Kelsay books announces the publication of Mary Peavey Ricketson's new poetry book, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian

Poet Mary P. Ricketson's new full length collection of poems, Mississippi: The Story ofLuke and Marian, was published by Kelsay Books, this July of 2019.

Ricketson says: 

'This is my family's story, from the perspective of racial tensions in troubled Mississippi, 1948-1969, and the parents who found a way through those tedious times.  My series of narrative poems are of memory, conflict, and resolve, experiences of my parents and myself, as they raised children in segregation and still kept their belief in the equality of all people.' 

The Amazon Books info is at https://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Marian-Mary-Peavey-Ricketson/dp/195046203X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=376RR2LULL3SX&keywords=mary+ricketson&qid=1566229885&s=books&sprefix=mary+ricket%2Caps%2C258&sr=1-1

Mary Ricketson, Murphy NC, has been writing poetry 20 years. 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, Red Fox Run, It’s All Relative, Old Mountain Press, and Whispers. Her chapbook, I Hear the River Call my Name, and two full length poetry collections, Hanging Dog Creek, and Shade and Shelter.

Currently Mary is using her own poetry to present empowerment workshops, combining roles as writer and her helping role as a therapist. Mary Ricketson’s poems and activities relate with nature, facilitate talk about a personal path and focus on growth in ordinary and unusual times.

Rickertson is Cherokee County representative to North Carolina Writers Network West, and president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance. 

Mary won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.

She 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's next scheduled readings will be at:

Body Sense

2226 Ridgecrest Circle 

Hiawassee, Georgia 30546

Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 5:00 PM  

Taste Full Beans

29 2nd St NW 

Hickory, North Carolina 28601 

Tuesday, November 12, 2019, 7:00 PM 

City Lights Bookstore

 3 E. Jackson Street 

Sylva, North Carolina 28779

Saturday, November 16, 2019, 3:00 PM 

Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Moss Memorial Library

26 Anderson Street

Hayesville, North Carolina 28904

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 10:30 AM 

Writers Kenneth Chamlee, Carol Crawford, and Karen Paul Holmes to be featured at The Literary Hour, Thursday, 8/22/2019, at 7:00 PM, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC

On Thursday, August 22, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. This event is now held in the community room. The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Kenneth Chamlee, Carol Crawford, and Karen Paul Holmes.

Kenneth Chamlee is Professor of English Emeritus at Brevard College in North Carolina.  His poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Cold Mountain Review, Ekphrasis, The Greensboro Review and many others.  He won the GSU Review (Georgia State University) National Writing Award in Poetry, ByLine Magazine's National Poetry Chapbook Competition (Absolute Faith, 1999), and the Longleaf Press Poetry Chapbook Competition (Logic of the Lost, 2001).  In 2004 he won the Word Journal Poetry Prize and in 2009 and 2016 he was a finalist in the Iowa Review Poetry Contest. 

Chamlee has received three Pushcart Prize nominations. His poems have appeared in five editions of Kakalak: An Anthology of Carolina Poets and in 2017 he was a finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize.

Carol Crawford has published short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in the Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Heritage, the Concho River Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Journal of Kentucky Studies, and others. Her latest essay, ”Deliveries,” was in the April 2018 issue of Adelaide online magazine. She is owner of Carol Crawford Editing and author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers. 

Crawford has taught workshops for the Dahlonega Literary Festival, the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association, the Red Clay Writers’ Conference, the Carrollton Writers’ Club, and the Writers’ Circle. She has been program coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since its inception more than twenty years ago.

Karen Paul Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, 2014). In 2012, Karen received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. She was chosen as a Best Emerging Poet in 2016 by Stay Thirsty Media. Publications include Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Review, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore and other journals and anthologies. Holmes hosts a critique group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in Blairsville, which she founded. She also teaches writing classes at the Folk School, Writer’s Circle, and other venues.

A member of the North Carolina Writers' Network, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Georgia Poetry Society, Holmes has studied with poets: Thomas Lux, Denise Duhamel, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, William Wright, Carol Ann Duffy, and Nancy Simpson (whom she counts as her first poetry mentor).

For more information about this event, please contact Mary Ricketson at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

Nancy Werking Poling announces a new novel

I'm a member of the NCWN and want to announce that I'll present my new novel, While Earth Still Speaks, at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC on Saturday. August 17, 3:00 PM.

Can women rescue Earth -- not from aliens but from ecological disaster? I'll address the weird string of events that inspired the story. If you are in the area, drop in. I'd like to meet you.

Regards,
Nancy Werking Poling | nwpontheroad@gmail.com

Carroll Taylor and Don Long featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Donald E. Long

Coffee with the Poets and Writers, (CWPW) will feature poet Donald E. Long and author Carroll S. Taylor on Wednesday, August 21, at 10:30 a.m. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC

The event is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow the presentations. Bring a poem or a short prose piece to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West (NCWN-W) which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

Born in Sebring, Florida, Don Long and his wife, Marti, feel at home in Cherokee County where they have a home and spend part of each year. Long has degrees in Psychology and Personnel Counseling and Human Development, and a commercial pilot license for airplanes and helicopters. 

After two years of college, he enlisted in the Army where he earned a commission and was trained to fly airplanes and helicopters. This led to two one-year tours in Vietnam flying helicopters.

After retirement from the military, Long worked for the federal government in the United States and Germany, with short forays into Bosnia, Croatia, and Macedonia. 

Starting in his teen years and throughout adulthood he has written poetry. His poems have been used in citizenship swearing-in ceremonies and Florida Flag Day ceremonies. One of his poems was featured at the 2013 Florida Convention for Vietnam Helicopter Pilots. His story about Vietnam has appeared in two different military anthologies and was featured in VHPA Aviator Magazine.

Carroll Taylor

Carroll S. Taylor grew up in rural West Central Georgia. A graduate of Tift College (Mercer University), she holds graduate degrees in French, English, and Educational Leadership. She retired after teaching for over forty years. She is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side. Her books emphasize generational storytelling and her love for reptiles and amphibians, especially snakes. 

She and her husband retired to Hiawassee, Georgia where she has embraced the writing community and she volunteers to do publicity for Coffee with the Poets and Writers. She’s always looking for adventures, whether it’s standing on Prime Meridian, studying in Oxford, watching alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp, touring the Scottish Highlands, or taking pictures of flowers and critters.

She is a member of North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, and is serving as co-chair for A Day for Writers 2019, the writing conference August 24 in Sylva, NC.  She is also a member of the Georgia Poetry Society. Readers may find her journal blog at chinaberrysummer.com and follow her at facebook/chinaberrysummer.

For more information about this event, please contact Glenda Beall at: glendabeall@msn.com.

Some authors and poets who will be present for A Day for Writers. Deadline is August 19.

Ed Southern, Executive Director for NC Writers' Network. Photo made in Sylva, NC at City Lights Books some years ago when Ed was new on the job. He was the first Exe. Director to visit us here in the mountains. He will be with us on August 24 for A Day for Writers.

Carol Crawford, carolcrawfordediting.com is a writer and a teacher as well as an editor. Her students always gain important knowledge about writing when attending classes with Carol.

Joseph Bathanti 

Poet, novelist, and award-winning writer and educator. I hear from writers and poets who know him. They all like him. He will be with us on August 24 in Sylva at the Jackson County Public Library for A Day for Writers.

Writers, from back, left, Joan Howard, Brenda Kay Ledford, Mary Ricketson, Diana Smith at Carol Crawford's Blue Ridge Writers' Conference . Janice Moore sits in front. Even seasoned writers and poets know the value of attending writing conferences.

Pat Vestal has a history in publishing and play writing. Her plays have been published in NYC.

This is the cover of one of C. Hope Clark's mysteries. The main character is female and Clark's books are page-turners.

A Day for Writers 2019 in Sylva at the Jackson County Library

NCWN-West and the Jackson County Regional Public Library will host A Day for Writers in Sylva, NC on Saturday, August 24. 

It has always been the goal of this program to bring the best to the west with reasonable fees so all writers in the mountains can benefit from membership without traveling long distances.

C. Hope Clark, author of two mystery series is keynote speaker. Clark’s 35,000 readers of her Funds for Writers Newsletter give her much credit for their success. Clark will speak on marketing and on writing the novel.

Poets will enjoy Joseph Bathanti, poet laureate of North Carolina, 2012 – 2014. He is Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College in Boone, NC. Bathanti, author of ten poetry books, is recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award in Literature. His most recent volume is The 13th Sunday after Pentecost (LSU Press, 2016).

Joseph Bathanti, Poet

David Joy, novelist, will present Writing Centered in Place/Landscape as Character. His books are highly praised as a voice of Appalachia. He is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends To Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novels The Weight Of This World (Putnam, 2017) and The Line That Held Us (Putnam, 2018). His memoir Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award. 

Patricia Vestal and Katie Winkler will teach how to write a ten minute play. Both of these writers have had plays produced on stage. Katie Winkler has taught English composition and British literature for over 23 years at Blue Ridge Community College. During that time, she has been active with the college's drama department as a writer, actor, and director. Pat Vestal’s plays were done off-off Broadway and were on NYC TV. She taught play-writing at the college level.

Carol Crawford who owns www.carolcrawfordediting.com and is a well-published nonfiction writer as well as poet, will teach what to do before you submit your manuscript. Carol teaches writing at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She is the author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers. Her essays and short stories have been published in numerous journals. She has been program coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since its inception in 1996. 

Karen Paul Holmes, poet and teacher, will discuss Metaphors, Images and Similes. Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). She was chosen a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Media and appeared in their 2019 collection of 22 poets including Billy Collins and Robert Pinsky. 

Karen Paul Holmes

Writers may join NCWN at the time of registration. 

Member fees for the conference are $65. 

Non-members pay $78.  Student fee is $35. 

Coffee, pastries, soft drinks, water and lunch are included.

Find the registration form on the sidebar at  www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com. Complete the  form and mail with your check to NCWN-West, %Glenda Beall, PO Box 843, Hayesville, NC 28904 or register online at www.ncwriters.org. 

Deadline for mail in and online registrations is August 19. Contact Glenda Beall, gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com for more information

C. Hope Clark, Keynote Speaker for A  Day for Writers  

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