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| Raven and Dulce |
Chiong is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Utah State Poetry Society, Florida State Poetry Association, and National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Her poetry and prose have been widely published from coast to coast. Chiong will share her lifelong writing process and read selections from her recently published book, "Ode to the Still Small Voice-A Memoir of Listening."
Her writing career began at five years of age when she became a loyal pen pal to her absent mother. She earned her Master of Arts in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Florida. She is a lifelong student, life coach, and educator. Career highlights include qualifying for the First Ever 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials and paying it forward with her 19-year cross country coaching career at DePauw University, Florida Atlantic University, Pine Crest Prep School, and Mills College. After a long competitive running and coaching career, she now runs her pen across the pages of this life.
She has been working with Best Friends Animal Society since 2008. Above all, she is the proud and devoted mama of four rescue dogs who found her wandering in the high desert of Southern Utah. They are her ongoing source of inspiration, a-muse-ment, and greatest teachers.
Email Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
The Literary Hour will feature two well-known local writers Thursday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Poet Karen Paul Holmes and author Bob Grove will read from their works at the Open House on the school’s campus. The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.
Karen Paul Holmes
Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and has published two books of poetry: “No Such Thing as Distance” and “Untying the Knot.” Her poetry has also appeared in “The Writer's Almanac,” “The Slowdown,” “Verse Daily,” “Prairie Schooner,” and “Plume” among many other literary journals and anthologies.
Holmes also teaches writing at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Since 2010, she has hosted the Side Door Poets in Atlanta, and she is known locally as the founder and host for many years of Writers' Night Out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. More information about her work can be found on her website, www.karenpaulholmes.com.
Grove lives in Brasstown within five minutes of the folk school. He has published twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and is also known for his dramatic reading at the Campbell School of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, which he performs in costume and in a British dialect.
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| Bob Groves |
Grove’s writing varies between genres from humor to drama. Prior to retiring he was a high school science and English teacher and for several years was an ABC-TV public affairs host. Additionally, he has appeared as a featured speaker at 14 national conventions and before one U.S. Congressional committee.
The Literary Hour at the folk school is offered every third Thursday of the month through November and brings local writers to the campus to share their work with the community. Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.
The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling. For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/.
She will sign copies of her books: Leatherwood Falls, Blue Ridge Mountains Poems published by Kelsay Books; Blanche, Blue Ridge Mountain Poems, published by Redhawk Publishing; and The Singing Convention, published by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia.
Author Mary Jo Dyre of Murphy and Poet Maren Mitchell will read from their work at the Literary Hour Thursday, Aug. 17, at 7 pm in the Keith House Living Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.
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| Mary Jo Dyre |
Her novel combines multiple genres of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure, and fantasy to create a compelling story mixing broad sweeps of history gleaned from the Appalachian mountains, rural Mississippi, the wild west days of Arizona, and the continent of South America. Dyre is also known in the area for founding a school serving families and students in Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties, and serving as its executive director from 2000-2021.
Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in regional, national, and international publications including “Appalachian Heritage,” “The South Carolina Review,” “Southern Humanities Review,” “Appalachian Journal,” and several anthologies. Three of her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and she received a 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society.
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| Maren O. Mitchell |
The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling. For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/. Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.
The Literary Hour at the folk school started in 1995 and is offered every third Thursday of the month through November, according to Glenda Beall, NCWN-West coordinator. “Our goals for the Literary Hour at the folk school are to bring local writers and any member of NCWN who is in the area to the campus to share their work,” she said.
It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Jo Carolyn Beebe, a member of NCWN-West for many years.
Jo Carolyn Beebe
September 23, 1937 — August 6, 2023
Hiawassee
Jo
Carolyn Beebe, age 85, of Hiawassee, Georgia, passed away on August 6, 2023, at
her home.
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| Jo Carolyn Beebe reading at the John C. Campbell Folk School |
I met Jo Carolyn in Nancy Simpson’s writing class when I first
came to NC in 1996. She was interested in Genealogy, and she wrote family
stories about growing up in Mississippi and stories about her ancestors. Her
readings were always entertaining.
Back in May, I received an email from her saying she
didn’t drive at night anymore and could not attend nighttime events. So many of
our members have reached an age when driving at night is difficult. Her dear
husband, John, who always accompanied her to Writers Night Out readings, is not well either.
The following is from 2017 when she and I and
Glenda Barrett were reading at the folk school for the Literary Hour.
“Jo Carolyn Beebe is a native of
Mississippi. Many of her poems and stories are based on her recollections
of conversations with her grandparents. Her Grandmother Anderson said,
"The Bartletts are kin to Daniel Boone. They came through the Cumberland
Gap with him." Great-grandfather Ricks showed her a greasy circle in his
front yard where no grass would grow. "This is where the Indians cooked
their food," he told her.
She also has her own memories of life in a small, rural
town. Her story, "The Way You Hypnotize a Chicken," really happened
when she and a friend hypnotized one of Grandmother's hens. And where else but
in a small town could two little girls play in the funeral home and pick out
their everyday casket and their Sunday casket?
Jo Carolyn has been published in Main Street
Rag, Clothes Lines, Women's Spaces Women's Places, Lonzie's Fried Chicken,
Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and by
Abingdon Press. She was most gratified with her family history
book The Beekeepers and Sons of Ander.
She is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford, and has
been a resident of Towns County for 21 years.”
Diana Smith said, "She was kind, funny, talented, supportive to everyone, and had a wonderful southern voice which was prominent in her writing. She was an expert in genealogy and taught classes in it. We lost a wonderful person too soon."
Her short story, "Boys Can Be Angels Too" was for children and was published as a Christmas play by Abington Press," Diana said, "and she has a book ready for publication now."
We will miss Jo Carolyn and send our heartfelt sympathy to John and all of her family and many friends.
Great things are happening at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, North Carolina. Branch Manager, Griff Anderson, has been so kind to allow the North Carolina Writer's Network-West to meet in the conference room for poetry readings and critique groups.
The first thing that amazed me about the updates at Moss Memorial Library, was the instillation of automatic sliding doors. How awesome! What a great thing for folks with disabilities.
Another improvement was the beautiful large windows to view the Tusquitte Mountains and the lovely scenery of our town.
But what excited me most was...
I could hardly believe it when I noticed Mr. Ben Love, the library assistant, today making an owl on the 3 D printer! We have really arrived in Hayesville to have a "Science Fiction" 3 D printer. I've seen those on documentaries, read about them, but we actually have one at Moss Memorial Library. Ben said the public may use it to print files if they will contact the library.
Great things are happening at Moss Memorial Library. As the clique goes, "We've come a long way, baby!" I recall years ago our small library was housed in the damp, musty, old red courthouse. It was a small collection of books, but served our community well. I recall Mama brought my siblings and me to town every Saturday to check out arm full of books. That's when I savored all the "Little House on the Prairie" books.
When you see the staff at Moss Memorial Library, you might want to thank them for doing such a splendid job serving our community and our writers.
For several years NCWN-West has rented a booth at the festival on the square in the beautiful downtown area of Hayesville, NC.
The festival is sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. Their volunteers led by Joan Joppie do a fabulous job and work hard during the weekend hosting around 80 vendors. We are the only booth where books are sold and we are fortunate to be included.
Thousands of people come each year from faraway places to spend the weekend in the mountains. We talked with people from Texas, South Carolina, Florida and other states. Local authors, Lorraine Bennett, Carroll Taylor, Marcia Barnes, Raven Chiong, Glenda Beall, Joan Howard, David Plunkett, Lynda Farrell, and Sandy Benson staffed the booth for the two days.
Kanute Rarey and David Plunkett set up the booth with a tent and tables on Friday afternoon and they took down the booth on Sunday afternoon.
When we work together we can do so much. Many books were sold, but we were there to explain who we are and what we do. Our banner caught the eyes of passersby who were curious and stopped to talk. Some of our best writers and volunteers found us at this festival, picked up a brochure, and joined NCWN.
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| Joan Howard, poet in pink, Carroll Taylor, novelist and poet sitting behind her. |
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| Lorraine Bennett and Marcia Barnes, Glenda Beall, waiting her turn at the table |
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| Kanute |
Kanute is well-known for his storytelling at house concerts, community events, schools, libraries, festivals and on stages in Georgia, North Carolina and other states as far afield as Ohio and Texas. Chiong, whose poetry and prose has appeared in publications from coast-to-coast, will be reading from her recently published book, “Ode to the Still Small Voice—A Memoir of Listening.”
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| Raven and Dulce |
Today, in addition to performing at various venues, he works with the Georgia Storytelling Network, and the annual Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival. He founded the Mountain Area Storytellers serving western North Carolina and north Georgia and produces a monthly Open Mic Night – Stories on the Square and a monthly Evening of Appalachian Stories at the John C. Campbell Folk School. He also produces a four-performance series, Scribes on Stage at the Peacock Playhouse.
Kanute actively supports local and regional storytellers, writers, poets and singer-song writers. He attributes his early beginning to the generosity of members of the North Carolina Writers Network and to John C. Campbell Folk School and national storyteller Elizabeth Ellis.
Raven’s writing career began at five years of age when she became a loyal pen pal to her absent mother. She earned her Master of Arts in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Florida.
A lifelong student, life coach, and educator, her career includes qualifying for the First Ever 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials and paying it forward with her 19-year cross country coaching career at DePauw University, Florida Atlantic University, Pine Crest Prep School, and Mills College. After a long competitive running and coaching career, she now runs her pen across the pages of this life.
Raven is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, Utah State Poetry Society, Florida State Poetry Association, and National Federation of State Poetry Societies.
She has also been working with Best Friends Animal Society since 2008. Above all, she is the proud and devoted mama of four rescue dogs who found her wandering in the high desert of Southern Utah. They are her ongoing source of inspiration, a-“muse”-ment, and her greatest teachers, she said.
Local author Bob Grove of Brasstown, NC, will serve as host for the Literary Hour.
The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling. For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/. Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.
Author and Poet Brenda Kay Ledford
Jim Rich, director of the Clay County Chamber of Commerce, will interview Mary Ricketson and Brenda Kay Ledford, on Friday, July 14, 2023 at 2:00 PM, on the "Clay County Chamber Show," WKRK Radio Facebook live. They will also read poetry from their books.
I found today that an old friend of Netwest, Al Manning, died in March 2023. Al was serving as county Rep in Haywood County when I became Program Coordinator in 2007. He was an active member and an active writer. He published some books, I remember, and one of them was very humorous. He and his wife moved to the flatlands a few years ago and he began working with writers in that area. We stayed in touch for a while, but eventually, I lost touch with Al. Al served on the Board of Trustees for the Network for many years.
Ed Southern wrote a nice tribute to Al on the Network Blog.
https://www.ncwriters.org/news/blog/remembering-longtime-ncwn-member-and-trustee-al-manning/
Mary Ricketson and Brenda Kay Ledford, poets from Murphy and Hayesville, will read selected poems from their published collections on Tuesday, July 18, 5:30-7:00 pm at Cherokee County Arts Council, 33 Valley River Ave, Murphy NC, across from the Mason Jar and Curiosity Bookstore.
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| Mary Ricketson |
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| Brenda Kay Ledford |
Everyone is invited. Please join us. No admission charge.
Local memoirist Glenda Beall and poet Scott Owens are the featured authors for the Literary Hour on Thursday, June 15, at 7 pm in the Keith House Living Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.
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| Scott Owens |
A professor of poetry at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Owens is the author of 19 collections of poetry, and more than 1,200 published poems. He has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the NC Writers' Network, the NC Poetry Society, the Poetry Society of SC, and many others.
Glenda Council Beall lives in the mountains of western North Carolina with her dog, Lexie. Since 1996, her work has been widely published in numerous journals, magazines and online reviews.
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| Glenda Council Beall |
For 10 years she owned and directed Writers Circle Around the Table where she brought outstanding poetry and prose writers to Clay County, NC, to teach local writers. She has taught memoir writing classes at John C. Campbell Folk School, Tri-County College, and ICL at Young Harris College.
Beall is program coordinator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.
CarolLynn Jones, author of “Danya,” a novel about a family surviving the Russian revolution, will host the Literary Hour.
The Literary Hour at the folk school started in 1995 and is offered every third Thursday of the month through November.
She will read from her new poetry book, Leatherwood Falls, Blue Ridge Mountain Poems, published by Kelsay Books this year.
This event is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow Ledford's reading at "Coffee With the Poets." North Carolina Writer's Network- West will sponsor this reading.
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| Lorraine Bennett |
The 236-page novel revolves around protagonist Garner Olsen, Atlanta’s number one television anchorwoman who becomes the target of brilliant and deranged ex-flower child Darla Dare when the anchorwoman’s husband, a federal prosecutor, prepares to take Darla’s lover to trial for drug trafficking.
When the anchorwoman’s life is upended by vandalism, stalking, kidnapping and murder, she vows to track down the responsible party.
Bennett drew on her years in television to create protagonist Garner Olsen. Her time as a print reporter was helpful in the development of antagonist Darla Dare. Also useful was the time she resided in Atlanta during the early years of the counter-culture takeover of parts of Peachtree Street.
The genesis of the story is a piece of jewelry Bennett purchased at an auction house in Atlanta. In the book, the jewelry plays a major role.
Writers' Night Out will bid farewell to its followers Friday, June 9, at 7 pm. WNO has been a well-attended event since 2010, but is ending its run, a victim in part of the pandemic. For the last three years it has continued virtually, which enabled it to draw a broader range of featured readers and audiences but at the cost of the personal interactions between audience and writer.
The event will feature poets Michael Diebert and Michael Walls who will read from their works followed by an open mic session for anyone wishing to read from their own works or simply bid the popular program goodbye.
The final WNO, fittingly perhaps, will be a Zoom meeting. Anyone wishing to join should contact Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com.
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| Michael Diebert |
All that being said, the featured writers for the final event are excellent examples of the talent the program was able to attract to this area.
Michael Diebert is the author of the collections “Thrash” (Brick Road, 2022) and “Life Outside the Set” (Sweatshoppe, 2013). He has served as poetry editor for “The Chattahoochee Review,” led workshops for the Chattahoochee Valley Writers' Conference and the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference, and served as president of the Georgia Poetry Society.
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| Michael Walls |
Diebert teaches writing and literature at Perimeter College, Georgia State University. Recent poems have appeared in “EcoTheo Collective,” “Book of Matches,” “Anti-Heroin Chic,” and “River Teeth.” A two-time cancer survivor, he lives in Avondale Estates, Georgia, with his wife and dogs.
Michael Walls is a retired labor lawyer who lives in Atlanta. He represented workers and labor unions for over 40 years. He has also been a lifetime activist and sometime voluntary attorney for peace, justice and environmental organizations. His new book is “Climbing an Unnamed Mountain” (Kelsay Books).
His poems have appeared in a variety of literary journals and magazines including “The South Carolina Review,” “The Midwest Quarterly,” “Poet Lore,” “Poetry East,” “San Pedro River Review,” “ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment),” “South Florida Poetry Journal,” and “Atlanta Review.” His chapbook “The Blues Singer” was published by The Frank Cat Press in 2003, and his first full-length collection “Stacking Winter Wood” was published by Kelsay Books/Aldrich Press in 2017.
In addition to poetry, Wall's published work includes articles in law reviews and bar publications. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with Erythromelalgia, a rare neuro-vascular condition characterized by chronic pain and loss of mobility that has no known cure. He is starting to write about the ways the illness and the host of autoimmune conditions that travel with it have changed and continue to change his life.
In addition to the speakers, the event will close with an open mic session during which anyone wishing to will have 3 to 4 minutes to read their own poetry or prose. Persons attending the event can sign up for open mic by emailing glendabeall@msn.com with a sentence she can use to introduce them.
Writers’ Night Out is a North Carolina Writers' Network-West event.
We are fortunate to have Scott Owens teach a workshop for us at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC, Friday, June 16, 2:00-4:45 PM.
Scott Owens writes poetry as if he were a painter. Painters see more than other people see. They look beyond the obvious. Scott sees and invites the reader to visualize images, actions, beliefs, purposes, motives, and results of what he has gleaned from his life as a child, a husband, a father, a teacher, a human being who took notice.
Workshop Title: Inspiration Surrounds Us: How to Have Enough to Write About for at Least 4 Lifetimes.Fee: $45.00 A portion of the fee goes to NCWN-West.
Send a check before June 10, made to Glenda Beall, and mail to 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904
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| Scott Owens |
His poems have been featured on "The Writers' Almanac" 7 times, "Poetry in Plain Sight" 4 times, and "Your Daily Poem" 13 times.
He is Professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University and has taught creative writing for more than 20 years, including in excess of 40 community or conference workshops.
His books cover a wide range of topics including a love of nature, surviving an abusive childhood, growing up on a farm, writing, religion, dreams and nightmares, parenting, politics, philosophy, existentialism, and of course, love.
He has collaborated with poet, Pris Campbell, on two novels in poetry; with artist, Missy Cleveland, on an illustrated collection of poems for children; and with photographer, Clayton Joe Young, on two collections featuring images of the North Carolina Piedmont.
In his spare time, Scott owns and operates a successful coffee shop in downtown Hickory. He serves as President of the Hickory Downtown Development Association. He has hosted Poetry Hickory at his coffee shop for 17 years. Several of our NCWN-West poets have read there.
Scott has always loved the NC mountains. In his younger days he was an avid hiker, who spent one summer hiking the mountains to more than 100 waterfalls. He is also an avid birdwatcher, and on a recent weeklong visit to the Smokies, saw 23 bald eagles.
Born and raised on farms and in mill villages in and around Greenwood, SC, he now lives on an acre near downtown Hickory where he constantly weeds his garden, prunes his trees, and tends his flock of 8 egg-producing chickens.
He says you can take the boy off the farm, but you can never take the farm out of the boy.
Writer Bill Lightle will be the featured reader for the May gathering of Mountain Wordsmiths. The group will meet Thursday morning, May 25, at 10:30 via Zoom. Lightle is the author of "Race & Politics in the American South: A Personal History."
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| Bill Lightle |
In 1966, when he was nine, his family moved from Gas City, Indiana, to Albany, Georgia, where his father had accepted a job building aircraft. Lightle came of age reading newspapers and hearing stories, including those of The Great Depression and World War II, from his father and his friends. It was through these stories that he developed an appreciation for history and politics.
After graduating from Georgia Southwestern College in Americus in 1980 with a degree in political science, Lightle was hired as a general assignment reporter for the Albany Herald and went on to write for three other newspapers in the southeast in the 1980s, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He began a 29-year teaching career in the late 1980s and retired in 2017. But throughout that time, he continued to write for newspapers and publish books.
For most of his adult life, he has been a political activist, which he chronicles in his latest book, "Race &Politics in the American South: A Personal History."
Lightle lives in the country in south Fayette County, Georgia, with his wife Phyllis, their two dogs, Mercy and Levi, and their cat Nigel. His wife has published a book of poetry, "Chasing Hemingway."
Local writers CarolLynn Jones and Mary Ricketson will read from their work at the Literary Hour Thursday, May 18, at 7 pm in the Keith House Living Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.
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| CarolLynn Jones |
Mary Ricketson
Mary Ricketson is an award-winning poet, mental health counselor, and blueberry farmer who lives in Murphy. Her published collections are “I Hear the River Call My Name,” “Hanging Dog Creek,” “Shade and Shelter,” “Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian,” “Keeping in Place,” and “Lira, Poems of a Woodland Woman,” and “Precious the Mule.” Ricketson won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest. Inspired by nature and her role as a mental health counselor, her poems reflect the healing powers of nature, a path she follows from Appalachian tradition, with the surrounding mountains as midwife for her words. She is also known for her monthly column, “Woman to Woman,” which runs in “The Cherokee Scout.”
Writer and poet Glenda Beall, coordinator for NCWN-West, will host the
event. The Literary Hour at the folk school started in 1995 and is offered every third Thursday of the month through November. “Our goals for the Literary Hour at the folk school are to bring local writers and any member of NCWN who is in the area to the campus to share their work,” Beall said.
The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling. For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/. Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.
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Back row: Raven Chiong, Sandy Benson, Lorraine Bennett, and front row, Brenda Kay Ledford
