Coming Events at City Lights Bookstore

Dear Friends,

City Lights will host two local authors for separate programs this weekend.

First, Jim Costa, Professor of Biology at WCU and Director of the Highlands Biological Station, will be at the store on Friday, April 24th at 7:00 p.m. to present a program on Charles Darwin. He is author of the just-released critical edition, The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species. His discussion will focus on making Darwin's legacy understandable and relevant for the general public.



On Saturday afternoon, April 25th at 2:00 p.m., we will welcome Cashiers resident Joyce Foster, who will read from her new illustrated collection of poetry, entitled Painted Leaves. The book includes stunning watercolor illustrations by Jane Smithers, who will also be in attendance.

Please call 818-586-9499 for more information.

THE CLOTHES WE WEAR: A Call for Submissions

We are soliciting
Material from women writers in western North Carolina
For a second book project

Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham want your stories, memoirs, essays/reflections, poems for an anthology about the garments we wear—metaphorically, symbolically, literally---from hair bow to bra to Birkenstocks, from christening gown to prom dress, from waitress uniform to nine-to-five stiletto heels.

We expect an October 2009 publication date, in time to market the book alongside the 2008 Christmas Presence.



General Guidelines


Submit no more than 2000 words
Previously published material is fine–as long as you provide acknowledgments
You retain all rights to your material
Send in an email attachment (or contact us)–in Ms Word or RFT
Formatting for submissions:



Double space with one-inch margins
Left justify only
Center or left justify title



Use 12-point font (Times New Roman preferred) for body and title

Editing is a “given,” but we will try to ask about changes
DEADLINE: MAY 2, 2009
In return for your effort and creativity, you will receive

A complimentary copy of the book
An opportunity to buy additional copies at reduced cost
A publication party and potential readings/signings

Contact Information:
Celia Miles (277-6910)> celiamiles@fastmail.fm
Nancy Dillingham (254-3143)> nandilly@earthlink.net

We are excited about compiling an interesting and entertaining collection of theme-related work from women writers in this region. We know you’re out there! So, we invite you to look into your clothes closet (past or present), and if you have a story to tell, a memory to share, a point of view to espouse, send it along. We promise to treat it with care.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

The Shoppes of Brasstown Celebrate Earth Day.

April 25, 2009, 10 am to 5 pm.



Arts & Crafts, food, demos, green vendors, organic produce and live music.

The shops are in Brasstown, NC, just south of Clay's Corner where the famous Possum Drop takes place every New Year's Eve.

Shoppes of Brasstown give a flavor of the hand made quality items found in the mountains.

How Much Time Should You Spend on Marketing?

I hear writers constantly say they hate self-promotion and can not do it.
It goes against their upbringing.
"Don't toot your own horn." "Be humble. Don't brag on yourself."
Sadly, if the author doesn't promote his work, his excellent book may sit on the shelf instead of resting in the hands of a reader.
More and more it has become the responsibility of the writer to "build a platform" for his book and for his name. In the past few years it has been my pleasure to promote our mountain writers, to make them known to the public through newspaper articles, E-mail, and on this blog. We held blog classes for writers and poets who will take the time to network online. Of course, as soon as we learned to "blog" we learn that Facebook and Twitter are now the the places everyone is using.

Sam Hoffer of Murphy, NC produced an excellent site, http://www.mycarolinakitchen.blogspot.com/ which links to another site for the memoir she is writing. The writer must take the time to learn how to use the Internet to her advantage. Sam's readers come from all over the country and around the world. You can tell by the comments on her posts.

Nancy Simpson set up a most pleasing site at http://www.nancysimpson.blogspot.com/ . Her theme, of course, is poetry. Nancy posts the work of other poets and links to their sites. While Nancy is well known in literary circles for her published works, her blog is a way to reach people who might never have known her poetry or the work of other writers she features on Above the Frost Line, the title of her blog..

Kathryn Stripling Byer, our next Netwest Program Coordinator, posts on three blogs, http://www.kathrynstriplingbyer.blogspot.com/ her personal site, http://www.ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com the site set up for her poet laureate work, and here at Netwest Writers.

Maria Schneider, former editor at Writers Digest, writes on her blog,
http://editorunleashed.com/2008/12/03/the-6040-rule-of-self-promotion/ and tackles the question of how much time to spend marketing our work and how much time we should spend writing.
She espouses the 60/40 rule.

Maggie Bishop, successful author of mystery and romance novels said at the Blue Ridge Writers Conference that she spends two hours each day on the Internet marketing herself. She has websites, a blog and, I'm sure visits the sites of others. Leaving comments on other sites she reads makes it easy for readers to come and visit her.

The sixty/forty rule sounds plausible to me. But how wonderful it must have been for those writers who came along before the Internet, the computer, and social online networks. They could spend 100 percent of their time writing. The publisher bought the book, sold the book, and sent the checks. The writer sat in his room, in his P.J.s if he wanted, and pecked away on his typewriter, or scribbled away on his next book.

Successful writers can't be shy in today's world. A writer can't hole up and expect someone else to market his books. If he is serious about selling his work, he should take every opportunity to read, speak, sign his books and network with people. We never know when the right person will come along, like what we write, and put us in touch with the person who can made a difference in our writing career.

Maggie Bishop's Top Ten Don'ts for Book Signings

Maggie Bishop and Glenda Beall at Blue Ridge Writers conference

Maggie Bishop, North Carolina writer of mystery and romance novels, was a presenter at the Blue Ridge Writers Conference in Georgia on March 27-28. She has given permission for her top ten tips for things you should not do for book signings to be listed here. Maggie says she is available for teaching workshops.

Top Ten Don'ts for Book Signings

10. Arrive late and show disrespect for the staff’s efforts. Show up without confirming the signing at least the day before. That way, if your signing has been overlooked, the staff has time to be prepared.

9. Limp handshake. Be proud of your writing and show it through a firm handshake.

8. Forget own supplies such as a pen, name tag and water. Demand free coffee or food as your reward for showing up.

7. Chatting on cell phone or talking with friend when a customer approaches. Don’t become that store clerk you complain about. Give the reader the respect they deserve.

6. Grab a customer by the arm and demand they "buy my book," put down other authors and books, use a guilt trip "I need the money to feed my kids," or steal another author’s customer when at a group signing. These are ways to make a reader avoid you and the store in the future.

5. Eat onions, garlic or tuna before a signing or chewing gum during a signing. You want customers to cry over your prose and not your breath.

4. Sit behind the table, do crossword puzzles or read, and ignore customers. Get over being shy and develop an outgoing persona for your moment before readers.

3. Wear revealing clothing, shorts, old shoes. Dress as you would for an interview–one level higher than the customer. You want to invite people into your space through your appearance.

2. Ignore or be rude to the help or, worse yet, blame the staff for low sales; if asked to sign stock, sign more than requested. The store needs to make money in order for you to get paid. The staff will chat about you after you leave so make sure they feel good about your visit.

1. Attitude that you are doing the store a favor, signing only because the publisher demands it, or that the reader is lucky that you appear in person. The reader is royalty, not you.

Contact Maggie at these links below.
Website http://maggiebishop1.tripod.com/
Blog http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/
Speaker http://www.blogger.com/

PHILLIPS AND LLOYD BOOKS HOST MILLER

Phillips and Lloyd books on the square in Hayesville hosts former Georgia governor and senator, Zell Miller, Saturday, May 9th, 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM, as he signs his new book, Purt Nigh Gone.

Gainesville Times newspaper says Miller’s forthcoming book, "Purt Nigh Gone: The Old Mountain Ways," is part history lesson and part mourning of the loss of a way of life that Miller dearly loves. The title is mountain speak for "pretty near gone," Miller’s assessment of the current state of things.


To reserve a signed copy, call 828-389-1493

The Place to Be May 8 - 9

BLUE RIDGE BOOK AND AUTHOR SHOWCASE

When: May 8-May 9

Where: Technology and Education Development Center at Blue Ridge Community College

The event will feature more than fifty authors and their works as well as displays, book signings, group conversations, readings, socializing, and a meet-and-greet reception.

One hour sessions will be held Saturday, May 9 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Topics will include poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and Appalachian literature.

Sharyn McCrumb and Robert Morgan are two of the fifteen presenters. For more information go to http://www.blogger.com/ or call Robert Greenwald at 828-698-1550.

Julia Ebel to read at City Lights in Sylva

Julia Ebel to Read from New Appalachian Works
Time: Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:00 p.m.
Location: City Lights



(Julia Ebel)

Novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer Julia Ebel will be at the store on Saturday afternoon, April 18th at 2:00 p.m. to read from several new books. Her new title for children is The Picture Man, which tells the story of an Appalachian farm girl’s curiosity about the itinerant photographer who offers to make her family’s portrait. Ebel is also editor of a new collection entitled Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns as Told by Orville Hicks. Her first poetry collection is also new, entitled Dresses, Dreams and Beadwood Leaves, which is an Appalachian growing-up story told in a series of poems. You may go to My Laureate's Lasso to find more about this book.






The Picture Man(Hardcover (Cloth))
by Ebel, Julia Taylor, Canter, Idalia
Format: Hardcover (Cloth)
Price: $16.95
Published: Parkway Publishers, 2009
Inventory Status: On Our Shelves Now


In the first half of the twentieth century, itinerant photographers known as "picture men" traveled the backroads of Appalachia and made their living taking photographs of the local farmers and their families. These picture men come to life in this story of an Appalachian farm girl who is intrigued by an offer to photograph her family. Gentle brown-toned watercolors hint of old photographs, while poetic text leads readers from the picture man's arrival to the taking of the photograph. The story culminates with the actual 1940s photograph that inspired this story.

SPRING CONFERENCE IN GREENSBORO

Kevin Watson of Press 53, 2008 Spring Conference

I hope to see many of our Netwest members at the NCWN Spring Conference in Greensboro on April 25. Although I've wanted to go all along, we could not make definite plans until today. I think the presenters will be excellent and it is always fun re-connecting with writer friends and making new friends.


I will be helping at the registration desk so when you come in, let me know if you are a Netwest member. This will be my last conference as Program Coordinator for Netwest and I'm so happy we will be able to make the trip.

See you there.

Glenda Beall

PAINTED LEAVES: Poems by Joyce Foster, Art by Jane Smithers

(For copies, contact Painted Leaves, P.O. Box 2332, Cashiers, NC 28717)

Joyce Foster's Painted Leaves, with art by Jane Smithers, is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen, if not THE most beautiful. I met Joyce several years back in a workshop. She had just begun to write poetry, and I could tell that she had the gift for it. Her "Imprimatur for Pleasure" was one of the first poems she showed me, so you can see why I was impressed. As she says in the Afterword, "I was in my mid-60's and looking for the courage to make a profound change in my life. Poetry, or perhaps I should say the Muse of poetry, found me. ...Now I can't imagine life without it."

Joyce was born in Oklahoma of Cherokee, English, and German stock. She graduated from Emory University with a degree in Nursing and has worked for years in Public Health, as well as training and showing Morgan horses. She also worked for awhile as a model when she lived in Florida! She lives in Cashiers, NC, with her dog Wynston.



The artist whose work illuminates these pages is Jane Smithers (www.janesmithers.com). A self-taught artist, having chosen art "relatively late in life," she has lived in New York, London, Houston, and now in Cashiers, where she paints and teaches. Visiting Jane's website is like stepping into a world vibrating with image and color.

If you go to my ncpoetlaureate blog, you will find a display of the pages from PAINTED LEAVES. I hope you enjoy the visual feast. This would make a lovely Mother's Day gift, by the way. I'm giving a copy to my own mother.

EASTER MORNING ON THE HAIRPIN CURVE

Easter Morning on the Hairpin Curve
Smoky Mountains

Is it water or
phacelia that tumbles
down the banks,
overflowing its rocky
creel, water
or trillium,
merging this morning
in one brim-
ful flagrant
resounding of
yes, She lives,
does the Earth,
our longsuffering
handmaiden raising
up dipper
by dipper the day
for us out of
her dark womb.

----KS Byer
(first published in Kakalak)

LOOK WHO IS READING, SIGNING AND WHERE

The Curiosity Bookstore in Murphy, NC and in Andrews, NC welcomes author, Paralee Dawson this Saturday, April 11th
The book is Living A Dream -- reflections of her Appalachian Trail odyssey.

Paralee lives at our end of the trail for part of the year and the other end (Maine) for the rest of the year.
She will be showing videos and signing her book in Andrews NC from 11:am - 1:00 pm and in Murphy from 1:15 pm -3 pm.

Aaron Gwyn will be at Osondu's in Waynesville, NC on Saturday April 25th @ 11:00 a.m. The World Beneath is an eerie and deep mystery. In this book a 15 year old boy is missing and the sherrif is trying to find him.
Spaces are filling up for Kathryn Magendie's Book Launch reception on April 17th at Osondu's from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Kathryn's novel is Tender Graces. Looks like a most appealling book. Please call Osondu's to reserve your book and your spot at the reception.

Freeing Jonah V Includes Estelle Rice

Dr. Gene Hirsch, a resident of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, teaches poetry classes at John C. Campbell Folk School. He has published five volumes of Freeing Jonah. The anthologies are collections of poetry from students in workshops at the Folk School and from poets in the region.
Tonight I picked up my copy of Freeing Jonah V, published in 2007. Listed among the forty-five poets featured are a number of NCWN West members: Glenda Barrett, Janet Benway, Joyce Foster, who has a new poetry collection, Mary Michelle Keller, Brenda Kay Ledford, Mary Ricketson, Nancy Simpson, Linda Smith, Dorothea Spiegel and many more.
My good friend, writer and poet, Estelle Rice of Marble, NC will be reading at the John Campbell Folk School next week. See sidebar. The following poem touches me in a special way.

Goodbye

In my heart, there is a lingering scent
of Johnson’s wax
pickled peaches,
Evening in Paris perfume,
Mennen’s After Shave,
smoke from a Dutch Master’s Cigar.

I can almost taste the Brunswick stew,
Melton’s barbecue,
fruitcake and eggnog,
chocolate-peanut butter cookies,
and homemade peach ice cream.

Bookshelves are empty,
and there is no piano
in the sun parlor.
No voice or human sound,
I hear the echo of my footsteps
in halls and hollow rooms.

Lilacs Mother planted
are blooming.
I pick a flower
to press for safekeeping.

Cardinals have returned to their nest
in the Talisman rose.
Outside the breakfast room window
squirrels chatter in the oak tree
unaware of my tears.

I shut the door and turn the key.

My Nuts and Bolts for Good Writing Seminar

I will hold a one day seminar, Saturday, April 18 at TCCC. 9:00 - 12:00 and 1:00 - 4pm. Bring your lunch. We will cover intriguing beginnings, holding the reader's interest throughout, development of characters and much more.
All writers are welcome, beginning or experienced. Students will take an active part throughout the class. I promise you will have fun and y ou will probably go home with at least one valuable tool for your writing and probably many more. Call TCCC Continuing Education to pre-register 835-4313. The fee is $35.00.
Shirley Uphouse 828-837-6007 or shirl@dnet.net

James MalONE SMITH: POET AND EDITOR

Editors of anthologies as definitive as DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review work long and hard to give readers a book that will be just as important 50 years from now as it is today. Often such editors go unrecognized as the poets they are, while the more widely recognized poets in the collection draw the attention of reviewers and readers. In DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY, James Smith, the editor, has no poem included, so it's time to recognize him for his poetry. In my previous post, I called him a native western North Carolinian, and I still think of him that way, but as you'll see in the following short biography, he was born in the N. Georgia mountains. Blairsville is where my family stayed when we headed north into the mountains to visit relatives in Dahlonega. It's my paternal grandmother's native ground, and I consider it part of my native ground as well, a place that extends into the mountains of southwestern North Carolina. Forget about state boundaries.

Today is" James Smith Day" on my blog. Good poets make the best editors of poetry journals and anthologies. Let's celebrate them while we are celebrating National Poetry Month.

James Malone Smith has published oems in AGNI (online), Connecticut Review, Nebraska Review, Quarterly West, Tar River Poetry, and others. He has new work forthcoming in Asheville Poetry Review, Poet Lore, and Prairie Schooner. His fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction.

Associate professor of English at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, he teaches creative writing and American literature.

He grew up in the north Georgia mountains of Blairsville but spent much of that time in his mother's home community of Vengeance Creek, North Carolina.

Here is Jim's poem that first appeared in AGNI.


HEN

Day took fire at her bidding,
the stove down to coals, almost cold,
bacon drippings in the coffee can
white as ice. She would prod embers

until flames bit at her fingers,
glut the open mouth with fat wood
and slam down the iron lid
as if she were rousing some monster.

Then she scrambled an egg for me.
But all this had happened forever
when one morning I dawdled in
as she dredged ashes, crisscrossed kindling.

The stove is out. She lights a match.
I sit at the table and wait.
Morning light flutters and stills
on the chipped enamel of the white sink.

In it, spraddled headlong (but headless!),
a large plucked chicken
in all its galled gooseflesh,
a single bloody feather stuck to the faucet.

I startle as the stove lid clangs into place.
With a flourish she reveals an immaculate
brown egg in her powerful hand
and pauses. Long enough to make sure

the break will be clean and even,
the yolk full, and heavy,
the rest as clear as water—
then cracks the world apart.



James Malone Smith

AGNI online, 2004

DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review

Southern Poetry Review has been so much a part of so many poets' lives over the past 50 years that it's hard to imagine the universe without it. When I was a student in the MFA program at UNC-G in the '60s, I was introduced to the journal and to its founder Guy Owen. Owen was an instructor in the program for one semester while I was there.

After his death, SPR, as we called it, moved to Charlotte for several years and then down to Savannah's Armstrong Atlantic State University, where a friend of mine and native western North Carolinian, James Smith, became Associate editor. Now, as editor of the new anthology Don't Leave Hungry, celebrating 50 years of Southern Poetry Review, he gathers this peripatetic history together in his masterful introduction. His first paragraph makes Owen's commitment to poetry, and SPR's ongoing adherence to it, clear: In many journals, and certainly in major magazines that bother at all, as Owen notes, poems are “filler,” not “the main course.” A Journal Dedicated to Poetry: that’s the logo the current editors gave SPR, and we like to think its founder would approve. For us, talking about Guy Owen is a way of talking about Southern Poetry Review.

No doubt about it, DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry review, recently published by the University of Arkansas Press, makes an immediate impression on anyone who comes within a few feet of the book. Its cover design is composed of a Mark Rothko painting, Untitled, from 1953, Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.



Its title, too, surprises the eye. This is a poetry anthology? Not a cookbook? When you read the title poem, by Eleanor Ross Taylor, you will understand that this anthology offers nothing less than an invitation to feast on the art of poetry. James Smith, again, from his Introduction: Our anthology’s title derives from a poem in it by Eleanor Ross Taylor, a southern poet undervalued for years. I was delighted to find “Don’t Leave Hungry” as I read through SPR’s archives, selecting poems for this book. Not only is it strange and marvelous (that word again!) in its own right, but its commanding title has a “southern” ring to it that would satisfy Owen. Taylor’s niece, Heather Ross Miller, also in the anthology and a former staff member, described Owen as “always encouraging us and welcoming us toward that table where so many crowd and so few get fed.” Miller speaks of writers here and their desire for publication, but Owen also offered his journal as a table where he hoped readers would crowd and find plenty to feed them, no needto leave hungry.




(Eleanor Ross Taylor)

What else by way of enticement? Well, there's a foreword by Billy Collins. And dust jacket testimonials by Jane Hirschfield and Lee Smith, who says "No reader will leave this harvest table hungry--here is nourishment for all. ...These poems epitomize their eras yet move beyond, rise beyond as poetry always does, capturing time and place and lived life in a way no other art can manage."

And now for the "main course," as Guy Owen called them, arranged and introduced by decade, with Smith's usual clarity of style and presentation! As the dust jacket notes, this anthology "charts the development of this influential journal decade by decade, making clear that although it has close ties to a particular region, it has consistently maintained a national scope, publishing poets from all over the United States. SPR’s goal has been to celebrate the poem above all, so although there are poems by major poets here, there are many gems by less famous, perhaps even obscure, writers too. Here are 183 poems by nearly as many poets, from A. R. Ammons, Kathryn Stripling Byer, James Dickey, Mark Doty, Claudia Emerson, David Ignatow, and Carolyn Kizer to Ted Kooser, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, Howard Nemerov, Sharon Olds, Linda Pastan, and Charles Wright."

But wait--why rush through a feast? In this first week of National Poetry Month, let's sit back and anticipate what waits for us tomorrow, several poems from this beautiful and generous anthology. And because these few poems I offer will, I hope, serve to whet the appetite for more, here is the publication information and a link to the University of Arkansas Press.

5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 380 pages
$24.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-893-6 | 1-55728-892-5
$54.95 (s) unjacketed cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-892-9 | 1-55728-892-5
http://www.uapress.com/titles/sp09/smith-dlh.html

Netwest writing groups

Coffee with the Poets
Phillips and Lloyd Books, Hayesville, NC
10:30 a.m. second Wednesday of each month.
Poets and writers are welcome, members and non-members are welcome to read at open mic..Contact Michelle Keller, mmkeller@brmemc.net for information

Netwest Poetry group, Tri-County College, Murphy NC, 7:00 pm. first Thursday of month.
Janice Moore facilitates this friendly but helpful group.

Netwest Prose Group 7:00 p.m. second Thursday of month, Tri-County College, Murphy, NC
Richard Argo dandjargo@verizon.net facilitator

Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories John C. Campbell Folk School, most third Thursdays, 7:00 p.m Two NCWN writers featured each month. Contact Michelle Keller, mmkeller@brememc.net

Writers Morning Out, Waynesville, NC. Contact Penny Morse,fairlight_inc@hotmail.com

Writing for Children group
Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC 10:00 a.m. third Wednesday of month. Nancy Gadsby is facilitator. Writers for children are welcome to come and bring work to critique or for support in their writing. Nancy Gadsby facilitates.
gadsby@brmemc.net

RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER ARTICLE

The Raleigh paper has published an article on the upcoming Student Poet Laureate awards, deadline April 15. Here is the link:

www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1464403.html

Teachers, now is the time to begin selecting the work you want to submit to NCETA from your middle and high school students.

Tomorrow National Poetry Month begins. Get ready to dance!

ESSAY BY MERRY ELRICK

Merry Elrick
merry@datadrivenmarcom.com


This I Believe: Women’s Rights Are Human Rights

I believe in human rights. Not African-American rights. Not gay rights. Not women’s rights. All people are created equal.
Except they’re not.
All men aren’t even created equal. And women go unmentioned.
When I was in second grade, all the boys were out of the classroom for some gym-class thing except for one. That left about a dozen girls, one boy and our teacher, Miss Kubly, who wore saddle shoes and bobby socks over her stockings in winter. She told everyone to pick up his pencil.
“Miss Kubly,” I asked, “Why didn’t you say, ‘Everyone pick up her pencil?’” She explained that even with just one boy in the room one had to use the male pronoun. And this was a boy too puny to go to gym. Girls just had no pronoun power. Or any other kind.
At least Miss Kubly did not say, “Everyone pick up his or her pencil.” (Too cumbersome.) Or worse, “Everyone pick up their pencil.” (Just downright wrong.)
The lesson I learned in school that day was I am not worth mentioning. That was so long ago that Miss Kubly’s stockings had seams that looked like black lines drawn up the back of her legs. The stockings were attached by murderous metal and rubber devices that dangled at the ends of bouncing elastic strips. Unless you were a contortionist with masterful motor skills, you would most certainly fumble to secure your stockings at the back of your legs. Thank God for pantyhose and other improvements since then.
Some of those improvements led to better lives for women. Despite the language lesson I had, or perhaps because of it, I founded and ran a small business for 15 years. It’s a feat few women would have dreamed of back in the garter belt days.
As a businesswoman I was sometimes asked to join various groups of professional women, a request I always declined because these groups excluded men. I was also encouraged to apply for government grants as a minority business owner. Again, I declined.
I am a person who is a woman. I expect to be worthy of mention. I will not discriminate against others and I want no special treatment. My hope is that others will behave the same.
An apocryphal story purports that President Obama, when applying to Harvard, neglected to check the box that would describe him as a man of color. He wanted, apparently, to get in on his merits. He wanted, like I do, to be judged by the same standards as everyone else.
I cannot expect to have it both ways. I cannot be treated equally while I separate myself for the sake of privilege—even when I’ve had to suffer what others don’t. Like fumbling at the end of elastic straps for metal clips that snap up and whack me on the bone.

OF INTEREST TO WRITERS

Have you visited the Whitecross blog by NCWN?
Click here to read more of interest to you as a writer.

Excerpt from White Cross School
A couple of folks have come to me recently asking for some help from writers.
The Mayland Writers’ Group in Spruce Pine is sponsoring a raffle to raise money for the Mitchell County Animal Shelter. As a raffle prize, they’d like to offer signed copies of books by North Carolina and Appalachian authors. If you are such an author, or if you would like to donate a book by such an author, or if you would like to donate anything else that might help a worthy cause, please e-mail Susan Bell or Chrissy McVay.
Also, the North Carolina Arts Council wants to know if the Network has any authors who’d be willing to do voice work for books on tape? If so, please e-mail me and I’ll pass your name along.

http://www.ncwriters.org/whitecross/

South Carolina, Here Comes Gary Carden

Gary Carden , playwright, storyteller and teacher, sent this e-mail to pass on to our readers.



" I am off to South Carolina for a three-day festival for "Prince of Dark Corners." We were down there two years ago and had standing room only. We have been invited back and they said "they had a bigger auditorium" this time. I will tell stories, conduct a workshop and do two performances of the play."



Check Rob Neufiled's THE READ for a scene from the play.

The Hod, LTZ

Here it is!
The Hod, LTZ

I know, it sounds bad, but bad is the new good. What’s an LTZ? A long thin zipper? No. LTZ stands for literary tabloid zine – a dirt cheap magazine [read free] that will give you some thrills in ways you never thought possible. Different than your average literary magazine. Funky. Wise. Artistic. Over the edge. Under the table. Like TV when it first came out – all in Black and White. Put on your sunglasses when you fan through a copy then get hooked. We’re looking for writers with a fresh style and zazz and cool artists with a graphic flair. Art that’s inviting.
Go To: www.thehodltz.com and check out our guidelines. [the website isn’t the zine] We use a template for the website. The zine won’t have a template. Send us something bad that’s good or something good that’s good. We want contributors who understand that an alternative zine enlivens creative people and stirs them to the inward search for really creative ideas and work.
FIRST ISSUE ---- End of June, 2009
Keep an eye out.
Here’s a sample from the forthcoming –

Dorothy,
call Glinda,
please: we need a new Oz.
The munchkins have gotten out of hand.
They gutted the old Oz
then ate what
remained.

Thanks
The Editors

Carole Thompson Profiled

Carole Thompson's profile appeared in THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN SENTINEL, TOWNS SENTINEL, UNION SENTINEL, CHEROKEE SENTINEL, THE GRAHAM SENTINEL and NORTH GEORGIA NEWS. Carole is a lady of many talents and member of NCWN-W. Brenda Kay Ledford interviewed Carole.

Betty Cloer Wallace goes up against Bill O'Reilly

Betty Cloer Wallace at a meeting in Sylva, NC last year.
I recommend that all our readers who love the Appalachians and the people of Appalachia, click on this link to Gary Carden's blog:

http://hollernotes.blogspot.com/2009/02/bill-oreilly-and-appalachia.html

and read Netwest member, Betty Cloer Wallace's post on Hillbilly Stereotypes and her answer to Bill O'Reilly's recent comments about Applachian people.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE SOUND OF POETS COOKING

Now, what can poet make of this? A Butternut Poem, of course.




The Sound Of Poets Cooking - an anthology cookbook

WRITERS HELPING THE COMMUNITY

These are difficult times for everyone, and in an effort to produce a fun anthology/cookbook that will also address the needs of writers and the communities they live in, we are seeking poems that make reference to an item that might be used for food. The poems do not need to be about eating or cooking, they only have to mention something that can be eaten. There is no cost to submit one poem. If you wish to submit more than one, the fee is $1 per page.

The anthology will feature both well-known and lesser-known writers. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to provide writers grants to teach free writing workshops in their communities. There will be a simple, one-page application form at the back of the anthology to apply for this program. These grants will be available to all writers, not just the ones whose work appears in this anthology.

Although we are primarily looking for poems, if you have a favorite recipe, simple to moderate in preparation and cost, feel free to send that along as well.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Submissions Accepted Through June 1, 2009. Decisions made by July 1, 2009.

DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS

Submit poems to foodpoems@gmail.com. Put "Poetry Submission" and your last name in the subject line of your email. . Please paste your poem(s) in the body of the email. Include a one-paragraph biography at the bottom of the email. If you are sending a recipe, add the word 'Recipe" to the subject line. If you are submitting more than one poem, we will reply with directions on how to submit payment for the additional poems.

Previously published poems are welcome. Note when and where they were published.

Simultaneous submissions are fine.




EDITOR

Richard Krawiec has published 2 novels, a story collection, a collection of poetry, and 4 plays. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He won the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 for the online writing courses he teaches for UNC Chapel Hill. He has edited two previous anthologies that featured the work of well-known writers like Betty Adcock, James Applewhite, Kay Byer, Fred Chappel, Michael Chitwood, Reynolds Price, Lee Smith, Shelby Stephenson, Elisabeth Spencer and other writers, both celebrated and unknown. For more information on him visit his website.

http://home.mindspring.com/~rkwriter/

The Fog Came Alive with Michael Beadle

Thursday evening at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Michael Beadle of Canton, NC read and performed his poetry to a large group of quilters, writers, crafters and listeners who all enjoyed the hour program. Mary Mike Keller who schedules the readings at John Campbell now, gave Michael the entire time to share with us his craft.

He began by involving the audience in performing Sandburg's poem, Fog, and had all of us laughing at ourselves. I can imagine how he must create a learning environment for school children. He makes poetry images memorable with action for each line.

If you have not seen Michael in person, you have missed a treat.

Michael says he loves coming to the Folk School and it is obvious the folk school students loved Michael on Thursday evening.

Mountain Writers of North Carolina

It seems the Mountain Writers of North Carolina, a writing group in Waynesville, NC enjoyed a delightful meeting on March 10.
According to Netwest member, Sonja Contois, "there’s magic in well-crafted stories, and this meeting was dedicated to bespelling each other. With the beauty of the written word, the resonance of a voice, and the expression of the author, two hours in heaven passed quickly."

JC Walkup, Netwest Rep for Haywood County, read a story, All's Well, about a couple that use sickly-sweet conversation while each plans the demise of the other. JC is an excellent writer and has published many short stories.

Merry Elrick is the author of The Rhubarb which is a sailboat that carries the reader on the journey of three siblings through disease, denial, and death.

John Malone, Haywood County Netwest Rep, read the poignant last chapter of his Heading Home, a historical novel based on the life of John’s grandfather.

Sonja Contois' story was The Troxley Women about a woman’s childhood memory of her grandmother, her grandmother’s button box, and “God putting her down.”

Maybe Not the Well-Worn Way by Dawn Jones tells the story of
Beatrice’s experience as she busses to the office, begins her workday, and sees her own reflection as co-worker Bob has a heart attack. Great O’Henry ending.

Charley Pearson, president of this writing group, read his Sentient Choice filled with quips galore as the court decides whether or not to tax the earnings of an evidently male robot that (or who) is intimately involved in the lives of the women called as witnesses.

WCU Literary Festival Schedule

Here is the schedule for the WCU Literary Festival beginning on March 30. If you click on the title above, I promise it will work this time!



Note: all events are in the UC Theatre, except for DeBlieu's reading, which is in Coulter Auditorium

Monday, March 30
12:00 noon Robert Conley
4 PM Poets C.S.Carrier and Brian Brodeur
7:30 pm A. Manette Ansay

Tuesday, March 31
4 PM Jeffrey Lent
7:30 PM Steve Yarbrough

Wednesday, April 1
4 PM Scott Huler
7:30 PM Jewell Parker Rhodes

Thursday, April 2
12 PM Gilbert Chappell Distinguished Poetry reading (student poets)
4 PM Ron Rash and Pam Duncan
5:30 PM Reception (Illusions)
7:30 PM Jan DeBlieu

I HAVE COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Imagine walking into a bookstore like this one. It's a gray February day, with storms threatening, and you've just driven in the rain from Cullowhee over Winding Stair Gap and down into the town of Hayesville. You find the town square and park in front of a place called Crumpets, also known as Phillips & Lloyd bookstore. You're early. You sit in the car waiting for the doors to open, and when they do, you enter the store where you see one of the most welcoming interiors you've beheld in quite awhile.



But wait! It gets better. There's your old friend Nancy Simpson waiting to give you a hug. You are, after all, the special guest today, the poet who drove into the clouds and down again to get here for a morning of poetry.



Here are Brenda Kay Ledford and Carole Thompson waiting to say hello.



There's fresh coffee waiting, and oh my, all sorts of goodies being spread on a table in the room where ruffled curtains and quilts adorn the windows and walls. Soon other friends from Netwest arrive--Glenda Beall, Brenda Kay Ledford, and a little later, Janice Townley Moore, to name only a few. It's COFFEE WITH THE POETS morning. Wake up, wake up, the poets all around me seem to be saying, and after my reading and question/answer session, I listen to them read their own work in the open mic portion of this monthly event sponsored by Netwest.




(Michelle Keller, who coordinates Netwest's COFFEE WITH THE POETS, introduces me before my reading.)

Janice Moore sits to the side listening.



One by one the poets read their poems. "I want these," I declare, grabbing pages out of each poet's hand, and I carry them back home with me over the mountain. When I get home I realize I can't possibly type all of these for my blog! So, out comes my trusty digital camera, and I photograph each poem. Aha, the real thing, preserved by modern technology. Even the wrinkles in the paper.

Brenda Kay Ledford in her red-hot leather suit leads off the list.





Richard Argo flashes a big smile after reading his poem about being in a tent during rain. (I remember tent days--and nights---but mine weren't so romantic.)





Idell Shook introduces me to her book, Rivers of My Heart.





And Clarence Newton! What else to say about his "Adventure"?






One of the highlights of my day is meeting Lynn Rutherford, whose comments on this blog have delighted me over the past months. A Georgia girl herself, she knows about muddy rivers, squishy mud, sandspurs, and mosquitoes!








Nancy Simpson reads an old poem made new again through revision and recently accepted by The Pisgah Review.



Carole Thompson's poem set in St. Simon's Island, shows her gift for vivid imagery. It made me want to head south to the Golden Isles, where my favorite beaches wait.




Glenda Barrett, who lives just over the state line, promised to email me some of her poems. Here is one of them. Glenda is a widely published poet, with a recent chapbook to her credit. (more about that in a later post)




Flashback


The massage therapist

moves her slick palms

up and down my leg muscles

and notices a scar on my ankle.

Did you know every cell

in our body has a memory?

Experts say that simply touching

a scar can bring back the memory

of the trauma.

I listen as she speaks,

but I’m secretly glad

no one can touch my heart.

------------Glenda Barrett

Published in The Cherry Blossom Review in summer of 2008


If you are looking for crafty wit, look no further than Dorothea Spiegel's "X ON."





And Linda Smith's voice was well-suited to the "mystery" she unfolded in her poem "Mystery Memory."






Karen Holmes read a memorable poem about the circles life makes.





And after the open mic, we made our way to the delicacies arranged on the table. Poetry makes you hungry, after all. And COFFEE WITH THE POETS will make you hungry for more such mornings when friends and lovers of poetry gather to celebrate and enjoy the magic of each and every poem.

Your Life - Your Stories

Your Life—Your Stories Instructor: Glenda BeallUse your life experiences, favorite photos or keepsakes to help you develop stories and personal essays.Your stories are unique. Write to publish or to save for your children and grandchildren. Share your work and get feedback that will help polish each piece you write. This class is for beginning and intermediate writers.May 17-23, 2009

WCU LITERARY FESTIVAL

Mark you calendars now for the WCU Literary Festival! It begins on March 30 with a reading by Cherokee novelist Robert Conley and continues till April 2, concluding with a reading by naturalist writer Jan DeBlieu.

If you go to the festival website (litfestival.org), you can find the schedule, authors' bio's, and photos. I'll be sending more information as the festival draws closer.

Season's Gems by Linda M. Smith

Season’s Gems

Drizzly remnants of hurricanes
stretching like big beads on a necklace
across the Atlantic
chased summer away a day early.
I resent Autumn’s untimely arrival,
robbing itself of its own magnificence.

No more floating in Lake Chatuge,
face up, absorbing white hot aura,
splashing liquid diamonds
over my tanned skin and sapphire suit.

Reluctantly, I shut windows,
don wool socks and fuzzy sweater.
Still cold, I curl under ruby colored throw,
unsuccessfully attempt happiness
by thinking of Christmas.

Gloomy rain and gray thoughts for days prevail,
but, at the end,
golden, topaz rays of sunset
sparkle across my yard,
where dogwood’s leaves turned garnet,
red berried, glowing in crystal cool air.
Autumn’s glory is here.

--Linda M. Smith

Previously published in Freeing Jonah V

Poets nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore Were Honored at Coffee With the Poets

Nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore, were honored at Coffee With the Poets, sponsored by N.C. Writers Network West, March 11, 2009 at Phillips and Lloyd Book Store on the town square in Hayesville, NC. These two poets were recognized for having poems included in the recently released anthology, THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, edited by Judith Kitchen and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, (2009 Anhinga Press, Tallahassee.)

Janice Townley Moore read poems from the anthology, most of them related to sounds of birds, for example, “ Songbird” by John Brehm, which she said was the best poem in the book. Moore also read “Cardinal” by Bruce Bond, and she read her poem, “Teaching the Robins,” which is the title poem of her own chapbook, published at Finishing Line Press, (2005 Gergetown, Kentucky.) The poem, “Teaching the Robins,” gives readers the image of an English teacher attempting to teach students in her classroom, specifically trying to teach them the grief poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Nancy Simpson read several poems from the anthology, including Linda Pastan’s “The Birds,” and Gray Jacobik’s “ Flamingos.” She also read , “Cranes in August,” by Kim Addonizio and she dedicated the crane poem to poet Maren O. Mitchell who is a proficient poet as well as accomplished at making paper cranes. Nancy Simpson also read her poem chosen for the anthology titled, “Carolina Bluebirds.”

The editors of THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS presented 151 contemporary American poets. Nancy Simpson said, “This is a different kind of field guide. You see a bird but when you look it up in this “poet’s guide”, you will find ten poems listed under Cardinal, thirteen under Crow, only one under Carolina Bluebird, and only one under Nuthatch and so on. Twenty-five poems are listed under Birdsong/Sound.

Editor Ted Kooser expressed the hope that “readers will enjoy this book just half as much as if they’d actually seen all the birds these poems represent.”

Poets attending Coffee With the Poets read their original poems in the open mic reading. Some of those poets celebrating birds were: Karen Holmes, Carole Thompson, Brenda Kay Ledford, Ellen Andrews, Maren O. Mitchell, Ann Cahill, Linda Smith and Glenda Barrett. 

THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS can be ordered at www.anhinga.org, or www.amazon.com, or at Phillips and lloyd Book Store on the square in Hayesville, N.C.

Angela Dove launched a new book

We are happy to welcome new member of Netwest, Angela Dove, author of No Room for Doubt. Angela launched her book at Osondu Booksellers last weekend. Those who attended the Netwest picnic in Maggie Valley a couple of years ago will remember Angela who was our special guest.

The book is selling well, according to Margaret, owner of Osondu in Waynesville, NC. She said Angela is not only a good writer, but also a good reader. Angela will soon be visiting California where she will sign her book in various locations.