Poetry Contest to Consider

Byron Herbert Reece Society Announces Inaugural Poetry Contest

As Program Coordinator, I want to let all poets know that there is a new poetry contest that those living in NC and GA (and other Appalachian designated states) may participate. For those of you not familiar with Byron Herbert Reece, you may learn more here and also find out about the contest: http://www.byronherbertreecesociety.org/. As a board member, I am not able to enter, but I certainly encourage all of you to consider -- there is a $300 cash prize for the winner.

THE GIFT OF POETRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Janisse Ray's " A House of Branches"

Before she became the acclaimed author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Card Quilt and Pinhook, Janisse Ray was a poet, a calling she has never abandonedd. Nor has it abandoned her. How heartening, therefore, to see her first love given its full-throated voice in Waking in the Forest! These poems are indeed about waking up, looking around at the world, and discovering how to live within it. Often they seek relationship with that world, speaking to the birds, for example, and begging of them, "Oh kinglet, Oh oriole/tell us what you know.” Janisse Ray know show to listen to what our world has to tell us, and she knows how to transform that listening into language that kindles our imagination, which after all desires nothing less than to be utterly alive in our landscape. “No matter how rich/we become, or old,/ or unable, won’t /some part of us desire to weave/a basket in which to forage/the last of the grapes? “ the poet asks. Ray’s poems weave for us such a basket. They show us how to gather and cherish the things of this world.

Born in Southeast Georgia, Janisse has given many presentations in the WNC mountains and is a frequent lecturer at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa.

To order this book, go to Wind Publications, where Charlie Hughes, poet and editor, runs one of our best regional small presses. Or for a signed copy, order directly from Janisse Ray, 895 Catherine T. Sanders Rd., Reidsville, GA 30453. $16 for paperback, $27 for hardback (includes shipping.)

(Janisse Ray talking with my brother, Charles Stripling, at the Joseph F. Jones Ecological Center in Baker County, Georgia)

Riding Bareback Through the Universe

The earth does not move steadily,

spinning at one speed through the heavens,

but with the motion

of a wild stallion at full gallop

across a painted desert,

which is sweep and fall, sweep and fall.

The earth is waltzing.

Its cloud-tail streams behind like a comet’s.

Not only the earth. Every heavenly body

once thought steady, plodding even,

flings itself along with senseless joy.

In the sky an ecstasy of stars

stampedes through the universe.

You and I ride standing

on the back of earth,

feet firmly planted, side by side,

our love for this life

so thunderous and billowing

so wild and powerful

we finally understand celestial motion.

Around us thousands of leaves

leap up and down on their stems

and summer flowerheads

surge with the wind.

B

New Announcement for Prose Writers from Peg Russell

Make your Plan for Dec.9, 2010. NetWest Prose Group will meet 7PM, Tri County CC, Enloe Bldg Conference Room 108.  The Enloe Bldg is second on the right, enter and turn right, first room on right after the restroom.
 
Even if you can't make the meeting, while the decorations and Christmas cards are out, this is a perfect time to make notes for future articles, poems, etc.  Locally the Cherokee Scout called for submissions,and online Yesterday's Magazette also requested holiday related submissions.


The NCWN West Monthly Prose group meets the second Thursday night at 7:00 pm at Tri County Community College. Members can bring a short story, essay or excerpt (with copies for critique to share.) Observers are welcome. Contact Peg Russell for more information.

Christmas Stories published by Sisters

CONGRATULATIONS TO TWO SISTERS,
Brenda Kay Ledford and Barbara Ledford. Their stories of Christmas were published in Yesterday's Magazette.

http://www.yesterdaysmagazette.com/page_11.html#previous-photo
http://www.yesterdaysmagazette.com/Page13.html#previous-photo

THE GIFT OF POETRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Nancy Simpson's "Living Above the Frost Line"

December first and time to begin to think seriously about holiday gift-giving! Over the next two weeks I will be making recommendations for poetry lovers--and for those who think they don't like poetry but will change their minds once they read these books.

I will begin with my longtime friend and sister in the art, Nancy Simpson, whose Living Above the Frost Line: New and Selected Poems was published this fall by Carolina Wren Press. It's a beautiful, elegant book, with French flaps (a shawl-like dust jacket/cover) and cover image that is gorgeous. Just click on the image above to enlarge and see what I mean.

Nancy Simpson has enriched the literary community of North Carolina for over thirty years. Her work was first heralded by the late Richard Hugo when he read and celebrated her poems at the Callanwolde Literary Festival in Atlanta, shortly after she began to show her poetry around to friends and readers in the far reaches of western North Carolina. He praised her rich inner life and her ability to give expression to it as it manifested itself in her everyday life. Whether driving over the Nantahala Gorge in “Night Student,” expressing the complexity of self in “Driven into the interior,” or documenting the carnage of the first Gulf War in “Voices from the Fringe,” she brings the inner and outer worlds of her experience into a harmony that resonates like the current giving voice and shape to the mountain creeks she loves. Living Above the Frost Line: Selected and New Poems traces the growth of a poet determined to survive despite the obstacles raised by age, mortality, and the inevitable losses that come from being alive in this world. Through her poetry she greets that half-drowned woman, harking from her Florida girlhood, who appears as her muse in “Bridge On the River Kwai, “ bearing gifts of memory and sustaining images. In return the poet gives her “a mountain, the safest place to be.” Rarely has the relationship between poet and muse been so beautifully expressed.

Nancy, on the porch of her Cherry Mountain home.

I'm delighted to be able to offer several of my favorite poems.

Tanfastic

At 12:17 this Sunday

he is uninhibited

in front of God and

everybody traveling

I-75 South, a man

lounging in the bed

of his red pickup truck.

He is getting his tan

the fast way, 80 mph

stretched out

on his chaise lounge,

his black bikini

drawing the sun down.

He is holding a blue

tumbler in his hand.

I can only guess

what he is drinking.

I want to make a pass,

I mean, get past him

in this god-awful traffic.

I want to see

the face of the woman

at the steering wheel

who is taking him for a ride.

The Gleaners

In the last days of the age

word went out that women

therefore must be allowed

to participate in creation.

And there came forth an artist

calling to us, Come hither!

In the center of a cornfield

in Brasstown Valley,

she sculpted an assembly

of corn women. She fashioned

husk bodies, worked six days

making in her image. She dressed

the corn women in gauze gowns

and entwined eglantine in their

cornsilk hair. Come hither!

We entered the cornfield,

our capes waving

in the evening breeze. We

circled the corn women,

lit a circle of small fires

and danced in firelight.

In the morning we came forth

to sculpt, to paint, and to write

the story that is left to tell.

Looking For the Sons of My House

I am looking for the sons of my house,

grown from babies into boys,

three of them with dark brown eyes.

Where are they now? The one

who brought a snake down the hall

into my room. The one who

had to fall off the porch, to test every rule?

The young one who flew half-way

around the world to be my son?

Their bikes are wrecked, tossed

in the landfill with their outgrown shoes.

One day I saw they were no longer boys but men,

the one who drove me to night class in Asheville

when he was a teen, the same one

I stood with as mother of the groom.

Where are they now?

One whistles on a hillside, feeds his dogs.

One is stuck in rush-hour traffic, stuck

in a marriage I blessed. The young one

climbs today on a mountain in Switzerland.

All of them far from the mother house.

Skin Underwater

1.

From the top of the mountain we see

Town Valley submerged in clouds.

You say the word ‘ocean’ and a gull

flies from the branch of an oak,

squawks his squawk.

I know a lie when I see one.

Seagulls do not live in the mountains.

It is the woodpecker men call extinct,

alive, soaring above oaktops.

Now driving through fog in the valley

you show me things not seen before.

Men are swimming on the courthouse lawn.

Women stare fish-eyed from their gardens,

their mouths turned up.

2.

Barnacles collect on the pier.

Count one for every life you were young:

the schoolgirl, mute,

who spoke only underwater

hoping no one could decipher.

In water memories converge.

Shell is sharp to touch.

Seaweed is soft as hair, and skin

is the large sensor. Skin

keeps its own record of the day

you slit your forearm, diving

into green ocean at South Beach.

Look how barnacles bashed by waves

hold on. Some are encased in stone.

They could cut you bloody, Girl.

3.

Looking back I see my mother

was misinformed, promised an abortion

though it was illegal, five doctors

dead sure I was damaged, and certain

she would die if she gave birth.

She did sort of die, seeing me hideous

in her dream, seeing a ball of hair

bouncing in the room, in the afternoon

when she tried to rest.

I heard from her lips

how she fell down praying.

My mother was devout. I knew

she could not kill. Don’t you see?

I was in the best possible position.

A voice from a dream

Sleep again.

Dream yourself

on the north bank of the river

inconspicuous as deadwood.

Drift ashore

where grass glows at sunrise,

where light is found all day.

Dream a new body.

a blue robe, and you

walking home.

We stand over the carcass of a jellyfish.

It has given up the ghost, grown opaque.

Moon Jelly, I say, we knew you when

you lit the sky of the underworld.

And we count out loud the lines on its body

as if in counting we might learn

how long it lived in the ocean.

Gulls show interest in our arithmetic.

They circle. They fly down

to the sound of our voices.

Are we going to reach the end

of the island? Are we moving in a circle?

Light-headed we walk.

6.

It interests me seeing

the hermit scuttle away

with a moon shell for a new house.

Look how furrows of silt create

a frontal lobe. We are walking,

don’t you think, on gray matter?

I will always say yes

to almost everything you ask. Yes,

it is possible to imagine

intelligence beneath our feet.

7.

Evening turns out just as imagined.

We walk the length of the beach

and lie on the sand. We enter

the surf, our bodies submerging.

In hearing distance of a wave’s yes,

earth is a woman with plans.

What She Saw and What She Heard

On the mountain a woman saw

the road bank caved in

from winter’s freeze-thaw

and April rain erosion.

Trees leaned over the road the way

strands of hair hung on her forehead.

She gaped, her face as tortured

as the face she saw engraved in dirt.

Roots growing sideways shaped brows,

two eyes. Humus washed

down the bank like a nose.

Lower down, where a rock

was shoved out by weathering,

a hole formed the shape of a mouth.

The woman groaned, Agh!

Her spirit toppled

to the ground, slithered

under the roots of an oak.

She stood there asking

What? Who?

Back to reason, back home

she finished her questions:

What can one make of the vision, that face

on the north side of the mountain?

Reckoning comes, a thought:

It is not the image of a witch nor a god,

but Earth’s face, mouth open saying,

Save me.

JIM CLARK'S NEW CD SETS BYRON HERBERT REESE'S POEMS TO MUSIC

Poet, musician, and professor Jim Clark has just released The Service of Song: Words by Byron Herbert Reece/Music by Jim Clark.

The cd includes the text of the poems set to music by Clark, including I Go by Ways of Rust and Flame, The Elm and the Moon, and The Altitudes of Love.

I Go By Ways of Rust and Flame

I go by ways of rust and flame

Beneath the bent and lonely sky;

Behind me on the ways I came

I see the hedges lying bare,

But neither question nor reply.

A solitary thing am I

Upon the roads of rust and flame

That thin at sunset to the air.

I call upon no word nor name,

And neither question nor reply

But walk alone as all men must

Upon the roads of flame and rust.

The cd is $10.00 (plus $2.00 for shipping) and may be ordered from Eternal Delight Productions, P.O. Box 7861, Wilson, NC 27895.

Great Website for Writers

Greetings! As the new Program Coordinator for NCWN-West, I want to feature articles on our blog that speak to the craft of writing. I want to begin this endeavor by sharing with you a website that has been incredibly useful to me as a writer. Whether you are a poet or fiction writer, you will find the information on this site hugely helpful: www.newpages.com. If you are not already a visitor to this site, it is one you need to bookmark. I have it as one of my home pages, and I check it regularly. Because of newpages.com, I entered a poetry contest and actually won the contest (which came with a rare but significant monetary prize). What I like about newpages.com is that it is updated regularly with quality information – whether you want to enter a contest or search calls for submissions, you will be able to easily search a long list of literary journals or magazines that are seeking submissions. These links are found on the right-hand side of the page, and you can also search for writing conferences by state. What is so helpful about newpages.com is that the data is one click away, as opposed to endless searches that the user would have to do on his or her own. Newpages.com saves time, and it is contains reliable data. Every few weeks the “call for submissions” section is updated, and if you have a blog of your own, you may link it to this site to increase your visibility. I encourage all of you who are sending your work out or in search of a conference to visit newpages.com regularly. You will also find reviews of literary magazines, which can help you determine if you want to subscribe or if your work is a good match for the journal – always a must to research this before submitting. So check this site out if you have not already, and get your work out there!

Writers Talking About Writing a Big Success (NC Writers Network West)

Put together by Nancy Simpson and Mary Fonda and held last weekend at Moss Memorial Library, Writers Talking about Writing was a big hit. Not only did those in attendance gain a wealth of information from experienced writers, Netwest gained exposure, and copies of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge were sold and signed. The goal of reaching out to potential members was met, as the audience consisted of individuals who were not already NCWN-West members.

Panel members included Nancy Simpson, Brenda Kay Ledford, Maren Mitchell, Janice Moore, Glenda Beall, and Linda Smith. Thanks to all of you who participated, and to Moss Memorial Library for providing the venue! Since this event was so well-received, NCWN-West should consider making this an annual event.

Next Saturday, November 27th from 11 am - 1 pm, a book signing will be held for Echoes at Curiosity Books in Murphy. Join us if you can!

Submissions Welcome

Just a jiggle on the doorknocker of all you Carolina poets: Your Daily Poem reads submissions on a rolling basis, and The Cheese State is getting waaaay too much credit for having more great poets per capita than anyplace else because I hear from two or three Wisconsin poets every week! I'd love to offer more from us Southlanders; just be sure to read the guidelines. We're a unique market in that we cater to people who are NOT poetry fans, so submissions need to be immediately accessible and knock-your-socks-off powerful or entertaining. Thanks!

karen Holmes, poet, writer and successful business woman

Karen Paul Holmes  - instructor - Week of January 30, 2011
"Sing and Paint with Words"

Our members of Netwest know Karen Holmes as the editor and publisher of our Netwest News, newsletter for our chapter of NCWN. Karen has published her poetry in some of the best literary journals. She was most influential in editing Echoes across the Blue Ridge, Antholoy published by Netwest this past year. She has experience in teaching and is a lovely person. I urge anyone who is interested in writing and can come to the John C. Campbell Folk School in January, to contact them and register for this class. Local writers in certain counties in Georgia and N. Carolina have the possibility of one half tuition.

Come get inspired. Through music and other arts, we'll stir the creative juices. We might listen to Beethoven or Elvis, look at paintings by Monet or Finster, read literary masters or contemporary writers - all to generate i...deas for our poems, fiction, or essays. You'll receive editing tips and one-on-one critiques to make your work stronger and more readable. Open to anyone who needs inspiration and help perfecting the art of writing.


John C. Campbell Folk School

Anthology Reading in Hendersonville, NC

On Wednesday evening, November 3, six poets and authors from Henderson County read their work from the new anthology Echoes Across the Blue Ridge at the Henderson County Public Library in Hendersonville. A book sale and signing by the writers, who are all Netwest members, followed.

The evening was sponsored by the Friends of the Library, and Lana Hendershott, Netwest’s representative in Hendersonville, handled the publicity for the event. Tom Hooker, Susan Snowden, and Lana Hendershott read their short stories (fiction); Charlotte Wolff and Cecily Wells read their poems; and StarShield Lortie read her creative nonfiction piece.

It was a misty, chilly night and we wondered if anyone would attend. We were pleasantly surprised when more than fifty people turned out and received our work warmly.

Ten books were sold and the Friends of the Library presented the group with a check for $100 for the reading. The check was signed over to Netwest at the request of the six members who participated.



Lana dressed as character in her story



“We especially want to thank Lana Hendershott for her efforts to make the reading a success,” said Susan Snowden. “It’s not easy to get things published in the Hendersonville newspaper, but Lana stuck with it and we got great coverage.”

Writers Night Out, held at Young Harris College, Wilson Audititorium Friday night couldn't have been better. Nancy Simpson, author of the new poetry collection, Living Above the Frost Line, Carolina Wren, publisher, gave us a decided glimpse into her poetry for the past thirty years. Even though I have read all the poems in this book and many I had read before in her earlier books, Night Student and Across Water, I never tire of hearing her read them.

One of the reasons Nancy's poems have been published for so many years in most all of the best literary journals is because she knows what she is doing. She lives and breathes poetry and has for as long as I've known her and many years before. She has another book when she gets around to publishing it. And most of those poems have been published already.

The open mic portion of Writers Night Out had us laughing with Karen Holmes poetry and Ron Salzer's nutty essay. But the nicest thing was having two readers stand and share their work who had never done that before. I know that feeing of exhileration when you make that jump into standing before an audience for the first time.

Next month Writers Night Out will be held in Hiawassee at a new venue, a coffee shop, which I think will be cozy and bring out more of the community. Don't you think that will be nice?
Can't wait to go.

COFFEE WITH THE POETS IN HAYESVILLE ON NOV. 10, 2010

NC WRITERS NETWORK WEST's featured poets today at Coffee With the Poets at Phillips at Lloyd Book Store were Maren O. Mitchell of Hiawassee  - Young Harris, Georgia and Linda M. Smith of Hayesville, North Carolina.These are popular poets with many publications to their credit.  

Glenda Beall, founder of Coffee With the Poets during the time she was Netwest's Porgram Coordinator, led the program.

During the Open Mic session, a number of Netwest members read poems, including Nancy Simpson who read from her newly published book  LIVING ABOVE TH FROST LINE: New and Selected Poems ( Carolina Wren Press.)  On this, the anniversary of her mother's death, Simpson read the poem, "Argument With My Mother."

Brenda Kay Ledford read a recently published essay written by her mother, Blanche Ledford that was published in a new anthology of poetry and prose TRAVELING TIME  (Old Mountain Press.)

Joan Howard read a vivid autumn poem. A number of other Netwest poet's read in the open mic session including Clarence Newton, Glenda Barrett, and long time member Carolyn Johnson.

WHAT IS NEXT?  Some of these writers: Glenda Beall, Linda Smith, Brenda Kay Ledford, Blanche Ledford, Maren O Mitchell,  and Nancy Simpson will be featured  in a panel discussion  WRITERS TALKING ABOUT WRITING at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville 2:00 on Saturday, November 20, 2010.  It is said that they will share some of their writing tips and breakthrough moments in their own writing. The program is free and open to the the public.  All netwest members within driving distance are welcome to come and join in the discussion.  

TRAVELING TIME

TRAVELING TIME is the new anthology just released by Old Mountain Press. About 70 authors have poetry and prose in this collection. To order copies, go to: www.OldMountainPress.com. Tom Davis is the editor of this book on traveling.

Brenda Kay Ledford's story, "The Emerald Isle," appeared in the anthology, TRAVELING TIME. Brenda Kay is a member of North Carolina Writers Network-West. Visit her blog at: http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com/ and website: http://www.brendakayledford.com/.

Blanche L. Ledford's story, "The Mystery Trip," and Barbara Ledford Wright's story, "Rail Path," both appeared in the anthology, TRAVELING TIME.

A mentor to many area writers
NANCY SIMPSON TO READ HER POETRY, NOVEMBER 12

Come hear a local favorite this month at Writers’ Night Out. Nancy Simpson will read from her new book, Living Above The Frost Line: New and Selected Poems on Friday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. in Wilson Lecture Hall at Young Harris College. After the reading, those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction can participate in the Open Microphone.

Living Above The Frost Line was nominated by NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer as the first book in the new Laureate Series at Carolina Wren Press. Nancy also penned Across Water, a chapbook and Night Student, a full length poetry collection, published at State Street Press. Her poems have appeared in One Hundred Years of North Carolina Poetry; The Poets Guide To The Birds, edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser (2009, Anhinga Press); the 50th Anniversary Issue of Southern Poetry Review: Don’t Leave Hungry (2009 U. of Arkansas Press); and the textbook, Southern Appalachian Poetry, edited by Marita Garin (2008 McFarland). Several literary magazines have also published Nancy’s work.

A well-respected teacher to many local writers, Nancy presently serves as Resident Writer at John C. Campbell Folk School. She is a long-time member of NC Writers’ Network (NCWN) and co-founded the western NC chapter, known as NCWN-West.

Writers’ Night Out takes place the second Friday evening of every month from 7-8:30 p.m. The November reading remains at Young Harris College in Wilson Lecture Hall, which is located in the Goolsby Center on the campus. The evening is free and open to the public, and parking is free. Look for an announcement about a new location in Hiawassee for December.

Those interested in reading at the Open Mic may sign up at the event. Each writer will have three minutes to read. For more information, please contact Writers’ Night Out coordinator, Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

LIVING IN MEMORY OF THE NCWN FALL CONFERENCE.

NC Writers Network is holding their 25th Fall Conference this weekend in Charlotte. (2010) I am strongly aware of the event and wish I could have attended.   I feel forced to "live in memory" with a few old photos of  the November 4-6, 2005 NCWN Fall Conference. That was "once upon a time" when NCWN West was included.

Glenda Beall, Janice Townley Moore, Nancy Simpson, Shirley Uhouse and Kathryn Stripling Byer.

Glenda Beall, Rosemary Royston, Janice Townley Moore and Nancy Simpson.

Nancy Purcell is busy in Brevard, NC

We always love to hear what is happening in the Netwest area. Nancy Purcell, NCWN West Representative for Transylvania County, sent an update on her activities.

Instead of teaching an adult education program at Brevard College this semester, I've been volunteering at Brevard Middle School, working with 7th & 8th graders who are "enrichment" students. The 20 student class is an Art/Writing group, working on Life Books. I introduced them to an internet site, Wordle.net, where you paste a story you've written and saved in your documents into the sites "box" and hit GO. The words come out jumbled by size....largest being the words you used most frequently. Poets & Writers touted this site for writers, showing the writer which words they most frequently used in their work. For instance, if you have lots of similes in a story, the word "like" would come up larger than other words.

 What made it so much fun for the class members was doing this with the various fonts and COLOR. The site provides color selections and font selections. As a writer of fiction or non-fiction, it's a quick way to check your chapters or stories for word over-use.

It has been wonderful to see the work these young people produce and to learn they've been writing and drawing "forever", as one student told me. She has written 12 short books and writes every night. She is one among many who want to further their education in the Arts and have the full support of their parents. They speak to me of visiting colleges and selected careers, family discussions of their futures and the need to learn. They have lifted me through their work and their attitudes. Our group is considering a writing competition for 8th graders, offering 1st, 2nd & 3rd place certificate recognition and monetary prizes. This must be approved by the school and submission rules are yet to be written. Transylvania writers are at work!

Thanks, Nancy. The gift of your talents will be long-lasting with these children. Most of us have had mentors who helped us get where we are today with our writing successes. The most generous writers seem to be the most successful.

Nancy has published numerous short stories and essays in magazines and anthologies. She leads a writing group, Wordsmiths, and teaches at Brevard College.

Learning Center Kids in Bay Leaves

We learned that some of The Learning Center's students who submitted poems for the contests of the Poetry Society of North Carolina will have their poems published in Bay Leaves, the annual anthology with the winning poems in the annual contests held by the Poetry Society of NC.

In the Charlotte Young Contest for Elementary School Students Eli Sellers won third place and Jade Shelton received an honorable mention. The other contest was called “Carol Bessent Hayman Contest for Middle School Students” and Sam Davidson received honorable mention for his poem.
The names of the poems are:
Eli Sellers- “Dragon!”
Jade Shelton- “Fat Boy”
Samuel Davidson- “WAR”

The Learning Center in Murphy, NC is a charter school headed by Netwest member, Mary Jo Dyre.

Writing in Brevard/Transylvania County

Brevard Writers/Transylvania Writers Alliance Group meets first and third Tuesday of every month at First Presbyterian Church on Main Street at 3:00 PM. County-wide writers group for writers of all genre

In cooperation with local arts “Writing As Art” continues to be hosted by Wayne Drumheller through February, 2011. They meet at 1:30-3:00 PM on third Tuesday of month in reading room at Quotations. This is for writers of all ages who want to go beyond reading and produce, in the short term, their short stories, essay, memoirs and poetry works using illustrations, art and photography.
Limited to eight to ten members. Contact for more details. Minimal cost.

Wayne Drumheller,Writer, Photographer, Storyteller
260 Frank's Cove Road
Brevard, NC 28712

Phone 704-287-9806 cell
Phone 828-877-5133 home office
Email mystory@citcom.net

NANCY SIMPSON'S BOOK LAUNCH AT CITY LIGHTS

Nancy Simpson's long awaited collection of poems, LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, had its official "launch" last Sunday afternoon at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina. Yes, we had champagne, and we toasted Nancy and her book before she began her reading. On hand was her editor Andrea Selch, all the way from Carolina Wren Press in Durham. Spring Street Cafe offered up a great spread of reception food after the reading. Below are assorted photos from the event.

Nancy chats with novelist Sue Ellen Bridgers at the signing table.

Nancy signs a book for Dick Michener.

Andrea Selch and City Lights owner Chris Wilcox confer beside the reception table.

Gary Carden's painting, "Preaching to the Chickens" displayed above one of the reception tables.

Andrea Selch talks with Rosemary Royston.

Nancy brings intensity to her reading! Rose, sitting next to me, remarked that it was the most moving poetry she had heard in a good while.

Andrea and I join Nancy for a photo op. Nancy will be reading at Campbell Folk School on November 4.