Writers' Night-Blairsville Begins on April 13

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 Writers’ Night Out Announces 2018 Schedule

We begin our eighth season on April 13 and continue the second Friday of the month through November. Featured readers present their work at 7 p.m., and an open microphone follows, where audience members can share three minutes of their own poetry or prose. The event is free and open to the public and takes place at the Union County Community Center in Blairsville, GA.

 2018 schedule of featured readers from North Carolina and Georgia: 

April 13: Mike James and Michael Walls

May 18: Jennifer Lux and Rupert Fike

June 8: Michelle Castleberry and Karen Paul Holmes

July 13: Joan Howard and Jane Simpson

Aug 10: Kimberly Simms and Mary Ricketson

Sept 14: Robert Kendrick and Janice Moore

Oct 12: Danielle Hanson and Loren Leith

Nov 9: Glenda C. Beall and Estelle Rice

April reader, Mike James, is the author of eleven poetry collections. His most recent books include: Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog, 2017), My Favorite Houseguest (FutureCycle, 2017), and Peddler’s Blues (Main Street Rag, 2016.) His work has appeared in over 100 magazines throughout the country in such places as Tar River Poetry, Soundings East, and Laurel Review. He has also been active as an editor for The Kentucky Review, Autumn House Press, and his own Yellow Pepper Press. After years spent in South Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, he now makes his home in Chapel Hill, NC with his large family and a large assortment of cats.  James will also teach a poetry class on April 14 at Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC. For more information, visit http://www.glendacouncilbeall.com/ .

Michael Walls has had poetry published in a variety of journals and magazines including The New York Quarterly, South Carolina Review, Atlanta Review, Chattahoochee Review, Poetry East, The Midwest Quarterly and others. His chapbook is The Blues Singer and his full-length collection is Stacking Winter Wood (Kelsay Books/Aldrich Press, 2017). His poems and articles have also appeared in law reviews and journals. He is a retired labor lawyer who now spends his time working as a volunteer on environmental and other issues, hiking, hanging out with friends and family, writing poems and letters to the editor, and listening to rock and roll, blues and jazz. He spends time in Atlanta and the North Georgia Mountains.

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West. The Union County Community Center 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 on Writers’ Night, contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Coffee with the Poets and Writers' resumes 3/21/2018, with Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, in Hayesville, NC

The North Carolina Writers’ Network–West will hold the first meeting of Coffee with the Poets and Writers for the year of 2018. Poets and writers will gather at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, at10:30 AM. The public is invited and there is no cost to attend. Refreshments are served and non-writers are welcome. Many of those present adjourn to a local restaurant for lunch after the meeting.

This month two members of NCWN-West, Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, both residents of Clay County, are featured. Bob is known for his humorous stories and Kathy writes memoir. Bob will make you laugh and Kathy might provoke a tear.

                                                  

  Bob Grove was born in Cleveland, OH. 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.

Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, Grove has more time to write. Most recently, he published a mystery novella, Secrets of Magnolia Manor, his memoir, Misadventures of an Only Child, a collection of children’s stories Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy, and has written several flash fiction stories.

Grove has been awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Silver Arts Competition in the Cherokee County, NC senior games, in their literature competition. You are invited to visit Bob on his website at bobgrove.org.

Kathleen (Kathy) Knapp was born into a military family. She spent most of her childhood living abroad. She draws on those cultural experiences to write her entertaining memoirs. As a creative person, with a degree in Graphic Arts, Kathleen has embraced this new venue and is memorializing her late family’s history for future generations. It is her ultimate dream to publish books for children.

Kathleen also enjoys volunteering for the Hurlburt-Johnson Friendship House, Inc. in Murphy, NC, using her writing skills to promote through the newspaper, awareness of the county’s only homeless shelter. As a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network West, she enjoys challenging writing classes, attending conferences, and nurturing her newfound craft.


To participate in the Open Mic session, those attending are requested to limit their reading to one or two poems or no more than three pages, double-spaced, prose writing.

NCWN-West is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, one of the largest state literary organizations in the country.

Contact Glenda C. Beall, NCWN-West Program Coordinator, at: glendabeall@msn.com<mailto:glendabeall@msn.com> 

for more information or phone: 828-389-4441.