Thursday, January 29, 2015

Award Winning Poets - Don't miss this workshop if you write poetry


Workshop Opportunity with Award-Winning Poets

Chelsea Rathburn and James Davis May are teaching a poetry workshop on Saturday, February 21, 10 am – 1pm, at Young Harris College in Young Harris, GA. The widely published poets, who happen to be married, are both assistant professors of English and creative writing at Young Harris College.

The workshop is geared to intermediate to advanced poets, and the fee is $20 per person.  Reservations are on a first-come/first-served basis.  Send your check, payable  to Rosemary Royston, POB 694, Young Harris, GA, 30582, along with your name, address, and email.  The class will be held on the campus of Young Harris College.  Once registration is received, further details will be provided. 

Rathburn is author of two full-length poetry collections, A Raft of Grief, published by  Autumn House Press in 2013, and The Shifting Line, winner of the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review, and her prose has appeared in Creative Nonfiction. In 2009, she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

May's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Five Points, The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, Pleiades, Rattle, The Southern Review and elsewhere. The former editor of New South, he has received scholarships from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review.

When the two poets read at Writers' Night Out last year, they were well-received and we were urged to have them teach a workshop. Here in our mountains, we are fortunate to have poets of their quality available for classes. 
For more information, please contact Rosemary Royston at 706.897.6667 or rosemary28rr@gmail.com .

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

News News News

Hello, Karen Paul Holmes here. I've been saving up news items, so here is a mishmash:

Give yourself the gift of time to write: Come to my all-genre writing class at the wonderful John C. Campbell Folk School, May 3-9. Locals may qualify for half-price tuition, so get on the list today! Bring a friend for any number of other arts/crafts classes offered that week -- it's like summer camp for adults.   https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=17708

Writers' Night Out will resume in April. We may be switching back to Friday nights, so please let me know your preference.

Some of you know that my dog Watson loves watching TV.
Well, he loves looking at my laptop screen as I type too,
and he's pretty good at grammar.
Have you Googled yourself lately? Recently, I was surprised to find that the poem "Rug" from my book, Untying the Knot, was included in a list of the Top 10 "Red" Poems by Tweetspeak Poetry on Oct 14. Go figure! You an read it and the other top poems using the color red here: http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2014/10/16/top-ten-red-poems/

I've been busy doing readings from my book and workshops, including the Georgia Poetry Society meeting in Gainesville, the Decatur Public Library (as part of the Georgia Center for the Book), and an upcoming reading with Michael Diebert (editor of the Chattahoochee Review) at Callanwolde Arts Center in Atlanta on Feb 11 at 8 pm. My book is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. If you'd like a personalized copy, please let me know. I'm running out of my supply, which is a happy problem for poets.

A new publication is accepting submissions: Sling Magazine. My poem about my mom and dad meeting in Australia during WWII is in the second issue (page 7) here: http://www.slingmag.com/
My mom and dad in Australia, WWII


As It Ought to Be featured two poems on their Saturday Poetry Series, November 15. You can read "Drawn into Circles" (my most published poem) and "Teaching Mozart in Stone Mountain Prison" here:  http://asitoughttobe.com/2014/11/15/saturday-poetry-series-presents-karen-paul-holmes/

OK, folks, I think that's it for the new news. Hope your writing will flourish in 2015.




Monday, January 12, 2015

New Venue for Coffee with the Poets and Writers - Clay County, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers has met at Blue Mountain Restaurant in  Murphy for the past two years. Beginning in March, 2015, this event will meet at Joe's Trading Post and Coffee Shop, 32 Main Street, Hayesville, NC. Joe Powell is owner of the coffee shop. We met at this location when it was  Cafe Touche and run by Liz. The seating is different now and probably will be better for our group. This event is open to  the public and everyone is invited to read a couple of  poems or a prose piece of around 1,000 words,.

The only food sold at Joe's will be his fine varied brands of coffee, soft drinks, tea and a few snack items. He will be open to  the public while we meet. Please pass this change on to anyone who would like to join us on the second Wednesday of each month at 10:30 a.m.

We are pleased that Coffee with the Poets and Writers, sponsored by NCWN West, was founded  in 2007 and has continued with a loyal following ever since.

We will NOT MEET in January or February.
Our featured reader in March will be Bob Grove, well-known man of many talents from Brasstown, NC.
To learn more about reading at Coffee with the Poets and Writers contact Glenda Beall, gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com or call 828-389-4441.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Congratulations to NCWN West member, Pat Davis


We received this email from Pat Davis of Brevard who has published her first mystery novel for teens and young adults. I met Pat in 2008 when she lived in Pennsylvania. We were attending a NCWN Conference and began talking while standing in front of an elevator. That was the beginning of a friendship we still enjoy. A native of Transylvania County, NC, Pat moved back to the mountains and continued with her writing. Give this new writer a try. Order her book on Kindle. That is what I am doing. Glenda Beall


From Pat Davis:
I'm delighted to announce the publication of my Teen and Young Adult mystery novel, THE NIGHT THE DANCING STOPPED.

It is now available on Kindle eBooks for $2.99 or through a variety of other e-sellers for approximately the same price.
The paperback is still in the review process and will go on sale on Amazon and other book retailers in a week or two.

I hope you will consider buying my eBook or paperback. The story has characters of all ages, and adults have reported enjoying reading it too. For those of you familiar with the Blue Ridge/Great Smoky Mountains area, many locations will be familiar, although they are used fictitiously.

If you purchase and enjoy The NIGHT THE DANCING STOPPED, please write a REVIEW. Sales and Reviews are crucial to the success of this novel. Thanks for your continuing encouragement and the purchase and review of my first foray into fiction writing.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Netwest member published e-book about rescue operation during Viet Nam War


Tom Davis via Old Mountain Press has published an eBook for Amazon Kindle and Nook entitled Operation Ivory Coast AKA The Son Tay Raid: A Short Briefing. This briefing was found over 20 years ago (40 years after the operation) in a classified US portion of the Korean Special Forces Compound near Seoul, Korea. 

In Operation Ivory Coast, a group of 61 Special Forces soldiers conducted a rescue operation to free prisoners-of-war deep inside North Vietnam. Tom has introductory notes followed by the briefing. There are several things in this 1368 word briefing that pique one’s interest. Of particular note are the named Americans who are listed as assets. One in particular you won't believe!http://www.oldmp.com/e-book/#sontay