Coffee with the Poets at Blue Mountain Restaurant

COFFEE WITH THE POETS hosts Asheville poet and cellist CAROL BJORLIE

On Wednesday, March 13th at 10:30 AM, Blue Mountain Restaurant on Alternate US 64, hosts Coffee with the Poets, sponsored by NC Writers’ Network West. Poet and musician Carol Pearce Bjorlie of Asheville, NC, author of The Poet Behind the Cello will be featured. This event is free and open to the public.

The Poet Behind the Cello is a collection of poems for those who love the sound of words as much as the hum of a cello. In this collection is humor, love in abundance, attentiveness to sound, singing, and gratitude. Carol has been behind the cello since she was ten years old. She began writing when her father died days after her sixteenth birthday.

Carol graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in Cello Performance. She has a MFA in Writing from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Carol was a member of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra for twenty-eight years. She was a Teaching Artist at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Her poetry and essays appear in Water~Stone, The Southern Poetry Review, and Great River Review. Her 2007 chapbook, Winter, is a collection of poems written in response to playing cello on Abbott Northwestern Hospital's Oncology Unit.

A freelance cellist and member of the Asheville Cello Choir, she teaches writing at the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. Her motto, from a poem title by Lucille Clifton is, "I am not done yet."

The community is invited to enjoy Carol’s playing cello and reading at no charge and everyone is also invited to bring a poem or short prose piece for open mike.

Call Glenda Beall at 828-389-4441 or email: nightwriter0302@yahoo.com for more information.
　
　

What makes a good blog? Hope Clark has the answer,

“Every piece of content you write on a blog has to either solve
a problem or entertain the reader.”  Hope Clark

Hope Clark is someone I greatly admire. Her blogs and her newsletters are food for writers, in my opinion. So when she says a blog must either solve a problem or entertain the reader, I know she is right.

My Writers Circle blog is designed to give writers information about workshops and classes and the writers who teach at my home studio. At times, I throw in a post on the craft or my opinion.

Writing Life Stories has been all over the place since the beginning. It has changed in theme and content, but that is because I have changed since the blog was started in 2007. Many of my readers manage a blog or many blogs on various subjects. I understand that a blog concentrated on a theme like quilting, chicken farming, or single mothers raising kids, that discuss the problems and offer solutions is going to have a large audience. Those blogs require a concentrated schedule and plan I think. That might be too much work for me at this time in my life.

How I became a blogger and Netwest Writers was Born

It was fall of 2007 at a panel discussion at a writers conference that I realized what a blog was and what it could do. A young mother had written a book on stay at home moms working from home and she found out she could sell more of her books on a blog than by going through a New York Publisher. On the panel were three other writers who had found success from writing a blog.

I came home and told my husband I was going to learn how to blog, not for myself, but for the writers and poets in our chapter of NCWN. I had taken the job of Program Coordinator for NCWN West. Nancy Simpson and I had often talked about the problem of getting the voices of mountain writers in our area over the ridges and past the ranges into the rest of the world. I believed a blog was better than a website. A website at that time was static and unchanging. A blog gave us freedom to share new material everyday if we wanted. And the blog was free!

I was scared. After all, I didn't know anything about this new technology. Would our members accept this and use it? Would it do what I hoped it would? Soon I was holding classes on blogging and some of our members, Brenda Kay Ledford, Nancy Simpson, Carol Thompson, and Sam Hoffer began their own sites. What pleased me the most was that all of us were beyond the young stage. We were all over fifty. It wasn’t long before Netwest member and Poet Laureate of North Carolina, Kathryn Stripling Byer created a blog. When she became Program Coordinator for Netwest, she brought readers from everywhere to the Netwest blog.

I have been disappointed that more of our members have not used the Netwest Writers blog. We have a number of authors listed who have the capability to write posts and other members can ask for and get permission to post on the blog. It was created for our members.

I am so thankful, however, that Netwest Writers blog has been successful in promoting our writers and helping them reach across the state and around the world. We have readers from many different countries every day.

Nicki Leone, president of the NCWN Board of Trustees at that time built a website for the state organization and plopped our Netwest blog right on the front page. Since they have thousands of visitors every single day, those visitors saw us here in the mountains, clicked on our blog with little effort and read about our writers and our poets and playwrights. The voices of our writers have indeed reached beyond the mountains.

Where do we go from here?
I hope that other members of Netwest will post articles that appeal to readers. One of our members said the blog had simply become a bulletin board of upcoming events. We need to change that. We need posts that will keep us worthy of exposure on the home page of the NCWN website. We need an administrator who will help keep the blog on the radar of the search engines. Who out there is ready to do that?

Chautauqua again in Andrews - Gary Carden play Coy will be presented

You will want to mark these dates on your calendar. April 26 - 28.

The little town of Andrews, NC will continue with their Spring Chautauqua April 26 - 28 and has a wonderful lineup of events. Check them out on the link below.

http://www.chautauquaandrews.org/calendar.htm

At 2:00 p.m.  Saturday, see "Becoming Elizabeth Lawrence" presented by Emily Herring Wilson at the Valleytown Cultural Arts Center.

One of Gary Carden's plays , "Coy," will be presented by Tom Dewees at the Valleytown Cultural Arts Center 7:00 P.M. Saturday, and several other theater productions will take place that weekend.
If you have somehow missed seeing a Gary Carden play, you must make sure to take in this one. You will spend a delightful evening with his characters.

Although Andrews is not so far from Clay County NC, Towns County and Union County Georgia, we hear little about this event. Thanks to Linda Ray at Curiosity Books in Murphy for sending the link.

After the last performance of one of Gary's plays at Chautauqua  I heard rave reviews. I am determined to get to Andrews for this one. Hope to see you there.

BLUE SKY SHOW

Please note the following correction.  Brenda Kay Ledford will appear on WJUL 97.5 FM radio rather than AM.   The program will air Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 11:30 am, 2:00 pm, and 7:30 pm.

The program will also air Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 7:30am, 12:30pm, and 2:00pm.

Shawna Rose, hostess of "Blue Sky Show," interviewed Brenda Kay Ledford about her poetry chapbook, BECKONING, that was released in February, 2013 by Finishing Line Press (www.finishinglinepress.com).

I'm sorry for making the error.  Tune in on WJUL 97.5 FM for the "Blue Sky Show."

Bob Grove and his Website and Memoir

Netwest member and facilitator of the NCWN West Prose Group, Bob Grove has kept his website, a secret. He says he is not good at self-promotion. Why do I hear that from so many writers?

Although Bob Grove is well-known around the world and in his own back yard in western NC, his writing has not been highly visible in the literary world of NC. 

A few years ago Bob and his lovely wife, Judy, visited Coffee with the Poets at Phillips and Lloyd Bookstore in Hayesville, NC. I don't remember if he read that day at open mic, but soon he was a regular  at the monthly meetings. 

He had begun to dabble in poetry, but his focus was prose. His stories about his life, his memoir, were enjoyed by all of us. Now Bob has completed his book, and you can find excerpts on his website. One thing you will soon find out is that Bob was a mischievous child and a prankster. He was a dare devil as well. 

His life stories are fun to read and hear him read. And boy, does he have a wealth of stories. 

When you visit www.bobgrove.org you can learn about his other interests. He often serves as an auctioneer, and I really enjoyed the pages about things that sell and don't sell, what is an antique and what is not. 

I am glad I stumbled on his website and found out he is selling his book. Visit and come back here and let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

BLUE SKY SHOW

Brenda Kay Ledford will appear on the WJUL/WJRB AM Radio Station 97.5 at Young Harris, Georgia on Saturday,  March 2, 2013 at 11:30 am, 2:00 pm, and 7:30 pm.  The program, "Blue Sky Show," will also air on Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 7:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 2:00 pm. 

Shawna Rose, hostess of the "Blue Sky Show," interviewed Brenda Kay Ledford about her poetry chapbook, BECKONING, that was recently released by Finishing Line Press (www.finishinglinepress.com).

Women's Spaces Women's Places Reviewed in The Laurel of Asheville

The Laurel of Asheville:The Arts and Culture of Communities across the Mountains in its February issue gave Women's Spaces Women's Places a half page review with a photo of the book cover. 

Celia Miles said, "I think The Laurel is absolutely the most gorgeous of Asheville's magazines, amazing photography and articles geared to the arts and "fine living," generally. Each issue has a page featuring two books; with us this month was Tracey Schmidt, poet and photographer, author of "I Have Fallen in Love with the World."

A large number of Netwest members have work in this beautiful anthology edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham.

New Chapbook by Carole Thompson Published

FutureCycle Press announces the release of Enough, a chapbook of poems by Netwest member, Carole Richard Thompson. You may order from the author or online through Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/awhcfen.

 Congratulations to Carole for this very good collection of poems!

LEDFORD PUBLISHES POETRY CHAPBOOK

Brenda Kay Ledford’s poetry book, BECKONING, has been released by Finishing Line Press. Ledford compiled this collection to preserve the memory of her dog, Pepper.

It was the hardest decision Brenda ever made. How could she ask the veterinarian to put down her pet? Dr. Brian Kinsey said Pepper was terminally ill with cancer and would suffer horrendous pain if he lingered. The black Labrador Retriever would never recover.

Brenda felt like her heart ripped from her body when Pepper died. She cried for days after he passed away. Pepper had given 15 years of unconditional love.

How could she preserve his memory? Brenda prayed and felt led by the Spirit to write a book in the dog’s memory.

She wrote poetry about Pepper and the good times they had together. She included nature poems because he loved to hike mountain trails with Brenda and pick blackberries.

Finishing Line Press published BECKONING. A butterfly sipping nectar from a zinnia graces the cover. It’s a serene photo and assures us peace is possible in time of trouble.

According to Glenda Beall, director of Writer’s Circle, “Brenda Kay Ledford’s collection sings with color and harmony. She lets us take a peek into her world as she shares her Appalachian roots in verse. We relate to the constancy of seasons in nature and in our lives. Digging in the dirt as her mother does lifts the spirit, and decorating graves of loved ones on Memorial Day perpetuate the love of generations. Throughout the snow, the first greening of spring, summer’s roses, autumn’s harvest, and star-studded asters, the images in the book offer the reader the opportunity to feel, see, hear, and taste the beauty as well as the inevitable sadness of life.”

BECKONING is a book you must own. It’s a beautiful collection to share with nature and animal lovers.

BECKONING is available at Clay County Chamber of Commerce, www.finishinglinepress.com, or www.amazon.com.

Three High-Tech Self-Promotions for Writers

There are many opportunities for writers to self-promote. I mention here three of the best ways: Amazon, Poets & Writers, and YouTube. Most of you have heard of these before, but did you know Amazon and Poets & Writers offer free publicly available pages to authors to list their publications, schedules, links to reviews, and much more? Did you know that YouTube offers free space to store your videos and make them available to the public; e.g., poetry or prose readings, lectures, and more?

Amazon Author Central

If you have one or more books available for sale on Amazon, you can use your normal Amazon account log-in to create an “Amazon Author Page.” After log-in you should then navigate to authorcentral.amazon.com in order to create your Author Central account (again using same username and password). Once the account is established, you may tag all the books you’ve authored. Those titles will then appear on your author page with graphics of the book covers and links to purchase. The author page lists both printed and kindle editions. These listings are tightly linked to the general book catalog of Amazon so that if you update your Author Central page, the main Amazon catalog is also updated and provides easy links back to your author page.

Listing your books is not the only feature of Author Central. You can also create a public calendar or schedule of your events, have summaries and links to your most recent blog posts (e.g., blogspot.com, wordpress.com) displayed on your page automatically, as well as other links. Another excellent perk is the ability to upload up to eight videos (e.g., readings, book signings, etc.).

You may supplement information shown for your book in the regular Amazon book listing. For example, you can enter blurbs for your books, and you’ll find other ways to make use of the supplemental features.

Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers (P&W) has been around much longer than Amazon and continues to be one of the very best resources for writers. Not only do the P&W folks print a bimonthly magazine chock full of information for writers, but they offer one of the bibles of the business, Directory of Poets and Writers. This publication lists eligible writers of all kinds and gives information about each one, including contact information, if the writer wishes such information to be public.

Like Amazon, P&W offers free page space to poets and writers listed in its Directory. If you are a publishing writer and are not already listed, you should apply because this is one of the most heavily used writers’ resources anywhere.

Unlike Amazon, you are not required to have published a book or chapbook. To be eligible for listing, you must meet or exceed P&W’s point rating requirement. A minimum of 14 points is required. You receive a certain number of points for each type of publication, such as books, chapbooks, magazines, journals, and anthologies. The point breakdown for credit is as follows:

• Each book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction (personal essays or memoirs) (12 points)
• Each chapbook (6 points)
• Each work of fiction or creative nonfiction (personal essays or memoirs) published in a literary journal, anthology, or edited Web publication (2 points)
• Each spoken word performance (not readings) (2 points)
• Each poem published in a literary journal, anthology, or edited Web publication (1 point)

You may apply online for a listing at the P&W website. First, you must create a free user account and then apply at the follow link: http://www.pw.org/writer/application

Once approved for a listing, you may update your profile, including your list of publication credits. That is, if you get an acceptance to the New Yorker, you can add it to your publication list. Like Amazon, you can create links (including links to reviews of your work), a schedule of your events, and supplemental information.

If you are a writer with enough credits, I highly recommend that you apply for a listing in the P&W Directory, even if you don’t make use of all the features it offers.

YouTube

I have only just begun to explore the features of YouTube, so I will say the obvious for now. YouTube offers free space to upload your videos (readings, for example) and make them public or private. YouTube is owned by Google and is directly linked to your Google+ account, which is free and becoming more and more popular.

Once you have an account, you may wish to read through the YouTube documentation to see how best it can serve you. YouTube by default does not allow a video to exceed 15 minutes in length. However, all you have to do is request, via a link on YouTube, that this limitation be removed. My first and only video upload so far was about 25 minutes long.

It can take awhile to upload videos files, so be patient. I also recommend that you use Google Chrome to perform the upload and to make sure you have installed the latest version of Chrome, including its plug-ins and related applications. I had trouble uploading until I updated my Adobe flash player, for example.

Videos are an excellent way to promote your work. Unfortunately, few of us writers have taken the leap, though I see that situation changing slowly. I would love to see our official Netwest events recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

Check it out and see if you could benefit from YouTube.

Which Promotion Method Should I Use?

All of them, even beyond what is discussed here.

Examples and Links

Including my own pages as examples, here are some places to visit to get more information or ideas on adding your content to Amazon, P&W, and YouTube:

Author page for Robert S. King: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00724NI3I

P&W page for Robert S. King: http://www.pw.org/content/robert_s_king

YouTube video by Robert S. King: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Ua7DjYfGY

Amazon Author Central home page: http://authorcentral.amazon.com

P&W home page: http://www.pw.org

YouTube home page: http://www.youtube.com

Ron Rash Story Collection Reviewed by Gary Carden

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
New York:  HarperCollins, Publishers
$24.99 - 239 pages

“The term, “sea change” is both poetic and informal, meaning a gradual transformation in which the form is retained, but the substance is replaced:
a marvelous petrification.”
                       -Wikipedia


   Ron Rash’s latest collection of short stories resonate with a theme that runs through all of his works:  An awareness that Appalachia is in transition; it is becoming something else.  Of course, this is a quality that is shared by all things - what the poets call “mutability” - but in this instance, the author is mindful of what our world is becoming in contrast to what it once was. Like the drowned girl in his short story by the same title, Appalachia may be undergoing a “sea change” and will emerge as “something rich and strange” ....The substance may be alien, repugnant and/or fascinating.

   However, although the world is changing around them, many of the characters in Nothing Gold Can Stay are trapped, victims of forces beyond their control. Tricksters, fools and doomed lovers abound; many owe their origin to prototypes that are found in Chaucer,  Grimm and Native American folklore. Rash’s Pied Piper is driving a minibus down the Blue Ridge Parkway; he is freighted with marijuana and “magic tabs,” on his way to San Francisco; Coyote, the trickster has metamorphosed into Sinkler, the chain gang “trusty” who plots to win the trust of a mountain girl (who has an agenda of her own).

   There are “good people,” too: mountain veterinarians who venture out amid deep snows to deliver a breached calf in a distant mountain cove because of a promise made once at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.  Some of Rash’s struggling dreamers will touch your heart - especially the lovers.  Consider Danny and Lisa in “Cherokee,” a young married couple with an overdue truck payment, cutbacks at the cement plant and dwindling funds. Like thousands of others, they harken to the siren call of the big casino in Cherokee. The big billboards glimmer like mirages. Eventually, they gas up the truck for one desperate bid.  Then, there is Jody and Lauren, the doomed couple in “They Who Are Dead Are Only Now Forgiven” are especially tragic since they embody blasted promise. Again, this is a frequent refrain in Rash’s work: Appalachia’s  talented, hopeful youth who are entrapped by poverty, biological necessity or naturalistic forces.  Jody, lonely and discouraged, is in college. Lauren, who shared Jody’s promise, becomes hopelessly addicted to drugs and is slowly succumbing in an abandoned farm house that now contains a meth lab in the basement. When Jody returns from  college to rescue her, he knows that their future is at stake: either she goes with him, or he joins her in the old “haunted” farmhouse.

   There are other responses to entrapment in Nothing Gold Can Stay. Amy, the mentally and physically disfigured protagonist of “Nighthawks,” finds solace in becoming a nighttime d.j. at the local radio station - a job that allows her to interact with other people without any direct contact with them.  She is a “nighthawk” (like the customers in Edward Hopper’s midnight cafe) ... solitary, gainfully employed and finally...needed. Then, there is the nameless woman in “The Woman at the Pond,” a poignant figure who may represent multitudes. Abused, trapped in a loveless marriage and perceiving the future as hopeless, she chooses to slip over the side of a boat with a cinderblock tied to her arm.  This story has a disturbing element.  It may be that the narrator could have saved her.


   However, there is little to admire about the unnamed narrator and his buddy, Donnie in "Nothing Gold Can Stay." Rendered stupid by pills and beer, these two young men spend their days trolling the countryside  looking for part-time work or an opportunity to steal something that can be bartered in Asheville.  When they meet  an old WW II veteran with a jar full of gold teeth - a souvenir of from a brutal battle in the South Seas.  The old man ruefully notes that after the experience, he had to “learn to be a human being again.”  Donnie is fascinated.  How much would those teeth bring in an Asheville pawn shop?

   Rash frequently acknowledges the old scars and lingering pain - mute evidence of the Civil War.  There are still bitter memories, like the rope that hangs in a farmer’s barn in “Where the Map Ends” - a place where two escaped slaves experience an encounter that has much to do with loss and retribution.  In like manner, a grievance that had its birth in a 17th century Scottish ballad finally finds a kind of belated justice in “A Servant of History.”  When an erstwhile ballad collector finds himself in an Appalachian cove recording “The Snows of Glencoe” from the lips of an ancient beldame, he belatedly discovers that he has become an unwitting instrument of justice.

   There is humor, of course - a bit dark perhaps, but humor nonetheless. In “A Sort of Miracle,” Rash gives the reader another heedless fool who yearns for undeserved wealth. Denton is not plagued by debts nor does he need funds to improve his education. Watching TV, he has learned that the paws and gall bladders of black bears are valuable, and he begins to develop a scheme.  Why not buy a ham at the grocery store, drive deep into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, tie the ham to a tree limb and set a trap. What could be easier? After waiting a few days, Denton, accompanied by his wife’s teenage brothers, Baroque and Marlboro (visiting from Florida),  decides to claim his prize.  In some ways, “A Sort of Miracle” reads like a parody of “Something Rich and Strange.”  Alas, poor Denton!  He too, is destined to undergo a transformation.


   This is a marvelous collection.  Like a gifted musician in a midnight speakeasy, Rash glides from muted love songs to funeral hymns to bold marches soulful ballads.  They are all here then, the people of Appalachia. Foolish, flawed, vain and callow.  Many of them elicit empathy for they are all  mortal and foolish.  They are like Chaucer’s pilgrims or Christian’s fellow travelers in Pilgrim’s Progress.  However, unlike the indomitable Christian, many will sink in the muck of the Slough of Despond and vanish, or they will go charging off  in pursuit of phantasms and mirages ... perhaps not  of the Celestial City, but ...a Cherokee casino.
                                             
Gary Carden

gcarden498@aol.com

Ron's book will be released this week and he will be signing at the Community Room in the new library in Sylva on March 15th.

Mary Ricketson and Nadine Justice to read at JCCFS Thursday night

JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

              At 7:00 p.m. Thursday, February 21, 2013,  John C. Campbell Folk School  and  NC Writers Network West sponsor the monthly reading in the Keith House by members of NCWN. The reading is free of charge and open to the public.  Poets Mary Ricketson and writer, Nadine Justice will be the featured readers.  

Mary Ricketson’s poetry has been published in her chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name, Lights in the Mountains, Freeing Jonah IV, Freeing Johah V, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press,Your Daily Poem, Journal of Kentucky Studies, various magazines and in Disorgananza, a private collection distributed among family and friends.  She won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts.  She won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest national poetry contest.

Mary writes a monthly column, Woman to Woman, for The Cherokee Scout.  She is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, a mental health counselor, and a farmer.

Mary says she writes to satisfy a hunger, to taste life all the way down to the last drop.  She gains perspective from family and friends, her Appalachian home, and her life’s work as a counselor.

Writing poetry places her in kinship with her own life.

Mary Ricketson is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor in Murphy, North Carolina.  She brings more than thirty years experience to her work, with twenty-five years in private practice.  She is a founding board member of  REACH.  She has a special interest in women’s issues, victims of abuse, and family and couple relationships.  She offers innovative ways to effect change in difficult life patterns, including Journey to Intuition and Neurofeedback.  She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women.

Nadine Justice

Nadine Justice divides her time between a mountain-top cottage in north Georgia and her home in Atlanta. For the past few years she has worked on a memoir which was published last year. Excerpts have been published in an anthology by the Georgia Mountain Writers Club. She also enjoys a successful career as an interior designer. Her design work has been featured twice in Better Homes and Gardens and in Atlanta Custom Home magazines.

Nadine grew up in West Virginia and is the daughter of a coal miner. She is married to a retired federal agent, and enjoys spending time with her four “perfect” grandchildren.

Nadine is a new member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. She will share portions of her book, I'm a coal Miner's Daughter, But I Cain't Sang, at the reading on Thursday night. 

Don't Miss this Poetry Class - Great Teacher

Check out this poetry class at John C. Campbell Folk School on the weekend of April 12. Sounds amazing, doesn't it?

We hear it will get cancelled unless more students sign up. Take this opportunity, if you live in the local area, to get the 1//2 price fee. Here's the description:

MITAKUYE OYASIN: POETRY AND THE NATURAL WORLD 

"Mitakuye Oyasin" is a Lakota Sioux prayer translated, "We are all related." It's a prayer of gratitude for all living things. In that spirit, enjoy the poetry of Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and others as we explore the poetic voices of the natural world. Using science and history, we'll investigate how writing poetry can reveal and deepen our relationship to this amazing planet. We'll gain inspiration from early spring in the mountains by taking our classroom outdoors on peaceful walks. All levels welcome.



Instructor:

Mary Carroll-Hackett:

Mary earned her MFA from Bennington College in Vermont in 2003. She now teaches creative writing at Longwood University in Virginia, where she founded "The Dos Passos Review," edits for Briery Creek Press, and administers the Liam Rector First Book Prize for Poetry. Mary's fiction has appeared in "The Carolina Quarterly," "Clackamas Literary Review," "The Pedestal Magazine," and other literary journals. She is the author of several books and chapbooks, most recently "The Real Politics of Lipstick" from Slipstream Press





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Susan Snowden's Novel moving on up

Editor and writer, Susan Snowden's new novel is moving to the top.


The Hendersonville Times-News reported that Susan Snowden’s new novel made Fountainhead Bookstore’s bestseller list for 2012. Although it came out in August, it captured spot No. 2 on the list. Here’s an excerpt from the Jan. 6 article:
“In the No. 2 slot is another local author, Susan Snowden, with her debut novel Southern Fried Lies. Although Snowden has been published in many literary journals, this is her first novel. Through word-of-mouth alone, Southern Fried Lies quickly climbed the best-selling list, even beating out Fifty Shades of Grey."
Ann B. Ross’s Miss Julia to the Rescue was No. 1. Her Miss Julia stories are perennial favorites nationwide.
Susan has been a NCWN member since 1996, when she moved to the mountains from Atlanta.

Congratulations, Susan. We are proud that you have joined the ranks of other successful writers in our Netwest region.

NC Writers Network West Announces Coffee With the Poets at a New Location

On February 13, 2013 at Coffee With the Poets, Linda M. Smith will be  the Featured Reader

Wednesday, Coffee with the Poets has Linda Smith

reading at the new location at the Blue Mountain Restaurant in Murphy (corner of Hwy 141 and US 64 Alternate) near the Murphy Medical Center. 

Time is 10:30 AM so you cannot complain about getting up too early.  

Note: This is a restaurant with really good food; you’ll like it.  Stay for lunch(shared by Lucy Cole Gratton, Publicity)

Writers' Night Resumes

After breaking for the holidays, Writers’ Night Out begins again on the second Friday of each month at 7 p.m.  Featured on February 8 is Charlotte, NC poet and publisher, M. Scott Douglass.  An open microphone follows for those who’d like to read their own work. The event takes place at Brother’s Willow Ranch Restaurant in Young Harris, GA.

 Douglass is Publisher/Editor of The Main Street Rag, which publishes books and has produced a print magazine of the same name since 1996. His own work has appeared in The Asheville Poetry Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, and Southern Poetry Review (among others). He’s a Pushcart Prize nominee, an ASC Grant recipient; has earned two PICA Awards and a 2010 Eric Hoffer Award nomination for graphic design work. His books include Auditioning for Heaven, Balancing on Two Wheels, STEEL WOMB Revisited, Dip Says Hi, and most recently, Hard to Love (2012).

On February 9, Douglass will also teach a workshop for local writers. Sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, the workshop, “Selling Your Work by Selling Yourself” takes place at Young Harris College, 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Douglass describes the class in the following way:  “After years of publishing authors, I learned that one reason why some authors do not sell well is because they are not very good at presenting their work in front of an audience. This workshop starts with presentation, how well an author reads in public, but includes other aspects that writers--fiction writers in particular--don't spend enough time considering when they are given a reading opportunity.” The cost is $25 per person, and participants should bring something to read. To reserve a spot, please email NCWN-West Program Coordinator, Rosemary Royston, rosemary28rr@gmail.com. 

In the coming months the Writers’ Night Out schedule includes the following Georgia and North Carolina writers:

March 8 - Poet Robert S King

April 12 – Writer and Poet Jo Caroline Bebe

May 10 – Journalist, Writer and Poet Brenda Kay

June 14 – Poet Scott Owens

July 12 – Writer and Poet Maren Mitchell

Aug 9 – Poet Will Wright

For open microphone, readers of prose or poetry can sign up at the door, and each person has three minutes. Brother’s Willow Ranch Restaurant is located at 6223 Hwy 76 West across from Brasstown Valley Resort, phone 706-379-1272. The event is in the upstairs room, accessible via stairs inside the restaurant or the ramp (no stairs) from the upper parking lot. Food and beverages will be available for purchase; please come by 6:15 pm to order.

            For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com

Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions:  Editors Daniel Westover and William Wright seek submissions of poems for The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, an anthology of poems that somehow engage the English poet who lived from 1844-1889 and whose innovative poetics brought him fame long after his death.

It is our contention that Hopkins’s poetry has influenced poets of succeeding gener...ations at least as much as the high modernism that is often held up as the dominant forerunner of contemporary poetry and that poets continue to respond to his poetry’s beautiful strangeness, spiritual themes, and groundbreaking uses of language and sound.

We seek a broad range of submissions: poems that mention Hopkins or respond to specific Hopkins poems, poems that engage with Hopkins’s ideas directly, poems that stylistically derive from Hopkins’s poetics, and even excellent pastiches of his work.

There is no reading fee. All submissions must be sent as e-mail attachments to westover@etsu.edu and vercimber@hotmail.com in one of the following formats: MS Word 1997-2003 (.doc), MS Word 2007/2010 (.docx); Rich Text Format (.rtf); or Portable Digital Format (.pdf). Please include a short (75-100 word) bio as a separate attachment in one of the above formats. Any questions should be directed to William Wright, at vercimber@hotmail.com.

Deadline for submissions is JUNE 15, 2013.

Selling Your Work by Selling Yourself

On Saturday, February 9th, M. Scott Douglass will be holding a workshop at Young Harris College, 10 am -12 noon, Goolsby 103. His workshop is Selling Your Work by Selling Yourself. The cost is $25 per person. Scott describes his workshop in the following way: “After years of publishing authors, I learned that one reason why some authors do not sell well is because they are not very good at presenting their work in front of an audience. This workshop starts with presentation, how well an author reads in public, but includes other aspects that writers--fiction writers in particular--don't spend enough time considering when they are given a reading opportunity." 

 

Requirements: participants should bring something to read.

 

To reserve a spot please email rosemary28rr@gmail.com. We are aiming for 8-10 participants, but will take more if there is demand.

Netwest Member Janice Moore Honored

YHC Senior-Most Faculty Member Janice Moore Receives Special Honor  

Young Harris College's senior-most faculty member Associate Professor of English Janice Moore recently received a unique gift to commemorate her 50 years of dedicated service to the College. During a special ceremony in November 2012, YHC faculty unveiled a reserved parking spot in the Goolsby Center parking lot that names her "YHC Poet Laureate." 

Moore teaches creative writing and poetry at YHC, and her special areas of interest include contemporary poetry and Southern literature. In addition to her teaching duties, she was chair of the YHC Humanities Division for eight years and served 12 years as poetry editor for the Georgia Journal. Moore claimed first prize in the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards and was awarded first place in the Georgia Poetry Society's annual competition in 2011. Her work has appeared in more than 60 esteemed journals, anthologies and textbooks, including The Georgia Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology: Contemporary Appalachia, Contemporary Georgia Poets, Women Writing in Appalachia and the Southern Poetry Review.

DEADLINE MARCH 31 FOR PRESS 53 OPEN AWARDS

The Sixth Annual Press 53 Open Awards Accepting Entries Until March 31, 2013 5 Categories, 3 Winners in Each: Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short-Short Story, Short Story, Novella (Finalists and Winners Announced No Later Than June 28, 2013) 5 Industry-Professional Judges (see below) 5 Beautiful Etched-Glass Awards (Personalized award certificates for Second Prize and Honorable Mention) 13 Opportunities for Publication: First Prize, Second Prize, and Honorable Mention in Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short-Short Story, Short Story, and First Prize in Novella will be published in the 2013 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology Entering is now easier using Submittable, the free online submission manager! For complete details and entry guidelines, visit http://www.press53.com/OpenAwards_2013.html Meet Our Judges: Poetry, judged by Kelly Davio, author of the poetry collection Burn This House (Red Hen Press), and editor of LA Review: Three poems judged as a group. Flash Fiction, judged by Jane Ciabattari, former president of the National Book Critics Circle, author of the short story collection Stealing the Fire (Canios Editions): Fiction up to 750 words. Short-Short Story, judged by David James Poissant, multi-award-winning author with forthcoming story collection and novel from Simon & Schuster: Fiction of 751-2000 words. Short Story, judged by Robin Black, author of If I loved you, I would tell you this (Random House): Fiction of 2001-5000 words. Novella, judged by David Abrams, author of Fobbitt (Grove/Atlantic), and editor of The Quivering Pen: Fiction of 12,000-25,000 words. For complete judges’ bios and entry guidelines, visit http://www.press53.com/OpenAwards_2013.html Previous winners of the Press 53 Open Awards who have gone on to publish books with Press 53 include: ​ Malaika King Albrecht (What the Trapeze Artist Trusts): Second Prize, Poetry 2009 ​ Ryan Stone (Best Road Yet): First Prize, Short Story 2009 ​ Amy Willoughby-Burle (Out Across the Nowhere): First Prize, Flash Fiction 2010 ​ Kurt Rheinheimer (Finding Grace): Second Prize, Short Story 2010 ​ Ray Morrison (In a World of Small Truths): First Prize, Short Story 2011 ​ Nahal S. Jamir (In the Middle of Many Mountains, forthcoming Spring 2013): Second Prize, Flash Fiction 2012