Ridgeline Literary Alliance Announces the Winners of the 2014 Young Writers Contest

Ridgeline Literary Alliance (RLA), a newly organized association to encourage writers in Western North Carolina and North Georgia, is proud to announce the winners of the 2014 Young Writers contest, which was sponsored by RLA and the Young Writers of Western North Carolina. 

Winners have been invited to read their work at the RLA/North Carolina Poetry Society (NCPS) reading in Franklin, NC, on July 19, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The event will be held at the Community Facilities Building, 2:00 p.m., July 19. In addition to the winning students, North Carolina poets Glenda Beall and Susan Lefler will read. 

Directions are as follows: From Hwy 64 in Franklin, exit at Hwy 441, go south about 1 mile, see facility on left across from Whistle Stop Mall. This event is free and open to the public.

All the winning prose and poetry from the contest will be published on RLA's website, and as a special student section in a printed anthology that RLA is planning. More details on the anthology will be available on the website soon.

Mary Ricketson, President, of Ridgeline Literary Alliance, said she hoped that all who entered, will enter their submissions again next year. “Not every entry can win, but every entry was a privilege to read. Keep writing.” was her advice to the students.

Winners of the 2014 RIDGELINE LITERARY ALLIANCE Student Writing Contest

Poetry High School winners:

1st Place: Misty Morin, Hayesville High School, "Silence"
2nd Place: Stephanie Howe, Murphy High School, "Senses"

Poetry Middle School winners:
1st Place: Skyler Crubaugh, The Learning Center!, untitled “the early year celery . . .”

2nd Place: Nolan McRae, The Learning Center!, untitled “I work so hard . . .”

3rd Place: Sydney Bolyard, The Learning Center!, “The Girl I Am”

Prose High School winners:

1st place: Kenyon Marasco, Tri-County Early College, “My Proving Ground”

2nd place: Morgan Yigdal , Northwood High School, “Saying Goodbye” 

3rd: Haley Garrett, Hayesville High School, “The Way to Hayesville”

Prose Middle School winners:

1st place: Lucille Crayton, The Learning Center!, “Finding Home”

2nd place: Katelyn Jones, Murphy Middle School, also entitled “Finding Home”

3rd place: Brie Dube, The Learning Center!, “A Journey Out of My World”

North Carolina Writer Announces New Book

Wayne Adams announces his fictional book titled: The Universe Wept. American astronomers discover an asteroid made entirely of gold. Thus begins a tale of international intrigue. Published by Publish America of Frederick, Maryland.

CONTACT: Wayne Adams

TEL: 910-428-9779

EMAIL: tipper1234@embarqmail.com

July's Coffee With the Poets and Writers

Coffee with the Poets and Writers meets Wednesday, July 9, at 10:30 a.m. at Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill on the corner of Hwy 141 and Hwy 64 in Cherokee County, NC. The community is welcome and visitors are invited to participate at open mic by signing up to read a short prose piece or a couple of poems.

Featured this month is Glenda C. Beall, poet and writer from Hayesville, NC. Beall's poems have appeared for the past nineteen years in literary journals and magazines such as Main Street Rag, Appalachian Heritage and Journal of Kentucky Studies. Her work can be found online in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and Your Daily Poem as well as in anthologies, Kakalak, Carolina Poets 2009 and On Our Own, Widowhood for Smarties. Recently a poem was selected for the Reach of Song anthology published by the Georgia Poetry Society, and another is forthcoming in The Southern Poetry Review VII, North Carolina.

She is author of Now Might as Well be Then, a poetry chapbook, published by Finishing Line Press. Her nonfiction has been published in Reunion Magazine, Bereavement magazine, and in several anthologies including Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers.

Beall's writing is influenced by her rural upbringing with six brothers and sisters. Like most poets and writers she observes people, nature, and happenings around her. She uses these observations to create images in her poems, stories and essays. She says she writes to communicate her thoughts and feelings with her readers. She believes poetry should be accessible to the non-writer as well as to other poets. 

A former Program Coordinator for the NC Writers' Network-West, she continues to volunteer as Clay County Representative and facilitator of Coffee with the Poets and Writers. For the past five years she has been owner/director of Writers Circle around the Table, where she has brought outstanding writers and poets from Atlanta, Charlotte, and Hickory, NC as well as the best local writers to teach at her studio. Beall will teach a writing class in August at Tri-County Community College.

For more information about Coffee with the Poets and Writers, call 828-389-4441.