Friday, May 29, 2015

SUBMISSION PERIOD FOR THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL DOGFISH HEAD POETRY PRIZE OPENS MEMORIAL DAY!

Submission Guidelines for the Thirteenth Annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize
The thirteenth annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for the winning book-length manuscript by a poet residing in the Mid-Atlantic states (DE, MD, VA, PA, NJ, NY, WVA, NC and District of Columbia) will consist of $500, two cases of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Beer*, manuscript publication by Broadkill River Press, and 10 copies of the book (in lieu of royalties).

The rules are: Manuscripts must be received by midnight, September 7, 2015 (Labor Day). Manuscripts received after Labor Day will not be considered. Eligible poets must reside in the above listed states and be twenty-one years of age or older by the date of the award. * The manuscript is to be submitted electronically in one MS Word document attachment. Send to Prize coordinator Linda Blaskey at dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net. Snail mail submissions will not be accepted.*

Send two title pages with each submission: one with the title of the manuscript, author’s name, address, phone numbers and e-mail address; the second with just the manuscript title. No manuscript is to have any author-identifying information other than the one title page and will be rejected if it does. The manuscript should have an acknowledgement page of poems previously published, and in which publications and/or websites they appeared. Judging is blind and double-tiered.

The manuscript must be book-length (between 48 and 78 pages of original work – no translations) and no more than roughly thirty lines to a page, including the poem’s title and two line-spaces between the title and the body of the poem. A poem may be more than one page. The book’s dimensions will be 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches, with a minimum of half-inch side margins, and printed in 12 point type, so avoid very long lines.

The award will be presented to the winner on Saturday evening, December 12, 2015 at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware or at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth, Delaware (venue to be decided). The winner must agree to attend this event and to read from their winning book at a reception honoring the winner. The prize will be officially awarded by Sam Calagione, Founder and CEO of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Distillery, or by another company official.

The author of the winning manuscript also agrees to provide, within ten days of notification, a color head-shot photograph for the back cover and a dedication for the interior of the book. The winner agrees to travel to Delaware at the winner’s expense for awarding of the prize. Dogfish Head will provide the winner one night’s lodging at the Dogfish Inn in Lewes, Delaware.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales retains the right to use any of the winning work in promotional materials.

For questions and more information contact Linda Blaskey, Prize coordinator, at linblask@aol.com


*North Carolina  Writers and Poets are under no financial obligations to Dogfish Head Brewery, and are not accepting gifts from Dogfish Head Brewery.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Maren O. Mitchell's Poems to Appear in Appalachian Heritage and Iodine Poetry Journal

Maren O. Mitchell

Maren O. Mitchell’s poem, “Cougar, Blue Ridge,” will appear in Appalachian Heritage; and her poems, “Catching the Flu after a 10 Year Hiatus” and “Hank, Clarinetist, The Platinum Lounge, Chicago, 1932,” will be published by Iodine Poetry Journal.








Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Brenda Kay Ledford Graduates From Stratford Career Institute

Brenda Kay Ledford earned a diploma of highest honors in Creative Writing from Stratford Career Institute.  She maintained a 96% grade average in the course. 

This institute offers more than 60 courses online for adults who wish to further their education.

For more information:  www.scitraining.com

http://blueridgepoet.blogspot.com

http://historicalhayesville.blogspot.com




Monday, May 18, 2015

Brenda Kay Ledford Published in ENO

Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Reece Farm," appeared in ENO.  This magazine is published by Duke University, the Nicholas School of Environment.  The poem was included in Issue 4/2015.
For information:  www.enomag.org



Steven Harvey Class, The Mnemonics of Memoir, June 27, 10 AM–1 PM, Hayesville, NC


Steven Harvey
Steven Harvey, Instructor


Memory coming to us as a strange concoction of thought and dream is the source of memoir, personal essays, and other forms of creative nonfiction. Some memories come unbidden, others emerge in the writing process, and some reluctant ones need to be teased out.


What tools can the writer use to access these memories, even the shy ones, and see them vividly enough and in enough detail to use in a memoir or essay? In this class we will begin by looking at a range of techniques that can be used to access memories.


Then, through a series of exercises, we will apply a number of these techniques to a single memory to enrich our experience of it. Finally, we will offer suggestions to use these techniques, in our writing, to make our personal texts more powerful.

Students should bring paper and a pen even if they plan to use a computer to write. Interested parties should contact Glenda C. Beall, at Hayesville, NC.

Upcoming Anthology for WNC Women, "It's All Relative" - A Reminder from Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham


To those who have submitted and those who may submit poems and prose for the fourth anthology: "It’s All Relative"

A reminder and a request from Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham

· The deadline for submitting is June 1.

· Publication is planned for the fall with a party and perhaps a reading at a local bookstore

· If you know a Western North Carolina woman writer who may not have received our announcement, pass on the information or have her contact Celia or Nancy.

· All those whose submissions are published will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology. But…

· You may reserve additional copies—to help us determine the initial print order—at the tentative price of $16.00 per copy. Your reserved copies will stay at that price, but since we don’t know the cost yet of the printing, the final price may be higher (though we hope not).

· Please let us know if you wish to reserve one or more additional copies.

· We are also offering Women’s Spaces Women’s Places at $10.00 per copy to contributors. Clothes Lines is now out of print.

We are looking forward to an interesting compilation of family stories and situations.

Contact Celia Miles - celiahoopermiles@gmail.com

Congratulations to Bob Grove

Bob Grove, author of several books, has been awarded three gold medals for his  entries in the Cherokee and Clay County Silver Arts writing competition.

The first-place medals were for his short story, The Switch; his essay, A moral Conundrum; and his performance reading of The Follies of Youth, also written by Bob and delivered at the closing ceremonies of the Senior Games on May 16.


Bob Grove, medal winner

His recent memoir, Misadventures of an Only Child, can be found on Amazon.com. Bob is facilitator of the NCWN West Prose group that meets monthly at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. He is known locally for his humor, his tales of the antics of his youth and his annual Christmas season performance of Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Just one more day - Kakalak submission due May 15

Submit now to Kakalak 2015. 

 Poets and Artists of the Carolinas, this is from editors of Kakalak 2015. 
 
Thanks to everyone who has already entered the KAKALAK 2015 poetry and art contests. If you haven't, this is a gentle reminder that we need your poems, your inside art (photography or photos of your artwork) by May 15.

Please visit the Main Street Rag web site for guidelines ( www.mainstreetrag.com, click on Kakalak 2015).    

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

A Large Turnout For Karen Holmes, Poet, at Coffee with the Poets and Writers, Hayesville, NC

Coffee with the Poets and Writers met Wednesday at Joe’s Coffee House in Hayesville, NC. We had an overflow crowd. Our hostess, Cindy, brought in chairs from outside to seat everyone as they continued to enter.

A lovely day here in the Appalachian Mountains invited us all to get out and enjoy the sunshine, low humidity, and a poet who has blossomed this past year.  Karen Paul Holmes, a resident of Atlanta and Hiawassee, Georgia, published her first book of poetry, Untying the Knot, last year. Reviewers praised her work and she has read to large groups in Atlanta as well as other places. Her book is for sale online. To get an autographed copy, find Karen locally at Writers Night Out in Blairsville, GA on the second Friday night of the month. The event takes place at the Union County Community building at Butternut Creek Golf Course.

After Karen’s reading today, we held Open Mic, a time for our guests to read a couple of poems or a short story. Paul Schofield chose to read a chapter from the upcoming fourth book of his Trophy series. Paul writes Future Fiction. Find his books on Amazon.com.

Dr. Eugene Hirsch was with us today and read two poems. Dr. Hirsch, along with Nancy Simpson and Janice Moore, were major players in the creation of NCWN West. Nancy read two poems from her most recent book, Living Above the Frost Line published by Carolina Wren Press.

NCWN West (Netwest) appreciates Joe Powell of Joe’s CoffeeHouse, 82 Main Street, for giving our writers a place to meet. We thank Cindy who is the perfect hostess.

After our meeting several of us walked down the block and had lunch at Angelo’s, on the corner of the town square. We discussed Hayesville, Netwest, and plans for the future. Our literary community in the far western part of North Carolina is thriving.


We invite others to join us on the second Wednesday of each month, 10:30 a.m. at Joe’s. In June our featured readers are Joan Gage and Mary Ricketson. We look forward to another enjoyable day.



Joan Ellen Gage



Mary Ricketson





Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Laurence Holden's poem "Only the River Now" in June issue of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel & at "Seedtime on the Cumberland" Celebration




Laurence Holden will read his poem "Only the River Now" at the June 6th launch of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel: Volume 18, The Dead, held at the Southern Appalachian Writers Collaborative Summer Gathering/Reading.  This will be Appalshop's 29th annual Seedtime on the Cumberland in Whitesburg, Kentucky, celebrating Appalachian people, music, arts, and culture.

You can listen live to this reading June 6th at 12 noon on WMMT-FM 88.7

Laurence's poem in this issue "Only the River Now" was inspired by the nearby river, the Chattooga, the surrounding mountain community, and the way things pass there. The author says that it is the only poem he has ever written that comes close to being a story. After he had written it, he put it away in a drawer very unsure about its "narrative arc," or even what that really meant. Several writers told him it was very important to have this arc. So months later he had an opportunity to ask his poet friend Mildred Greear, who writes ballads, what a story needs. She said - it only has to be true! Without her saying that, this poem would never have seen the light of day. So, of course, Laurence dedicated the poem to her.