FASHIONS FROM THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

Recently I acquired a copy of Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham's new anthology, Clothes Lines, a book filled with stories and poems about, what else, clothes.


Among the writers I know in this book are Nancy Sales Cash, author of three novels and she is working on number four. Nancy is a native of Murphy, NC and spends much time in the Cherokee and Clay county areas. We met at the Daily Grind and Curiosity Shop Bookstore, had a cup of coffee and discussed readings of Clothes Lines and my poetry book Now Might As Well Be Then.



Some of the writers in the far southwest area of North Carolina and north Georgia who have work in Clothes Lines are Kathryn Stripling Byer, Joyce Foster, Nancy Sales Cash, Karen Paul Holmes, Carole R. Thompson, Glenda Barrett, Jo Carolyn Beebe, Janice Townley Moore, Blanche Ledford and Brenda Kay Ledford, and Peg Russell.

A number of our Netwest members throughout the region also appear in this interesting book by 75 western North Carolina Women.

Celia and Nancy published Christmas Presence last year through Catawba Press and used the same press for Clothes Lines. The book is made more interesting by the use of a few black and white pictures all done by Mary Alice Ramsey.
Be on the lookout for readings from this anthology in your town.

A Reflection on the Summer of 1968 - Remember?

Recently Lana Hendershott submitted the following to her hometown newspaper when the editor asked for glimpses of life in the summer of 1968. Many of us remember that summer. Where were you and what were you doing then?


A Girl's Take on Summer of '68
by Lana Hendershott

I was in love with a boy I dated during my freshman year at Northwestern, and I was not excited about returning to Enid, Oklahoma. Going home meant trading an active social life for monastic mores and gainful employment.

The employment angle didn’t pan out. Boys harvested wheat, mowed grass or had paper routes. Their jobs paid well and left time for swimming at Champlin’s pool. My choices were babysitting, waitressing, or car hopping in miniskirts and roller skates at the A&W.

Babysitting paid fifty cents an hour and entailed caring for a neighbor’s three children all under the age of seven. I’m talking ten hours a day, Monday through Friday, with laundry service and ironing thrown in as freebies for Mrs. T. I actually slaved away at that job the previous summer and decided surrogate motherhood was not my gig.

I was eager to carhop or wait tables. Those jobs offered shorter hours and paid three times better than babysitting even if customers didn’t tip. I began fantasizing about my soon-to-be-earned wealth. Managers, however, expected experience, and I had zero. They questioned whether a ninety-eight pound novice, regardless of enthusiasm and robust health, was a good fit for transporting weighty platters of food and drinks. My mother ended my job search by declaring, “She’s worth more than $1.50 an hour to me.” I suspect she didn’t like the miniskirt idea.

Plan B was attending summer school at Phillips University and helping Mom with errands, meals, and housework. I enrolled in General Psychology taught by Dr. Jordan, Biblical Religion with Dr. Simpson, and U.S. Government, a requirement. I don’t remember anything about government—not the teacher, not classmates, not one discussion. I had no interest in politics. Dr. King was murdered in Memphis, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in California, and the evening news was all about Viet Nam. The violence appalled me, but the broadcasts were like watching movies or events happening in a parallel universe leaving me uninvolved.

Psychology class started at seven o’clock A.M. Sipping coffee, I watched the sky lighten as I drove east on Broadway with the windows rolled down. I listened to Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” on WKY and looked forward to watching Dark Shadows in the afternoon.

An earlier version was printed in the Enid News and Eagle on Sunday, July 13th, 2008.

Lana Hendershott represents NCWN West in Henderson County. Anyone who lives there can contact her for information about Netwest and writing events in that area.

CLOTHES LINES IS HERE!

No, not my clotheslines, which right now have damp garments hanging because I forgot to bring them inside last night. No, I mean the anthology edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. These clothes lines don't have anything soggy about them. Take a look at the cover. It looks like a shawl to be thrown over the shoulders when you are heading out to make the scene! The poem on the back cover (below) by Nancy Dillingham is worth wearing! (I've always wanted to wear a poem.)

More about this book tomorrow.

Finding Our Line

Every day
we shape our clay
from the inside out
giving it cachet.

But sometimes
it’s the clothes we wear
that give us away
that give us sway

Curves, straight lines
diagonals, in-your-face style
au courant, de rigueur
faux, retro

Similarly
we define ourselves as writers
shape our style

The curve of the plot
the turn of the phrase
the tone of the prose--
it’s the pattern of patter that matters

We preen, we pose
give color to character
and landscape
decorate and align

weaving a provocative story
stitching a tall tale
spinning a yarn
threading a theme

piecing a poem
with precision and panache
punctuating with élan
finding our line

Nancy Dillingham

CLOTHESLINES
Edited by Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham ISBN 978-1-59712-355-690000

THE CLEANSING, NEW NOVEL BY BEN ELLER

Congratulations are in order for Ben Eller, Netwest member and author. His second novel, The Cleansing was runner-up in Fireside Publishing 2008 mystery/thriller novel contest. It is always good to see our writers succeeding in this business of publishing and winning awards. The Cleansing can be found in local bookstores in western North Carolina.

Coffee with the Poets features Maren O. Mitchell, poet

Maren Mitchell, Netwest writer, will be featured October 14 at Coffee with the Poets. The reading is held at 10:30 a.m on the second Wednesday of each month at Phillips and Lloyd Book Store on the square in Hayesville, NC.

Maren's poetry has appeared in the Red Clay Reader, The Arts Journal, Applachian Journal, and Journal of Kentucky Studies. One of her poems is forthcoming in Southern Humanities Review.  She has worked as a proof reader, was a house manager of a group home in Brevard NC, taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historical Site. She teaches origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. A North Carolina native, she has lived in France and Germany and throughout the southeastern part of the United States. Presently, she lives with her husband and her two cats in Young Harris, GA.

Coffee with the Poets was begun in 2007 as a networking and reading event sponsored by North Carolina Writers Network West (Netwest) to promote poetry and poets in the mountain area. Anyone who writes poetry is invited to come and share their work at open mic. A delicious array of desserts is available from Crumpets Dessertery, along with numerous flavors of tea and a pot full of coffee.

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS BOOKFAIR

It's that time of year again, when the season begins to turn toward hot cups of tea and a good book to go with them. Not to mention Christmas gifts!
The Great Smoky Mountains Book Fair is ready to meet your needs, and then some. Go to http://www.gsmbookfair.org/ to find out what to expect--authors, presentations, animals--yes, we will have some, maybe a hound dog or two--and lots of folks wandering around looking at books. I'll be writing poems on demand; there will be a bookmaking table, ongoing story-telling, good music, and, we hope, fine fall weather.
I'll have more about all this a little later. VISIT OUR WEBSITE!

Netwest member, Pat Workman writes a beautiful blog

Click on this link to read an original poem by Hayesville Poet, Pat Workman. She has been out of the Netwest group for some years but she is back with a lovely blog and some of her original work.You will love the photos.

Cup Of Comfort is excellent place to submit essays

Share Your Story in Cup of Comfort!


Calling all Love Birds and Golf Lovers! The submission windows for A Cup of Comfort for Couples and A Cup of Comfort for Golfers are still wide open. We're most interested in well-crafted narrative essays that convey a universal truth in a personal and creative way. Stories can be humorous or serious, but always uplifting or inspiring.

You'll find complete details in the online Call for Submissions and in the Writers Guidelines.



Submit your stories now!

Poetry Workshop and Critique Session

The Poetry Workshop with Critique Session sponsored by NCWN West will meet the first Thursday of each month from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Tri-County Community College, McSwain Building, Murphy NC. Contact Janice Moore, 828 389-6394 for more information. The meeting is open to all NCWN members within driving range. Observers are welcome. Check in library or call Janice for room number.

fresh is new literary magazine

It looks like a new literary magazine will be hitting the newstands in western North Carolina very soon. The editors have begun with a bang with some big names among the authors represented.



fresh…stories, ideas, poetry

What is fresh?

It is a new quarterly literary magazine distributed in selected locations in five counties of Western North Carolina and soon to be available on the internet. Thanks to our advertisers and generous sponsors such as John Buckley and Dr. Darryl Nabors the first issue is free.

Our mission is to present fine writing through stories, ideas and poems from excellent writers across the nation and our region. Contributing writers in the first issue include Robert Morgan, prize winning author of Gap Creek, Boone and others; Keith Flynn, publisher of The Asheville Review, and prolific author of poetry; Kathryn Magendie, author of Tender Graces; and Eric S. Brown, author of World War of the Dead, plus hundreds of short stories. We believe it is important to offer a publication for fiction, essays and humor which reflect contemporary ideas and opinions.

fresh will be available in locations where people gather…restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops, libraries.

Comments and recommendations from readers are welcome. Future issues will have space for a readers’ forum. If you wish to participate, please e-mail your thoughts to: jcwalkup@bellsouth.net.

SOUTHWESTERN TRIBES CULTURAL ARTS CELEBRATION

SOUTHEASTERN TRIBES CULTURAL ARTS CELEBRATION WILL TAKE PLACE RAIN OR SHINE!! September 18-19.

SCHEDULE AT http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/events-set.html

CATHERINE CARTER: NETWEST ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING CONTEST

Catherine Carter, who lives in Cullowhee, is one of the most interesting poets writing today. Also one of the best. Her poems about the environment go beyond cliche into the biological realities of the world around us without missing a lyrical beat. "Swarm" pulls us into the universe of a honeybee swarm with language that connects us with the real living "other" around us. When you read her first book, The MEMORY OF GILLS, that won the Roanoke-Chowan award from the NC Literary and Historical Association, your learn a lot about the natural world. I hope we have more poems of this caliber submitted to Netwest's Environmental contest. This is a contest we mustn't let die.

CATHERINE CARTER

(Third Place Winner)

SWARM

Twenty-five years back, at home,
the summer hour was late when the afternoon
light began to hum, and a thousand
specks came arrowing out of the west,
the air waxed thick with honeybees up in swarm.
They crept and crawled on our closed
screens, stormed and boomed around the old
maple: one of the things you remember
forever, a sign you can’t read, alien,
and yet down in your bones you know
you want this. Want to open the screen and go
out there, breathe the wind of gauze
wings, pet striped velvet, feel
the sisters’ feet prick your skin.
I didn’t know then that swarming
bees don’t sting, and working bees hardly
sting, and bumblebees let you stroke
their black satin as they drink the blooms.
I didn’t know how little harm
most things mean, how even the dangerous
snake tries to slide away, how safe
we were. But I think of it now, stirring
the soft bees barehanded, shaking
down this week’s thrumming swarm,
hoping they’ll come home. The summer
hour is late, but not too late.

JOHN EHLE READING IN ASHEVILLE

 John Ehle Reading in Asheville, NC

       Internationally acclaimed author and Asheville native, John Ehle, will read and sign books on October 10 at 2 pm. The event, sponsored by The Writers' Workshop, will be held at the West Asheville Public Library at 942 Haywood Street. It is free and open to the public. A reception follows, hosted by Friends of West Asheville Library. Books will be available for purchase at the book-signing.

 Mr. Ehle is the authorof seventeen books, including Winter People; The Journey Of August King; and Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. He will read from his novel, Last One Home, first published in 1984 and recently re-issued. It is the last in a seven-book series about the settling of the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina.

 Ehle is a member of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, and has received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Thomas Wolfe Prize and the Lillian Smith Award for Southern Fiction. He is a five-time winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and has  received the Mayflower Award; the Governor's Award for Meritorious Service; and the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities. Mr. Ehle holds honorary doctorates from UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Asheville, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Berea College.

He also serves on the Advisory Board of The Writers' Workshop, a non-profit organization founded in 1985. A luncheon for Mr. Ehle will be held at noon, prior to the reading. For more information about the reading or luncheon, please email writersw@gmail.com, or call 828-254-8111.

CONNOTATION PRESS FIRST ISSUE NOW ONLINE

    John Hoppenthaler has just notified me that the first online issue of Connotation is up.  This is a free-wheeling e-zine that features drama, essay, poetry, fiction, as well as visual art.  Give it a looksee.  One of the poets in this first issue is Catherine Carter, 3rd place winner in Netwest's Environmental Writing contest.  Her three poems are well worth your reading time.  Catherine is a Roanoke-Chowan Winner; one of her poems won the recent Randall Jarrell Poetry Award from NCWN.  She teaches at WCU.  

    If you to to the Guest Editor section, you will find a couple of my poems, one for my father, the dedicatory poem in my new manuscript.

     Enjoy!  And submit to Connotation.   (www.connotationpress.com)

Connotation Press accepts submissions in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, play writing, screenplay, graphic or visual arts, interview, book review, music review, video (for spoken word or music or…), etc. Basically, we′re looking at virtually every genre or crossover genre you can create.

Connotation Press only accepts online submissions, and we read submissions all year long. We generally will respond to submissions within six weeks; if you don′t hear back from us by then, feel free to inquire about the status of your manuscript. Please wait for a response before sending a second submission in any one genre.

We encourage simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

We only accept original, previously unpublished work. Translations should be submitted with original texts. Indicate that you have copyright clearance and/or author permission.

If your work is chosen for publication, we may ask for a brief interview, conducted by one of our editors, in addition to or in lieu of a traditional author′s bio, and a photograph.

What Digital Formats We Accept

Text Submissions: .doc, .pdf or .rtf files.
Visual Art Submissions: .jpg, .png, .pdf
Video Submissions: AVI, MPG, MP4

Guidelines by Genre

POETRY: Please submit not less than three and not more than five poems per submission.

FICTION: Please submit one short story or chapter at a time, or 1-5 flash fiction pieces.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: Please submit one piece or segment of a piece at a time.

DRAMA: Please submit one complete play, act, or segment thereof.

SCREENPLAY: Please submit one complete screenplay, act, or segment thereof.

GRAPHIC/VISUAL ART: If sending Images - Send at 72 DPI and no wider than 800 Width.

INTERVIEW: Submit a short treatment about the subject before submitting

REVIEWS: We will read all unsolicited reviews. However, if you would prefer to submit an inquiry first, we welcome that as well.

VIDEO: Please submit one at a time due to file size restrictions on attachments.

UNDERGRAD: For the undergrad section we are asking writing teachers around the world for their best and brightest new writers. Our hope is that the teacher will nominate the undergrad and work with the undergrad to compile a submission. For some new writers this will be their first submission process, and we gratefully welcome those writers.

When documentation is required for any submission, please use MLA style format.

Connotation Press holds first serial rights for material that we publish. The copyright automatically reverts to the author upon publication. We do not require that material be copyrighted prior to submission. 

Go to Connotation Press for more guidelines.

Second Place winner of the Netwest Environmental Contest

Peg Russell of Murphy, NC is the second place winner of the Netwest Environmental contest.

THINK OF A FOREST

Think of a forest,

Not a foreboding evergreen forest past decaying cabins, but

Light green leafed hardwoods so tall they could be masts for ocean sailors.
Think of a vaulted cathedral forest
So thick with trees there is only filtered sunlight,

No sunny meadow or grasses.
Think of boulders,
Boulders big and strong enough to hold back a glacier
Yet an ideal place to sit and listen

for deer
for a small bubbling stream
or a wild turkey to come by,
so cool you put on a mid-June jacket.

Think of a forest floor
So piled with leaves that it's clean to walk in,
With a scattering of brave hardwood seedlings,
a few hardy ferns,
three holly bushes.

Think of forest beauty worthy
of being preserved for a nation.
Eden's address is Ebenezer Road, Murphy.

Peg and Mike live in a Hanging Dog area log cabin. She compiled a history of Murphy Presbyterian Church, is active in Murphy Library Writers Workshop and Richard Argo's NetWest Prose critique group. She will teach an OASIS mythology class in September and will read at the John C. Campbell Folk School November 19.

POETRIO: SEPT. 13 at Malaprops

On Sunday, September 13, 2009, 3:00 p.m., Malaprop's Bookstore/Café

(55 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville, NC) welcomes poets Terri

Kirby Erickson, author of TELLING TALES OF DUSK; Linda Annas Ferguson

reading from DIRT SANDWICH; and John Hoppenthaler with ANTICIPATE THE

COMING RESERVOIR.

A North Carolina native who now lives in Charleston, South Carolina,

Linda Annas Ferguson has published five collections of poetry,

including BIRD MISSING FROM ONE SHOULDER (2007), STEPPING ON CRACKS IN

THE SIDEWALK (2006), LAST CHANCE TO BE LOST (2004), and IT'S HARD TO

HATE A BROKEN THING (2002).  She serves on the Board of Governors of

the South Carolina Academy of Authors, was recognized as the 2005

Poetry Fellow for the South Carolina Arts Commission, became a

featured poet for the Library of Congress Poetry at Noon Series, and

was named the 2003-04 Poet-in-Residence for the Gibbes Museum of Art

in Charleston, S.C.  She is also a former recipient of the South

Carolina Academy of Authors Poetry Fellowship.  Her work is archived

by Furman University Special Collections in the James B. Duke Library,

and her poetry is included in several anthologies.  Linda Annas

Ferguson's most recent book, DIRT SANDWICH(2009), is a Tom Lombardo

Poetry Selection from Press 53.  Fellow poet Chris Forhan writes of

DIRT SANDWICH, "[Linda Annas Ferguson's] work exists at the shimmering

mid-point between an urge to celebrate the world's beauty and a pained

recognition that this beauty is mutable. . . . She has given us a book

of tender, clear-eyed, complex meditations, a lovely book by a poet

whose vision we can trust."

Another poet North Carolina born, Terri Kirby Erickson has traveled

extensively and lived for a time in Louisiana, Virginia, and Texas,

but she has spent most of her life in North Carolina.  Her first

collection of poetry, THREAD COUNT, was published in 2006.  Her

writing has appeared in numerous literary reviews and other

publications, including Pisgah Review, the Christian Science Monitor,

Paris Voice, Smoking Poet, and Wild Goose Poetry Review, among several

others.  In 2006 and 2007, The Northwest Cultural Council selected her

work for an international juried poetry exhibit; and in 2009, her poem

"Oak Tree" earned a 2009 Best of the Net nomination.  Pisgah Review

editor Jubal Tiner has praised Terri Kirby Erickson as "an exciting

new voice in American poetry."  He admires the fact that "Her subject

matter spans the width between a lone Ferris wheel at a county fair,

where 'Coal dust fine and black as pulverized midnight, / covers

everything for miles,' to the vagaries of aging in the face of youth

. . . Erickson's verse is filled with spot-on similes and metaphors,

dotting its distinct and lucid structure with apt and artful

alliteration, telegraphing image upon finer image to the nexus of who

we are."

John Hoppenthaler's career in letters began when he served for several

years as personal assistant to Toni Morrison, whose work has been

recognized with both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize.  John Hoppenthaler

is currently a member of the writing faculty at East Carolina

University, and he served as poetry editor of Kestrel for eleven

years.  His reviews, interviews, and essays are widely published, and

his poems frequently appear in such distinguished The Southern Review,

Virginia Quarterly Review, Kansas Quarterly, The Laurel Review, and

Chautauqua Literary Journal, among many others.  He has frequently

earned prestigious writing fellowships and grants.  His first book of

poetry, LIVES OF WATER, was published in 2003, and his second poetry

collection, ANTICIPATE THE COMING RESERVOIR, appeared in 2008.  Poet

Natasha Trethewey makes the following observations about his recent

book: "In this aptly titled new collection, ANTICIPATE THE COMING

RESERVOIR, John Hoppenthaler grounds an exploration of longing and

loss in a firm sense of place.  From upstate New York to the Florida

coast, to the landscapes that exist only in memory and dream,

Hoppenthaler knows well the geographies he traverses, and he maps the

lives of the people who inhabit these places with tenderness."

Poetrio: Terri Kirby Erickson, Linda Annas Ferguson, John Hoppenthaler

Sunday, September 13, 2009, 3:00 p.m.

Malaprop's Bookstore/Café

55 Haywood Street

Asheville, NC 28801

(828) 254-6734

www.malaprops.com

SHADOW BOX: Fred Chappell

CITY LIGHTS BOOKSOTRE (http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/bookPages/9780807134528.html) Four years ago Fred Chappell sent me a beautiful broadside of The Foreseeing, telling me that it was a new kind of poem he was now exploring, the "embedded poem," or a poem within a poem, and that it was devilishly difficult. In this poem, the voice of the woman is embedded in that of her partner, who is beginning to realize that she is in love again. The two voices work with and against each other, forming a whole. Call it poetic counterpoint. The "inlaid" poem. Better yet, call it stunning, an enviable achievement. Now these poems, at which Fred has been working since The Foreseeing, have been gathered into a new collection from LSU Press: its title appropriately enough is SHADOW BOX. Last night, August 7, at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC Fred read from SHADOW BOX, with his wife Susan presenting the woman's voice in the poems. The two of them gave a haunting, at times beguiling, performance. (Joyce Moore introduces Fred to the audience in the bookstore's Regional Room.) Spotlight The hamlet sleeps under November stars. Only the page of numerate thought toils through The darkness, shines on the table where, askew And calm, the scholar's lamp burns bright and scars The silence, sending through the slot, the bars And angles of his window square, a true Clean ray, a shaft of patient light, its purview Lonely and remote as the glow of Mars. Brian's wife, the poet Catherine Carter, gets acquainted with Dana Wildsmith, who drove several hours from Georgia to be with Fred and Susan. Catherine's first book, The Memory of Gills, won the Roanoke-Chowan Award two years ago and was highly praised by none other than---Fred Chappell. Dana Wildsmith, a long-time friend of the Chappell's, has published several collections of poetry, as well as numerous essays, the most recent being in The Sun, published out of Chapel Hill. She lives in Bethlehem, Georgia. Fred will be on hand for the NC Literary Festival in Chapel Hill in September, as well as at the Smoky Mountain Bookfair in November, to name just a few opportunities for hearing him and Susan read from his new book. This new collection by the author Lee Smith calls our "resident genius," deserves all the readers it can get! City Lights contact information: more@citylightsnc.com phone: (828) 586-9499 web: http://www.citylightsnc.com

GREETINGS FROM YOUR NEW PROGRAM COORDINATOR

First, I want to thank Glenda Beall for what she has done for Netwest during her tenure as Program Coordinator.   She kept this organization  and its blog going under great personal stress, and I'm grateful to her.  I will be keeping this blog going and invite you to send us posts.  Here is one about a poetry contest that I hope Netwest members will thinking about entering.

I will be going to the NC Literary Festival next week in Chapel Hill and will spread the word about Netwest.  

Poets:

Are you interested in compiling a book of your poetry and submitting it to a contest?  Check out the links below.

 

Coal Hill Review Poetry Chapbook Contest: $250 and Publication

Postmark Deadline: November 1

The 2009 Coal Hill Review Poetry Chapbook Contest is now open. Please submit your manuscripts online at www.coalhillreview.com. Reading fee: $15 to be paid via PayPal (major credit cards accepted). Submit 10-15 pages of poetry, either a group of poems or one long poem. Poems may be previously published. Include an acknowledgements page.

The winning chapbook will be published electronically in Coal Hill Review, as well as in a paper edition. All finalists will be considered for publication in Coal Hill Review. The final judges for the competition are Anna Catone and Philip Terman, poetry editors of Coal Hill Review (see bios). Please address any questions to msimms@autumnhouse.org with the words "CHAPBOOK COMPETITION QUERY" in the subject line.

MYSTERY WRITERS WORKSHOP

BUILD YOUR WRITING SKILLS

All Writers All-day Skill-Building Workshop

from Mystery Writers of America,

Southeast Regional Chapter

Location: Raleigh, NC, Cameron Village Regional Library, 1930 Clark Ave. Directions Mapquest.

Date: Saturday, October 3, 2009.

Time: Doors open at 10:00 am. (A coffee bar is on Library premises.) Program ends at 4:30 pm.

Program: Welcome by KAREN MCCULLOUGH, president of the Southeast Regional Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. McCullough is the Eppie Award-winning author of 9 mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, and romantic suspense novels, including SHADOW OF A DOUBT.

ALEXANDRA SOKOLOFF

"Film Techniques for Your High-Concept Novel." Learn pacing, suspense, character arcs, and more to use in writing and pitching your fiction. Sokoloff is an experienced screenwriter, winner of the Thriller Award, and author of 3 novels: THE HARROWING, THE PRICE, THE UNSEEN. www.alexandrasokoloff.com

J. D. "DUSTY" RHOADES

"Build Setting and Mood to Take Readers to Another Place." Rhoades is an attorney and the Shamus Award-nominated author of the Jack Keller Southern Crime series: DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND, GOOD DAY IN HELL, SAFE & SOUND, and BREAKING COVER. ("Masterful"-Chicago Tribune). www.jdrhoades.com

CHRIS ROERDEN

"Develop Your Voice and Survive the Submission Process." Enjoy interactive exercises to expand your options and boost your odds of being read. Roerden is a book editor who wrote the Agatha Award-winning triple-nominated DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY and the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award-winning DON'T SABOTAGE YOUR SUBMISSION.www.writersinfo.info

AUTHORS-AUDIENCE DISCUSSION

"What Else You Need to Know About Writing and

Selling Your Work."

POETRY OUT LOUD: CALLING ALL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE NETWEST AREA

THIS NATION WIDE PROGRAM DESERVES OUR SUPPORT. OUR STATE FINALS HAVE HAD ONLY ONE STUDENT FROM OUR REGION PARTICIPATE, SARAH TRAMPER OF CHEROKEE.  IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR NETWEST COUNTIES REPRESENTED, AND TEACHERS HAVE UNTIL SEPT. 18 TO REGISTER.  PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD TO YOUR HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO ENTER THIS COMPETITION.  OUR MOUNTAIN STUDENTS NEED TO MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD!   THE PAGE BELOW, TAKEN FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL WEBSITE, GIVES THE INFORMATION NEEDED.  THANKS.  

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Teacher Registration Open for North Carolina Poetry Out Loud 2010 08/27/2009 Contact Info :  Bridgette A. Lacy Email :  bridgette.lacy@ncdcr.gov Phone :  919-807-6520 High school English and theater arts teachers across North Carolina have until Friday, Sept. 18 to register for the statewide Poetry Out Loud recitation contest, coordinated by the North Carolina Arts Council. An initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation and coordinated by state arts councils across the country, Poetry Out Loud is educational, fun and provides students the opportunity to win scholarships and prizes for their schools. "Watching high-school students engage so earnestly with Poetry Out Loud over the past four years is rewarding to me and for all of us involved," said Linda Bamford, arts in education director for the North Carolina Arts Council. Mimi Herman, poet and educator, is contracted by the Arts Council to implement the program. As a teaching artist, she travels the country instructing educators to use the arts throughout the curriculum. Poetry Out Loud encourages students to memorize and recite poetry while mastering public speaking skills, building self-confidence and learning about literary heritage. In 2008, Poetry Out Loud reached more than 100 schools in N.C. -- the second highest participation in the country with more than 11,800 high school students participating at various stages of the program -- the fifth highest number in the country. Last year's winner was Orange County student Nadia Nasir of Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough. She recited "Snow Day" by Billy Collins, "Blackberrying" by Sylvia Plath and "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman. The Endowment provides teachers with free multimedia curriculum materials -- a poetry anthology, audio guide, teachers' guide, posters and a comprehensive Web site, www.poetryoutloud.org, all aligned to national standards and intended to augment the schools' regular poetry curriculum with poetry recitation and a school-level competition. The contest starts at the classroom level and proceeds to the school and district levels. Coordinators at both the school and district levels may include English teachers, theater arts teachers, school counselors, administrators, parents, PTA/PTO organizations and volunteers. Winners from the district level advance to semi-final and final state level competitions. Winners at the state level receive $200 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the national championship. The national contest is scheduled Sunday, April 25-Tuesday, April 27, 2010 with the state finals scheduled for Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. High schools interested in participating should visit the Art Council's Poetry Out Loud Web site atwww.ncarts.org/poetryoutloud for more information. Participating English and theater arts teachers should register online by Friday, Sept. 18. About the North Carolina ArtsCouncil The North Carolina Arts Council works to make North Carolina The Creative State where a robust arts industry produces a creative economy, vibrant communities, children prepared for the 21st century and lives filled with discovery and learning. The Arts Council accomplishes this in partnership with artists and arts organizations, other organizations that use the arts to make their communities stronger, and North Carolinians—young and old—who enjoy and participate in the arts. For more information visit www.ncarts.org. The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina's arts, history and culture. www.ncculture.com

 

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The North Carolina Arts Council is a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency. 
Linda A. Carlisle, Secretary; Beverly Eaves Perdue, Governor