JC Walkup from Canton, NC

The Power of Memorization

--Rosemary Royston

As your Program Coordinator, I challenge you this month to do some memorization. Like diagramming sentences, I believe memorization is becoming a lost art….(am I the only one who actually enjoyed diagramming sentences?). However, keeping our brains active throughout our entire lives is healthy, and I’m prompted to share this challenge with you in light of our upcoming poetry month (April). Wouldn’t it be wonderful to “testify” to the power of poetry by quoting a poem to your family and friends? I can still quote from memory the first poem that ever moved me – “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost (you may read it here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19977). Frost’s poem was in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and it was a very appropriate poem for the subject matter of the book – young men whose golden youth slipped away too fast and too violently.

If you recall your own days of primary and elementary school, there were other great pieces of literature or history that you likely memorized. Ms. Burton of Elbert County Elementary School (Georgia) made our entire fourth grade class memorize and recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I can still recall the scent of the ink and the dampness of the paper from the mimeograph machine (where all the ink was purple, not black). I was overwhelmed and fearful of learning such a long and important speech, but the skills I gained from memorizing and then reciting to my classroom peers are skills I still use today. I’ve also found that when I get a line to a poem it helps for me to let it simmer. While I always carry a journal to jot things down, sometimes I force myself to memorize and hold onto the poem before doing so. I once wrote a poem in my head driving from Atlanta to Blairsville. I memorized it before putting it down on paper, and it’s one of my best poems.

So give your mind a workout. Memorize a poem or your favorite section of a prose piece. Share it with someone you care about. A good place to begin: Shakespeare’s sonnets. There’s a reason poems were written in rhyme…they were easier to memorize. Pick a sonnet (or write your own) for your Valentine and recite it – definitely a unique and touching gift!

GATHERING OF POETS IN WINSTON-SALEM

On April 9, Press 53 and Jacar Press (in Durham) are sponsoring a day-long gathering of poets, featuring workshops with Fred Chappell, Val Nieman, Alex Grant, among others, and a faculty reading in the afternoon, including Isabel Zuber. I will also be doing a workshop. This sounds like a lot of fun, so please visit http://www.press53.com/GatheringofPoets2011.html to view the schedule and sign up to participate in this collaborative effort for the cause of poetry in our state!

Read About What You Missed at AWP

If, like me, you did not make it to the AWP Conference in Washington D. C. this weekend, you might enjoy this site where a writer is sharing her experience there on her blog.
She is writing about the sessions she attends each day and I found her posts very interesting. Today she found that creative non-fiction is still a mystery to most writers.

Meet Glenda Beall

--by Paula Canup

Glenda Beall cannot remember a time when she didn’t love to write. “As a child, I loved getting school supplies so I could write on my fresh new paper,” she says. She began her writing career with stories about horses.

Now she writes poems, essays, and fiction inspired by family and neighbors. Her writing often revolves around themes of deep pain, loss, and injustice. In 2009, Finishing Line Press published her first poetry chapbook, entitled Now Might as Well Be Then. She has had personal essays, memoirs, and a short story published in various magazines. In addition, she writes newspaper articles and especially enjoys writing about unique people.

Glenda also maintains three different blogs online. Her many projects keep her busy, writing several hours each day. “The most difficult thing about being a writer,” she says, “is having the self-discipline to complete a project – to go back day after day and work on the same thing. Writing is fun, but rewriting is often not so much fun.” Another difficult aspect of being a writer is having to market her work – the business end of writing. Many excellent writers are never published because they don’t want to go the trouble of submitting their work.

Glenda is an active member of North Carolina Writers Network – west (Netwest). She helps with publicity for the organization and sometimes does articles about other writers in the group. Her best advice for aspiring writers is to get involved in such groups and participate in as many conferences and workshops as possible. Writers can learn a great deal from networking with other writers.

One of Glenda’s greatest accomplishments as a writer is teaching others to write. She holds classes in her home studio. Glenda especially loves encouraging older people to discover their writing ability. She believes all of us are continually changing throughout life, and we should never be afraid of new challenges. It’s never too late to make dreams come true!

Glenda contributed to Netwest’s latest anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains, edited by Nancy Simpson and published by Winding Path Publishing The book is available at local bookstores and on-line at www.ncwriters.org and at www.amazon.com.

Asheville Poet to Read in Hiawassee

This month, Writers’ Night Out features poet Tracey Schmidt in an evening of literary and musical entertainment. The event takes place at Green to Bean Coffee House in Hiawassee on Friday, February 11 at 7:00 p.m. Those who’d like to share their own poetry or fiction can participate in the Open Microphone portion of the program which follows Schmidt’s reading. Music will be provided by hammered dulcimer player Mary Sparks.

Schmidt’s first book of poetry, I Have Fallen in Love with the World, has just been released. She has taught creativity at Julia Cameron’s (author of The Artist's Way) Taos Creativity Camp and continues to teach in the Asheville area, where she now lives. Schmidt attended college in Atlanta, studying literature and photography. At the age of 19, she moved to Japan to live in a Buddhist monastery. Her spiritual practices there awakened a desire to return to the U.S. in search of a tradition that was as authentic and indigenous here as Buddhism has been in Japan. Her photography exhibit, The Awakening of Turtle Island: Portraits of Native Americans was the result. It opened in Atlanta for the Olympics and has toured over 16 museums in the southeast, including the Cherokee Museum of the American Indian. It will begin a national tour in 2012.

Writers’ Night Out takes place the second Friday evening of each month. Green to Bean Coffee House is located at 538 Bell Creek Road in Hiawassee, next to the Humane Society Thrift Shop and across from McDonald’s. Come early to get a seat: The event has been well attended by enthusiastic audiences. The evening is free and open to the public. Light snacks and refreshments, including coffees from freshly roasted beans, are available for purchase.

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 Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com, or call Green to Bean at 706-896-4524.

Poetry Contest from Carolina Wren Press

2011 Poetry Book Contest

Carolina Wren's next poetry book contest will take submissions with a deadline of 2/15/2011. The final judge for this contest will be Lee Ann Brown and we anticipate results in September 2011. The new postmark deadline is February 15, 2011. This will give you time to visit our booth at AWP and pick up something special from us (hint hint!).

Download full guidelines.

Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in its fourteenth year

Blue Ridge Writers' Conference will be held in Blue Ridge, Georgia just south of the Western NC line on April 1 and 2 .

Go to their beautiful website to see the schedule of presenters and to complete an application.
http://www.blueridgewritersconference.com/

Some Netwest members will be signing books at the Friday evening Reception which is a special Meet and Greet event for writers to meet the presenters.

Carol Crawford, one of the leaders of Netwest years ago, leads this conference each year and brings in outstanding speakers. This year Hope Clark of Funds for Writers will be on hand to personally give us some of the advice she doles out in her newsletter and on her blog. Scott Owens, poet from Hickory, will speak about online journals and talk from his experience as an editor.
For other presenters, visit the website.