Wednesday, March 14, 2012

JC Campbell Folk School Reading

Featured reader for Thursday, March 15th, 7:00 pm, Keith House is JC Walkup. JC is a graduate of the University of Texas and currently enrolled at UNCA in The Great Smokies Writing Program. She serves as the Haywood County Representative for Netwest.

JC is a workshop junkie and a research addict who prefers following clues to actually writing. Five years working at United Artists and thirty-three years in the defense industry failed to rehabilitate her. Now she feeds her habit with daily doses of words.

Come hear JC read -- she plans on having something humorous, so a laugh is in your future!

CARL SANDBURG WRITER IN RESIDENCE RECEPTION

The Carl Sandburg Writer in Residence, Alice B. Fogel will be at the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce, 204 Kanuga Rd. for a free public reception and reading on Friday evening, March 16 from 5-7 pm. 
She will be at the Blue Ridge Community College on March 30, in the Patton Bldg, Room 150 for the Student Poetry  Contest Celebration.
 The community is invited to attend.

NEWS FROM HENDERSON COUNTY, NC

Fountainhead Bookstore in Hendersonville announces Michael Hopping will read from his Short Story Collection MacTiernan's Bottle, Friday, March 23rd at 6:30 p.m.
He will be available for a Q&A session.
He is immensely talented and has honed the craft of saying much - really painting a scene and characters - within a limited number of pages.
Contact the bookstore for more information.

The Fountainhead Bookstore
408 N Main St.
Hendersonville, NC 28792
828-697-1870
www.FountainheadBookstore.com

Monday, March 12, 2012

Liar's Bench Updates

The next Liars Bench is on March 15th and this marks the first in a series entitled "Balsam Chronicles." The Jackson County Arts Council gave us a grant to do a series of programs on the history, folklore, music, poetry, etc of Jackson, Macon and Swain. This was will focus on Cashiers Valley, Whiteside Mountain, square dances, Kidder Cole and Charlie Wright who got a Carnegie medal for rescuing Gus Baty when he fell/jumped off Whiteside.

The April Liars Bench will deal with the hanging of Jack Lambert in Bryson City (then called Charleston) with descendants of both Jack Lambert and the murder victim, Dick Wilson in the audience. Jack was innocent and we hope to celebrate this story with appropriate music, poetry and storytelling.

My play, "Outlander" will audition next month with a premiere planned for June at the Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville. (I would have preferred the Peacock Theater, but it didn't work out.) The play will have original music by Frank Lee of Bryson City and there is a possibility that the play will tour this fall.

I will be conducting a workshop at the Carolina Literary Festival on April 13-14 at Wadesboro. The topic is, how stories become "theater."

--Gary Carden




My play, "Mother Jones" will premiere at the Unitarian Church in Franklin on April 7th with Lara Chew in the role of Mother Jones.

Friday, March 9, 2012

How Many Mistakes Will You Accept

Many books I read today have errors in them. Some are grammatical. Some are misspelled words and some have misplaced modifiers.
Granted most of the better publishers have copy editors that correct this kind of problem, but I wonder why we still find so many books that seem like the writer refused to let a good editor make changes in the work.
For some reason, when I pick up a book with obvious errors, I don't want to buy it. I don't want to go any further. It gives me the impression that the writer, the editor, and the publisher don't have much pride in the product.

I have been told that is the reason book stores don't like to carry self-published books -- they just don't measure up to the books on the shelves. And book store owners don't want to put a book on the shelf when the writing is mediocre and the errors slow down the reader.

How do you feel about buying a book and finding errors on every other page?
Even if the book is touching, humorous, and filled with a story that grabs me, I turn off on the errors.
How about you? What do you think about producing a book filled with errors.?

Leave a comment and give us your opinion on this matter. It is not hard to do. If you don't want to leave an email address, just click on anonymous.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Upcoming Events in Hiawassee/Murphy Area

Just a friendly reminder of upcoming events: Friday, March 9th, Writers' Night Out will be held at Young Harris College, 7 pm, Wilson Lecture Hall (Goolsby building). The featured poet is Atlanta poet, Rupert Fike. Fike’s collection, Lotus Buffet (Brick Road Poetry Press), has earned him a nomination for Georgia Author of the Year 2011 in poetry. 
Two of the poems in the book have also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Writer Barbara Hamby says, “What happens when you cross a Southern raconteur with a Buddhist monk? You get Rupert Fike’s exhilarating poems.” His work has been published in Rosebud, The Georgetown Review, Natural Bridge, The Atlanta Review, The Cortland Review, storySouth, The Blue Fifth Review and others. He has a poem inscribed in a downtown Atlanta plaza, and his non-fiction work, Voices from The Farm, accounts of life on a spiritual community in the 1970s, is now available in paperback. As usual, open mike will follow after the reading.

Thursday, March 15th, 7:00 pm, John C Campbell Folk School will feature JC Walkup and Glenda Barrett as readers, Keith House. This will be an excellent reading!

Both events are free and open to the public!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

COFFEE WITH THE POETS AND WRITERS IN HAYESVILLE

Coffee with the Poets and Writers meets Wednesday, March14, 10:30 a.m. at Café Touché in Hayesville, NC. A member of NCWN West is featured each month. The featured writer this month is Robert S. King.

Robert is a new member of NCWN West. He had been active in the Georgia Poetry Society while living in the Atlanta area. Now living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, Robert said he was pleasantly surprised to find such a large writing community here. He joined Netwest and continues as a member of the Georgia Poetry group as well.

He will be teaching a workshop at Writers Circle in Hayesville, March 17, and will be speaking at the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference in Blue Ridge, Georgia on March 31.

His poems have appeared in hundreds of magazines, including California Quarterly, Chariton Review, Hollins Critic, Kenyon Review, Lullwater Review, Main Street Rag, Midwest Quarterly, Negative Capability, Southern Poetry Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Writers' Forum.

He has published three chapbooks (When Stars Fall Down as Snow, Garland Press 1976; Dream of the Electric Eel, Wolfsong Publications 1982; and The Traveler’s Tale, Whistle Press 1998). His full-length collections are The Hunted River and The Gravedigger’s Roots, both from Shared Roads Press, 2009.

He recently stepped down as Director of FutureCycle Press in order to devote more time to his own writing. He continues to serve the press as Poetry Co-Editor.

The public is invited to come and meet Robert, hear him read his poetry, and to read their original poems or short prose at open mike.

Café Touche, 82 Main Street, serves the best coffee in town and no one wants to leave without having a delicious muffin.

Contact Glenda Beall 828-389-4441 for more information.
This event is free and is sponsored by NCWN West also known as Netwest, a chapter of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

NCWN West Has Lost a Member


Our Long-Time Member Nancy Gadsby lost her battle with cancer last night. The message below came to us from her son.

John Gadsby asked me to let his mother's writer friends know that "she went to be with her Lord last night." All of her children were with her. He will let me know the funeral arrangements when they are completed.
Please let our writing community know.
Jo Carolyn


ARRANGEMENTS: Funeral at 11:00 Tuesday Feb. 28, 2012 at McConnell Baptist Church in Hiawassee, Georgia.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Blogging and posting your work on the Internet

We hardly give a second thought to how easily our words or pictures on our blogs can be stolen and used for profit. One of our Netwest members, Sam Hoffer, has created a food blog (http://www.mycarolinakitchen.blogspot.com/) Her comments come from readers all over the world who find her Carolina Kitchen fun to read with colorful photos of the dishes she prepares. She, like all of us bloggers, could be a target for some unscrupulous people out to make a buck off our work.

According to Blogher.com, a woman from Thailand copied recipes and photos of another food blogger and put them into an e-book, which she sold on Kindle. The food blogger would never have known except for a reader who informed her of the plagiarism.

To read the entire article click on the link below.

www.blogher.com/prominent-food-blogger-discovers-plagiarized-ebook

Today a Netwest member asked if he posted his writing on his blog, would that hinder his chances of having this work published later. This is a question I've heard over and over. I’d like to hear what your experience has been? Have you posted your poems or prose on your blog and later submitted this work to a publisher? Was the publisher averse to publishing writing that had been on your blog?

Give us your opinion. Click on comments at the end of this post. Write your comment in the box provided. If you want to make it really easy, just click on Anonymous and you don't have to give your email address or URL.
(Remember, your comments won't appear immediately. An administrator of this blog has to first read your comment and then post it to this site.)

Friday, February 17, 2012

MOUNTAIN WOMAN: TSUGA, BY ADAM BIGELOW

MOUNTAIN WOMAN: TSUGA, BY ADAM BIGELOW: A dam Bigelow is a horticulturalist, amateur botanist, organic gardener, musician, community activist, environmentalist and c...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Coffee with the Poets: Pat Riviere-Seel



February's Coffee with the Poet features Pat Riviere-Seel, a friend who graced my poetry class in the Great Smokies Writing Workshop several years ago.  Pat has become a vibrant presence in our North Caroiina Literary community, offer her talents and her time to her readers and the literary organizations that help draw us all together.  Please joing us at City Lights Bookstore on Feb. 16 at 10:30 to meet Pat and listen to her read and talk about her work.  Our gatherings are always informal and, yes, fun.  Afterward, I highly recommend lunch downstairs at City Lights Cafe!




Here is a poem of hers that I love.   You can find more on her website by clicking on the link above.

The Bears 

The bears returned last night.
 The mother and her three cubs 
slept in the mound of leaves. 
They left deep indentations
 where summer-sated bellies 
A snowy evening last winter.
and massive paws lay curled
 beneath the maple’s outstretched limbs
and the quarter moon’s pale light.
All day, while I raked leaves into piles,
 the bears were watching. They moved 
silent and unseen among evergreens,
 gray trunks, and branches as they had
all summer. Preparing for winter sleep, 
 they stuffed themselves on acorns and grubs.
One late summer day they came  into 
 the orchard. The cubs shimmied
up the young apple trees, bent 
 one bough to the ground and broke
another in their play. The mother
 took her time selecting fallen apples,
and those she could reach balanced 
 on her hind legs. She carried these
one by one to her cubs, gently 
 urged them to taste and chew. 
She knows how long winter lasts. 
   
Pat Riviere-Seel

Pat Riviere-Seel has published two poetry collections, The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Main Street Rag, 2009), winner of the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry and No Turning Back Now (Finishing Line Press, 2004), nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry at UNCA in the Great Smokies Writing Program.
Pat is a 2003 graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Queens University of Charlotte. Her poems have been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies including Asheville Poetry Review, Passager, Tar River Poetry, and Kakalak, an Anthology of Carolina Poets, among others. Recent poems  appear in Boomtown, the Queens University MFA Program 10th Anniversary Anthology, Cloudbank, and Poetry of Love, an anthology published by Jacar Press. 
Her poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and was a finalist in the Press 53 Open Awards and a semi-finalist in the first James Applewhite Poetry Prize in 2011. The Serial Killer’s Daughter premiered as a staged reading in March 2011 with a 4-member cast. 
Pat is a former award winning journalist, lobbyist, publicist, and editor. She worked as a political reporter for daily newspapers in Fayetteville, NC, and Annapolis, Maryland until 1987 when she established her own public and government relations firm. She represented nonprofit organizations in the Maryland General Assembly, designed public relations campaigns for private businesses and political candidates.
In 1992 she returned to her native North Carolina to take a position as Editor of Voices, the bimonthly journal of Rural Southern Voice for Peace. She married Ed Seel in 1997 and moved with him to Germany for two years. During that time, Pat attended the Spoleto Writers Workshop in Spoleto, Italy.
She has lived in Asheville, NC, since 1999 and served as President of the North Carolina Poetry Society and Chair of the North Carolina Writers Conference. Pat is an avid runner, hiker, and gardener.

from  The Serial Killer's Daughter
Winner of the Roanoke Chowan Poetry Award from the NC Literary and Historical Association

I. About the Daughter
The serial killer's daughter hangs damp sheets on the line.
She likes the yeasty way the wind fills the cloth and how the sun sweetens the
threads.
When she holds the clothespins between her teeth, she tastes bread and salted butter.
She no longer worries about trying to hold on to the brass pole of the carousel.
The serial killer's daughter can hold anything - or anyone - she pleases.
Preferring familiar company, she surrounds herself with dahlias and lavender.
She always rides the wooden tiger because there is no bear.
Why are the animals always one step ahead of the humans?
The serial killer's daughter knows how frightening a creature walking upright can be, so
she always walks as if she were about to waltz.
Her hands write a language only she can read.
She's not a figment of anyone's imagination. 

She is sunlight striping murky swamp water.

II. More About the Serial Killer's Daughter




The serial killer's daughter wears tight curls made of cypress roots and washes them in
buttermilk from the moon.
When mud oozes between her toes she no longer worries about wiping her feet before
stepping through the door.
She likes to touch people she loves on the nape of the neck and feel the rocky landscapes
of their spines.
Her heart measures her intentions and stretches them in a chain around her wrist so she
will not forget.
The serial killer's daughter waits for no one.
It never matters if she is on time. Whose time?
Time is irrelevant, like memories she saves and forgets.
Because her life needs seasoning she grows spearmint, basil, and lemon balm.
The serial killer's daughter is always leaving Robeson County.
For her, the stone covered with moss and mica that she carries in
her pocket contains a galaxy.

(Available from Main Street Rag Press )




Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Updates on events, Murphy/Hiawassee Area

PROSE CRITIQUE --Prose Critique is Thursday, February 9 at Tri-County Community College.   It starts at 7:00 PM and is in the McSwain Building, Room 152.

WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT UPDATE - Writers’ Night Out will be held at the Center for Appalachian Studies and Community Engagement [across parking lot from Young Harris Family Restaurant in Young Harris.  It is a tall green house with white trim and a big front patio with 2 rocking chairs.). It will NOT have a guest reader but will be Open Mike for Poetry and Prose.  It starts at 7:00 PM this Friday night, February 10th.

JOHN CAMPBELL - Glenda Barrett will not be able to read at John Campbell next week, but Glenda Beall will take her place. So come on out and support Glenda Beall and Mary Ricketson at John Campbell next Thursday, February 16th, 7 pm, Keith House.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Liars Bench Benefit

The Liars Bench has done over 20 free shows, and its next program, "Coy," is a benefit. Mark you calendar for either February 16th or 23rd to see "Coy," a dramatic monologue by Gary Carden. "Coy" will be held at the Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10 each, and on sale at City Lights Bookstore- 828-586-9499 and Mountain Heritage Center- 828-227-7129. "Coy" stars Tom DeWees, and also appearing are Lloyd Arneach, Paul Larussi, William Ritter, Barbara Duncan, Eric Young & the Young'ns, and Gary Carden.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

JC Campbell Folk School Readings

Mark your calendars now for the following readings, held at the JC Campbell Folk School, Keith House. Readings are at 7:00 pm, free, and open to the public. Announcements will also be made in local papers and online. Thanks to Linda Smith for overseeing these readings!

Feb 16 - Mary Ricketson, Glenda Barrett

March 15 - JC Walkup, Glenda Beall

April - Nancy Simpson, Maren Mitchell

May 17 - Robert King, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

June 21 - Brenda Kay Ledford, Linda Smith

August 16 -Nancy Purcell, Karen Paul Holmes

Sept 20 - Carole Thompson, Bob Grove

October 18- Jo Carolyn Bebee, Lucy Cole Gratton

Nov 15- Joan Howard, Rosemary Royston

Atlanta Poet at Writers' Night Out


Atlanta poet Rupert Fike will be the featured reader at Writers’ Night Out at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee on Friday, February 10 at 7 p.m. Audience members can also participate in an open microphone if they’d like to share their own poetry or prose. This is a free monthly event for people who love the written and spoken word.

Fike’s collection, Lotus Buffet (Brick Road Poetry Press), has earned him a nomination for Georgia Author of the Year 2011 in poetry. Two of the poems in the book have also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Writer Barbara Hamby says, “What happens when you cross a Southern raconteur with a Buddhist monk? You get Rupert Fike’s exhilarating poems.” His work has been published in Rosebud, The Georgetown Review, Natural Bridge, The Atlanta Review, The Cortland Review, storySouth, The Blue Fifth Review and others. He has a poem inscribed in a downtown Atlanta plaza, and his non-fiction work, Voices from The Farm, accounts of life on a spiritual community in the 1970s, is now available in paperback.

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month and is open to the public. The event draws approximately 30 people from four counties. Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor Plaza across from Towns County High School. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Each open microphone reader can sign up at the door and has two-and-a-half minutes to read.

For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Mountain Perk at (706) 896-0504.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

NEW PROSE CRITIQUE GROUP

We all need helpful commentary as we prune our prose. Not criticism, just good critique. Writing comes from the heart, and other experienced writers often have helpful suggestions to make it even better.
 
I have agreed to facilitate the meetings as outlined by NetWest. The first session of the prose critique group will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 9th, at Tri County Community College, Room 152. Bring some samples of your work to read; printed copies for distribution are recommended. Time allotments for the readings will depend on the number of readers for each session.
 
Future meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month. Mark you calendar; it's free!   

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

ROYCE RAY POETRY AWARD

Brenda Kay Ledford won the Royce Ray Poetry Award for her poem, "Lake Chatuge," from Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, NC.

Her poem was published in the January, 2012 issue of "Aires: A Journal of Art and Literature." She also received a monetary prize.

The Royce Ray family of Columbus, NC, has given lifelong support and contribution to the literary arts in North Carolina.

For information about the Royce Ray Poetry Award, contact: aparker@sccnc.edu.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Mary Michelle Keller to Read at Writers' Night Out


Writers’ Night Out is a free monthly event for people who love the written and spoken word. On Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m. at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, Mary Michelle Keller will read her entertaining and heartfelt work. Audience members can also participate in an open microphone if they’d like to share their own poetry or prose.

Keller lives in Hiawassee, Georgia, is active in the North Carolina Writers’ Network and has taught at Writers Circle in Hayesville. In her writing, she draws inspiration from something she has seen or an incident that intrigues her — a casually spoken phrase becomes the cornerstone of an essay, short story or poem. Her poetry appears in several anthologies including Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Keller also plays the piano, guitar and dulcimer and paints in oil, water color and pastels.

Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of each month and is open to the public. The event draws approximately 30 people from four counties. Mountain Perk Coffee House is located at 1390 Highway 76 East in Chatuge Harbor Plaza across from Towns County High School. Food, gourmet coffees and other refreshments are available for purchase. Each open microphone reader can sign up at the door and has two-and-a-half minutes to read.

For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Mountain Perk at (706) 896-0504.

NCWN Annual Competitons Open!

The North Carolina Writers' Network is now accepting submissions for three annual competitions. Postmark deadlines are fast approaching, and we encourage you to send in your submissions soon.

January 17 marks the deadline for the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, which encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine. Award-winning author Anne Clinard Barnhill will be the final judge.

January 30 is the deadline for the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honoring internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The competition is open to all writers regardless of geographical location or prior publication. Acclaimed author Josephine Humphreys will serve as the final judge.

Finally, as of January 1, the Network is accepting submissions for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. This competition honors acclaimed author and North Carolina native Doris Betts. The prize awards the first-place winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Finalists will also be considered for publication in NCLR. The postmark deadline is February 15.

For more information on all three contests, including submission guidelines. visit www.ncwriters.org.

Children's Literature Symposium, Chapel Hill

You are most cordially invited to join us in Chapel Hill on Friday, January 13, and/or Saturday, January 14 for a rousing gathering, "Between the Dark and the Daylight": A January Symposium Dedicated to the Creation of Children's Literature.

On Friday afternoon at the UNC-CH Wilson Library five faculty and curatorial staff members will present opportunities for us to see, hear, and learn about rare children's books (including textbooks controversies) from the Southern Historical, North Carolina, and Special Collections. Friday evening offers a special opportunity for "An Evening with Children's Book Authors
Stephen Messer and Allan Wolf" at Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill's newer independent bookstore at
752 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

On Saturday, the Symposium continues with 12:30 p.m. Registration and nine Experts and Authors on panels, followed by fellowship, booksignings, refreshments, and Writing Workshops. Presnters include Brian Sturm, Karin Michel, Susie Wilde, Sarah Carr, Stephen Messer,
Jane Baskerville Murphy, Jacqueline K. Ogburn, Barbara Younger, and Allan Wolf.

This Symposium is offered to the community without charge, presented through a generous grant from Province IV, Province of Sewanee, and sponsored by the Environmental
Stewardship Committee of Chapel of the Cross, Episcopal, 304 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill.

For information about Block-rate hotel accommodations, parking and program specifics, please E-mail childrensliterature@aol.com or telephone (919) 286-2565 or (919) 929-2193. You are most welcome to join us for this happy occasion.