Literary Hour Returns to John C. Campbell Folk School

The North Carolina Writers’ Network-West’s Literary Hour returns to the John C.Campbell Folk School on Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 7 p.m., after a two-year hiatus during the pandemic. The event will be held in the Open House. The Literary Hour is free and open to the public.

The featured writers for August are Brenda Kay Ledford and Glenda Beall.

Brenda Kay Ledford

 Brenda Kay Ledford, a seventh-generational native of Clay County, North Carolina, is an award-winning author, blogger, and retired educator. Her work has appeared in many journals including Asheville Poetry Review, Our State, Appalachian Heritage, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Guidepost Magazine, 49 Old Mountain Press anthologies, and many other publications. She writes about nature and wants to help preserve the culture of this region. She's received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians thirteen times for her books. Ledford will read poetry from her latest book, Blanche, Poetry of a Blue Ridge Woman, which was released by Redhawk Publishing in 2021.

Glenda Council Beall

Glenda Beall serves as program coordinator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West. Her essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in magazines and literary journals as well as online. Her poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2009. She has co-authored a collection of stories, poems, and essays Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins, Family Pets and God’s Other Creatures. 

Much of her writing is filled with stories about horses, dogs, and cats that have been a part of her family. Her love of genealogy led her to compile stories of her grandfather and his ten children in Profiles and Pedigrees, The Descendants of Thomas Charles Council (1858 – 1911). Beall’s online classes, Writers Circle around the Table, and classes for the Institute of Continuing Learning reach people from all over the country. She will read her creative non-fiction as well as short stories.

 The Literary Hour will be held on the third Thursday of the month through November at John C. Campbell Folk School in the roofed and open pavilion of the Open House. From Clays Corner in Brasstown turn onto Brasstown Road, then turn left on Scoggins Road then left again to pass Davidson Hall. Or coming from Marsh Creek, turn right onto Davidson Road and follow around to Open House. Parking is in front near the vegetable gardens.

 Anyone with a love of the written word will be transported by the talent of each month’s featured writers. Contact Patricia Zick at pczick23@gmail.com for further information.

Patricia Zick

Catherine Carter Will Speak at Coffee With the Poets and Writers

Catherine Carter Will Speak at Coffee With the Poets  and Writers on August 10 at Moss Memorial Library

Catherine Carter, professor at Western Carolina University

 Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature poet Catherine Carter on Wednesday, August 10, at 10:30 A.M. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, N.C.

The event is free and open to the public.  An open mic will follow the presentation.  Bring a poem or short prose piece of about three minutes 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.

Raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Catherine Carter is now a professor of English at Western Carolina University.  On a good day, she can roll a whitewater kayak and re-queen a beehive; on less good days, she collects stings, rock-rash, and multiple contusions. 

Catherine also "enjoys cooking, especially vegetable and beans, because it's probably the original human art and it produces something everyone can enjoy; and I'd probably enjoy some kind of crafting if I weren't a complete clutz with my hands; I get Wordle most of the time but not always."

Catherine Carter’s collections of poetry with LSU Press include The Memory of Gills (2006) The Swamp Monster at Home (2012), and Larvae of the Nearest Stars (2019); she has one chapbook with Jacar Press, Marks of the Witch. 

Her poetry has won the North Carolina Literary Review’s James Applewhite Prize, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Society’s Roanoke-Chowan Award, Jacar Press’ chapbook contest; it has also appeared in Orion, Poetry, Ecotone, RHINO, North American Review, Southern Humanities Review, Poetry South, Tar River Poetry, and Ploughshares, among others.  

Coffee With the Poets and Writers will meet every second Wednesday from June until December 2022.  Masks are optional.  

Please do not park in the Book Store parking lot. 

For more information, contact Joan Howard, joanhoward121@gmail.com

Novel workshop

John Desjarlais, novelist

John Desjarlais will be leading a 2-day fiction workshop, "Write That Novel!", at The Barn In Penrose (near Brevard, NC) on September 22, 23. Details and registration here: https://www.thebarninpenrose.com/one-day-workshops. For more on me, see www.johndesjarlais.com

Poet and Professor Scott Owens to be Featured Reader for Mountain Wordsmiths

SCOTT OWENS, POET

Members of Mountain Wordsmiths are honored to have as our featured reader distinguished poet and professor Scott Owens on Thursday morning, July 28, at 10:30 via Zoom. 

Our monthly gathering, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, will continue its online presence because local writers, as well as writers from other cities and states, are now joining us each month on Zoom.

Owens is the author of seventeen collections of poetry and a recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Next Generation/Indie Lit Awards, the NC Writers Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC.

His newest collection, Worlds Enough, is a collaboration with artist, MissyCleveland, and is his first written for children. His poems have been featured in The Writer’s Almanac eight times, and his articles about writing poetry have been used in Poet’s Market for several years.

Owens holds degrees from Ohio University, UNC Charlotte, and UNC Greensboro.  He is Professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University and former editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and Southern Poetry Review. He owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse and Gallery and coordinates Poetry Hickory in Hickory, NC.  

 NCWN-West is continuing to stay in touch by using technology to share our writing. We will offer writing events and writing classes online, while several other events are meeting face-to-face again. Many writers are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of Zoom meetings because of the ability to join our gatherings from other locations.

 Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. We welcome those who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing.

                                         

Carroll S. Taylor, Author

 

chinaberrysummer.com

Chinaberry Summer

Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side

Feannag the Crow

Beneath the Sky and Waters

 

News from Glenda Beall

 I am very pleased to be accepted for the anthology Kakalak 2022.

See the winners in poetry and art at:

https://moonshinereview.com/2022/07/21/kakalak-2022-announcing-winners-inclusion/

POETRY SELECTED FOR PUBLICATION

J. S. Absher, “The Place of the Blues in the Water and Carbon Cycles”

Laura White Alderson, “Oh That Billy Bumpus Lee”

Alexandra Aradas, “notes to ak freeland”

Pam Baggett, “To the Woman Who Told Me She Has Nothing in Common with Black People”

Don Ball, “Pocket-Dialing the Pandemic”

Richard Band, “On Tom Sawyer’s First Sight of Becky Thatcher”

Joan Barasovska, “Osage Avenue, Early Morning”

Sam Barbee, “DOA”

Michael Beadle, “The Gauntlet”

Glenda Council Beall, “If”

Libby Bernardin, “Self-portrait in a Red Dress”

Al Black, “Elysium Soccer Fields”

Teresa McLamb Blackmon, “The Hitchhiker”

Susan Blair, “The News Is Not New Anymore”

Gary Bolick, “A Country Heart”

Gay Boswell, “Rules”

Katie Ellen Bowers, “Most Mornings”

Cheryl Boyer, “Love, Simply”

Mary O’Keefe Brady, “How My Morning Goes”

Doris Thomas Browder, “Always She Moaned Her Own Bad Luck”

Joyce Compton Brown, “Forgive Me, I Just Bought a Refrigerator”

Les Brown, “Green Deserts”

Kathleen Calby, “Breakneck Creek”

Bill Caldwell, “Pluck”

Barbara Campbell, “What Really Mattered the Day the Ambulance Took You Away”

Paloma A. Capanna, “Sirens Over Ukraine”

Fran Cardwell, “Old Island Church Watch Night”

Mark Caskie, “Winter Rations”

Kenneth Chamlee, “What Falls Out”

S.L. Cockerille, “Take Jesus, for Example”

Joy Colter, “Ideation”

Barbara Conrad, “Who Has the Key to the Garden?”

Julie Ann Cook, “Massacre of the Innocents: An Art Class Study of Rubens’ Masterpiece”

Susan McClain Craig, “To the Living Statue”

Jane Mary Curran, “Funeral in March”

Steve Cushman, “This Is Not a Covid Poem”

Debra A. Daniel, “Revising My Mother’s Thirteenth Birthday”

John Desjarlais, “Our Fathers’ War”

David Dixon, “Holy Ground”

Mary Alice Dixon, “Snakeberry Mama”

J Dwight Donald, “A Native Son”

Deborah H. Doolittle, “In Connemara”

Sandra Dreis, “The Potato”

Joanne Durham, “Almost Morning”

Ralph Earle, “At a Pause in the Pandemic”

Nadine Ellsworth-Moran, “A Different Kind of String Theory”

Terri Kirby Erickson, “Cana”

Lynn Farmer, “Paid”

Nicole Farmer, “Exalted”

Michael Gaspeny, “Prince Memory”

Paige Gilchrist, “Weep Holes”

Ed Gold, “At the Wesley”

Terri Greco, “Sonnet After Gregory Orr”

Anne Waters Green, “On Viewing Behind the Myth of Benevolence”

Bill Griffin, “The Woman Who Fears She Has Lost Her Son”

Cordelia M. Hanemann, “Counting the Ways”

Janis Harrington, “Quarantine”

Sandra Sturtz Hauss, “Kensico—Last Day of Spring”

Peggy W. Heitmann, “Remedy”

Mary Hennessy, “A Praise Poem Without the Praise”

Ann Herlong-Bodman, “Deer in Shadows”

Jo Ann Hoffman, “At the Mouth of the Cave with Elijah”

Charles Israel, Jr., “Holy Sonnet 14”

Karen Luke Jackson, “Peeling at the Pale Green Line”

Becky Nicole James, “Cadillac”

Steph Jeffries, “Kindness, Served”

Kelly Jones, “starry night after the diagnosis”

Patricia A. Joslin, “Hiking the Blue Star”

Jeanne Julian, “Walk in Thaw”

Britt Kaufmann, “Rights County Appalachia”

Helga Kidder, “August Song”

Eugene Kusterer, “Encounter”

Dallas Lee, “Scuffing the Stones”

Susan Lefler, “If We Had Poets”

Greg Lobas, “Mother of Justice”

John Longbottom, “Drumbeat”

Kathryn Etters Lovatt, “She Is Not Herself”

Gina Malone, “Visitations”

Sandra Marshburn, “To My Students”

Mary E. Martin, “Caught”

Preston Martin, “George Cables and Cal and Eve”

Nancy Martin-Young, “ACME”

Katherine H. Maynard, “Bucking Hamlet’s Stars”

Terri McCord, “Decontaminating the Lake”

Marjorie Schratz McNamara, “Where We Are”

Ashley Memory, “Making Bread and Butter Pickles”

Yvette R. Murray, “Saturday Mornin’ in Washington Park”

Arlene Oraby, “My Black Beauty”

Alice Osborn, “Skirts in the Snow: Leaving the Donner Party”

Pattie Palmer-Baker, “Not Enough Love”

Aleta Payne, “Veritas”

Gail Peck, “Lunch Box from Hiroshima”

Gary Phillips, “Coyote”

Fred Pond, “Carolina Reaper in the Garden”

Gary V. Powell, “Dump Run”

Sarah Pross, “Gypsies”

David Radavich, “Loving Cleome”

Judith Cummings Reese, “Cassia”

Lucia Walton Robinson, “Picnic on James Whitcomb Riley’s Tomb, 1958”

Betty Ritz Rogers, “Gordon’s Ashes”

Marilyn Keith Rousseau, “Blood-Red Tomatoes”

Richard Rubin, “Passing”

Leslie M. Rupracht, “Aunt Barb’s Huckleberries”

Nasrollah Samiy, “Love Letters”

Diane Sasson, “Removal”

Roberta Schultz, “Deep Ends”

Martin Settle, “Die with Too Many Faces”

Jane Shlensky, “Ode to a Box Turtle”

Sherry Siddall, “Trading Path”

Michael Simpson, “For Edward R. Murrow”

H.R. Spencer, “Mahamari, a Haibun Sequence”

Caren Stuart, “Snake Harmer”

Nancy Swanson, “Savannah River Basin”

Lynne Santy Tanner, “My Phone Sends Me a Video of My Deceased Husband”

Jo Barbara Taylor, “Incunabulum”

Melinda Thomsen, “A Composition & Arrangement of Matter”

Lucinda Trew, “virgins widows and wives”

Rob Vance, “My Collection”

Mark Vogel, “Memo to Water Workers”

Priscilla Webster-Williams, “Photo of a Women’s Group in a Park, 1974”

Eric Weil, “A Generation-Counting Quilt”

Jennifer Weiss, “2020 Was the Worst Year”

Louise Gwathmey Weld, “Wild Night”

Nancy Harmon Womack, “The Seamstress”

Janice P. Wright, “We Apologize: A Poem 4 Our Youngins”

 

 I marked the poets I know on this list, but all of them are excellent. I am proud to be chosen and look forward to reading the book. 

Songbirds and Stray Dogs Reading Aug. 9

Songbirds and Stray Dogs featured at Route 1 Reads

Authors Meagan Lucas, Ron Rash Virtual Book Conversation Aug. 9 

Meagan Lucas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (June 14, 2022) – North Carolina Humanities, home to the North Carolina Center for the Book, announced today that it is featuring Songbirds and Stray Dogs by Meagan Lucas in programming and resources throughout 2022 as part of its annual Route 1 Reads initiative. Songbirds and Stray Dogs is Meagan Lucas’ debut novel.

North Carolina Humanities invites you to attend a virtual book conversation with Meagan Lucas and fellow North Carolina-based author Ron Rash on August 9, 2022 at 6:30 pm. Meagan and Ron will spend an hour talking about Songbirds and Stray Dogs, their writing processes, and Appalachian literature. This event is free and is hosted on Zoom. Registration is required.

Ron Rash

Follow this link to register:https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aln_zw75T2msQTTpiPw7xw 

Bookmarks, an independent bookstore based in Winston-Salem, is helping to support this event by giving away four $20 gift cards to their online and in-store book catalogue. Everyone who attends the August 9 book conversation program will automatically be entered to win. Winner will be selected at random. Additional giveaway details are below.*

Route 1 Reads is a road trip-inspired reading list that annually explores various genres and features books that illuminate important aspects of each individual state or commonwealth for readers traveling this meandering highway. The 2022 theme of the reading list is literary fiction.

On her selection by North Carolina Humanities, Meagan Lucas expressed, “I am thrilled and honored for Songbirds and Stray Dogs to have been chosen as North Carolina’s Route 1 Reads book. North Carolina is my home and the inspiration for so much of my work.”

As a genre, literary fiction novels are typically defined as stories that emphasize character and theme over plot. Set on the coast of South Carolina, and the mountains of Western North Carolina, geography and sense of place are both central to Songbirds and Stray Dogs.

“I consider Songbirds and Stray Dogs a love song to North Carolina – to the beauty of its geography, and the tenacity and kindness of its people,” Lucas said. “It’s a great introduction to the genre, and perhaps the perfect road trip read. I can’t wait for readers to meet, journey with, and fall in love with Jolene, Chuck, and Cash.”

Meagan Lucas lives with her husband and children in Flat Rock, North Carolina. She teaches Creative Writing at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and edits Reckon Review. Meagan’s short work has been published or is forthcoming in journals like The Santa Fe Writers’ Project, Still: The Journal, MonkeyBicycle, Cowboy Jamboree, BULL, Pithead Chapel, and others.

Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; four collections of poems; and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

*Giveaway terms and eligibility requirements: Everyone who attends the August 9 book conversation program, “North Carolina Humanities’ 2022 Route 1 Reads Conversation: Songbirds and Stray Dogs.” will automatically be entered to win one $20 gift card from Bookmarks. Winner chosen at random on August 10 by North Carolina Humanities. Winner will be contacted by email for name and mailing address. An email is required as part of registering for the event. Winner must respond within 30 days to claim prize. Winner will receive one $20 gift card to Bookmarks and one NC Humanities bookmark and pen. By entering, you confirm you are 18+ years of age.

Press Contact: Melanie Moore Richeson, North Carolina Humanities (North Carolina Center for the Book),  704-687-1520,  mmoore@nchumanities.org

About North Carolina Humanities: North Carolina Humanities is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through public humanities programs and grantmaking, North Carolina Humanities connects North Carolinians with cultural experiences that spur dialogue, deepen human connections, and inspire community. The North Carolina Center for the Book is a collection of North Carolina Humanities’ reading and literature programs that celebrate the importance of books, reading, libraries, and North Carolina’s literary heritage. Route 1 Reads is a program of the North Carolina Center for the Book and is provided by North Carolina Humanities. To learn more, visit www.nchumanities.org.

About the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress: The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading, is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners, and through its Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit www.read.gov.

Sunday, July 10, Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC

 Our photos were made by Raven Chiong and Knute Rarey.

On a very hot Sunday, Glenda Beall, Raven Chiong, and Pat Zick met
writers and readers, sold books and enjoyed each other's company.

David Plunkett, author of two novels Chessboard (2019) and Poisoned Pawn (2022) sitting with Glenda Beall author of Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins spent the afternoon wondering if the rain would hold off until time to go home.  It did!

Thanks to our local writers who staffed the booth at the festival, we sold a number of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, our anthology of Appalachian writers and poets, and shared the news about NCWN and NCWN-West. Quite a few people are moving to our region and they were excited to learn how many writing events are happening here. They took our new updated brochures and said they plan to join our organization. I expect to see some of them at Coffee with the Poets and Writers at Moss Library in Hayesville this month when Lorraine Bennett is our featured guest. 

We must thank Knute Rary, Jim Davis and Stu and Gay Moring for erecting the tent on the square that sheltered our writers and our books this weekend. Knute and Jim loaded up their vehicles with tent, tables, chairs and other paraphernalia and unloaded them on our 10 x 10 site on the square of our historic little town. Thousands of people from far and near poured onto the area Saturday in spite of warnings of rain. But, luckily, no rain marred our day. 

Sunday we were warned that the day would be filled with thundershowers and storms. We kept our plastic ready but we had no rain until right at 4:00 PM. With Raven, David, Pat, Gay, and me on hand, we had our books safely put away, our table cloths folded and were delighted to see Knute arrive to load up his truck again.

I can never say enough about how wonderful it is to have my sister and her husband here to help me. Gay and Stu are the very best.

Gay and Stu Moring

Glenda Beall with a cooling towel around her neck is with Pat Zick, author and Cherokee County Representative for NCWN-West. Pat has the personality needed to bring people to the table and is a great ambassador for Netwest. We are happy she will be leading the Literary Hour at the John C. Campbell Folk School beginning in August. 

The Festival on the Square is over for this year. Hope we can all be back in 2023.

SATURDAY AT THE FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE

Saturday morning staff: Lorraine Bennett, Carroll Taylor,
Marcia Barnes. We were happy to meet many new writers in the area who want to
become members of NCWN-West.

FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE 2022

Glenda Beall with Gene Vickers, author of several books you can find in local bookstores.
Gene lives in Young Harris, Georgia. This was his first Festival on the Square.


We will have more photos to share from this day and Sunday at the Festival. 

 

Good Tip for writers from Stephen King

Going through files on my computer, I find gems that I shared long ago. This is one I like.

 Hello Friends,

This came in my Inbox this week and I think it makes sense. I read Stephen King’s book On Writing and it is a great book for writers. So I am sharing this with you.          Glenda Beall

 

1 – Take one little step.

When I read Stephen King’s book On Writing, I noticed something. I noticed that when Stephen King gets an idea, he writes it -- Immediately and imperfectly.

Most people get an idea.

Then they sit there.

They wonder if it’s a good idea.

Then, they wonder if it’s a good idea some more.

Stop doing this.

Next time you get an idea…

…do something tiny. Write a paragraph, pick up the phone, make an outline. Do something.

*******************************************************

We are all guilty of this. We think the idea will stay with us and later, when we have time, we will write about it. Sadly, those good ideas are fleeting. They fade away like morning fog, and we can’t remember them, no matter how hard we try.

Did you have a good idea this week? Did you do something?

Congrats to Betty Reed

Betty Reed's poems, “Woodland Glory” and “Requiem” have been published in Whispering Willow: Tree Poems, an anthology, the sales of which benefit the Arbor Day Foundation.

“The Masterpiece” will be published in The Reach of Song (2022). Betty's article “Love Blooms, School Dies” and her poem “Coming Home” will be published in a Virginia journal.

Whispering Willow Tree Poems

 Stacy Savage has published the anthology, Whispering Willow: Tree Poems. This collection is a reminder to appreciate the lofty elders our ancestors planted for future generations to enjoy.

The following poets were included in this book:  Karen Paul Holmes, Janice Townley Moore, Brenda Kay Ledford, and Maren O. Mitchell.

You may contact Stacy Savage at:  savagepoet39@gmail.com

The book is available at:  www.amazon.com

The proceeds from this book benefit the Arbor Day Foundation.

CWPW special guest is Lorraine Bennett July 13

 

Lorraine Bennett

 Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature journalist and writer Lorraine Martin Bennett on Wednesday, July 13, at 10:30 A.M. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, N.C.

 

The event is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow presentation. Bring a poem or short prose piece (two to three minutes) to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NCWN-West), which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

 

Lorraine Martin Bennett is a professional print, web and broadcast journalist and copy editor who grew up in Murphy, North Carolina, graduated with her high school class journalism medal and received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill where she earned her degree.

 

Her career began on the Atlanta Journal where she wrote features, covered news, including the state legislature, and met her husband. She was hired by the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper’s first woman to head a domestic bureau. She joined Ted Turner’s fledgling CNN as a news writer, becoming copy editor, producer and editorial manager before ending her career at CNN International.

 

She retired to Murphy in 2006 and, with her late husband Tom, built a farmhouse on her family’s land. She writes poetry, flash fiction, essays and still practices her craft by copy editing and writing occasional articles for the Clay County Progress. Her first novel, a psychological thriller titled Cat on a Black Moon, will be published by Austin Macauley Publishers later this year.

 

Coffee with the Poets and Writers will meet every second Wednesday from July until December 2022. Masks are optional.  Please do not park in the Library Store parking lot.

 

For more information, contact joanhoward121@gmail.com.

 

Appalachian Naturalist Brent Martin Virtual Reading July 8

Writers' Night Out - July 8, 7 p.m. Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic  Brent Martin, conservationist & multi-genre writer   Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, on Martin's new book: "If I were making a personal top ten list of important Appalachian artists, writers, and musicians, I'd include--along with more well-known names like Doc Watson and Nikki Giovanni--photographer George Masa. Brent Martin's introduction splendidly places Masa and his work in the context of the mountains they both love so much--a perfect match since Martin, like Masa, has spent most of his adult life studying the southern mountains, protecting them, exploring them." NCWN-West invites you to join us via ZOOM (see link below).

Brent Martin's book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina (Hub City Publishing), has just been released. Martin is also the author of three chapbook collections of poetry and of Hunting for Camellias at Horseshoe Bend, a nonfiction chapbook (Red Bird Press, 2015). His poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News, and elsewhere. He has recently completed a two-year term as Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the West. He is also the author of The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present.   Martin a lifelong conservationist and educator, having worked over a decade as Southern Appalachian Regional Director for The Wilderness Society, and prior to that serving as Executive Director for Georgia Forestwatch and Associate Director for the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee. He has led outings for over 20 years for the above organizations, as well as Carolina Mountain Club, NC Bartram Trail Society, the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, Highland Biological Station, and many, many more. He lives in the Cowee community in Western North Carolina, where he and his wife, Angela Faye Martin, run Alarka Institute.  For the Zoom link and to sign up for Open Mic: click here: glendabeall@msn.com Open mic: 3-4 minute max, poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

Scott Owens' New Book

 Yesterday I received Scott Owens' new children's poetry book, WORLDS ENOUGH, Poems for and about Children (and a few grown-ups).

As a retired Early Childhood educator, I was very impressed with this outstanding book.  The poems are wonderful with rhythm that will make you clap your hands.  I can just see children pantomiming the poems.  The imagery gives a wonderful journey into the exciting discoveries of the world through the eyes of youngsters.

This book is not only for children.  Adults will savor the poetry, too.  It will bring you back to the magic of childhood.  It's a happy book, uplifting and holds your attention from the first page to the last.

Also, the illustrations by Missy Cleveland are magnificent.  Her bright, colorful photos capture your attention and foster the imagination.  

After I read the book, I mailed it to my great-niece.  I'm sure she will love every poem and will dramatize them with enthusiasm.

This book is a magical trip through childhood and I think it is the best book Scott Owens has written.  

You may order this book at:

redhawkpublications.com 

www.amazon.com

 

Join thousands who attend the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC July 8,9,10

 FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE is a weekend celebration of mountain crafts, mountain music, and food. On July 8, Friday afternoon, Jim Davis and Knute Rarey, members of NCWN-West will set up a tent canopy, tables, and chairs on a 10 x 10 plot reserved for our use on the square in beautiful Hayesville, NC. We are the only group representing literary arts at this event. The mountain writers west of Asheville and in bordering counties of Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee make up the membership of NCWN-West. The remaining copies of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge will be on sale at a discount. This anthology of western NC writers dedicated to Byron Herbert Reece includes poems and stories by some of the best writers in the Appalachian Mountains area.

Saturday morning at 10 AM, three of our members will staff the booth. They will meet and talk to anyone who comes by to say hello. They are authors of books that will be available for purchase. On the tables will be brochures that explain what we are and who we are. These authors will answer questions about how to join NCWN-west and what new members can expect to have offered them. 

Our purpose for being there is to expose writers and readers to what local writers have written and have on sale. This tri-state area is brimming with very good writers and poets, published and unpublished.

We are also there to introduce our professional organization to anyone who is interested. Often people don't realize that NCWN-West is welcoming and wants to embrace new writers and help them follow their dreams. A number of our members found NCWN-West at the Festival on the Square. Carroll Taylor, author and poet, as well as Marcia Barnes, author, columnist, and poet discovered this organization while at the festival and now both are in leadership positions helping others and publishing their work.

This annual festival has been ongoing for forty-one years and is sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council which is supported by the NC Arts Association. There is no charge to attend and the vendors open up at 10 AM on Saturday and on Sunday.  Mountain music entertainers will be on stage in the Gazebo on both days.

Pat Zick, author

NCWN-West will hold drawings to give away books and other writerly things several times each day. To register, write your name on a strip of paper with your phone number and email address. Drop it in the large bowl on the table in the booth. You will be called if your name is drawn. If you are not still at the festival, we will make arrangements to get the gift bag to you.

Joan Howard, poet

On Saturday you will find Carroll Taylor, Lorraine Bennett, Marcia Barnes, and Brenda Kay Ledford in the booth. Saturday afternoon Glenda Beall, Pat Zick, and Gene Vickers will be there to greet you.

Lorraine Bennett, author

Sunday CarolLynn Jones and Joan Howard will sit at the table throughout the morning. Raven Chiong and Sandy Benson, will sit in for an hour. Pat Zick and Glenda Beall will be there in the afternoon with David Plunkett. 

 We invite you to come to the festival for a good time and be sure to stop by the NCWN West Writers Booth. Sign up for a free gift. 

Carroll Taylor

   

Brenda Kay
Ledford

Marcia Barnes

                                                 

                                                                                                             Gene Vickers, author

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