Joan M. Howard's Poetry book, Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail is available on Amazon.com

Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail, is a modern hero's attainment of the grail revealed in his widow's seventeen year long poetic journey. This is a love story of daily heroism, marriage and miracle.

Joan Howard’s poems, crafted like finely cut jewels, reflect a joyful and sustaining force in the natural world, even as the poet confronts a major loss. Whether she is kayaking on the lake “I glided into diamonds” or noting a solitary clematis blooming on her late husband’s birthday, she presents a remarkable tapestry of all our lives, in which, as William Blake wrote, “Joy and woe are woven fine.”

--Janice Townley Moore, author of Teaching the Robins

Joan Howard’s collection is pure music: love songs, laments, hymns. She has an incredible ear for sound, including rhyme and meter. This, coupled with an eye and heart for discovering the sublime in nature, gives her poems a classical feel—a formality that ups the poignancy while keeping sentimentality at bay. These are short poems, packed with grief and wonder: “Let me go,” you said, and divine / ownership took you in a breath. Howard has written a profound tribute to her beloved. It is their story and her story: the hard and beautiful necessity of moving on while never forgetting.

--Karen Paul Holmes, author of Untying the Knot

Poetry written in beauty leaves the reader with nourishing aftereffects. Happily, Howard’s sonnets, such as “Time Travel,” “The Secret,” and “Grace” shimmer with superb craft, evidence of a clear and powerful intelligence. Like those of Gerard Manley Hopkins, her use of word links: lake wed, these now years and life hearts on, create new meanings and illuminations.

--Maren O. Mitchell, author of Beat Chronic Pain, An Insiders Guide

How refreshing to find a new collection of poems filled with sincerity that takes you through a deeply moving love story. With exquisite imagery, Joan Howard reveals the beauty of nature around her before piercing the heart with human truths.

--Glenda Barrett, Visual artist, author of When the Sap Rises, and The Beauty of Silence

Joan M. Howard earned a B.A. in German Literature at Indiana University, an M.A. from the University of Oregon. She studied in Munich, Germany, and at the University of Georgia. Howard is a former teacher and lives in Athens, Georgia, and on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, who enjoys birding, walking and kayaking. She is a member of North Carolina Writers Network, North Carolina Writers' Network-West, and the Georgia Poetry Society.

Jack, Love, and the Daily Grail, is Joan M. Howard's second publication. Her first poetry book is, Death and Empathy: My Sister Web.

Joan’s husband was a professor of Medieval German at the University of Georgia. This book was written chronologically from 2000—2017.

Writers Bob Grove and Deanna K. Klingel to read at The Literary Hour at John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, Thursday, March 15, 2018, at 7:00 PM

On Thursday, March 15, 2018, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour, an hour of writers reading, is held at Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. This event is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Bob Grove and Deanna K. Klingel.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob now lives in the mountains of North Carolina. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at Kent State University and his Master of Science at Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum enabled him to teach courses in English, journalism, creative writing, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology.

Bob has been an ABC-TV public affairs director, an on-air personality, and the founder and publisher of Monitoring Times magazine. A prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network and an officer with the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he has published seventeen books and hundreds of articles in sixteen national magazines. All Grove’s publications are available on Amazon Kindle, and he can be found online at www.bobgrove.org . Bob's readings entertain, and his audience laughs with delight at his humor.

Deanna Klingel calls Sapphire Valley NC home. She was born and raised in Michigan, left MSU with her husband Dave and lived in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Raleigh, NC, Maryland, Atlanta and finally retired to the mountains.  A compulsive writer all her life, she never sought publication until their seven children were grown and gone from home.

Klingel writes primarily, not exclusively, for young adult readers. She has thirteen books published and others in the que. In addition, one of the picture books is also in Spanish, and there are teacher/classroom study guides for two historical fictions. Many of the books have received recognitions and awards. Two of her short stories were contest winners. She's a member of SCBWI, ACFW, Catholic Writers Guild, and NCWN. She blogs twice a week at booksbydeanna.com, and travels with her books across the South and beyond, appearing at schools, museums, and events. Her books are widely distributed and are available wherever books are sold. Klingel’s  website is: www.BooksByDeanna.com.

For more information, please call  the John C. Campbell Folk School at: 828-837-2775, or Mary Ricketson at: 828-361-0721.