James Dickey Prize Poet Kathy Nelson & Karen Paul Holmes to Read, Sept 13

Please join us for poetry, prose, and prizes

on lucky Friday the 13th

Writers' Night Out

Union Co. Community Center, Blairsville, GA

Kathy Nelson, who lives outside of Asheville, NC, received the 2019 James Dickey Poetry Prize from Five Points journal. She has two poetry chapbooks: Cattails (Main Street Rag, 2013) and Whose Names Have Slipped Away (Finishing Line Press, 2016). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asheville Poetry Review, The Cortland Review, Tar River Poetry, Broad River Review, Southern Poetry Review, U.S. 1 Worksheets, The Practicing Poet (Terrapin Books, 2018) and other print and online journals. Visit her "poems of life and nature" at kathynelsonpoet.com.

Karen Paul Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance(Terrapin Books, 2018) and Untying the Knot(Aldrich Press, 2014). She was named a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Media, and her publications include Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Review, Crab Orchard Review, Tar River Poetry, The Pedestal, Poet Lore, and other journals and anthologies. Holmes splits her time between Atlanta, where she founded The Side Door Poets, and Hiawassee. She’s also the founder and host of Writers’ Night Out. Read sample poems at karenpaulholmes.com

Photo Highlights from A Day for Writers, writing event, Sylva, NC, August 24, 2019

Carroll Taylor, co-chair for the event, and Jessica Philyaw, Library staff member

, 

C. Hope Clark and her husband, Gary

Meagan Lucas and Benjamin Cutler (in background)

Catherine Carter, Jackson County Rep for NCWN-West

Pat Vestal, instructor for play writing class

NCWN Executive Director, Ed Southern

Registration

Karen Paul Holmes, instructor for poetry class

Mary Ricketson, Linda Jones, and Janice Moore

Karen Paul Holmes with Glenda Beall

Katie Winkler, instructor for play writing class

Former Poet Laureate of NC, Joseph Bathanti 

Carol Crawford of www.carolcrawfordediting.com

C. Hope Clark opens the event

Bird's eye view of registration

Brent Martin with Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin and Susan Lefler

David Joy

Ed Southern, Glenda Beall, and Chris Wilcox  of City Lights Books

Volunteers Marcia Barnes, Hugh and Carroll Taylor, and Joan Howard

Brent Martin

Carroll Taylor

Charlie Wilkinson

Karen Paul Holmes

Louis Giron

Mary Ricketson

Panel members Karen Paul Holmes, Meagan Lucas, Joseph Bathanti, C. Hope Clark, and Glenda Beall

Kelsay books announces the publication of Mary Peavey Ricketson's new poetry book, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian

Poet Mary P. Ricketson's new full length collection of poems, Mississippi: The Story ofLuke and Marian, was published by Kelsay Books, this July of 2019.

Ricketson says: 

'This is my family's story, from the perspective of racial tensions in troubled Mississippi, 1948-1969, and the parents who found a way through those tedious times.  My series of narrative poems are of memory, conflict, and resolve, experiences of my parents and myself, as they raised children in segregation and still kept their belief in the equality of all people.' 

The Amazon Books info is at https://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Marian-Mary-Peavey-Ricketson/dp/195046203X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=376RR2LULL3SX&keywords=mary+ricketson&qid=1566229885&s=books&sprefix=mary+ricket%2Caps%2C258&sr=1-1

Mary Ricketson, Murphy NC, has been writing poetry 20 years. 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, Red Fox Run, It’s All Relative, Old Mountain Press, and Whispers. Her chapbook, I Hear the River Call my Name, and two full length poetry collections, Hanging Dog Creek, and Shade and Shelter.

Currently Mary is using her own poetry to present empowerment workshops, combining roles as writer and her helping role as a therapist. Mary Ricketson’s poems and activities relate with nature, facilitate talk about a personal path and focus on growth in ordinary and unusual times.

Rickertson is Cherokee County representative to North Carolina Writers Network West, and president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance. 

Mary won 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.  She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor and an organic blueberry farmer.

Ricketson's next scheduled readings will be at:

Body Sense

2226 Ridgecrest Circle 

Hiawassee, Georgia 30546

Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 5:00 PM  

Taste Full Beans

29 2nd St NW 

Hickory, North Carolina 28601 

Tuesday, November 12, 2019, 7:00 PM 

City Lights Bookstore

 3 E. Jackson Street 

Sylva, North Carolina 28779

Saturday, November 16, 2019, 3:00 PM 

Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Moss Memorial Library

26 Anderson Street

Hayesville, North Carolina 28904

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 10:30 AM 

Writers Kenneth Chamlee, Carol Crawford, and Karen Paul Holmes to be featured at The Literary Hour, Thursday, 8/22/2019, at 7:00 PM, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC

On Thursday, August 22, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-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 Kenneth Chamlee, Carol Crawford, and Karen Paul Holmes.

Kenneth Chamlee is Professor of English Emeritus at Brevard College in North Carolina.  His poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Cold Mountain Review, Ekphrasis, The Greensboro Review and many others.  He won the GSU Review (Georgia State University) National Writing Award in Poetry, ByLine Magazine's National Poetry Chapbook Competition (Absolute Faith, 1999), and the Longleaf Press Poetry Chapbook Competition (Logic of the Lost, 2001).  In 2004 he won the Word Journal Poetry Prize and in 2009 and 2016 he was a finalist in the Iowa Review Poetry Contest. 

Chamlee has received three Pushcart Prize nominations. His poems have appeared in five editions of Kakalak: An Anthology of Carolina Poets and in 2017 he was a finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize.

Carol Crawford has published short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in the Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Heritage, the Concho River Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Journal of Kentucky Studies, and others. Her latest essay, ”Deliveries,” was in the April 2018 issue of Adelaide online magazine. She is owner of Carol Crawford Editing and author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers. 

Crawford has taught workshops for the Dahlonega Literary Festival, the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association, the Red Clay Writers’ Conference, the Carrollton Writers’ Club, and the Writers’ Circle. She has been program coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since its inception more than twenty years ago.

Karen Paul Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, 2014). In 2012, Karen received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. She was chosen as a Best Emerging Poet in 2016 by Stay Thirsty Media. Publications include Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Review, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore and other journals and anthologies. Holmes hosts a critique group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in Blairsville, which she founded. She also teaches writing classes at the Folk School, Writer’s Circle, and other venues.

A member of the North Carolina Writers' Network, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Georgia Poetry Society, Holmes has studied with poets: Thomas Lux, Denise Duhamel, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, William Wright, Carol Ann Duffy, and Nancy Simpson (whom she counts as her first poetry mentor).

For more information about this event, please contact Mary Ricketson at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.