Sunday, July 19, 2015

NCWN-West at Festival on the Square

Our weekend at the Festival on the Square was delightful except for the high temperatures on Saturday. Deanna Klingel and Miriam Bradley drove down to Hayesville from Sapphire and from Hendersonville, NC. Both write books for children but have non-fiction books for adults as well. See their websites for more of their books. 

We all promote reading for children and it was heart-warming to see the kids visit Deanna and Miriam with their parents and then come back later with cash in hand to purchase the mystery series books from Miriam’s table or the Avery books from Deanna.


Deanna Klingel

Miriam Jones Bradley


Our many volunteers this year made it possible to have a booth at the Festival on the Square sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. Deanna and Joan Gage carried tables and chairs and boxes as we loaded up Rob’s truck on Friday afternoon and set up our tent. I counted on Joan all weekend to help me and to be there when I could not.  She also presented her books of inspirational and motivating poetry for women. Water Running Down Hill, Empowering Your Inner Cheerleader and her most recent, A Redhead Looks at 60.

Joan Ellen Gage
Karen Holmes and Carole Thompson volunteered so that on Saturday and on Sunday we had someone at the main table to give out brochures, answer questions about NCWN and NCWN West, discuss writing with visitors and give them information about local literary events and places where they can receive instruction.

Carole Thompson author of Enough




Valeria Nieman visited with us Sunday afternoon with her new poetry book, Hotel Worthy and her very interesting novel, Blood Clay. We are always happy to see Val here in our neck of the woods.

I want to thank Don and Marti Long for their help on Sunday afternoon. Although we were tired by Sunday afternoon, I had fun with my two guests, Deanna and Miriam at my house for the weekend. It is always great to see so many local friends at the festival on a typical summer weekend in a small mountain town in the beautiful western NC mountains. 

Friday, July 17, 2015

Bill Ramsey asks, Who Reads and Why?

Bill Ramsey, author and recently appointed member of the NCWN Board of Trustees is from Henderson County, NC. He sent in this essay from an original collection entitled "What do you Think?" which is forthcoming in November 2015.

Who Reads and Why?
Reading a good book is enjoyed by many people. We could say most people but that might be stretching the truth. Some people cannot read and others simply have not done enough of it to find it enjoyable. 

Over time and with enough books having been read, folks come to favor one genre or two over others. They select from history, biography, self-help, psychology, science, medicine, cooking (paired with dieting), business, poetry or romance novels.

Polls indicate that the median number of books read per year is six. An avid reader reads many more, fifteen books or more per year. They have a book or two going most of the time. As shown at Vocabulary.com , Avid is from French avide, from Latin avidus, from avere "to desire, crave." Desire and crave would easily describe an avid reader. When waiting for an airplane, a doctor appointment, a major delay on a highway or any other several minute block of time, their books fly open.

How can we identify a reader? We don't have to see an open book in the hands of a reader. They don't have to say to us, "I am a reader." They don't need auto bumper stickers or lettered tee shirts to broadcast the fact. We know them when we converse with them because they are more broadly aware, well spoken, interesting and interested.

Writers are avid readers for additional reasons. They will tell you that reading the books of others is not only a form of enjoyment but is necessary in learning how to improve one's own writing. Reading the work of other authors builds vocabulary, style awareness and story line development. 

No legitimate writer reads the work of others to plagiarize or to copy anything about the approach used by others. To do anything like that would not only be unethical, it would not be much fun. Readers are aware when they are reading original and honest writing.


When I am not writing I am reading. When I am not reading I am writing. If given dual and parallel lives to live, one would be used to read and write and the other for everything else. Admitting to an addiction is step one in attaining a cure. See the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous . Like many people, I am addicted to reading and writing. There, I've said it. But don't look for me to seek counseling as this addiction is one I plan to feed.


This copyright preview essay is from an original collection entitled "What Do You Think?" which will be available in November, 2015.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Does the Cover Sell the Book? Ellyn Bache, successful guest blogger today, gives us the scoop.


Cover Story
by Ellyn Bache
Like most writers with a string of books in print, I’m asked at almost every book event about the covers.
Does the author get a say in them?  Sometimes.    
How important are they?  Very.
And like most writers, I’ve seen my share of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Three truly wonderful covers.  One disaster.  Lots of in-between.

The Good:
Depending on the publisher, and almost always with a big New York house, the author has little or no control over the cover.  My 2011 novel, The Art of Saying Goodbye, was published by Harper Collins, which could have left me out of the design process entirely.  But my editor, Carrie Feron, sent me each rendition, including the first one  . . . an impressionistic painting of two women, one with her head on the other’s shoulder, being comforted as they sat on a park bench in floaty summer dresses, with a soft-focus white building in the background. 
My daughter said it was pretty but looked like a lesbian love story set in World War II – not, as was actually the case, a contemporary novel about a group of 40-something women in an upscale suburban neighborhood, struggling with the illness of a longtime neighbor. 
Even before I’d had time to object, Carrie rejected that first cover. She jettisoned several more.  She ordered some fine-tuning.  The final product was remarkable.  A drawing of three women in jeans walking through a lovely but somber fall landscape, it captured perfectly the serious, powerful, graceful journey at the book’s center.
The novel got good reviews.  It was chosen as an “Okra Pick” by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.  It was nominated for SIBA’s annual book award. 
How much did the cover influence that?
Hard to say.  But experience tells me there was certainly some.  Years before, my novel Festival in Fire Season had come out with a dust jacket featuring colorful azaleas, a hint of fire, and the word, “Sizzling” from the Publishers Weekly review – visuals so intriguing it was hard not to pick up the book.  The novel became a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club Selection, important in those days.  Later, my novel Riggs Park featured three girls holding hands, hair flying as they ran through a summer landscape that perfectly conveyed happy friendships long past. The novel was selected to help launch a new line of women’s fiction
The Bad:
            The Activist’s Daughter is about a girl from DC who flees her mother’s embarrassing civil rights activism by going to college in North Carolina (The South! oh no!) in the fall of 1963.  It was published originally by a small, well-respected feminist press.  I had no say in the cover, but a warm, pleasant-looking version was sent to me while the book was in production.  Imagine my horror when the final copies arrived, all black-and-white and drab tan, with an illustration of a woman with her hair in a bun (in the ‘60s?) and an outfit (floral blouse, straight skirt) from no discernible era, being dragged off by what look like storm troopers.  Above that are my name and the title of the book, nothing else. On the back cover, in tiny type, there’s a long plot summary, an excerpt, and some reviews but no hint that this is a novel – much less by a fiction writer whose earlier work, Safe Passage, had been made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon – a film many potential readers would know.
When I started finding copies of the book in the social studies sections of bookstores, it dawned on me that people thought the novel was a memoir.
Happily, the print run soon sold out and the rights reverted to me.  The reprint has a beautiful cover (in which, yes, I did have a say) featuring the Old Well in Chapel Hill where the book is set, placards to suggest the civil rights movement, and the words “A Novel” prominently displayed.  Over the years, The Activist’s Daughter has become a perennial reading group selection for readers interested in the ‘60s.  I’m convinced the new cover helped. 
The Ugly:
Most book covers are neither beautiful nor disastrous, even with glitches that can be maddening for the author.  The protagonist of Over 50’s Singles Night is named BJ Fradkin – except on the cover, where it became BJ Franklin. The pastel pink cover of Raspberry Sherbet Kisses features lovers kissing while standing in an over-sized fruit bowl – so sweet that one reviewer said the novel is light but not that light (about a woman trying to hide the fact that she sees music and tastes shapes – as some people really do).  The sales impact?  I’ll never know. 
If a book is a big seller, the publisher will sometimes correct errors on the next printing.  But if sales are low and the writer is unhappy?  In today’s digital environment, most books are also e-books, which can stay “in print” indefinitely at little cost to the publisher, which often opts to hold on to rights rather than reverting them. 

Often, the best a writer can hope for is an editor sensitive to the visual journey readers take before deciding to open the book and embark on the literary one.  It makes a huge difference.   

Ellyn Bache is the author of more than a dozen books of fiction, including the novel Safe Passage, which was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon, a collection of short stories that won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, and The Art of Saying Goodbye, a novel that was chosen as an Okra Pick and SIBA Book Award nominee.  Currently, she's most excited about an upcoming production next spring at Furman University of  the musical comedy, Writers' Bloc written with Joyce Cooper (who did all the music and lyrics).  Ellyn lived for many years in Wilmington before moving to Greenville, SC. Her website is: www.ellynbache.com 

Saturday, July 11, 2015

City Lights Bookstore hosts Valerie Nieman at Coffee with the Poet


The Coffee with the Poet series continues on Thursday, July 16th at 10:30 a.m. at City Lights Bookstore. The July gathering will feature Valerie Nieman as she presents her new collection of poetry, Hotel Worthy

Nieman was a 2013-2014 North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellow and has received an NEA creative writing fellowship.  A graduate of West Virginia University and the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, she teaches writing at N.C. A&T State University and is a regular workshop leader at the John C. Campbell Folk School and the North Carolina Writers Network. She is poetry editor for the online/print literary journal, Prime Number.

The Coffee with the Poet series gathers the third Thursday of each month and is cosponsored by the NC Writers’ Network-West.  For questions about the Coffee with the Poet series or to reserve a copy of Hotel Worthy please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Glenda Council Beall and Estelle Darrow Rice read at NC Writers Network-West's Coffee with the Poets and Writers on July 8th, 2015

The NC Writers’ Network-West held their monthly Coffee with the Poets and Writers at Joe’s Coffee House, 82 Main Street, Hayesville, NC, on Wednesday, July 8 at 10:30 a.m..

Two local members of NCWN-West, Estelle Darrow Rice and Glenda Council Beall were featured on the program this month.


Glenda Council Beall began Coffee with the Poets and Writers in 2007 and continues to facilitate the event. Her poetry and prose have been published in newspapers, anthologies, online and academic journals, and in her chapbook Now Might as Well be Then published in 2009. She published a family history book Profiles and Pedigrees, Thomas C. Council and his Descendants, in 1998. She is a Georgia native, a graduate of the University of Georgia and a former elementary school teacher. She now teaches writing for adults at Tri-County Community College in the community enrichment program and at her home studio, Writers Circle, in Hayesville, NC. Beall's blogs are: www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com and www.glendacouncilbeall.com.
Her poetry is inspired by memories of the past, her large family and her impressions of what she sees and hears in the world around her. She writes about everything from growing chickens to dealing with grief.

Estelle Darrow Rice is a North Carolina native who has lived in other states but came back to spend retirement in the mountains in Cherokee County. She holds a BA degree in Psychology from Queens University, Charlotte, NC and a MA degree in counseling from the University of South Alabama, Mobile AL.

Her short stories and personal essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. Her book of spiritual poems, Quiet Times, was well received and highly praised. She has taught writing for NC Writers’ Network-West and for Writers Circle around the Table in Hayesville, NC.

Thank you, Glenda and Estelle for entertaining us with your poetry and writing!






Sunday, July 5, 2015

July 9, Ellen Bass Reading and Book Signing at City Lights Bookstore

Date of event: Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m.

Ellen Bass Reading and Book Signing
On Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m. author Ellen Bass will visit City Lights Bookstore to present her books. Her poetry collections include Like a Beggar and The Human Line. She is also the author of The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. It is an inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and encouragement to every woman who was sexually abused as a child – and those who care about her. 

Bass will also be leading a writing workshop at Cullowhee Mountain Arts from July 5th to the 10th. Registration is currently wait-listed. To be placed on the wait list send an email to  registrar@cullowheemountainarts.org. To reserve copies of Ellen’s books please call 828-586-9499. 

contact:: Eon Alden (eon@citylightsnc.com)
                  

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Fall Conference in Asheville NC - Put this date on your calendar now


November 20-22,  2015 in Asheville, NC - The Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. 

Conference faculty include professional writers from North Carolina and beyond. Held every year in a major hotel, the conference rotates annually.

Rates TBA

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Coffee with the Poets and Writers July 8 at Joe's Coffee House

The NC Writers’ Network-West will hold the monthly Coffee with the Poets and Writers at Joe’s Coffee House, 82 Main Street, Hayesville, NC. This group will meet Wednesday, July 8 at 10:30 a.m..

Coffee with the Poets and Writers is open to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short prose, 1000 words or less, and read at Open Mic. Joe’s Coffee House serves fine coffees and teas, as well as bagels and snacks. Cindy and Norma make all feel very welcome at Joe’s. Two local members of NCWN-West, Estelle Darrow Rice and Glenda Council Beall are featured on the program this month.
Estelle Rice
Estelle Rice is a North Carolina native who has lived in other states but came back to spend retirement in the mountains in Cherokee County. She holds a BA degree in Psychology from Queens University, Charlotte, NC and a MA degree in counseling from the University of South Alabama, Mobile AL.

Her short stories and personal essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. Her book of spiritual poems, Quiet Times, was well received and highly praised. She has taught writing for NC Writers’ Network-West and for Writers Circle around the Table in Hayesville, NC.


Glenda C. Beall
Glenda Council Beall began Coffee with the Poets and Writers in 2007 and continues to facilitate the event. Her poetry and prose have been published in newspapers, anthologies, online and academic journals, and in her chapbook Now Might as Well be Then published in 2009. She published a family history book Profiles and Pedigrees, Thomas C. Council and his Descendants, in 1998. She is a Georgia native, a graduate of the University of Georgia and a former elementary school teacher. She now teaches writing for adults at Tri-County Community College in the community enrichment program and at her home studio, Writers Circle, in Hayesville. Beall maintains two personal blogs, www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com and www.glendacouncilbeall.com
Her poetry is inspired by memories of the past, her large family and her impressions of what she sees and hears in the world around her. She writes about everything from growing chickens to dealing with grief.

The community is invited to Joe’s to listen to the readers, to read, to mingle with the writers and poets, and all are welcome to join us for lunch across the street at Angelo’s. Contact NCWN-West Representative, Glenda Beall, at 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com  for information

This is a program of the state literary organization NC Writers’ Network.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Change of venue for Poetry Group July 2nd

The NC Writers' Network-West Poetry critique group facilitated by Janice Moore will not be held at Tri-County College in Murphy this month -July. The college is closed for the holidays.

The group will meet, however, at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC at 6:00 p.m. Anyone who has trouble with steps 
can enter at the end of the library across from the Post Office. 

Observers are welcome.

Join the Beebes for Writers’ Night Out, July 10


Husband and wife writers, Jo Carolyn and John Beebe, will entertain the audience with their fiction, poetry, and memoir.

       An open microphone follows their reading for those who’d like to share their own writing. Writers’ Night Out, takes place at the Union CountyCommunity Center in Blairsville, GA on Friday evening, July 10. The event is free and open to the public. Food and drinks are available for purchase, but attendees should arrive by 6 pm to allow time to be served before the program starts at 7 pm.
John and Jo Carolyn Beebe have lived in Towns County, GA for twenty years. They recently celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary. They have three daughters, six grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
Jo Carolyn was born at the tip of the Appalachian Mountains in northeast Mississippi where oral family history was handed down to her by her grandparents and great-grandfather -- history rich in tales of the early settlers, Civil War encounters, and the hard life of the rural south. While studying creative writing at Miami University, she discovered those family legends provided material for short stories and poetry. Her publication credits include MainStreet Rag, Lonzie’s Fried Chicken, Lights in the Mountains, Heroes of Hackland, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Clothes Lines, Women’s Spaces Women’sPlaces, View from the Top, and Abingdon Press.
John Beebe comes by his personal essays naturally. His mother was a poet and journalist for local newspapers, and his grandfather also was a writer. John is a retired civil engineer having worked in the paper industry in Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio. He has enjoyed choral music most of his life and sang with the Atlanta Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony for a total of thirteen years. In recent years he sang with the Mountain Community Chorus. John was born in South Bend, IN, grew up in Zion, IL, and graduated from the University of Illinois


Writers’ Night Out, sponsored by the North CarolinaWriters’ Network-West, takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through November. Prose writers or poets wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read for three minutes. The Union County Community Center is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course, 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  
For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Brenda Kay Ledford to read at the Folk School in Brasstown, NC, on Thursday, June 18, 2015, at 7:00 PM

JOHN CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL
On Thursday, June 18, 2015 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 held at Keith House on the JCFS campus. This is held on the third Thursday of each month unless designated otherwise.  The reading is free of charge and open to the public.  Brenda Kay Ledford, who is an accomplished poet, will be the featured reader.  In addition, members of NCWN West will be reading sone of their own poems.  This presents an exceptional opportunity to hear a favorite local reader and enjoy poems by other members of NetWest.



BRENDA KAY LEDFORD

Brenda Kay Ledford is a native of Clay County, North Carolina.  She's a retired educator and earned her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University.  She studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee and was Creative Writing Editor of "Tri-County Communicator."

Her work has appeared in many journals including "The Broad River Review," "Charlotte Poetry Review," "Asheville Poetry Review," "Town Creek Poetry," "Angels on Earth Magazine," and other publications.  Finishing Line Press published her three poetry chapbooks and Kelsay Books recently printed her poetry book, CREPE ROSES.


Ledford has received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians seven times for her poetry books and collecting Appalachian history.  She received the Royce Ray Award for her poem, "Velma," and "The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature," nominated her poetry for "Best of the Net," in 2009.

Ledford's  two blogs include: 
http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com and http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com.  She also promotes authors on www.linkedin.com/in/brendakayledford.com
.

MEMBERS OF NCWN WEST

NorthCarolina Writers' Network-West is a program of the North Carolina Writers' Network. It was created in 1992 with the mission of supporting writers in the nine westernmost counties of North Carolina, as well as adjacent counties in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina and to alleviate the isolation of writers living in this mountainous area by providing programs, resources, and community.  Local members are from the counties of Cherokee and Clay in NC and Union and Towns in GA.

NetWest does this by providing many free, open to the public monthly events, as well as classes and workshops intermittently throughout the year, and annual events, such as a spring writers' conference. Writers of all ages, genres and skill levels are invited to join us.  For more information or to become a member, visit our website at http://www.ncwriters-west.org/.

Local members will be sharing some of their works, both poems and prose, during this month’s Literary Hour at John Campbell Folk School immediately following Brenda Kay Ledford’s reading.



Babes On The Beach Women’s 2015 Fiction & Romance Writer’s Retreat Emerald Isle, NC August 23-27, 2015

Wilmington, NC June 10, 2015: Holloway Literary, a NC-based literary agency that represents Women’s Fiction, Romance, YA, Thrillers and non-fiction authors is sponsoring Babes On The Beach 2015, A Women’s Fiction and Romance Writer’s retreat at the Trinity Center on Emerald
Isle, NC.

Editors:   

• Anna Michels, Sourcebooks
• Rachel Burkot, Harlequin
• Elizabeth Poteet, St. Martin’s Press

Literary agents:     

• Sarah E. Younger, Nancy Yost Literary
• Melissa Jeglinski, The Knight Agency
• Michelle Johnson, Inklings Literary

Published Authors:

• Jen McConnel, Bloomsbury Spark
• Jennifer McQuiston, Avon, HarperCollins
• Sally Kilpatrick, Kensington
• Kimberly Belle, MIRA/Harlequin
• Susan Bishop Crispell, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press

Babes On The Beach 2015 will take place at The Trinity Center, an ocean-front retreat center

located on Emerald Isle’s Salter Path.

In addition to offering craft workshops and genre-specific seminars, retreat participants will discover

the best way to select and obtain a literary agent and how to write queries. Each retreat participant will receive a detailed critique of their query and first 15 pages of their manuscript. Writers will also have the opportunity to pitch story ideas to agents and editors.

Babes On The Beach 2015 is an all-inclusive retreat that includes 4 nights at the beach, three

meals a day, all workshops plus daily yoga classes. Registration for a double occupancy room is
$599.00 and single occupancy is $699.00. Currently, the website features an Early Bird! Discount of
$399.00. Residents local to the area, or writers who want to find their own lodging may purchase a
Daily Pass that includes lunch for $199.00.

The Babes On The Beach 2015 website is http://botbwr.com/ . You may also follow them

@BOTBWR.

Holloway Literary (http://hollowayliteraryagency.com) represents Best-Selling Amazon author Katie

Oliver, RITA 2015 Best Nominee for First Book author, Alyssa Alexander and Buzz Books 2014
Featured Author, Kimberly Belle. Founder of Holloway Literary and Senior Agent, Nikki Terpilowski is a native of North Carolina and a military spouse. She divides her time between Northern Virginia and North Carolina.

Contact: Nikki Terpilowski

Holloway Literary

Nikki@BOTBWR.com



Monday, June 8, 2015

Atlanta Poets Featured at Writers' Night


Friday Evening, June 12

6:00: Social Hour (food/drinks optional)
7:00: Featured Readers 
7:45: Open Mic

This month Kathleen Brewin Lewis and Patricia Percival Thomas (Trish) will read from their chapbooks. Prose writers or poets wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read for three minutes.

A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best of the Net nominee, Lewis was a finalist for the 2014 Ron Rash Poetry Award. She is senior editor of the online journal, Flycatcher. A graduate of Wake Forest University, she also has an MA in Professional Writing with a concentration in creative writing from Kennesaw State University.  Her chapbook, Fluent in Rivers, was published in 2014 by FutureCycle Press. Her poetry and prose have also appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Yemassee, Still: The Journal, James Dickey Review, Heron Tree, The Southern Women’s Review, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. V: Georgia, among others.  
 
Thomas is the author of the chapbook, Bargain with the Speed of Light, published by Kattywompus Press in 2015. The book tells the story of a box of poems left by her brother after his death and how the mysteries there led to her practice of poetry.  Her poems also appear in Sixfold, The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. V: Georgia, Town Creek Poetry, Stonepile Writer's Anthology Volume II, and other venues. In what Thomas says, “seems like a past life,” she graduated from Duke University and the Emory University School of Law. 

Lewis and Thomas are both part of the Side Door Poets group originated by Karen Paul Holmes, who also hosts Writers’ Night Out, which is a North Carolina Writers’ Network-West program, open to the public. The Union County Community Center is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course, 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092. map here (note the Holiday Inn on the map is now a Comfort Suites). For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Coffee with the Poets and Writers in Hayesville NC - June 10

Last month there was barely enough seating room for all who attended Coffee with the Poets and Writers, a monthly event held at Joe’s Coffee Shop, 82 Main Street, Hayesville, NC. NC Writers' Network-West sponsors this event that meets Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. June 10.

Two local poets, members of NC Writers' Network-West, Joan Ellen Gage and Mary Ricketson are featured on the program this month. Coffee with the Poets and Writers is open to the public at no charge. Bring a poem or short prose, 1000 words or less, and read at Open Mic. Joe’s Coffee shop serves fine coffees and teas, as well as bagels and snacks. Cindy and Norma make all feel very welcome at Joe’s.


Joan Ellen Gage recently moved to Warne in Clay County from Florida where she worked as a dental hygienist. She says that much of her writing was inspired by her patients and their stories. Joan has published three books, A Redhead Looks at 60, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader and Water Running Downhill!, both motivate and inspire middle-aged women, and women in general.

She writes on her two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of Now: http://www.joanellengage.com and A Redhead Blogs at 60: http://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com .  

Joan enjoys photography, creating unique pictures and uses her own work in her books and on her blogs. She serves as an active administrator for the NC Writers' Network-West blog www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com  and stays busy publishing good news from our members.



Mary Ricketson has been writing for many years and publishes a monthly column, Women to Women, in the Cherokee Scout newspaper. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor and an organic blueberry farmer. She writes to satisfy a hunger, she says, to taste life down to the very last drop. Mary is inspired by nature and her work as a counselor.

Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Lights in the Mountains and other anthologies. She published a chapbook I Hear the River Call my Name and most recently, a collection of her poems, Hanging Dog Creek. She is a Cherokee County Representative for North Carolina Writers' Network-West and president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

 She won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts and silver medal for 2012 and 2013, and first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.

Come early for a good seat and plan to go to lunch with us after the reading. 
  
Contact NC Writers' Network-West Representative, Glenda Beall, at 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com  for more information.


Friday, June 5, 2015

City Lights Bookstore, Sunday June 14 - Byer and Krawiec Reading - You are invited!




Kathryn Byer & Richard Krawiec Joint Poetry Reading--City Lights Bookstore

Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Byer and Richard Krawiec will be reading from their new collections of poetry on Sunday, June 14th at 1 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore. 
Kathryn’s new chapbook from Jacar Press, The Vishnu Bird,  a finalist in the 2014 Frost Place chapbook contest, "is both a memorial and memoir in lyric poetry. This clean-spoken, deeply-felt chapbook remembers the poet’s dear friend by tracing his vocation of anthropology, and honoring his spiritual depth through vignettes from the speaker’s own past."  David Baker, contest judge. 
 
Richard Krawiec will read from Women Who Love Me Despite. Krawiec is the author of two other collections of poetry, two novels, short story collection and four plays. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and twice with the North Carolina Arts Council.  He is the editor of Jacar Press in Durham, NC. 
A wine and appetizers reception will follow the reading. 
 We invite you to come spend your Sunday afternoon with us.  
                                                      ***************
Listen

The crows wake up early,
claiming the day
with their black wings
and hungry beaks.

Dare you walk out
to claim your own morning?
Shield the sunflower sprouts
from their pillage?

What in the garden
is yours?  What in the forest?
If only, you say,
you could pitch your tent

amid green shoots
and blue shadows,
renounce the roots
holding you fast. 

Why do you let
the crows taunt you?
Throw down your toothbrush.
Let fall your nightgown

and walk out the back door. 
The grass blades will never
again feel so whetted, 
the earth underfoot so forgiving.
from The Vishnu Bird                                                                

TVB-front-cover.jpg
                                               (cover painting, Suffusions, by Elizabeth Ellison)

moorings
 
                        

cool air flowing through the screen
a curious cardinal tipping its head
at me from the empty feeder
as if to moor me to this day, as if aware 
that I drift still in that day our kisses
slid us down the grassy bank 
towards the reflection of a sky 
we didn’t feel we had to embrace
to own those breeze-rippled clouds
swaths of bright blue descended
to surface yes love there are things
we can’t claim a familiar table
with years of scars drawers
where my socks might hide beneath
your black lace underwear mindless
routines of coffee-making rubbish
but look at the heron circling
its wings bent in gray-blue welcome
landing in the shallows by the shaded bank
look at those clouds rising with the sun
from the shoreline to cover us like a quilt
look at how our fingers and mouths find 
ways to craft tightly what we do have
this boat drifting away from all moorings
from  Women Who Loved Me Despite
 
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