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.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Diane Lockward of Terrapin Books says:
I'm happy to tell you that A Constellation of Kisses is almost here! I could not be happier with this anthology. So many wonderful poets and poems. The official release date is July 15, but the book is available now for pre-order at Amazon where it's discounted at 30%. By the way, in case you've ever wondered, Amazon sets discounts, not the publisher. Amazon may drop or change the discount at any time, but the pre-order discount is guaranteed.
Please keep in mind that Terrapin Books will be open for submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts from August 1 thru August 31. I look forward to reading some wonderful collections. Mark your calendar. And of course, read the Guidelines.
Diane
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Author P.C. Zick Featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers
An open mic will follow her presentation. Bring a poem or a short prose piece to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West (NCWN-W) which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.
Ms. Zick writes in a variety of genres, including romance,
contemporary fiction, and creative nonfiction. She's won various awards for her
essays, columns, editorials, articles, and fiction. Her novels range from
environmental sagas set in Florida to contemporary romances with a variety of
backdrops from Florida to Chicago to Long Island to the mountains of North
Carolina. Her nonfiction writing includes books on gardening, travel, and
writing.
She wrote the four novels in her Smoky Mountain Romance series after moving to Murphy, North
Carolina, several years ago. Drawing on the mountain view from her cabin, she
fashioned a community of people who find hope and love in southwestern North
Carolina. Strangers become friends and friends become family in the fictional
town of Laurel. Local readers will easily recognize the landmarks in and around
Cherokee and Clay counties.
With strong
characters, inspiring settings, and surprising plot twists, Ms. Zick imparts
her love of family and nature in all her writings. She and her
husband enjoy gardening, kayaking, golfing, and exploring waterfalls and
mountain vistas throughout western North Carolina. It all serves as her
inspiration for creating stories that express her philosophy of living lightly
upon this earth with love, laughter, and passion.
For
more information about this event, please contact Glenda Beall: glendabeall@msn.com.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Memoirist & Poet at Writers' Night Out, July 12
Reading + Open Mic in Blairsville GA
“I know I was a male Chauvinist pig in a past life,
and they made me come back as a woman in corporate America.”
- Victoria Barkan in The Monkeys Rule
Writers' Night Out
Friday, July 12
7 pm
reading followed by open mic
Featured Readers:
Local poet, actor, student Ryvers Stewart
Atlanta author Victoria Barkan
Victoria Barkan will read from her new memoir The Monkeys Rule, which covers her successes as well as the discrimination she faced in her 20-year career in the burgeoning, then booming, cable TV industry. Her story continues with her spiritual journey that helped her recover from the ordeal.
Barkan’s long career included 11 years at Cox Communications where she became Director of Marketing Operations. She also travelled the globe extensively as Cox’s consultant to Southwestern Bell in the UK. She is now writing her second book and also focusing on her art, with paintings in an upcoming art show in Alpharetta, GA. She has a BS in art education from Bowling Green University and painted the artwork on her current book’s cover.
Ryvers Stewart hails from Murphy, NC. She has written poetry since middle school, but in high school truly fell in love with it, as well as with acting. She is working on her Associates in Fine Arts degree at Tri-County Community College with graduation on track for 2020. Stewart is also an actress who performs locally. On the weekends she can be found participating in the roleplaying games, D&D and Pathfinder. She is currently working on her first poetry book.
Writers’ Night Out takes place on the second Friday of every month through November. Anyone wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read three minutes of poetry or prose.
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 and drinks are available for purchase in The View Grill, but please arrive by 5:30 pm to get served.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Writers meetings and workshops in July
MOUNTAIN WRITERS MEETING IN WAYNESVILLE, NC
1) From our idea man Bob: Our July meeting follows the July 4 weekend, so when we get together let’s talk about fireworks. Not the explosive kind, unless you’re speaking metaphorically. Let’s talk about passion and subtext and intrigue and how to inject those things into your story. We’ll borrow some advice from the romance writers, so that should be fun. Join us for “fireworks” at noon on Tuesday, July 9, at Panacea coffee shop for the next meeting of the Mountain Writers of North Carolina.
VALERIE NIEMAN
Novelist and poet
Saturday, July 6, 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC
Under Pressure: Creating Complex Characters in Poetry and Prose
You don't want to miss this great opportunity to get to know and to learn from a well-published writer of novels and poetry. She teaches at the JC Campbell Folk School and is a regular presenter at conferences. We are fortunate to have her come to our area and for such a nominal fee because she is sponsored by NCWN-West. Her novel, Red Clay, is one of my favorite books. Read about it on her website.
Nieman graduated from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte. A former newspaper reporter and editor, she now teaches creative writing at North Carolina A&T State University and at venues ranging from the John C. Campbell Folk School to WriterHouse.
Valerie will have handouts and materials for poetry and prose writers. Check out her website: www.valerienieman.com
Fee: $40.00 Contact Glenda Beall regarding registration. 828-389-4441 or glendabeall@msn.com
Coffee with the Poets and Writers - Wednesday, July 17, 10:30 AM, Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC, featured writer, Patricia Zick, novelist and nonfiction writer. Open Mic follows. Public is invited.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Quote from Joseph Bathanti, poet laureate of NC, 2012 - 2014
Accessibility
When I first started writing poetry as a high schooler, I adopted what I call “The Seven Layers of Enigma” model. I wrote a verse that I did not understand, but was sure that others would marvel at simply because it was so inscrutable.
I wrote this way because I had found few poems – dished out to me in school by well-meaning teachers – that I understood in the vein that one understands prose. Once I began reading on my own and discovered poems and poets that used clear language that told stories, I was evangelized, and my poems became more narrative, more rooted in stories, often about working-class citizens, and much more accessible to hopefully everyone, including folks who don’t typically like poetry. Robert Lowell, in his poem, “Epilogue,” writes “Yet why not say what happened?” I ascribe to that.
I’m decidedly a narrative poet, although I don’t let that get in the way if I want to step outside those lines and fool around with other kinds of deliveries, and I’m also very fond of writing sonnets, as well as writing in other traditional forms. Nevertheless, I do find my central story in narrative because, at heart, I’m a storyteller. Robert Creeley once famously said, “Form is never more than an extension of content.” I do start a poem with a notion of style and shape, but tend to allow Creeley’s dictum to guide the ultimate temperament and form the finished poem will take.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present
If you love the southern Appalachians
and Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard and Gary Snyder, read this beautifully
written and deeply thought-provoking book.
--Charles
Frazier, author of Cold Mountain
June 21,
7:00 PM, Macon County Public Library, Franklin, NC
Brent Martin will read from his new book: The
Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present
Announcement of newest Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo
| |||||||
|
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
DAVID JOY - novelist speaks in Waynesville, NC at Blue Ridge Books June 22nd
Saturday, June 22nd, 3:00 PM - BLUE RIDGE BOOKS - WAYNESVILLE, NC
Each year books are sold at the Friends of the Library Annual Meeting. This year’s speaker is a local author with international acclaim—David Joy.
Each year books are sold at the Friends of the Library Annual Meeting. This year’s speaker is a local author with international acclaim—David Joy.
David has published 3 novels and a memoir, as well as numerous essays and stories for national publications such as The New York Times Magazine. Joy’s most recent novel, The Line that Held Us won the Southern Book Prize for fiction.
An excellent interview about David Joy who is a presenter for A Day for Writers.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
SUCCESSFUL MOVE TO COMMUNITY ROOM AT JCCFS FOR LITERARY HOUR
We had a good audience at the Literary Hour in the Community Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School Wednesday evening. With a larger venue there is more seating available and it is more comfortable than the chairs in the Library. We hope this will entice even more visitors to our monthly reading.
I could see that more JCCFS students attended, and we hope that trend will continue. Mary Ricketson was host and the three readers, Maren Mitchell, Ryvers Stewart and Richard Cary, all members of NCWN-West, were entertaining as they read their poetry.
As always we thank the John C. Campbell Folk School staff for setting up chairs and making us welcome.
We also appreciate the support of the Folk School through their advertising on our website and our blog. We reach out to writers around the world with our online presence including our Facebook Page.
We ask our readers to click on the John C. Campbell Folk School logo on the sidebar of this blog post. There you will see the writing classes offered at this venerable campus that attracts students from our local area, our state and from other continents.
Some of the best writers have taught at John Campbell Folk School for many years including the late poet laureate of NC, Kathryn Stripling Byer. Other poets were the late Nancy Simpson, outstanding poet and first Program Coordinator of NCWN-West. Dr. Gene Hirsch taught poetry at the school for many years and is responsible for the Writing Program at JCCFS. Dr. Hirsch will be in Hayesville, NC on Wednesday, June 19, 10:30 AM at the Moss Memorial Library. Everyone is invited to come and hear him read at Coffee with the Poets and Writers.
Dana Wildsmith, Valerie Nieman, Karen Holmes, Rosemary Royston, Ruth Zehfus, R.T. Smith, Carol Crawford, and so many others have brought inspiration and knowledge to those of us who create with pen on paper or with a keyboard and monitor. I, personally, owe my writing career to those teachers who have come here to the far western mountains of North Carolina, to the little town of Brasstown, to share their wisdom with us.
Valerie Nieman will teach a three hour session on Under Pressure: Creating Complex Characters at Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC on Saturday, July 6, 1:00 - 4:00 PM.
Fee: $40 - pay to NCWN-West. Mail to PO Box 843, Hayesville, NC 28904
Read more from Val Nieman Here.
I could see that more JCCFS students attended, and we hope that trend will continue. Mary Ricketson was host and the three readers, Maren Mitchell, Ryvers Stewart and Richard Cary, all members of NCWN-West, were entertaining as they read their poetry.
As always we thank the John C. Campbell Folk School staff for setting up chairs and making us welcome.
We also appreciate the support of the Folk School through their advertising on our website and our blog. We reach out to writers around the world with our online presence including our Facebook Page.
We ask our readers to click on the John C. Campbell Folk School logo on the sidebar of this blog post. There you will see the writing classes offered at this venerable campus that attracts students from our local area, our state and from other continents.
Some of the best writers have taught at John Campbell Folk School for many years including the late poet laureate of NC, Kathryn Stripling Byer. Other poets were the late Nancy Simpson, outstanding poet and first Program Coordinator of NCWN-West. Dr. Gene Hirsch taught poetry at the school for many years and is responsible for the Writing Program at JCCFS. Dr. Hirsch will be in Hayesville, NC on Wednesday, June 19, 10:30 AM at the Moss Memorial Library. Everyone is invited to come and hear him read at Coffee with the Poets and Writers.
Dana Wildsmith, Valerie Nieman, Karen Holmes, Rosemary Royston, Ruth Zehfus, R.T. Smith, Carol Crawford, and so many others have brought inspiration and knowledge to those of us who create with pen on paper or with a keyboard and monitor. I, personally, owe my writing career to those teachers who have come here to the far western mountains of North Carolina, to the little town of Brasstown, to share their wisdom with us.
Valerie Nieman will teach a three hour session on Under Pressure: Creating Complex Characters at Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC on Saturday, July 6, 1:00 - 4:00 PM.
Fee: $40 - pay to NCWN-West. Mail to PO Box 843, Hayesville, NC 28904
Read more from Val Nieman Here.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Joan Howard and Gene Hirsch are featured at CWPW June 19
Coffee
with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poets Joan M. Howard and Eugene
Z. Hirsch, MD, on Wednesday, June 19, at 10:30 a.m. at the Moss Memorial
Library in Hayesville, NC. The event is free and open to the public. An open
mic will follow their presentations. Bring a poem or a short prose piece to
participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West (NCWN-W)
which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in
Georgia.
Howard is a former teacher with an MA in German and English literature. She is a member of the North Carolina
Writers' Network West and North Carolina Writers Network. She enjoys
birding and kayaking on the beautiful waters of Lake Chatuge near Hiawassee,
Georgia.
The Literary Hour Readings at John C. Campbell Folk School to feature poets Richard M. Cary, Maren O. Mitchell, and Ryvers Stewart, on Wed., June 12, 2019, in the Community Room
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C.
Campbell Folk School (JCCFS) and NC Writers' Network-West (NCWN-West) will
sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the
Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. This event is now held in the community room. The Literary Hour is held on
the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is
free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be
Richard Cary, Maren O. Mitchell, and Ryvers Stewart.
Richard Montfort Cary began writing poetry in high
school and continues to this day. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University
in 1964 with a BFA in Theatre Arts. He spent six years in regional theatres,
before moving year-round to Nantucket Island MA, as a designer & builder of
custom homes. In 1985, he founded Actors Theatre of Nantucket and served as
Artistic Director for twenty years. Richard and his wife Cheryl moved from
Asheville NC to Hayesville NC in 2017.
Cary’s claim to fame is that his Great Aunt, Olive Dame
Campbell, founded The John C. Campbell Folk School. Cary is currently editing
over 60 years of his poetry for a collection.
Maren O. Mitchell,
a North Carolina native, lived in Bordeaux, France, in her childhood, and in Kaiserslautern,
Germany. She now lives with her husband
on the edge of a national forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.
Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College,
Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.
For over thirty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami,
the Japanese art of paper folding.
Mitchell’s poems appear in The Cortland Review, The
MacGuffin, POEM, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, Appalachian
Heritage, The South Carolina Review,
Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Journal and elsewhere. Work
is forthcoming in POEM, Slant, The
Comstock Review, Poetry East and Chiron
Review. Two poems, “X Is a Kiss on Paper” and “T,
Totally Balanced,” have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. In 2012 she
received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia
Poetry Society. Her nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide,
(Line of Sight Press, 2012), www.lineofsightpress.com is on Amazon.
Ryvers Stewart has been writing poetry since middle
school, but it was in high school she truly fell in love with it (and acting). She
is in the graduating class of 2019 at Tri-County Community College with an
Associates in Arts degree, she plans on graduating 2020 with an Associates in
Fine Arts.
On the weekends Stewart can be found playing D&D and Pathfinder.
She is currently working on her first poetry book.
For more information on this event please contact Mary
Ricketson at maryricketson311@hotmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)