The Friends of the Gaston County (NC) Public Library publish a monthly newsletter, which always contains a Poet's Corner. NCNW-West member Karen Paul Holmes was the featured poet for April. Editor David E. Poston, who chose her poem says, "What a great way to begin National Poetry Month!"
The poem appears in Karen's second collection, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books, 2018).
CHANGE OF DATE! Our original date of April 9th conflicted with the Writers' Night Out on April 9th, so we've moved back a week. The Jackson County branch of NCWN-West and City Lights Bookstore will host an April Open Mic night on April 16th at 7:30 via Zoom. We'll plan for an hour and a half, with length of time for readings determined by how many people want to read. For the Zoom link, please contact Jackson County reps Matt Nelson or Catherine Carter, or City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. We look forward to seeing some of you there!
Lorraine says, “The essay, Love in the Time of
Corona is about visiting my ailing mother through a closed window at her
nursing home. It has been published in
the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Story Publishing Project’s Spring 2021
edition.”
Lorraine’s essay first was submitted in the 2020
Senior Games Silver Arts Essay Category and won the first-place gold medal for
Cherokee and Clay counties in June. It took the silver medal in the statewide
competition in October.
We congratulate Lorraine and send our sympathy
and compassion for her as she travels the journey of grief at this time.
The Arts and Humanities Jury of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International is pleased to announce the publication of a poem, “Calligraphy,” by Carroll S. Taylor in the DKG Gallery of Fine Arts, an online gallery of works of art and letters at www.dkg.org.
Taylor, a resident of Hiawassee, Georgia, and formerly a resident of Cataula, Georgia, is a member of Alpha Xi Chapter of the Psi State Organization of the Society. DKG is a professional honor society for women educators with more than 69,000 members. Established in 17 member countries around the world, the Society defines its mission as promoting professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. Society headquarters are in Austin, Texas, where Dr. Annie Webb Blanton founded the Society on May 11, 1929.
Carroll is assistant to the Program Coordinator for NCWN-West, Glenda Beall. She is hosting Mountain Wordsmiths on the fourth Thursday of the month, 10:30 AM on Zoom.
Contact her for the link to enter the meeting. vibiaperpetua@gmail.com
MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW FOR WRITERS' NIGHT OUT, FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 7:00 pm.
Ron Rash said this about Annette's book:
“Even as We Breathe slowly builds from a seemingly simple tale of first love into a meditation on the deepest mysteries and contradictions of human existence.”Members of NCWN-West will receive a Zoom invitation for this meeting for writers. If you are not a member, email me at, glendabeall@msn.com and you will be sent the link.
Finishing Line Press
Announces the Publication of
Mary Ricketson's
Keeping in Place poems
of COVID, sheltered in place
Cover photo by Alex Peers
I’d love for you to have a copy
of my new poetry chapbook, written while I’ve been at home during the pandemic.
I made my way through COVID and the necessary quarantine.
You can order now, until early
May, for printing and shipping in July. I’m spreading the word now because the publisher bases the print run on the number of prepublication orders
received. So, please feel free to send this notice to anyone who might be
interested.
Reviews:
In Keeping in Place, Mary Ricketson pays homage to the natural world she loves, securing emotions she treasures. Her identity flourishes as she longs for the end of Pandemic…
Shelby Stephenson, Poet Laureate of North Carolina, 2015-2018,
author of Slavery and Freedom on Paul’s Hill and More
Mary
Ricketson’s Keeping in Place is one of the first of a new generation of poems
inspired by the global pandemic of 2020, and it invites the reader to find
balance, if not solace…
Catherine Carter, author of The Memory of Gills, The Swamp
Monster at Home, and Larvae of the Nearest Stars, professor of
English, Western Carolina University.
Mary Ricketson with her intense love for nature and mountain life has found a way in her book to
interweave beautiful images with the seriousness
and isolation of the Corona Virus.
Glenda Barrett, author of When the Sap
Rises, and The Beauty of Silence
Keeping in Place is a
collection of poems where the speaker, stricken by COVID, turns her focus to
nature…Solo, ill, and counting the days since she’s been touched, the speaker
still makes the reader chuckle…
Rosemary
R. Royston, author of Splitting the Soil
Mary Ricketson lives in the Appalachian Mountains and maintains a private practice as a mental health
counselor. Her poems often reflect the healing power of nature,
surrounding mountains as midwives for her words. Her published
collections are I Hear the River Call My Name, Hanging Dog Creek, Shade and
Shelter, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and
Marian. www.maryricketson.com
Order online at: http://www.finishinglinepress.com, search for Keeping in Place, click to order.
or https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/keeping-in-place-by-mary-ricketson/
Or mail your order to Finishing
Line Press:
Please send me __ copy(ies)
of Keeping in Place, $14.99 per copy plus $2.99 shipping per
copy, 1.99 for extra copies.
Enclosed is my check or money
order (payable to Finishing Line Press) for $____________
Name_______________________________________________
Address___________________________________________
City/State/Zip______________________________________
Please send check or money
order to: Finishing Line Press Post
Office Box 1626 Georgetown, KY 40324
Karen Jackson sent this news.
June Rollins' debut novel will be published March 31, but I ordered the kindle version today for .99.
Sound like an interesting book. Read more about June and her book here You can read the first chapter and see if you want to purchase. Good luck to June and I know she will be supported by the members of NCWN-West.
The John C. Campbell Folk School is holding classes. The following are weekend writing classes scheduled.
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| Writing Carol Crawford | Writers' Retreat |  | ||||||||
| Writing Darnell Arnoult | Creative Nonfiction in a Flash | |
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If you like to write short fiction, and if you like to take classes by excellent writers, you will find this most interesting, I believe.
https://www.scuppernongbooks.com/5-ways-looking-short-fiction
Scuppernong Books is offering five classes in writing short fiction.
Each online class is only twenty-five dollars, and you receive a book by the author who is your instructor.
They are on Thursday evenings, 7:00 PM. I have signed up for two of them and hope they will help me improve my short stories and make them good enough to publish.
March 11: “In Praise of Unlikeable Characters” with Clifford Garstang
March 18: “It’s All in the Details” with Shuly Xóchitl Cawood
March 25: “Dos and Don’ts of Submitting to Literary Journals” with publisher Kevin Morgan Watson
April 1: “ReVISION” with Clint McCown
Kelsay Books printed this book in January, 2021. It was endorsed by NC Poet Laureate, Jake Shelton Green, Michael Beadle, and Peggy French. Reagan's Romps is available at Chinquapins in Hayesville, NC, amazon.com, and www.kelsaybook.com.
You may view the video of Ledford's interview on WKRK Facebook at:
facebook.com/CountryGold/videos/466725167710851
Tom Davis, owner and publisher of Old Mountain Press, has put his anthologies, filled with so many poets and writers from the mountains, on Kindle now.
So for a couple of dollars or less, you can read work by former NC Poet Laureate Shelby Stephenson, novelist Celia Miles, writer and editor, Nancy Dillingham, Glenda Beall, Brenda Kay Ledford, Mary Ricketson, and many more.
Find the books here. You can see a sample of each book on Amazon.com.
The next anthology he publishes will be The Unforgettables, A Poetry and Prose Anthology.
| The Unforgettables A Poetry and Prose Anthology Estimated: 50 to 90 pages perfect bound 1--31March 2021. Old Mountain Press will publish a collection of poetry/short stories by a number of writers. Our goal is to gather enough quality poems and short shorts for an estimated 50 to 90 page book with the theme: The theme is anything about (primarily) an unforgettable or unusual person you have known OR an unforgettable character you have created in your writing. Would like to have as many poets involved as possible. Requirements are below. Authors receive publishing credit and retain all rights to their work but agree to the inclusion of their poems in this collection of poetry.
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Tom Davis is also an author and has several books published. His wife, Polly, has written a memoir about living with Tom while he was in the military. It is filled with humor but gives a good look at what the wife of a military man endures while he is gone away and when he is at home again. http://www.oldmp.com/davismemoirs/Polly/
Available to Order: Tom Davis' Memoir, The Most Fun I Ever Had With My Clothes On: A March from Private to Colonel. http://www.oldmp.com/davismemoirs
You won't meet more hospitable and friendly people than Tom and Polly. Tom was helpful and patient with Estelle Rice and me as he helped us with publishing Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins.
Many writers are using Old Mountain Press for the books they want to self-publish. Tom holds your hand as you make the decisions about what your book should look like, the paper it should be printed on, your cover, etc. When I thought I was ready to give up on setting up the format for the photographs in our book, Tom calmed me down and helped me work things out.
I sent in a poem tonight for the next anthology. Since I am cutting back on buying books because I am running out of room for them in my house, I will order the Kindle version of some of my favorite anthologies.
Netwest members, we'd like to introduce you to a new NCWN-West representative: Matt Nelson is the new second representative for Jackson County. Matt has written a piece about humor, which I’m posting here to give you some sense of your new rep. Matt writes:
“Even as a child, I loved jokes because a good laugh made the pain of normal life go away for a little while. Seeing others smile when it was difficult for me do the same is amazing, especially if those who received joy were serious people with little time for humor. Another reason I like to make people laugh is that I suffer from anxiety, so it’s difficult for me to join a crowd. A quick joke is often enough for me to put on a brave face that doesn’t go away very easily.
“Two jokes I like came from preachers; if a member of the cloth can make a crowd laugh, then it has to be good. Sermons can be a little dry once the handshaking is finished, but a few tears of joy have their own charms. The first one: a man goes to the doctor and says he can’t taste anything because of his allergies. The doctor tells the nurse to bring Jar 23 from the back and she does. The doctor gives his patient a spoonful of the strange liquid; he immediately gags, but he is cured. A few weeks later, though, the patient comes back and tells his doctor that he can’t remember anything. The doctor asks how the patient knew where to go and the patient said a friend brought him and told him who to see for treatment. With a smile, the doctor tells the nurse to bring Jar 23; the patient runs for his life.
“An elderly man decides to move himself and his wife down to Florida. The husband takes care of everything while his wife packs up the old home. Sadly, the husband passes away before the big move. The poor widow is beside herself and does barely anything until after the funeral. Upon a check of the computer, the wife finds an email from her late husband and it’s dated the day of the funeral. The wife opens the email and it says “I’ve got everything waiting that a woman like you has deserved for your entire life. There are plenty of people to meet and there are also a few that we know from back home. I do admit that it sure is hot down here.”
“Other jokes come to me on the road or when I see something on TV that sets off my humor power. I often send these jokes out to friends, but sometimes I don’t get much of a response; while people have their own lives, I find it sad that not many can take a moment to say if they liked what I created. Since I don’t use most other forms of social media, I need some proof of life every now and then to make sure that everything is good elsewhere.
“Jokes are my way to let people know how I feel; the more people laugh, the better I feel about doing anything. I’m sure that I’ll find plenty of new jokes in the future and would be glad to share them with anyone willing to lend an ear.”
Welcome to NCWN-West, Matt!
