Writers' Night Features Helen Losse, May 17, Blairsville, GA

Writers' Night Out (WNO) has successfully changed locations: The event takes place at the lovely Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA. Depending on availability, we will meet either in the upstairs banquet room or Conference Rooms A/B on the first floor. Map is here

Helen Losse, Poet and Poetry Editor Emeritus, Dead Mule Society of Southern Literature

May 17 features Helen Losse, poet from Winston Salem. She has three books of poetry, Better With Friends, Seriously Dangerous, and Facing a Lonely West (just released from Main Street Rag), as well as three chapbooks. 

Banquet Room

Union County Community Center

Agenda

Second Saturdays every month (except May 17 and October 18)

6 pm free coffee and tea, optional dinner to purchase
7 pm featured reader(s)
7:45 open mic
Sign up at door for open mic. Prose or poetry, 3 minute limit.

For more information, contact Karen Paul Holmes, kpaulholmes AT gmail.com

Ledford Wins NCPS Poetry Contest

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Flying Squirrel," won Honorable Mention in the Caldwell Nixon, Jr. category of the 2014 North Carolina Poetry Society adult poetry contest.

Her poem was published in the NCPS anthology, Pinesong.

Contest winners will read their work at Award's Day.  The meeting will be held at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities at Southern Pines, NC; Saturday, May 24, 2014.

For information:  http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org.

You may visit Brenda Kay Ledford's blogs at:

http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com
http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com

Netwest Poetry Group

Tonight I returned to the Netwest Poetry Critique group after a long absence. It was good to be back home in the conference room at Tri-County Community College in Cherokee County, NC. Janice Moore is the facilitator for this group and has been our leader for many years. Janice is also one of the Netwest Representatives for Clay County. 

We discussed the history of this group that goes back about twenty years. Nancy Simpson, Netwest co-founder, told me that Dr. Gene Hirsch started this monthly group when he lived in Murphy two decades ago. After he moved away, Nancy took over the group which included prose and poetry writers. They eventually divided into two groups that meet monthly. Today we have a prose group, which includes all writing that is not poetry, and it is led by Bob Groves. The prose group meets on the second Thursday of the month. 

How fortunate we are in this mountain region to have dedicated members who continue our events through the years. I felt warm and fuzzy sitting down to share my poetry with old friends, writers I've known for years, writers whose families I know, and I am sure I will continue to go to these meetings in months to come. 

Without the eyes of other writers who see what I don't see in my own work, I would likely not have published anything. First drafts are not usually our best work so we need to have others read and give us feedback so we can tighten, cut, or do whatever is needed to make our final product the best it can be.

Thank you, Janice Moore, and all the poets at the meeting tonight. It was good to go home again. 

Poetry Workshop by Dr. Gene Hirsch

Poets and writers in western North Carolina recognize Dr. Gene Hirsch as the founder of the writing program at the John C. Campbell Folk School. 

He has taught poetry there for twenty-two years. Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC will host a workshop, Inspiration and Poets’ Block, by Hirsch on Sunday afternoon, May 25, 1-4 p.m.

Gene Hirsch is a former professor of Medicine with over 50 years background in teaching human experience, meaning and values and the emotional care of sick and dying people to doctors and medical students. He has conducted poetry workshops widely for health professionals as an expressive adjunct to their caring experiences, as well as for poets in Western NC.

His poetry has appeared in medical and non-medical journals such as Pharos (Medical Honor Society), Hiram Poetry Review, Pittsburgh Gazette, Journal of Medical Humanities, Fetishes (Univ. of Colorado), Journal of the American Medical Society, Human Quest.  He has written two books, Along the Rutty Pot Hole Road and You Shall Die Again No More.  Anthologies include Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Tyranny of the Normal, Crossing Limits (African Americans and American Jews).  He has produced five volumes of Freeing Jonah, poetry, from Western North Carolina.

Writers sometimes feel they must wait to be inspired before they can create a poem. Often they feel blocked and become frustrated with themselves.

Hirsch says, “Inspiration and writer’s block are two widely used, poorly understood antithetical terms.  In this class we will study and share your views and experiences with these concepts.” He asks participants of this class, limited to 8 students, to bring a poem to discuss in terms of inspiration and meaning to the poet, and bring 10 copies. 

Western North Carolina and North Georgia is an area where poets have flourished in the past twenty years due to knowledgeable teachers such as Dr. Hirsch and Nancy Simpson of Hayesville. Poetry books by local writers are published each year.

While writing is a solitary art, writers need community and coming together with others.  To register for this poetry workshop, contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 or email glendabeall@aol.com . Find more online at www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com.

Order Tom Davis' Memoir Now and Get Free Shipping

In his memoir, Tom Davis relates his experiences during the thirty-one years he spent in the US Army, rising through the ranks from private to full colonel. Twenty of those years he served with US Army Special Forces (Green Berets). 

This book chronicles his time in three combat zones: Vietnam, Bosnia, and Iraq/Turkey. Included are his experiences commanding Special Forces Operational 'A ' Detachments which specialized in Underwater Operations, High Altitude Low Opening Parachuting, Mountaineering, and Small Atomic Demolitions Munitions as well as two Special Forces Battalions and a Joint Special Operations Task Force. Each chapter covers his duties and responsibilities at the Army Installation where he served.

Sometimes funny. Sometimes sad. Always interesting. Order a printed book now at  www.oldmp.com/davismemoirs and get FREE shipping.