A Day for Writers 2019 in Sylva at the Jackson County Library

NCWN-West and the Jackson County Regional Public Library will host A Day for Writers in Sylva, NC on Saturday, August 24. 

It has always been the goal of this program to bring the best to the west with reasonable fees so all writers in the mountains can benefit from membership without traveling long distances.

C. Hope Clark, author of two mystery series is keynote speaker. Clark’s 35,000 readers of her Funds for Writers Newsletter give her much credit for their success. Clark will speak on marketing and on writing the novel.

Poets will enjoy Joseph Bathanti, poet laureate of North Carolina, 2012 – 2014. He is Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College in Boone, NC. Bathanti, author of ten poetry books, is recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award in Literature. His most recent volume is The 13th Sunday after Pentecost (LSU Press, 2016).

Joseph Bathanti, Poet

David Joy, novelist, will present Writing Centered in Place/Landscape as Character. His books are highly praised as a voice of Appalachia. He is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends To Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novels The Weight Of This World (Putnam, 2017) and The Line That Held Us (Putnam, 2018). His memoir Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award. 

Patricia Vestal and Katie Winkler will teach how to write a ten minute play. Both of these writers have had plays produced on stage. Katie Winkler has taught English composition and British literature for over 23 years at Blue Ridge Community College. During that time, she has been active with the college's drama department as a writer, actor, and director. Pat Vestal’s plays were done off-off Broadway and were on NYC TV. She taught play-writing at the college level.

Carol Crawford who owns www.carolcrawfordediting.com and is a well-published nonfiction writer as well as poet, will teach what to do before you submit your manuscript. Carol teaches writing at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She is the author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers. Her essays and short stories have been published in numerous journals. She has been program coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since its inception in 1996. 

Karen Paul Holmes, poet and teacher, will discuss Metaphors, Images and Similes. Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). She was chosen a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Media and appeared in their 2019 collection of 22 poets including Billy Collins and Robert Pinsky. 

Karen Paul Holmes

Writers may join NCWN at the time of registration. 

Member fees for the conference are $65. 

Non-members pay $78.  Student fee is $35. 

Coffee, pastries, soft drinks, water and lunch are included.

Find the registration form on the sidebar at  www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com. Complete the  form and mail with your check to NCWN-West, %Glenda Beall, PO Box 843, Hayesville, NC 28904 or register online at www.ncwriters.org. 

Deadline for mail in and online registrations is August 19. Contact Glenda Beall, gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com for more information

C. Hope Clark, Keynote Speaker for A  Day for Writers  

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Ricketson's New Poetry Book + Leith's Prize-Winning Stories

Writers' Night Out, August 9

Join us for two local favorites plus open mic.


Mary Ricketson will be reading from her new collection, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian (Kelsay Books) She has poetry 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, Whispers, Voices, and her chapbook I Hear the River Call my Name. She also has two other full length collections, Hanging Dog Creek and Shade and Shelter. 



--> Loren Leith is the author of MOSQ by Shepherd Graham (pen name), winner of the Silver Royal Palm Literary Award and the Pascoe Award for Best Thriller of 2011.  In 2018, she won first place in the RPLA competition for her nonfiction short story, Basement Level. She also received an award for her short, nonfiction story, My Box Top Cat from God, and two of her other stories are finalists in a national competition. 
Open Mic: Sign up at the door to read 3 minutes of poetry or prose. 

more info about Union County Community Center 

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Netwest at the Coffee House in Hayesville - a writer's evening, for sure.

We had a great time at The Corner Coffee and Wine Shop in Hayesville, NC last evening. In spite of a concert on the square, Brent Martin NCWN-West Rep from Franklin, NC and Ben Cutler, NCWN-West Rep from Swain County impressed a room full of writers and story-tellers with their poems and essays. We all enjoyed getting to know both of these fine, award-winning writers.

An Open Mic session was held and five people read poems, stories, or told a story.

We gave away two door prizes which we do also at Coffee with the Poets and Writers. None of the winners were members. We hope they will come back to other events held by NCWN-West.

Glenda Beall, Brent Martin and Ben Cutler

Joan Howard reads a poem at the Corner Coffee Shop where NCWN-West held a reading on Friday night, July 26. In front row are Mary Ricketson, Bob Grove and Don Long, members of NCWN-West. 

This was a well-received event and I hope, if we do this again in this venue, we will have more members participate. Wine and Coffee are available for purchase here. We can bring in food if we want. I like this venue and so do others I have heard from. 

You Want to Be Here - Brent Martin and Ben Cutler at the Corner Coffee and Wine Shop Friday evening, 6:30 PM - Hayesville, NC

Review by Lawrence Holden
  of Brent Martin's poetry.

An old woman watches television in "her beat up house trailer/ the home old man Passmore built / next door sinking into the weeds" as the poet wanders her winter fields looking for pot shards - remnants of a lost past. In town a homeless man sells weeds, bouquets of common clover he's pulled from cracks in the sidewalk, holding out a bouquet "so delicately he could be holding a baby," saying "this one is called Everyday People."

Walking old Indian mounds, two friends recite together Robinson Jeffers' defiant poem "Shine, Perishing Republic," "his hand slapping my back for emphasis, / where water now flows in rivulets / down upon the abandoned rail lines..." Such poems take us lovingly to a place most of us already know within ourselves - the place where we struggle to come to terms with circumstances of loss, impending change, a world in the harsh throes of modernity, and yet, unaccountably, still nascent with hope.

Downriver

by Brent Martin

The Ferryman tells me to fish downriver,
the crusty bastard, standing on his porch
cursing everything upstream.

He curses the town a while,
then he curses its conservative
church going citizens,

and as he is waving like the Queen
as I depart in my little red boat,
he tells me that Jimmy Sang

has been catching redeyes in the evening,
smallmouth in the afternoon.

You gotta Fish them v's though, the spot where the water
funnels through them old fish weirs.

Old angry and happy ferryman
with your bright river rolling on
birthing your final somber days.

Downriver, he says again, downriver.
Fish them v's and to hell with upstream.

Brent Martin & Benjamin Cutler to read 7/26/2019, Hayesville, NC at 6:30 PM, at the Corner Coffee and Wine Shop

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