Spring Conference

Valerie Nieman seems 'with bare hands (to) embrace live steam.' Wake Wake Wake is sinew and tendon, hard muscle and bruised bone; the volume sings with every inch of the body and every breath of the spirit. If she speaks of "hearing that we have all fallen short," she yet believes-she knows-'the way a path is best walked/not by looking down/but by looking out.' Would you be stout of heart, steadfast of purpose? Read Valerie Nieman." - - -Fred Chappell

All-Day Fiction Workshop with Valerie Nieman: Dialog as Combat: Developing Urgency in Your Work

For Valerie Nieman, dialogue is imperative for expressing any emotion and furthering the plot. In the beginning of the workshop, you will study examples in fiction and then write your own. This workshop can make the difference between someone saying your work is well-written to people not being able to put your work down. Valerie Nieman is a creative-writing professor at A & T and is a published poet, novelist, science-fiction writer, and journalist.


Please go to http://www.blogger.com/ to register or call (919) 251-9140.
The 2008 Spring Conference will be at the Eliot Center on UNC-Greensboro campus, April 26th.

I appreciate the resident curmudgeon's sense of humor. On his blog today is an essay that made me laugh out loud. If you have a minute, read the one on Caps by Al Manning

short essay says so much

Compassion 101
By Glenda Barrett, writer and poet from Hiawassee Georgia

We shivered in fear at North Georgia College as we performed our clinicals under the ever watchful eyes of the nursing instructors. Stressed to our limits, we carried bulging book bags crammed with mounting assignments. It was not unusual to have hundreds of pages to read each night, and it was overwhelming at times, especially for those of us who had families to care for at home.

I thought this would be the usual day at school but soon learned it would not be. During class lecture we had two teachers instead of one. The younger one sat in the back of the room and listened while the other one taught. About halfway through the class the one in the back stood up and said these words.

“I promised myself, I’d never let another nursing class go by without saying what I have to say. I’ve not been able to be here for several weeks because I had to have surgery due to cancer.
During my hospital stay, friends, family and co-workers did everything they could to make me feel better. They brought fresh cut flowers, magazines, books and heaping plates of home-cooked
food. But, I want you to listen closely because it won’t be long until you will be nurses.
As I lay in my bed in the wee hours of the morning alone and afraid, I would have given anything in this world if someone had walked into my room, asked me how I was feeling, and let me really tell them.”

Visit: http://www.yessy.com/Oils/bio.html
Glenda Barrett worked in the medical field until she developed her own health problems which she courageously manages every day of her busy life.

Spring Literary Festival at Western Carolina University - Free events

From City Lights Book Store in Sylva, the following announcements:

(April 7-10): WCU Spring Literary Festival
Western Carolina University's sixth annual Spring Literary Festival will be held on campus in Cullowhee April 7-10 and includes a wonderful line-up of authors. Books will be available for sale at each reading, and all events are free and open to the public. As an encouragement to attendance, campus parking regulations will not be enforced for attendees from the community (as any tickets will be forgiven). For more information, please call the WCU English Department at 227-3265.

Monday, April 7, 2008 7:30 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, Coulter Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723 Novelist Lee Smith reads from On Agate Hill. Performance of On Agate Hill by Barbara Bates Smith and Jeff Sebens immediately follows.Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, nine-year-old Lee Smith was already writing-and selling, for a nickel apiece- stories about her neighbors in the coal boomtown of Grundy and the nearby isolated "hollers." In 1968, she published her first novel, The Last Day the Dog Bushes Bloomed.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 4:00 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, University Center Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723 Poet Thomas Lux will read from his work.Thomas Lux's many books of poetry include The Cradle Place; The Street of Clocks; New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995, which was a finalist for the 1998 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 7:30 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, University Center Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Author and commentator Dagoberto Gilb reads from his work. Dagoberto Gilb's first story collection, The Magic of Blood, won the PEN/Hemingway Award. He is also author of The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His newest novel is The Flowers, published this year. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and as commentaries on NPR's "Fresh Air."

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 4:00 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, Coulter Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Poet's Panel: Joseph Bathanti, Sarah Lindsay, Carolyn Beard Whitlow. Poet and novelist Joseph Bathanti is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award, and won the 1997 Oscar Arnold Young Award from The North Carolina Poetry Council for best book of poems by a North Carolina writer. His novels are East Liberty and Coventry, was a winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award. His collection of short stories, The High Heart, was winner of the 2007 Spokane Prize. Sarah Lindsay is the author of Primate Behavior, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Mount Clutter, as well as two chapbooks, Bodies of Water and Insomniac's Lullaby.Poet Carolyn Beard Whitlow is Charles A. Dana Professor of English at Guilford College in Greensboro, where she teaches Creative Writing and African-American Literature. Her most recent collection of poems, Vanished, won the 2006 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:30 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, Coulter Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Novelist Pat Conroy reads from his work.Pat Conroy is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music and My Losing Season. His novels are populated with domineering fathers, southern belles of steel, and inexorable tragedy; all are elements the author is familiar with from his own life.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:00 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, University Center Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Cathy Smith Bowers presents Caleb Beissert, Haley Jones, and Tom Lambert. Cathy Smith Bowers, Distinguished Poet for the western region, presents emerging poets Caleb Beissert, Haley Jones, and Tom Lambert. 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. Three Distinguished Poets, one from each region, mentor a middle-school, a high-school, and a college or university student.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:00 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, Coulter Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Poet Gloria Vando reads from her work.Poet Gloria Vando is publisher /editor of Helicon Nine Editions, a nonprofit literary press she founded in 1977. Her book of poems, Shadows and Supposes, was named the Best Poetry Book of 2003 by the Latino Hall of Fame.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 7:30 p.m.Location: Western Carolina University, Coulter Auditorium, Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Novelist Russell Banks reads from his work (an LCE event). Russell Banks grew up in a working- class world that has played a major role in shaping his writing. His titles include The Darling, Cloudsplitter, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, Searching for Survivors, Hamilton Stark, The New World, The Book of Jamaica, Trailerpark, Continental Drift, Success Stories, and Rule of the Bone. The Angel on the Roof is a collection of thirty years of Banks' short fiction.

JC Walkup and Paul Donovan will read at John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the Keith House.

JC Walkup, from Haywood County, NC says that "creative writing has been her life long avocation." Her short stories have been published in anthologies. She has written two novels and a stage play since her retirement three years ago. She serves in volunteer capacities in the community related to literacy, the libraries and writers' organizations. She is reading at John C. Campbell Folk School for the first time.

Paul Donovan, poet, from Murphy, NC, initiated an annual poetry and essay contest for students in Cherokee County, N.C. Paul has published an autobiographical book of poetry, Ramblings of an Idiot, and is published in journals and anthologies including Lights in the Mountains. He has spent the last three years, since becoming aware of the healing art of Reiki, writing poetry and essays from a more spiritual prospective. Paul is the host of Fireside Friday, a monthly reading sponsored by the Curiosity Book store at the Shoppes of Murphy.

Audiences at the Folk School are often made up of students, blacksmiths, quilters, jewelry makers, banjo players, dulcimer players and writers, who have come from all over the United States and even some foreign countries. They are always warm and open to the work of our writers.

The public and Netwest writers are urged to come, bring your friends and enjoy Paul and JC read their work. You will be glad you did.

KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER READS POEMS AT YOUNG HARRIS COLLEGE

--Nancy Simpson

What better way to celebrate poetry on the first day of National Poetry Month than to hear a poet laureate read her original poems? No better way for me and for other Netwest members who drove over to Young Harris, Georgia, on April 1st to hear N.C. Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer read her poems.

Kathryn Stripling Byer is the 2008 Byron Herbert Reece Speaker , and she visited the college especially to work with students. In the afternoon, she met with them in Wilson Hall and read some poems.
They had been studying her poems in English class, and they asked many questions. She asked them questions too, such as , “What else have you been reading?”

In the evening, Kathryn Stripling Byer read her poems to a packed auditorium of students, faculty, and citizens of the community. She read from a number of her collections, showing her development from a young poet interested in family and home to a mature poet struggling with issues of humanity, life and death.

Collections Kathryn Stripling Byer read from were: The Girl In the Midst of the Harvest, Wildwood Flower, Black Shawl, Catching Light, and Coming to Rest. Her books can be found in all mountain libraries and can be bought in most area bookstores. The Craftshop at John C. Campbell Folk School has a full selection of her books.

Again, she was open to questions and there were many asked. Bettie M. Sellers, former Georgia Poet Laureate asked her to tell the students about her appointment as Poet Laureate of NC. She talked mainly about her visits throughout the Old North State and about her Poet Laureate Web Site set up by the NC Arts Council (ncarts.org) where she discusses and promotes poetry and where she has featured poems by North Carolina's poets.

Kathryn Stripling Byer said her most important responsibility as Poet Laureate is to continue to write about issues that matter and to continue to celebrate and defend language itself.

Graham County Writers

Graham County writers meet with Natalie Grant and Glenda Beall to discuss future writing events sponsored by NCWN West.

The next writers meeting will be held in the Robbinsville library on Thursday evening, April 24. All writers in Graham County are invited to participate. Pictured are Zelerie Rose and Louise Stewart. Also present were Dennis Akison, Glata Grindstaff and her two daughters. Dennis is the author of Murder at Fontana Dam. He is working on his second novel which sounds like another thriller.

Contact Zelerie Rose at the Graham Star newspaper in Robbinsville to learn more about the April meeting, or contact writerlady21@yahoo.com

Saturday, May 3, Hayesville, NC All Genre Workshop with Darnell Arnoult

This lady, Darnell Arnoult, is fun and smart. Her workshop in Hayesville, NC on Saturday, May 3, will be great. Register now and be sure you get in.
Contact writerlady21@yahoo.com for registration information.


One of the 4 A's to avoid, according to Darnell:


1) Authorial Intrusion – When you write a piece of fiction, you create the voice of a narrator. It may be a first person point of view narrator, or it may be a more omniscient voice of the story itself. But it is not the author talking, and the author’s opinion or explanation should not come creeping into the lines of your narrative. Present you story and let your reader be the judge. If you want to write fiction, your job is to part a curtain on your characters and expose them at a moment when they reveal themselves for good or bad. Then the reader makes the ultimate judgment of them. If you want to write so you may convey a social, political, or religious opinion, among others, write nonfiction. If you are true to your characters, and they are true to you, then most likely, by the choice of story you wish to tell, a certain world view may show through. But be wary of this. Do not manipulate your story to express your theme. Write your story and see what themes show themselves. (from Darnell's website: darnellarnoult.com

Joan Hetzler's radio show for writers

DENISE HILDRETH IS GUEST

Tune in this Sunday, April 6, at 1 pm on 91.5 FM or listen through live streaming on the internet at http://www.wawl.org/. Denise Hildreth, author of The Will of Wisteria, a novel of Charleston blue bloods and their year of redemption, visits to talk about her latest work and writing fiction. Denise is also the author of the popular Savannah from Savannah series.

For a link to Denise's website and more information about The Writers Show, visit www.geocities.com/thewritersshow/thewritersshow.html or email Joan Hetzler at thewritersshow@yahoo.com.

Carole Thompson

We welcome Carole Thompson of Blairsville GA as a Netwest Representative. Carole is a published writer. She was a featured reader at Fireside Friday recently. Georgia members may contact her for more information on Netwest.Look for her email on our members only Yahoo group.

Blue Ridge Writers Conference 08

Congratulations to Carol Crawford and the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association for another inspiring Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference this weekend. A number of Netwest members were present and heard fiction writer, Joshilyn Jackson,author of three novels including The Girl who Stopped Swimming and Between Georgia. Registrants filled both her sessions after her keynote address. Joshilyn gave a hilarious imitation of her agent, and she impressed us with her savvy about the publishing world. She said it is easier to publish traditionally than to self publish and have all the work of selling your book.

Steven Harvey, author of Geometry of Lilies and Bound for Shady Grove, two books I enjoyed, spoke about my favorite subject, writing memoir. I was happy to hear him reiterate many of the points I use in teaching my classes. Although he says he could never have made a living as a stand up comedian, and he has to steal the funny things he includes in his books, Steve often brought smiles to our faces today. He leads a relaxed workshop with audience input.

Jim Smith, poet, came home to his native land from down in Savannah where he is Associate Editor of Southern Poetry Review. I was fortunate to attend a session where Steve Harvey and Jim discussed imagery in verses from past issues of SPR. Nancy Simpson says Steve took Jim under his wing when Jim was a young man at Young Harris College. It is obvious Steve is proud of Jim’s success. Jim Smith was one of the presenters at Netwest’s Lights in the Mountains Conference in Hayesville in 2006. Wish he would visit our Poetry Critique Group sometime when he is in town

View the Visitor Map results

To view the most recent places from which we've have visitors, double click on the map. It will open a page to show you where most recent hits came from. Usually the past couple of days. The map only updates once a day, but the list updates every five minutes.

COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Coffee with the Poets is held in Hayesville, NC
the 4th Wednesday of each month, on the town square
at Phillips and Lloyd’s Book Store.

On March 26th, Linda M. Smith was the featured reader.
Michelle Keller coordinated the event. The audience was
made of Hayesville folks and some visitors from
Andrews and from across the Georgia line. Coffee,
tea, pastry, and poems --all delicious.

During the open mic session, award winning poet
Brenda Kay Ledford read a newly completed poem.

NCWN West Consultant, Nancy Simpson
read her most recently published poem,
“ The Ghost of Candide” which is dedicated to former
Georgia Poet Laureate, Bettie M. Sellers. Simpson
said the poem was written in 1978 and finally, after
30 years, it has found it’s home in print at
Cooweescoowee Review at Will Rogers University
in Oklahoma.

Glenda Barrett, whose chapbook, WHEN THE SAP RISES,
is forthcoming in June 2008 from Finishing Line Press,
also read one poem in the open mic reading,
as did Maren O. Mitchell and others.

Mark your calendar on the 4th Wednesday in April,
and come enjoy Coffee with the Poets. All practicing poets
are welcome to read a poem in the open mic reading.
Glenda Beall. NCWN West Program Coordinator is the
founder of this innovative program.

Comment problem noted

Some have tried to comment and have run into problems. I have made some adjustments and hopefully this will fix things. If not, send your comment to writerlady21@yahoo.com and I will post them for you.
Sorry about the problem.
Glenda

Betty Cloer Wallace comments on Carden's Tribute to Williams

Fine Tribute
I cannot imagine a greater tribute to the extraordinary Jonathan Williams than that by Gary Carden.

Williams enjoyed international renown as a literary man, visual artist, and small press publisher, but his friends and neighbors in Western North Carolina will always remember him as a person true to his humanistic vision and as one who fully understood and appreciated his Southern Appalachian roots. For those aspiring to communicate with and reach out to fellow human beings, one need look no further than the life and work of Jonathan Williams to see the artistic and literary trails one visionary person can break.

Carden's story of his birthday meeting with Williams is quite wonderful, and his "magpie" analogy for Williams is absolutely inspired. In fact, Carden himself is cut from the same cloth as Williams: creative in a wide range of media, resignedly irreverent about the changing world, and finely and lovingly attuned to the cultural vernacular of the Southern Appalachians. Like Williams, Carden has a pitch-perfect ear for mountain utterance, with the uncanny ability to pick out the real thing from amongst the fakes. Williams himself was known for writing creative obituaries (a lost art he lamented), and he would be absolutely delighted with Carden's tribute.

Betty Cloer Wallace
Franklin, NC

Write About Gifts

How is your writing going these days? Do you need a boost or inspiration to put your seat on the chair, stay there until you write somethng? In Blue Ridge Country magazine, Elizabeth Hunter, wrote an article about her students in a prison writing class. Elizabeth teaches Nature Writing at JCCFS and I admire her immensely. In fact I buy Blue Ridge Country just to read her column, On the Farm. Once Elizabeth gave me pure maple syrup, a product of her mother's trees in Vermont. I'd never been a fan of maple syrup until I tasted the real thing.

Elizabeth gave her prison students some prompts to engage their writing efforts. One student made a list of the gifts money can't buy. Have you thought of doing that? If you read his list it will certainly give you something to think about, maybe even right about.

Welcome World

This week I spent five days with eight wonderful writers. One of them, Jessica, set up a visitors map for this blog Thursday afternoon. I could click on the map and see not only how many visitors we'd had at the Netwest blog, but where those visitors were at the time they looked at Netwest Mountain Writers and Poets. The counter on the map began at the time it was downloaded. My students greeted me on Friday with the news that we had a visitor from Turkey check out our blog. Before the day was over we had more hits from far distant countries.
Then Saturday morning I decided to make some changes to the map and lost it along with the long list of places it had recorded in only two days.
However, tonight, thanks to Jessica, the map is back and will begin counting our visitors from this time forward.

A red dot on the map indicates the place from which our visitor hails. This morning before I lost the map, Mozambique was represented by a red dot on our map. Alas, now we have to start over and see if those far away visitors will return.

Gary Carden remembers Jonathan Williams

THE BARD OF SCALY MOUNTAIN

While I was surfing the internet last week, I stumbled on this: “Jonathan Williams, poet, dead at 79.” For a moment, I sat attempting to absorb the fact that tall, courtly Jonathan, was gone. Then, I immediately recalled my most cherished memory of the Bard of Scaly Mountain.

Over a decade ago when I was bemoaning the approach of my 64th birthday, two of my friends asked me what I wanted to celebrate my “natal day.” At the time, I was reading “The Ear in Bartram’s Tree,” and I quipped, “Jonathan Williams.” My friends laughed and I went back to my book. However, a few days later, when I drove to Mirror Lake Road in Highlands for my “birthday dinner,” I was ushered into a dining room, lit by candles. There were only two chairs at the table. In a few moments, there was a soft knock at the door and Jonathan Williams entered. I remember that he was all rumpled tweed and tousled hair and that he smiled and said, “Happy Birthday, Gary.” I gawked like a fool and my friends said, “Jonathan can only stay for two hours.” Then, they departed, leaving me with a great deal of food, several bottles of wine and Jonathan Williams.

And so we talked … or rather, Jonathan talked and I listened. I asked about Black Mountain College, his friendship with Henry Miller, his awesome folk/outsider art collection (which is now on loan to ASU), his publishing press (the Jargon Society) and his efforts to save Pasaquan, the fantastic “one-man paradise”of Eddie Owens Martin in Bueana Vista, Georgia. He told wonderful anecdotes about his trips down the back roads of America to find the multitudes of untrained artists who paint on cardboard, rusty tin and masonite, people who whittle, carve or make whirly-gigs – all compelled to create a personal vision that Jonathan found as deeply moving as a Degas or a Cezanne. Jonathan also loved baseball and the recipes in ‘White Trash Cooking” (published by Jargon Press). He was a discerning collector of blues recordings and the works of unknown photographers, such as Ralph Meatyard.

During our conversation, I noticed that Jonathan had a small notebook in his vest pocket, and that he occasionally made notes in it. When I asked about it, he said that he collected things other people said, and that he liked my comment about falling in love with the folksinger, Hedy West because “she had hairy legs.” Of course, I knew that he sometimes converted a chance remark that he had heard in a barber shop or a garage (“Your points is blue and your timing is off a week from Thursday.”) Several years after our conversation, I heard Jonathan read his poems in Asheville and was flattered to find a note that I had once written him transformed into a poem. As best as I remember, it went something like this:
“Report from Gary Carden at the Coffee Shop in Sylva.
A friend approached while I sat reading.
“What you reading, Gary?”
“Jonathan Williams,” I responded, holding up the book.
“Oh, that funny feller.”
“No, you’re thinking about Winters.
“Damn straight. It was down to 20 last night.”

After that night on Mirror Lake Road, we maintained an uncertain correspondence. Jonathan seemed resigned to both his own obscurity and the decline of all that was fine and good in America. He despised most modern poetry and felt that theatre had died with Tennessee Williams.
Although he continued to publish his own poetry, me seemed to devote the majority of his efforts to calling attention to the works of others. Occasionally, he would venture out for a reading and he often acted as a commentator for exhibits of his folk art collection. As for the recent popularity of folk art, he noted that the field had been taken over by money-grubbing opportunists and fakes. However, each time he found himself making grim observations about a world where bad food and deranged politicians held sway (Jesse Helms seemed to epitomize the worst in Southern culture!), Jonathan would suddenly change the subject, and retreating behind his shield of humor, laugh, quote a bit of doggerel and sing a song. As many of his later works attest, he was fond of addressing his dead friends, saying things like, “If there is a flight out of the Elysium Fields tonight, old friend, I’ll pick you up at the airport.”

Over the years, I have often searched for a fitting icon or symbol for Jonathan Williams. Aside from the undeniable merits of his poetry, his greatest gift was his amazing knack for perceiving talent in others. Whether it was Edgar Tolson, the carver in Compton, Kentucky; Vollis Simpson and his wind machines in Lucama, N. C. or the artist, James Harold Jennings down in Stokes County, Jonathan always saw what the rest of us missed. That includes the art critics who often made belated acknowledgements of Jonathan’s unerring judgment. Finally, I can pick my icon. Jonathan is a magpie!

I have watched a magpie stalking through a landfill and I’m thinking of his discerning eye. In the midst of all that plastic and Styrofoam, he will halt, peer into the debris and extract something … a colored stone, a bauble or an earring. Then, taking flight, he will carry his discovery home to his nest where he will give it a choice setting, a niche that displays its merits. Jonathan did that. He waded through the wreckage of our culture, indifferent to the gaudy fakes. Yet, he sometimes saw it (the real thing!) glinting down there under the debris, and when he saw it he lifted it up and said, “Look what I have found.”

AVE, to the Bard of Scaly Mountain.

NEW WRITING STUDIO. COME WRITE

NEW WRITING STUDIO AT
JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL
--Nancy Simpson

The new writing studio is located on the grounds
at Orchard House, John C. Campbell Folk School (JCCFS)in Brasstown, North Carolina. The school itself is 83 years
old, world famous for devotion to arts and crafts The writing program only 13 years old, but the writing studio is brand spanking new.

Recently, I had an opportunity to teach the first class in the new studio, with state of the art computers, printer,copier, and all a writer would need including paper, paper.

My feet hardly touched ground all week as I watched my students working. Each had a writing space with their own computer and printer set up. We had an oval table to use for critiquing sessions, and we had the living room of Orchard House to sprawl out and relax in for teaching sessions and class discussions.

I’ve been teaching writing at the folk school for years,but I have never before seen such a large amount of writing started and finished in one week. The school itself, with sparks of creative energy popping, is a magical place to begin with. The new studio is a welcoming and conducive place for writers.

I invite you to come write with us for a week. If you have already taken writing classes at the folk school,come back as soon as you can. You may walk on air as
I have been doing. You will write, I promise.

If you have never been to the folk school, give it serious thought. Get a catalog, read the class descriptions,make your choice. Scholarships are available based on
financial need . The school offers half price to those living in specific mountain counties. Call the toll free number,check out the web site or e mail me with your questions at nance@dnet.net. Phone. 1800 FOLK-SCH.




John C. Campbell Folk School
Six SUMMER WRITING CLASSES:

May 25-30, 2008 - Spinning Words Into Gold with
Maureen Ryan Griffin. This class will jump start
your writing and and will provide tools to keepyour words flowing. Tap into the Who, Why, When, Where,What and How of Writing. All levels welcome.


June 22- 28, 2008 TOOLS OF THE TRADE, PROFESSIONAL WRITING
with Wendy Webb. The focus is on the short story, novel,and play writing.

June 29-July 5, 2008 FICTION, SHORT AND LONG with Bobbie Pell. Explore the nuggets of your experience that are universal and pop them into your fiction. All levels are welcome.

July 6-11, 2008 WRITING LIFE STORIES with Vickie Hunt.Make headway in creating a short story, personal essay or a memoir essay. All levels are welcome.

July 13-19, 2008 TO BE CONTINUED with Ruth Zehfuss. Focus on getting started
and learning techniques to keep you writing.

July 27-August 1, 2008 YOUR POETRY. LET’S HEAR IT,with Nancy Simpson. Learn to make your poetry sing with sound. Learn how to encapsulate emotion in your poems.
Class is for practicing free verse poets. How and where to publish will be discussed and a list of markets will be given.

See catalog for complete class listing and class descriptions

Books Unlimited in Franklin, NC

Today I met Al Manning, NCWN Board Rep for Netwest, and Betty Cloer Wallace in Franklin to talk about Netwest and to discuss writing and writers in Macon County. After we left the Gazebo, I drove down to Mainstreet and wondered into Books Unlimited. There I talked with the former owner who was subbing for the present owner. I'm sure the friendliness of these folks is one of the reasons that store has been successful for so many years. The wide array of books displayed in both rooms is the other reason.

On the left, just inside the front door, I found a shelf filled with the books of local writers. The ladies said they carried many North Carolina writers. The legendary Gary Carden's books caught my eye and I picked up his Mason Jars in the Flood and other Stories, published in 2000 and reprinted in 2002.

I found it interesting that Gary expressed a special debt to the Internet because much of this book had been read and critiqued by an online group. Many of his revisions are based on the words of hundreds of email posters.