charge and open to the public. Accomplished poets Heidi Sherlock and Rosemary Royston will be the featured readers.

Heidi Sherlock

Heidi Sherlock is a student at The University of North Carolina-Greensboro and is pursuing her MA degree in English. She is a 2012 graduate of Young Harris College. Besides being published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, she has won multiple awards for her poetry and prose through The Corn Creek Review and the Clay County Historical and Arts Council annual literary awards programs.

Rosemary Royston

Rosemary Royston, author of Splitting the Soil (Finishing Line Press, 2014), is a poet living in northeast Georgia. She administrates and teaches at Young Harris College. Her poetry has been published in Southern Poetry Review, The Comstock Review, Main Street Rag, Town Creek, *82 Review, KUDZU, Coal Hill Review, STILL, New Southerner, FutureCycle, Flycatcher, Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Two of her essays are included in the anthology Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets(McFarland). She holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University.

Writers' Night Features Helen Losse, May 17, Blairsville, GA

Writers' Night Out (WNO) has successfully changed locations: The event takes place at the lovely Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA. Depending on availability, we will meet either in the upstairs banquet room or Conference Rooms A/B on the first floor. Map is here

Helen Losse, Poet and Poetry Editor Emeritus, Dead Mule Society of Southern Literature

May 17 features Helen Losse, poet from Winston Salem. She has three books of poetry, Better With Friends, Seriously Dangerous, and Facing a Lonely West (just released from Main Street Rag), as well as three chapbooks. 

Banquet Room

Union County Community Center

Agenda

Second Saturdays every month (except May 17 and October 18)

6 pm free coffee and tea, optional dinner to purchase
7 pm featured reader(s)
7:45 open mic
Sign up at door for open mic. Prose or poetry, 3 minute limit.

For more information, contact Karen Paul Holmes, kpaulholmes AT gmail.com

Ledford Wins NCPS Poetry Contest

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Flying Squirrel," won Honorable Mention in the Caldwell Nixon, Jr. category of the 2014 North Carolina Poetry Society adult poetry contest.

Her poem was published in the NCPS anthology, Pinesong.

Contest winners will read their work at Award's Day.  The meeting will be held at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities at Southern Pines, NC; Saturday, May 24, 2014.

For information:  http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org.

You may visit Brenda Kay Ledford's blogs at:

http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com
http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com