Writers and poets in the far western mountain area of North Carolina and bordering counties of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee post announcements, original work and articles on the craft of writing.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Maren Mitchell poems published
Maren O. Mitchell 's poem, "Watching Water," is published in Still: The Journal, #23 Winter 2017, in Poetry Sampler: River, and two poems, "Lois Hampton, Striptease Artiste, Expatriate, Paris" and "Lois Hampton, Homesick Striptease Artiste" in Wild Goose Poetry Review. Appalachian Heritage has published her poem, "Tree Watching" in the Winter 2017 issue.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Local poet Brenda Kay Ledford to read at Coffee With the Poets and Writers, on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 10:30 AM, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC
Coffee
with the Poets and Writers, a monthly literary event held at Moss Memorial
Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC, will hold a reading at 10:30 AM, Wednesday,
April 19, 2017. Brenda Kay Ledford, award winning poet and native of Clay
County is featured on the program this month.
Ledford
is a seventh-generational native of Clay County. She was an honor graduate of
Hayesville High School, earned her MA in Education from Western Carolina
University, and received a diploma of highest honors in Creative Writing from
Stratford Career Institute.
Ledford's
work has appeared in many journals including Our State, Woman's World, Country Extra, Chicken Soup for
the Soul, Angels on Earth, 30 Old Mountain Press anthologies,
and Blue Ridge Parkway Silver Anniversary Edition coffee-table
book.
Ledford is listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, North Carolina
Literary Map, North Carolina Storytelling Guild, and Who's Who in
America. She has appeared on the "Common Cup," talk show on Windstream
Communication's cable television and has interviewed on "The
Blue Sky Show" on WJUL/WJRB Radio Station. Additionally, Ledford gives regional poetry
readings.
We
welcome the public to join us at Coffee with the Poets and Writers. Please listen and enjoy, or read a poem or short prose
piece at Open Mic. We are a friendly audience. After the meeting, we go out to
lunch and invite our guests to join us.
NCWN-West
is a program of the largest literary organization in the state of North
Carolina, The North Carolina Writers' Network. Contact Glenda Beall,
828-389-4441 or gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com
for more information.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Local Poet Mary Ricketson to be featured at two Western North Carolina Events, April 14th and May 5th, 2017
Poet Mary Ricketson |
Original art by local and regional artists will be available for $50., music by Heidi Holton, and samples of pizza and beer by Hoppy Trout Brewing Co., Andrews, NC. Mary will talk about poetry and display her books.
On May 5, 2017, poet Mary Ricketson will be the featured author at the Curiosity Shop Bookstore, Valley River Ave, Murphy NC, during the first Friday art walk of the year, the Murphy Art Walk, held from 5-8 PM.
Mary
Ricketson of Murphy NC, has been writing poetry for 20 years; to satisfy a
hunger, to taste life down to the very last drop. She is
inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future
Cycle Press, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Lights in the Mountains,
Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Freeing Jonah, her chapbook I Hear the River Call my Name, and her poetry book Hanging Dog Creek. She is the Cherokee County Representative
for the North Carolina Writers Network-West, and is the president of Ridgeline
Literary Alliance.
She
won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior
Games/Silver Arts and silver medal for 2012 and 2013, and first place
in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national
poetry contest.
She
writes a monthly column, "Women to Women", for The Cherokee Scout, Murphy's newspaper. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, an
organic blueberry farmer, and is currently working on a new
collection of poetry.
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Writers' Night Out Features Newton Smith & Robert Lee Kendrick
Our 2017 Season Opens on April 14 in Blairsville, GA
You're invited to hear poems from two
Ph.D. poets who have new, highly acclaimed books: Newton Smith will read from his Camino Poems: Reflections on the Way,
and Robert Lee Kendrick from his Winter
Skin. After the featured readers, there's an open microphone for anyone wanting to share their own poems or prose. All this takes place at 7 pm on April 14 at the beautiful Union County Community Center. Please note, we will be meeting in a first floor conference room this month rather than the ballroom, and the grill will not be open for dinner until May.
Of the two books, celebrated North Carolina author, Ron Rash,
says: “Newt Smith’s spiritual journey is rendered with such attentiveness and
fidelity that we become his fellow travelers. We too share the pain and effort
but above all the wonder, and are reminded that in matters of the spirit the
journey and destination can be one,” and “Robert Lee Kendrick’s poems transport
the reader into the deep, dark souls of his narrators, but the elegance of his
language gives the poems a rough, hard-earned grace.”
Smith, who lives in Tuckasegee, NC, received his Ph.D. from
University of North Carolina. He's the treasurer of NCWN-West and a retired professor who taught creative writing,
poetry and literature at Western Carolina University. He has been published
widely in literary magazines including Southern
Poetry Review, Carolina Quarterly, Ann Arbor Review, Poetry Review, Main Street
Rag, and others. Smith now devotes his time to travel, gardening, Buddhist
studies, mindfulness practices, and hiking in nature, especially in the Smoky
Mountains. During his 2014 pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago he wrote a
poem every day reflecting on the physical body, nature, and the spiritual.
Kendrick also has a Ph.D., earned from the University of
South Carolina. He grew up in Illinois and Iowa, but now calls Clemson, South
Carolina home, where he lives with his wife and their dogs. His poems have
appeared in top journals, such as Tar
River Poetry, Xavier Review, Louisiana Literature, South Carolina Review, The
James Dickey Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and elsewhere. His
chapbook, Winter Skin, was released in 2016 by Main Street Rag Publishing.
Writers’ Night Out is a free monthly event, sponsored by North Carolina Writers’
Network-West. It takes place on the second Friday of the month, April through
November. Open mic readers sign up at the door and can read for three minutes each. The Union County Community Center (map here) is located at Butternut Creek Golf Course at 129 Union County Recreation
Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US
76, phone (706) 439-6092. Food is available for purchase in The View Grill, but
please arrive by 6 pm to get served. For
more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Clay County Historical and Arts Council and the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West co-sponsor a Poetry and Song Writing Lyric Contest for Clay County, NC Middle and High School
The Clay County
Historical and Arts Council and the North
Carolina Writers’ Network-West are please to announce that they are co-sponsoring a Poetry and Song Writing Lyric Contest for Clay County schools Hayesville Middle School
and Hayesville High School. There are 3 prizes in each category at each
school.
This contest began March 2017 and continues until April 5, 2017
The winners will be
announced at the schools on April 17,
2017
A presentation will be given at the Hayesville High School
Auditorium on April 25, 2017 at 6:30
PM
Rosemary R. Royston |
Judges are:
Rosemary Royston—Poetry (NCWN-West Representative for North Georgia, and author of Splitting the Soil)
Rob Tiger—Song Writing Lyrics
Brian Kruger—Song Writing Lyrics
Wyatt Esplain—Song
Writing Lyrics
Contacts for this
event are:
Reba Beck, Clay County Historical and Arts Council
828-361-5783
Joan Gage, North Carolina Writers’ Network-West
828-389-3733
Friday, March 24, 2017
North Carolina Poetry Society hosts 15th annual Spring Literary Festival at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, on Mon., April 3, 2017and Walk into April, Sat., April 8, 2017 at Barton College, Wilson, NC
Western North Carolina poets participating in the Gilbert-Chappell
Distinguished Poet Series will be reading their work at the 15th annual
Spring Literary Festival at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee on
Monday, April 3, 2017, at the A. K. Hines University Theater from 12-1 p.m.
Poets reading include Pat Riviere-Seel, the region’s Distinguished Poet
for 2016-17, and four student poets: Mary Coggins, Benjamin Cutler,
Jade Shuler, and Cathy Sky. The student poets will read again at area
public libraries on April 5, April 18, April 20, and May 8. For further
information, contact Pat Riviere-Seel.
Walk into April will take place on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at Barton College in Wilson, NC. The North Carolina Poetry Society and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series again celebrate our state’s accomplished poets. This year’s event features Bruce Lader and Beth Copeland as well as Amber Flora Thomas, Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Down East. The program runs from 9:45 until 3:00. For more information contact Rebecca Godwin or Marty Silverthorne.
You can find the North Carolina Poetry Society's blog at: http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org
Walk into April will take place on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at Barton College in Wilson, NC. The North Carolina Poetry Society and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series again celebrate our state’s accomplished poets. This year’s event features Bruce Lader and Beth Copeland as well as Amber Flora Thomas, Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Down East. The program runs from 9:45 until 3:00. For more information contact Rebecca Godwin or Marty Silverthorne.
You can find the North Carolina Poetry Society's blog at: http://www.ncpoetrysociety.org
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Western Carolina's Annual Literary Festival, April 3-6, Features Billy Collins, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, and Others
Noble Netwest writers, April and May are fine times in writing in Appalachia. In particular, you may not know about Western Carolina University's annual Literary Festival, this year from April 3-6. All events are free and open to public on Western Carolina's campus (most in the University Center Theater, Thursday night keynote in the Coulter Recital hall.) You can find schedule and details at www.litfestival.org.
Mark your calendars now for WCU's Fifteenth Annual Spring Literary Festival, featuring keynote author Billy Collins, along with writers Stephen Clingman, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Robert Gipe, Michael Knight, Ray McManus, Carrie Mullins, Elena Passarello, Jamie Quatro, Sue Weaver-Dunlap, Paul Worley with WCU student writers, Gilbert-Chappel Distinguished Poet Pat Riviere-Seel with student poets (including Swain High teacher Ben Cutler and his student Jade Shuler), and special guest, photographer Roger May.
We hope to see you there!
Mark your calendars now for WCU's Fifteenth Annual Spring Literary Festival, featuring keynote author Billy Collins, along with writers Stephen Clingman, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Robert Gipe, Michael Knight, Ray McManus, Carrie Mullins, Elena Passarello, Jamie Quatro, Sue Weaver-Dunlap, Paul Worley with WCU student writers, Gilbert-Chappel Distinguished Poet Pat Riviere-Seel with student poets (including Swain High teacher Ben Cutler and his student Jade Shuler), and special guest, photographer Roger May.
We hope to see you there!
MEET TERRY KAY, AWARD WINNING AUTHOR
Meet Terry Kay, award winning author who is featured fiction writer at A Day for Writers, May 6, 2017, in Sylva, NC, Jackson County Public Library.
He is the author of
seventeen published books, including the 2014 release of Song of the Vagabond
Bird.
His other works include The Seventh Mirror, The Greats of
Cuttercane, Bogmeadow's Wish, The Book of Marie, To Dance With the White Dog,
The Valley of Light, Taking Lottie Home, The Kidnapping of Aaron Greene, Shadow
Song, The Runaway, Dark Thirty, After Eli, The Year the Lights Came On, To Whom
the Angel Spoke, as well as a book of essays, Special K: The Wisdom of Terry
Kay.
Three of his novels have been produced as Hallmark Hall of Fame movies –To Dance With the White Dog, The Runaway and The Valley of Light.
Additionally, a Japanese film based on To Dance With the White Dog was
produced. His books have been published in more than twenty foreign
languages, with To Dance With the White Dog selling two million copies in
Japan.
An essayist and regional Emmy-winning screenwriter as well
as a novelist, Kay's work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
LaGrange College and Mercer University have recognized his work with honorary doctorate degrees. Atlanta Writers Club named their annual fiction award the Terry Kay Prize for Fiction, 2015.
LaGrange College and Mercer University have recognized his work with honorary doctorate degrees. Atlanta Writers Club named their annual fiction award the Terry Kay Prize for Fiction, 2015.
In 2011, Kay was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by
the Georgia Writers Association. He has received the Georgia Author of the Year
award four times and in 2004 was presented with the Townsend Prize, considered
the state's top literary award.
In 2006, Kay was inducted in Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and
in 2009 he was the recipient of the Governor's Award in the Humanities (GA),
2009.
In 2007, Kay was presented the Stanley W. Lindberg
Award, named for the late editor of The Georgia Review and considered one of
the state's most prestigious literary honors, given for an individual's
significant contribution to the preservation and celebration of Georgia's
literary heritage.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Did You Get This Very Important Email?
Call for Votes: Glenda Beall as Program Coordinator
Glenda Beall |
Dear NCWN-West members,
I'm writing today about a very important matter. Can you please take a moment to read this and respond as soon as possible?
As many of you know, we've been without a Program Coordinator (PC) at NCNW-West (sometimes known as "Netwest") for quite some time. We've managed to keep most of our events going through the generous help of volunteers and our County Representatives.
One person in particular has kept us together through her relentless dedication to the group. This person is Glenda Beall. She has continued to communicate regularly with the Reps and the membership as a whole via the NCWN-West blog and emails, to coordinate activities such as Hayesville's Festival in the Square, and to take the lead on planning our big conference in Sylva in May.
In short, Glenda has been acting as the PC without the formal title/recognition and without receiving the monthly stipend that the PC was paid in the past. She has now volunteered to take on this role in an official capacity. Ed Southern (Executive Director of NCWN) and the Board of Trustees, has agreed to appoint her to this position and pay a $200 monthly stipend from the NCWN-West account, provided that the majority of the NCNW-West members agree. In my opinion, compared to Glenda's dedication to our group, this is a very small stipend, indeed. The PC is still considered a "volunteer" role, but it is vital for us to have this type of leadership.
Please vote by replying with a simple "Yes" or "No" to indicate whether or not you approve of Glenda becoming the PC with a monthly stipend as stated above. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can mail your vote to me by March 20 to the address below my signature.
Sincerely,
Karen Paul Holmes
NCWN County Rep for Georgia border countiesWomen writers are invited to submit: Essays for Democracy, for a book by McFarland Publishers
In an effort to document what is proving to be a unique era in American political history on several fronts, Dr. Betty Wells and I have developed a project we are calling Essays for Democracy. The purpose is to provide the venue whereby women’s voices can create the historical record of this era. To this end, we are soliciting essays from women activists for a book, tentatively titled “Resist: Women’s Voices Speaking Truth to Power” being published by McFarland Publishers.
We are inviting any women members of various groups to submit an essay for this book, on a topic of their choosing. This might be immigration, health care, the environment, a living wage, or any other concern they feel passionate about and are committed to protecting and defending.
Anyone who is interested should contact us at womenresisting@gmailcom for further details. We will work with essayists on the deadline.
Paula vW. Dail, PhD
Emerita Research Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy
www.pauladail.com
publisher: www.mcfarlandpub.com
The NCWN-West has printed the correspondence from Dr. Dail as a service to it's readers. The NCWN-West is not affiliated in any way with McFarland Publishers or with soliciting writing for McFarland Publishers.
Labels:
essays,
McFarland Publishers,
Women's Voices,
writing
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