Coffee with the Poets and Writers' resumes 3/21/2018, with Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, in Hayesville, NC

The North Carolina Writers’ Network–West will hold the first meeting of Coffee with the Poets and Writers for the year of 2018. Poets and writers will gather at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, at10:30 AM. The public is invited and there is no cost to attend. Refreshments are served and non-writers are welcome. Many of those present adjourn to a local restaurant for lunch after the meeting.

This month two members of NCWN-West, Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, both residents of Clay County, are featured. Bob is known for his humorous stories and Kathy writes memoir. Bob will make you laugh and Kathy might provoke a tear.

                                                  

  Bob Grove was born in Cleveland, OH. He earned his Bachelor of  

Arts at Kent State University and his Master of Science at Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum enabled him to teach courses in English, journalism, creative writing, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology.

Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, Grove has more time to write. Most recently, he published a mystery novella, Secrets of Magnolia Manor, his memoir, Misadventures of an Only Child, a collection of children’s stories Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy, and has written several flash fiction stories.

Grove has been awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Silver Arts Competition in the Cherokee County, NC senior games, in their literature competition. You are invited to visit Bob on his website at bobgrove.org.

Kathleen (Kathy) Knapp was born into a military family. She spent most of her childhood living abroad. She draws on those cultural experiences to write her entertaining memoirs. As a creative person, with a degree in Graphic Arts, Kathleen has embraced this new venue and is memorializing her late family’s history for future generations. It is her ultimate dream to publish books for children.

Kathleen also enjoys volunteering for the Hurlburt-Johnson Friendship House, Inc. in Murphy, NC, using her writing skills to promote through the newspaper, awareness of the county’s only homeless shelter. As a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network West, she enjoys challenging writing classes, attending conferences, and nurturing her newfound craft.


To participate in the Open Mic session, those attending are requested to limit their reading to one or two poems or no more than three pages, double-spaced, prose writing.

NCWN-West is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, one of the largest state literary organizations in the country.

Contact Glenda C. Beall, NCWN-West Program Coordinator, at: glendabeall@msn.com<mailto:glendabeall@msn.com> 

for more information or phone: 828-389-4441.

Joan M. Howard's Poetry book, Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail is available on Amazon.com

Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail, is a modern hero's attainment of the grail revealed in his widow's seventeen year long poetic journey. This is a love story of daily heroism, marriage and miracle.

Joan Howard’s poems, crafted like finely cut jewels, reflect a joyful and sustaining force in the natural world, even as the poet confronts a major loss. Whether she is kayaking on the lake “I glided into diamonds” or noting a solitary clematis blooming on her late husband’s birthday, she presents a remarkable tapestry of all our lives, in which, as William Blake wrote, “Joy and woe are woven fine.”

--Janice Townley Moore, author of Teaching the Robins

Joan Howard’s collection is pure music: love songs, laments, hymns. She has an incredible ear for sound, including rhyme and meter. This, coupled with an eye and heart for discovering the sublime in nature, gives her poems a classical feel—a formality that ups the poignancy while keeping sentimentality at bay. These are short poems, packed with grief and wonder: “Let me go,” you said, and divine / ownership took you in a breath. Howard has written a profound tribute to her beloved. It is their story and her story: the hard and beautiful necessity of moving on while never forgetting.

--Karen Paul Holmes, author of Untying the Knot

Poetry written in beauty leaves the reader with nourishing aftereffects. Happily, Howard’s sonnets, such as “Time Travel,” “The Secret,” and “Grace” shimmer with superb craft, evidence of a clear and powerful intelligence. Like those of Gerard Manley Hopkins, her use of word links: lake wed, these now years and life hearts on, create new meanings and illuminations.

--Maren O. Mitchell, author of Beat Chronic Pain, An Insiders Guide

How refreshing to find a new collection of poems filled with sincerity that takes you through a deeply moving love story. With exquisite imagery, Joan Howard reveals the beauty of nature around her before piercing the heart with human truths.

--Glenda Barrett, Visual artist, author of When the Sap Rises, and The Beauty of Silence

Joan M. Howard earned a B.A. in German Literature at Indiana University, an M.A. from the University of Oregon. She studied in Munich, Germany, and at the University of Georgia. Howard is a former teacher and lives in Athens, Georgia, and on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, who enjoys birding, walking and kayaking. She is a member of North Carolina Writers Network, North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and the Georgia Poetry Society.

Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail, is Joan M. Howard's second publication. Her first poetry book is, Death and Empathy: My Sister Web.

Joan’s husband was a professor of Medieval German at the University of Georgia. This book was written chronologically from 2000—2017.