Writers and poets in the far western mountain area of North Carolina and bordering counties of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee post announcements, original work and articles on the craft of writing.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Photos of Netwest Members at CWP on Wednesday
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Coffee with the Poets - Last time at Phillips and Lloyd
Monday, April 11, 2011
Rosemary Royston, Congratulations!
This excerpt is from the website of Redneck Press:
Poetry Contest
--Rosemary Royston
Saturday, April 9, 2011
COFFEE WITH THE POETS
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Writers' Night Out Moves to Mountain Perk
Salzer has entertained audiences with his humor at the Writers’ Night Open Mic for the last year. In addition to writing fiction, he has been a sculptor of iron for over 40 years and builds private property bridges nationwide as president of Bridges to the Other Side, Inc. Salzer lives in Hayesville, NC with his wife Charlotte.
Writers’ Night Out was formerly at Green To Bean Coffee House, which recently closed. The event now takes place at the larger Mountain Perk, located at 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor plaza in Hiawassee. The evening is free and open to the public. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Those interested in reading at the open microphone may sign up at the event. Each writer will have three minutes to read.
In addition, music will be performed by award-winning songwriter, Wyatt Espalin, who recently moved back to his native Hiawassee after a stint in Nashville. He delighted the audience at last month’s Writers’ Night Out.
Usually on the second Friday of the month at 7 p.m., Writers’ Night Out has been changed to the third Friday for April. Beginning on May 13, the event will resume its normal schedule on second Fridays.
For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Mountain Perk at (706) 896-0504.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
BLUE RIDGE WRITER'S CONFERENCE
Thursday, March 31, 2011
WORDS ANTHOLOGY
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Another Review for Living Above the Frost Line Forthcoming
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
WHAT DAVID CHORLTON SAYS ABOUT NANCY SIMPSON'S POETRY COLLECTION
Living Above the Frost Line: New and Selected Poems
I am among the living.So many trees,I make an agreement with leaves,acting silly, singing-Give me all your oxygen,I’ll give you CO2.Wegia is pleased. It rains.We watch the sun set as if visible.
Witnesses saw it all, heard the crash,the speeding blue Camaro stopped deadat Pinelog Bridge. Sam Beck insistshe saw a man fly through the windshield,
Something in me moving fastwants to fly out through my eyeslike a body thrown free of the wreck.
Would it be better to turn offthe set, refuse to hear, maybemake up a lie or two of my own?I have to make myself laughsometimes or go madand my gods help me do that.
Want to buy a copy from Carolina Wren Press?
http://carolinawrenpress.org/books-and-merchandise/poetry/living-above-the-frost-line
or on line at Amazon.com
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Basic Blogging Terms
Below are a few basic words used in the blogging world that might prove helpful.
BLOGGING
• Weblog- An online dated diary listing your periodic thoughts on a specific topic, often in reverse chronological order.
• Blog - short form for weblog
• Blogging - the act of posting on blogs
• Blogger - a person who blogs
• Blogosphere - The internet blogging community
BLOG COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS
• Index page - the front page fo the blog
• Header - the topmost part of the blog usually listing the blog title.
• Footer - the most bottom part of the blog usually listing navigation and copyright statements
• Sidebar - One or more columns along one or both sides of most blogs main page
• Categories - A collection of topic specific posts
• Post, Entry- individual articles that make up a blog
• Comments - enabling readers to leave their remarks
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Spring/Summer Folk School Readings
April 21 - Nancy Simpson and Peg Russell
May 19 - Karen Holmes and Carole Thompson
June 16 - Brenda Kay Ledford and Glenda Beall
August 18-Bob Grove and Glenda Barrett
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Janice Holly Booth - author who travels solo
“I’ll give you one when I get them,” she said. Janice was pretty cool, I thought, for someone who had a first book coming out from a major publisher.
The next time I saw her, she was a bit more excited about her new success, but I feel that Janice is one who takes most things in stride. After all, she has dined with a Prince.
She insisted I should travel solo, even though I’m a good bit older that she. Janice said you miss so much when you are traveling with others. I am looking forward to reading her book and learning more about her life and her travels. But more than that, I want to read about her four secrets to a fulfilling life.
In the evenings at Wildacres during The Gathering, writers share some of their work in the lobby of the lodge. Janice did not read from her book, but she had written an essay about writing and publishing her book. It was clever and humorous. She caught everyone’s attention. You can read more of this saga on her blog. Go to
http://www.janicehollybooth.com/ and click on Blog at the top of the page.
Janice told me the book was not only about travel, but what she had learned in her travels. Her amazing adventures that took place all over the world intrigued me. I felt a twinge of envy that I had not had that confidence when I was young – that self assurance that I could do whatever I want.
After meeting Janice last fall, I continued to think about her and her book. I even wrote a post about her for my blog, but never published it. Now, I’ve heard from the author again and I look forward to seeing her at Wildacres in May. I plan to ask her to bring a copy of Only Pack What You Can Carry, signed, of course.
An editorial synopsis from the National Geographic Book Division:
“…this unique book about personal growth through solo travel goes a step beyond Eat, Pray, Love, and Under the Tuscan Sun. Where these well-loved bestsellers help women dream, Booth’s book is just this side of Gonzales’s Deep Survival. A book of depth and wisdom, Only Pack What you Can Carry helps readers act and change their lives through solo travel and by addressing four key concepts: solitude, introspection, courage and commitment. In a lively and confidential tone with page-turning personal anecdotes that range from a week galloping across Ireland “jumping everything in sight” to learning how to master the art of the flying trapeze, she shares her secrets to a fuller life through solo travel with every other ‘average person who has a full time job, doesn’t have enough time to get everything done in a day, and has to make sacrifices and save money in order to travel.’ Through more than a decade of incredible self-challenges, observations, and discoveries she shows how crucial it is to find time alone—whether traveling to the park down the street or ziplining through the Costa Rican rain forest—to bring refreshing and vital dimension—and growth potential— to your life.”
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Macon County Public Library Features WCU Literary Festival Authors
Coming to Rest
1.
The Name
Because she’d not bury
the name with the dead child,
she made her surviving five children
swear they’d pass it on
to the first daughter born to them.
Another name for letting go.
Or holding on.
Another name for home.
2.
Birthday Ghazal
Why this old Persian form for today, of all days?
Why not sonnet or blank verse to help me take hold?
Down to the wire goes the season’s gold,
late this year, so long it took to take hold.
I don’t care that my days tumble down
to the compost pile. I want to look, to take hold.
Seize the day. Carpe Diem, if you like.
Bite down hard on the hook and take hold.
Down the creek float the leavings of what I once was.
Just a girl. Mostly waiting for luck to take hold.
Last night rain kept the roof busy scolding
me, wake up you dumb cluck and take hold.
I’ve already answered my e-mail, my voice
mail, my snail mail. My real work? To take hold.
Kathryn died too young. Age twelve. Now she tolls
in the dust of my name: to come back, to take hold.
3.
Sinking
The aunt I was named after died too young.
She sank at age twelve
into diabetic pneumonia. Then coma,
too pretty a word for her dying. Why cling
to another old form like this no-holds-
barred song for my aunt who died too young
to care about romance? What good is a song
now, to her? Or to me? Maybe I’ve grown too old
for such artifice, as if I’m trapped in a coma
of middle-aged dullness. My tongue
slips on names. But not hers. But why dwell
on her death. So she died, much too young,
not all like an angel who could do no wrong,
not at all blonde & pretty as I had been told.
When she sank into that final coma,
she must have looked ugly. I can’t make this
villanelle sing, no matter what I’ve been told
about Kathryn, who died too young,
years before insulin, of diabetic pneumonia.
4.
Stuck
She smoothes her skirt and squints at me.
I don’t know what to say. Or why she’s come.
The clock’s stopped ticking on the wall. Back home
again, she sees what I see, same old creek
reflecting nothing but a sky where trees
fish with their lines of moss all day. Let’s thumb
a ride to town, she dares. Let’s make the phone lines hum
above these droughty fields. Now that I’m free
I’m getting out of here. She says she wants to hear
the latest gossip, wants to have a little fun.
She tells me everything that hangs around
too long gets stuck. I nod. I don’t dare
ask her why she’s here, this dust I’ve stirred from
sleep. This shell of light. This sullen hologram.
5.
Free
This nameless creek
almost obscured by shade
where she was last seen
by the camera lens
keeps rushing through me
as she hikes her skirt
and stands wanting to be
brave enough to walk
into the current,
sickly girl whose cropped
hair won’t blow
in the summer
wind, too short,
too short, she cries,
coming to rest
in the photograph.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
New Poetry Contest
Monday, March 14, 2011
Classes at the Writers Circle
One class - $30.00 both classes $50.00 - A big bargain.
Saturday, March 12, we enjoyed a delightful three hours with Estelle Rice, Netwest Member and writer of short stories and poetry, who taught us about the cumulative sentence and how to crack open our sentences to enrich our stories. She is just one of our local writers who is a student of writing, who never stops learning and sharing her knowledge with others.
If you have not been a student at Writers Circle, I hope you will click on www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com and see what is coming up in spring and summer; maybe you will plan to join us in our comfortable and casual atmosphere. We have fun in our classes and hope to see you soon at Writers Circle.
Friday, March 11, 2011
STILL CELEBRATING ECHOES ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Blue Ridge Writers' Conference - Blue Ridge, Georgia
You don't want to miss the Blue Ridge Writers Conference in its fourteenth year.
The Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference is back for its 14th year, featuring literary agent Sally McMillan as keynote and speakers Robert Brewer, editor of Writers’ Market, Scott Owens, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Jennifer Jabaley, 2010 Georgia Author of the Year in the YA category, and Hope Clark, editor of Funds for Writers website.
April 1 and 2, 2011. Please note a location change – this year the conference will be at the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia.
For more information call 706-632-2144.
If you haven't attended this conference in the past, April 1 is the Friday night reception. Saturday, April 2, is the all day conference with workshops, etc. If you want to learn about publishing, this conference should be on your list of events for 2011.
Writers' Night Out and Janice Moore
--Karen Paul Holmes
Come, be part of Writers’ Night Out. This month, award-winning poet and Young Harris College associate professor of English, Janice Townley Moore, will read her poetry. The March 18 event at Green To Bean Coffee House in Hiawassee begins at 7 p.m. Those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction can participate in the Open Microphone portion of the program, which follows the featured reader.
A native of Atlanta, Janice Townley Moore has lived in Hayesville, North Carolina, for many years. Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Connecticut Review, Southern Poetry Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and numerous others. Among the anthologies that include her poetry are The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and The Southern Poetry Anthology: Contemporary Appalachia. In 2009 she won first place in poetry in the Press 53 Open Awards, an international contest. Last year she won first place in the Georgia Poetry Society competition.
Moore serves as the facilitator of a poetry critique group, meeting monthly at Tri-County Community College and sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Writers’ Night Out, usually on the second Friday of the month at 7 p.m., has been changed to the third Fridays in March and April. Beginning on May 13, Writers’ Night Out will resume its normal schedule on the second Friday of each month. Green To Bean Coffee House is located at 538 Bell Creek Road in Hiawassee, next to the Humane Society Thrift Shop and across from McDonald’s. Come early to get a seat: The February event had standing-room only. The evening is free and open to the public. Light snacks and refreshments, including coffees from freshly roasted beans, are available for purchase. Those interested in reading at the Open Mic may sign up at the event. Each writer will have three minutes to read.
For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Green To Bean at (706) 896-4524.