Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poetry Series seeks students

The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series (GCDPS) is seeking four student poets to be mentored by Distinguished Poet (DP) Pat Riviere-Seel in 2016-2017.

The series, a free program of the North Carolina Poetry Society, pairs an established North Carolina poet with four emerging writers who wish to develop their work:  one from middle grades, one from high school, one from college, and one graduate student or non-student adult.  From December through May, the students and the DP correspond or meet to discuss and work on about a dozen of each student’s poems.  The series includes a GCDPS reading at Western Carolina’s annual Literary Festival in April with this year's Distinguished Poet for the western region, Pat Riviere-Seel, and the opportunity to set up joint readings of the student poets and the DP at the students’ home libraries. 

To apply, students fill out the application form found at the North Carolina Poetry Society’s website, http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/gcdps/, and e-mail it, with a three-page sample of the student’s poetry, to Dr. Catherine Carter at Western Carolina University (ccarter@email.wcu.edu.)  Poems and application can also be mailed to Dr. Carter at 421 Coulter Building, Department of English, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, 28723. 

Counties included in the western region are listed at http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/gcdps/gcdps_application/ .  The application requires the signature of a parent and of a teacher or public librarian for students under eighteen.

Pat Riviere-Seel is the author of two chapbooks: No Turning Back Now (2004) and The Serial Killer’s Daughter (2009).  Her most recent poetry collection, Nothing Below but Air (2014), was a semifinalist for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. The Serial Killer’s Daughter won the Roanoke-Chowan Award  and has been staged by several theatrical groups.  Pat has taught in UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program, has been poet-in-residence at the NC Zoo, co-edits the anthology Kakalak, and has worked as a newspaper journalist, publicist, and lobbyist.  She lives in Asheville, NC.

The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series supports the mission of the North Carolina Poetry Society to foster the reading, writing, and enjoyment of poetry across the state.   The GCDPS originated when the NCPS Board voted in 2003 to follow the advice of Fred Chappell, then North Carolina’s Poet Laureate. He had written and advised the NCPS president about various approaches to take in furthering the NCPS mission of encouraging the reading, writing, and enjoyment of poetry. Prior Distinguished Poets have included Mary Adams, Joseph Bathanti, and Brent Martin.

Brenda Kay Ledford's Poem Published

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Ambidextrous," was published in "Wild Goose Poetry Review," summer 2016 issue.

https://wildgoosepoetryreview.wordpress.com/summer-2016/brenda-kay-ledford-ambidextrous/

Brenda Kay Ledford's Poem Published

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Miss Byrdie," appeared in "Mused BellaOnline Literary Review," fall, 2016 issue.


http://www.bellaonline.com/review

Readings from CWTPW on September 21, 2016, with Staci Lynn Bell and Mary Ricketson

 Did you miss Staci Lynn Bell and Mary Ricketson  reading  their poetry at

CWTPW, on September 21, 2016, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC? Please find excerpts 

from their reading here:

https://youtu.be/YYL8xWjL87Y

https://youtu.be/Bq-HZaEmY5A

Poets Staci Lynn Bell and Mary Ricketson to read at CWTPW, Wednesday, September 21, 2016, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Join us for Coffee With the Poets and Writers, Wednesday, September 21, 2016, at 10:30 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson St., Hayesville, NC. This month, we are featuring poets Staci Lynn Bell, and Mary Ricketson. This event is open to the public, and an open mic will follow the readings.

Staci Lynn Bell is a Chicago native who attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She relocated to South Florida, gaining popularity as a 25 year radio and television personality. Bell’s poetry and prose have also been published in Wild Goose Poetry, Wolf Warriors Anthology,and 234 Journal. She lives with the loves of her life, her two dogs, in Hayesville, NC.

Bell's poem, "Escape" has been published in Old Mountain Press Anthology, Wish You Were Here. Her poem, "Unanswered Prayers" has been accepted for publication in the fall edition of Kakalak 2016. Additionally, Bell's poem, "Time," won a bronze medal and her short story, "Cheyenne" won a silver medal in the North Carolina Cherokee and Clay County's Silver Arts 2016.

Mary Ricketson of Murphy NC, has been writing poetry for 20 years; to satisfy a hunger, to taste life down to the very last drop. She is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Freeing Jonah, and her chapbook I Hear the River Call my Name. Mary's second poetry book is Hanging Dog Creek. 

 

Mary is the Cherokee County Representative for the North Carolina Writers Network-West, and is the president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

She won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts and silver medal for 2012 and 2013, and first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.

Ricketson writes a monthly column, "Women to Women", for The Cherokee Scout, Murphy's newspaper. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, an organic blueberry farmer, and is currently working on a new collection of poetry.

 

This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West. For more information, please call Glenda Council Beall at 828-389-3733.

Glenda Council Beall and Mary Ricketson to read at The Literary Hour at John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, Thursday, September 22, 2016, 7:00 PM

Glenda Council Beall

Mary Ricketson

JOHN CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

On Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 7:00 PM, John C.Campbell Folk School and NC Writers Network West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading held at Keith House on the JCFS campus. Usually this is held on the third Thursday of the month but this month it will be the fourth Thursday. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. Poets Mary Ricketson and Glenda C. Beall will be the featured readers; both are well-established mountain area poets.

Glenda Council Beall is a poet, memoirist, and teacher. Beall’s poems, essays and short stories have been published in numerous literary journals and magazines including, Reunions Magazine, Main Street Rag Poetry Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Journal of Kentucky Studies and online, Your Daily Poem, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and Wild Goose Poetry Review.

Beall's poems have been anthologized in The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume VII: North Carolina 2014, Lights in the Mountains, The Best of Poetry Hickory Series, 2011, Kakalak: North Carolina Poets of 2009, and Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places, among others. Her poems have won awards in the James Still Poetry Contest and the Clay County NC Poetry Contest.

Beall taught memoir writing at John C. Campbell Folk School for a number of years. She teaches senior adults to write about their lives at Tri-County Community College where she will begin a new course on September 1. She says she enjoys hearing the unique stories written by each of her students. “Everyone can leave a written legacy for their grandchildren,” says Glenda.


Glenda served as leader of North Carolina Writers’ Network West in 2007 and 2008, and is now Clay County Representative for NCWN West. She is a co-administrator of the blog for NCWN-West.

Beall is author of NOW MIGHT AS WELL BE THEN, poetry published by Finishing Line Press, and she compiled a family history, PROFILES AND PEDIGREES, THOMAS CHARLES COUNCIL AND HIS DESCENDANTS, published by Genealogy Publishing Company.

Glenda Beall is owner/director of Writers Circle Around the Table, where she invites those interested in writing poetry or prose to her home studio for classes taught by some of the best poets and writers in North Carolina and Georgia. Links are: www.glendacouncilbeall.com and www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com

Mary Ricketson, Murphy NC, has been writing poetry 20 years, to satisfy a hunger, to taste life down to the very last drop. She is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Kentucky Review, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Freeing Jonah, Red Fox Run, and her chapbook, I Hear the River Call my Name. Her new collection of poetry, Hanging Dog Creek, was recently published by Future Cycle Press. She is Cherokee County representative to North Carolina Writers Network West, and president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

Mary writes a monthly column, Women to Women, for The Cherokee Scout. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor and an organic blueberry farmer.
Ricketson won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts and silver medal for 2012 and 2013, and first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.

The Literary Hour is co-sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network-West. which is a program of NC Writers Network.

That Time Again! Open Mic in Jackson!

Jackson's branch of Netwest will host its monthly Open Mic night this coming Friday, September 16th, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva (Spring Street), 7:00 p.m.  Signup begins at 6:45; all writers have ten minutes to read, unless numbers force us to lower that time (so far it hasn't happened.)  There'll be beverages, including wine, and desserts, and good fellowship from supportive fellow writers--come on out!

Waking Up Your Brain, a free creativity workshop with Joan Ellen Gage, Saturday, September 24, 2016, Hayesville, NC

Upcoming Events

Book Festival in Atlanta is Worth the Trip


Labor Day Weekend: Karen Paul Holmes and many other poets and authors will appear at the largest independent book festival in the country. September 2-4. Full schedule is here: Decatur Book Festival








Writers' Night Out: Jim May To Read from His New Book

Friday, Sept. 9: Young Harris College professors, Chelsea Rathburn and James May, will read their award-winning poems at Writers' Night Out at 7 pm. at the Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA.

The married couple are both well-published poets who moved to the area from Atlanta to teach English and creative writing at Young Harris College in 2013. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. (dinner available for purchase upstairs in The View Grill but please arrive no later than 6) with the reading at 7 p.m. in the ballroom. An open microphone follows for those who’d like to showcase their own writing.

Rathburn is author of two full-length poetry collections, A Raft of Grief (Autumn House Press, 2013) and The Shifting Line, winner of the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award, as well as a poetry chapbook, Unused Lines (Aralia Press, 2004). Her poems have appeared in many prestigious journals such as The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review, and her prose has appeared in Creative Nonfiction. In 2009, she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She directs the creative writing program at YHC.

May is the author of Unquiet Things (Louisiana State University Press, 2016).  The winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Cecil Hemley Memorial Award in 2016, his poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, Rattle, The Southern Review and elsewhere. The former editor of New South, he has received scholarships from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review.

Brenda Kay Ledford's Poem Published

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Fabulous Fall," was published in the online journal, "Nature Writing."


You may view her poem at:
http://naturewriting.com/author/brenda-kay-ledford

Excerpts from Col. Don Long reading at CWTPW, Wed. August 17, 2016

In case you missed Col. Don Long reading at Coffee with the Poets and Writers, on Wed., August 17th, at Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC, you can hear him, here:

Donald E. Long, MS, ISASI, CSE,  was born and raised in Sebring, Florida. After two years of college, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. In 1980 he retired as a Lt. Colonel. He began a second career with the U.S. Federal Government as a Safety Professional, retiring a second time in 2000. During his two careers, he lived in, or visited, over 20 countries.

Starting in his teen years and all throughout his adult life he has written poems, mostly for his consumption, but occasionally on request, for personnel at special occasions during his careers. For a short while after retiring from the Army he had a business called “People Poems” writing poems for others for a fee after they provided him with pertinent information. Although the business was doing well, his second career necessitated that he close it.

He writes poems for personal reasons, prefers for them to rhyme, and says of himself, “I guess I missed the revolution”. One of his poems, “I’m Glad It’s Mine” has been used during citizenship swearing-in ceremonies in central Florida and for central Florida Flag Day ceremonies. Another poem about being a Vietnam Veteran was featured at the 2013 Florida “Convention” for Vietnam Helicopter Pilots. One story about his Vietnam Experience has been published in two different military related anthologies, The Harsh and The Heart and Vietnam Helicopter Crew Member Stories, Volume 2.

Since his second retirement, he has split his time between Winter Park, Florida and Murphy, North Carolina. He has been married for 37 years to Marti, has six children, and ten grandchildren living in central Florida and north Georgia. In addition to writing, his other hobby is genealogy.

Jackson County Netwest Open Mic August 26, 7 pm, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva

The monthly Netwest open mic night for Jackson County will take place at 7:00 pm on Friday, August 26th, at City Lights bookstore on Spring Street in Sylva, NC.  As always, there will be beverages and desserts.  We usually have four to eight readers.  Come out to read or to listen!