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| Glenda Council Beall and Mary Fonda |
On Tuesday, August 7, 2018, the Moss Memorial Library
received a photo of late poet, Nancy Simpson Brantley, given from the North Carolina
Writers’ Network (NCWN), in Simpson Brantley’s, honor for her many
achievements, most of which were in Western NC. Librarian Mary Fonda received
the photo from North Carolina Writers’ Network-West’s (NCWN-West) Program
Director, Glenda Council Beall. Simpson Brantley's work was written under her maiden name, Nancy Simpson.
Nancy Simpson
Brantley was a poet, teacher, and mother of three children. She taught in Clay
County Schools for 28 years, in the Exceptional Children’s programs. She
received a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College, and a Bachelor of
Arts in Education from Western Carolina University.
A member of
the NCWN, Simpson Brantley served on its executive board, and in 1991
co-founded the NCWN-West, a program of NCWN, to serve writers in the remote NC
mountains. She was NCWN-West’s Program Director for over 21 years.
She taught
writing at Tri-County Community College, Murphy, NC, The Institute for
Continuing Learning at Young Harris College, Georgia, at John C. Campbell Folk
School (JCCFS), Brasstown, NC, and was Resident Artist for Writing at JCCFS 1998-2010.
Simpson
Brantley’s poems were widely published in Literary Journals, and she had three
published books: Living Above The
Frostline, New and Selected Poems, Night
Student, and Across Water.
Simpson Brantley won first place for her poem, “Night Student,” at the
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, GA, in 1978, received the NC Arts
Council Writing Fellowship for Poetry in 1991, and a Distinguished Alumni Award
from Tri-County Community College in 1998. She was named a SIBA Poetry Award
Finalist in 2011. Simpson Brantley co-edited Lights in the Mountains and edited Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, both anthologies with Western NC
writers. Simpson
Brantley has been
included in several editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American
Education, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, and Who's Who of American
Women. In 2018, she was given the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement
Award from Marquis Who’s Who.
Nancy Simpson
Brantley passed away on February 17, 2018. A memorial in her honor was held at
the John C. Campbell Folk School on May 5, 2018. You can visit her blog at:
http://nancysimpson.blogspot.com/
R.R. Brooks
