Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Writers' Night Out Returns April 10

Hope to see everyone after the long winter. We're springing forward with a special program with a prestigious guest: Ronald Moran, award-winning poet and former professor/dean at Clemson University. And a very special local writer: Maren Mitchell.

We're back on Fridays (the second of each month), due to popular demand. Also, The View Grill has a new menu, so come at 6 pm for food/drink/friendly chat.

Featured reader bios:
Ronald Moran has published 12 collections of poetry, the most recent being The Tree in the Mind (Clemson University Press, 2014); two books of criticism (one coauthored); and more than 500 poems, essays, and reviews in many journals, including Connecticut Poetry Review, Emrys Journal, Evening Street Review, Louisiana Review, Northwest Review, South Carolina Review,  Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Thomas Wolfe Review, and The Wallace Stevens Journal.  He has won several awards and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Moran’s writings and memorabilia about them are archived in Special Collections of the James B. Duke Library at Furman University.  He lives in Simpsonville, SC.
Maren Mitchell’s poems have appeared in many journals, including The South Carolina Review, Hotel Amerika, Southern Humanities Review, The Classical Outlook, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Skive (Australia), Town Creek Poetry, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and The Arts Journal, Red Clay Reader Vol. 4. Her work has been, or is forthcoming, in anthologies such as The Southern Poetry Anthology, V: Georgia, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Negative Capability Press Anthology for Georgia Poetry. Mitchell’s nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012), is available at the Curiosity Shop bookstore in Murphy, NC, and on Amazon. A native of North Carolina, Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France; Kaiserslautern, Germany; and throughout the southeast U.S.  She now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Book Signing for Jack J. Prather's book, "Six Notable Women of North Carolina", on March 28th, 2015 in Asheville





The official launch of Jack J. Prather's second book of biographies, "Six Notable Women of North Carolina," will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28th at Grateful Steps Foundation bookstore, 159 S. Lexington Avenue in Asheville.

Two of the Notables will join in the launch and sign their own books: Kathryn Stripling Byer of Cullowhee, North Carolina Poet Laureate from 2005-2009; and Jennifer Pharr Davis, world-record hiker of the Appalachian Trail among both men and women hikers and runners.

Jack previously authored "Twelve Notables in Western North Carolina" that was nominated for the NC Literary and Historical Association 2012 Ragan Award for Non-Fiction; and in 2016 plans to write "Ten Young North Carolina Notables." 

Jack J. Prather
prathergroup@aol.com
828-808-0660

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

New Administrator for the Netwest Writers Blog

Recently Joan Ellen Gage moved to Warne, NC which is in Clay County where I live. Joan is now an administrator for the Netwest Writers Blog. I asked Joan for an email interview and she was gracious enough to take time to answer a few questions.

I hope our readers will take note and let Joan know we appreciate her helping us with the website and blog.
GB: Joan, I appreciate your helping with the Netwest Writers Blog. I know you have been blogging for a long time. Tell us when you started.
Joan:  I started blogging in 2009. I met you at Coffee with the Poets in Hayesville, which was at Phillips and Lloyd Bookstore. We had a conversation and you suggested that I start a blog on Google Blogger. I started my first blog shortly after, and called it: Traveling at the Speed of Now.

GB: Give us the URL for your blogs, please.
Traveling at the Speed of Nowhttp://www.joanellengage.com/


A Redhead Blogs at 60: http://:joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com


GB: Before you moved here, what kind of work did you do?

Joan: I worked as a dental hygienist from 1991 until recently. Before that I managed dental offices.
So much of the inspiration for my writing came from working with my patients and listening to their stories. I have had the pleasure of getting to know many fine people over the years.


GB: I know you recently moved to Warne, NC in Clay County. But you were a member of NCWN before you built your beautiful home and moved here, weren’t you?
Joan: Yes, I have been a member of NCWN for a while, now. What a great organization!

GB: What has been your experience with the members you have met in Netwest?
Joan: Very positive! Everyone has been so helpful and kind, especially yourself and Nancy Simpson.


GB: It is always good to find a member who will volunteer to help enhance our writing community. Were you active in a writing group in Florida?
Joan: No, there were a couple of groups and I considered joining. I can be a bit of a hermit, sometimes. Once I came home from work, I stayed home.


GB: I think you have published a couple of books. Do you want to tell us about them?

Joan: Thank you, Glenda. I have two self published books, which are poetry and photography. I write predominately for women in midlife. My books are humorous and inspirational. The first book is, Water Running Downhill! Words of Empowerment for Women in Midlife.
The second book is Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader! I have a third book that I am ready to publish, called A Redhead Looks at 60. It is in the same vein as the first two books, although it has more photography.

GB: Thank you so much, Joan, for the interview and especially for helping with the Netwest blog.
Joan: My pleasure, Glenda! I’m glad to be of help.


We want our readers to continue to send articles, your good news, your publications and readings to us at glendabeall@msn.com
 Joan and I will see that your information is posted and shared. 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Mary Ricketson, poet, reads at Coffee with the Poet March 19 in Sylva

Coffee with the Poet at City Lights Books Features Mary Ricketson

The Coffee with the poet series continues on Thursday, March 19th at 10:30 a.m at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC
The March gathering will feature Cherokee County resident, Mary Ricketson.  She will read selections of poetry from her first full-length collection Hanging Dog Creek.  

Her poems include topics about fear, hardship, courage and the joys in everyday life.  Ricketson has been writing for over 20 years.  Her work is inspired by nature and her profession as a mental health counselor. 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 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest. 

The Coffee with the Poet series meets the third Thursday of every month and is cosponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network--West, the mountain chapter of the North Carolina Writers' Network. 

For more information on the Coffee with the Poet please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499.

City Lights Books
3 E Jackson St.
Sylva, NC 28779

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Seedlight and More - an exhibit of paintings and poems by Laurence Holden



CENTER FOR ART AND REHABILITATIVE ENERGIES
SHELLMAN, GEORGIA

OPENING RECEPTION
SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2 - 6 P.M.
POETRY READING 3 P.M.

"We  spend so much of our lives seeking to understand the patterns around us.This I do too.And then there is the gravity that bears upon all of them,and us,
as well as the desire for ascension.These paintings and poems are my way to understand this. "
- Laurence Holden




"Seedlight: In the Mothering of All Things," 2015
oil on canvas



FACES


All things show their faces when we do.
All things speak when we do.
All things appear when we do.


The first face, the first word,
they blossom into all the others.
They all are true.