Review of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Stories, Essays, and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains

NCWN West appreciates Helen Losse, poetry editor of the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. She has given Echoes Across the Blue Ridge a very positive  review. Click here to read.


Be sure to visit Dead Mule and submit your poetry for the next online issue.
This online journal also accepts essays and fiction. Check them out.

Carden's plays premiered Highlands Performing Arts Center

Congratulations to Gary Carden!

His new plays premiered at the Highlands Performing Arts Center this past weekend. "It was an incredibly successful event," according to Gary and we all knew it would be. He just won a Fleming Award for short story ($500). He was unable to attend the awards ceremony in Augusta, GA because he was in rehearsals for his newest play"Signs and Wonders."

The performance in Highlands included another of Carden's plays, The Bright Forever. This is a story about Shelby Jean and a young evangelical preacher in rural Georgia. "The Bright Forever" is a true story of Fanny Crosby, a blind woman who wrote 8000 hymns, including Blessed Assurance. The two theatrical pieces present a contrasting view on how religion affects people’s lives and were directed by Ronnie Spilton.

Gary Carden has been described as a storyteller with the "ability to blend humor with poignancy, a blend that allows him to bring to the reader the great themes of human existence -- love, death, bravery, fear, desire, success, failure -- without having to beat the reader over the head with these themes" by the Smoky Mountain News. Gary is also a folklorist and a storyteller. He was raised by his grandparents in Jackson County in a house filled with the past.

He says, “I grew up listening to a great deal of foolishness about 'bad blood' (mine), black Irish curses (my grandfather's) and the evils of being 'left handed' (I couldn't play a musical instrument.) I grew up with the cows, June apple trees, comic books, the Farmers' Federation and Saturday movies. My first stories I told to my grandfather's chickens in a dark chicken-house when I was six years old. My audience wasn't attentive and tended to get hysterical during the dramatic parts.”

He graduated from Western Carolina University and taught literature and drama for 15 years, worked for the Cherokee Indians for 15 years and has spent the last 15 years as a lecturer and storyteller. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from Western Carolina University in August 2008. Carden said in his commencement speech, "I couldn't get out of Appalachia quick enough" after his 1958 graduation from what was then known as Western Carolina College. "I wanted to be near theaters, book stores and nice restaurants. I wanted some culture," he said.

For 15 years, Carden worked as a teacher in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, but as the years passed he said he became less and less happy.

Eventually, Carden came back to Sylva, NC for a visit and stopped at WCU's Mountain Heritage Center to hear a program by Southern Appalachian poet Jim Wayne Miller. Through the poems in his collection, "The Mountains Have Come Closer," Miller exhorts his readers to "come home."

"I took him literally, and I came home," Carden said. "I moved in my grandfather's house in Rhodes Cove, and for the past 40 years I've been trying - striving - to remember where I came from."

Other Carden plays and stories include "The Raindrop Waltz," "The Tannery Whistle," and "The Prince of Dark Corners."

NCWN West is grateful to Gary for the generous gift of his play, Birdell, which was presented in Murphy, NC in 2008. The ticket sales for this play were donated to NCWN West for the printing and publishing of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. This is a good example of different forms of the arts community working together for the good of all.

Thank you, Gary, for your donation of the excellent play, Birdell.

 

 

Mitchell and Newton read poetry October 8

WRITERS’ NIGHT OUT FEATURES TWO POETS, OCTOBER 8

Writers’ Night Out will feature poets Maren O. Mitchell and Clarence Newton followed by an Open Microphone for those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction.

The event takes place October 8 at 7:00 p.m. in Wilson Lecture Hall at Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia.

Maren O. Mitchell has worked as a proofreader, managed a group home, taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. A North Carolina native, she now lives in Towns County, GA with her husband and two cats. Her poetry publishing credits include Red Clay Reader, The Richmond Broom, The Arts Journal, Appalachian Journal, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Southern Humanities Review and the anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.

Clarence Newton, who lives in Hiawassee, GA, puts both humor and wisdom into his writings. Once a guest writer for several newspapers, he has turned his love of writing toward poetry. He has studied under former Poet Laureate of Georgia Bettie Sellers and under poet and resident writer at John C. Campbell Folk School, Nancy Simpson. His work appears in Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. After a long career in aviation, Clarence now finds inspiration in the things of retirement, such as fishing, gardening, and birding.

Writers’ Night Out takes place the second Friday evening of every month from 7-8:30 p.m. Formerly at Mountain Perk Coffee House in Hiawassee, the event now takes place at Young Harris College in Wilson Lecture Hall, which is located in the Goolsby Center on the campus. Parking is free.

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

TWO LAUREATES ON THE LAM

An Evening of Southern Poetry 
Monday, October 4, 2010 at 7 PM
Wesleyan College, Benson Room
4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, GA 31210
Former North Carolina Poet Laureate and Wesleyan Alumna Kathryn Stripling Byer and current North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers, plus Macon native Robert Perry Ivey, will recite original work. This event is sponsored by the Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar Lecture Series, dedicated to celebrating Southern culture and recognized as the most important lecture series on Southern history and literature in the United States. Free and open to the public. 478-757-5228

Two Laureates on the Lam
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Wesleyan College, Porter Auditorium
4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, GA 31210
Enjoy poetry readings by Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer and current North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers. This event is sponsored by the Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar Lecture Series, dedicated to celebrating Southern culture and recognized as the most important lecture series on Southern history and literature in the United States. Free and open to the public. 478-757-5228

Poetry in Music
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Wesleyan College, Benson Room
4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, GA 31210
Hear the beautiful poetry of Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer set to music. This event is sponsored by the Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar Lecture Series, dedicated to celebrating Southern culture and recognized as the most important lecture series on Southern history and literature in the United States. Free and open to the public. 478-757-5228

Writing as Art in Brevard

"Writing As Art" Workshop At Quotations Cafe Conference Room, Brevard,NC
Creating and Writing Your Story Book using StoryBook Creator Plus 3


Tuesday, September 28, 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Wireless connection for computers

This Workshop is designed for users of Creative Memories digital software or those who might be interested in seeing a demonstration of how this software works to create personal digital books of poetry, memoir writings, children and family books, art prints, photographic designs, etc.

No cost----just a cup of coffee or tea
Please confirm your attendance

Wayne Drumheller, Writer, Photographers, Self-Publishing
260 Frank's Cove Road
Brevard, NC 28712
Phone 704-287-9806 cell Phone 828-877-5133

NETWEST PICNIC AT WCU

Our annual picnic which took place on Sept. 12 on the picnic grounds at Western Carolina University, brought out some good food and even better words shared by our members and guests. Special guest Cathy Smith Bowers, our current Poet Laureate, read work from her most recent collections. She came with friend Jeff Davis, a poet from Asheville, who was in graduate school with me years ago. His blog is Natures (www.naturespoetry.blogspot.com). Give it a look. Cathy herself is learning her way around cyberspace. She now has a facebook page and is working on a website. Her New and Selected Poems will be out in November from Press 53 in Winston-Salem.

(Cathy and Jeff)



An old friend, George Ellison (www.georgeellison.com), came to visit, along with his wife, the painter Elizabeth Ellison, and treated us to some of the new work in his ongoing Permanent Camp manuscript, including a sonnet by his dog Zeke. George hopes to bring out this manuscript under his Unaka Range imprint soon. Some of you may remember the journal Unaka Range from several decades ago, its attempt to give voice to WNC poets. If so, you can see how George's new work has special resonance.

Here is Zeke's sonnet.

“If there was a dog heaven … a simulated sonnet,”

There would be mountains and valleys like these.

There would be a swift creek to drink from and wade in.

There would be bear brutes and wild hogs from hell to fight.

There would be lesser critters galore: coons weasels coyotes et al.

There would be a pinkish-white horse and a black barn cat to chase.

There would be a woman to walk with me feed me and fuss at me.

There would be a man who talks with me and writes poems about me.

There would be better company dog-wise than is presently the case.

There would be a dog like Maggie, now dead, who (or whom) I still miss.

There would be a house like this to sleep in and a deck to lie on.

There would be a tree-lined meadow across the swift creek and

a trail alongside the creek that leads into a

dark forest of smells and sounds … if there

was a dog heaven it would be like this.

Joyce and Allen Moore listen to George as he reads Zeke's sonnet.


After several readings by Nancy Simpson, Brenda Kay Ledford, Linda Smith, and others, we broke for food! Need I say more?

Dick Michener mans the book table. He looks happy!

After supper Angela Dove read from her recently published book.

Followed by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, who drove up from South Carolina.



JC Walkup was on hand to share her fiction.



Even Lord Byron was there, charming Netwest member Deanna Klingel. I didn't want to leave him in the house on such a beautiful September afternoon. I am wondering when, or if, he will ever write a sonnet!

Thanks to all who came to this event. We hope you will continue to support Netwest in the months to come.

Echoes Across the Blue Ridge now on Amazon

Echoes Across the Blue Ridge is now available on Amazon.com thanks to William Reynolds one of the authors in the anthology and owner of the publishing company, Double Eagle Enterprises. One very positive review has been writton on Amazon. More reviews would be appreciated.
Plans are to have Echoes Across the Blue Ridge on Kindle very soon.
Click here.

Remember, the anthology can be ordered from local Independent bookstores.
City Lights Books in Sylva will take orders online.

In Brasstown, NC, Carolina Crafting carries Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.
If you live in the area or if you are attending John C. Campbell Folk School, drop by and pick up copies for gifts or for yourself. This popular gift and craft shop is located in the shops of Brasstown.

BOOK NOOK BOOK SIGNING

Bettie M. Sellers, Blanche L. Ledford, Brenda Kay Ledford, Linda M. Smith, Maren O. Mitchell, Nancy Simpson, Carole Richard Thompson, and Jo Carolyn Beebe, signed copies of ECHOES ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE on Saturday, September 18, at the Book Nook in Blairsville, GA. North Carolina Writers' Network West published the anthology and Nancy Simpson edited it. The book is available at local book stores.