Thursday, July 21, 2022

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. 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

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.


Monday, July 11, 2022

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, July 9, 2022

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. 


 

Friday, July 8, 2022

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?

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

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.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

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.

Sunday, July 3, 2022

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.

 

Friday, July 1, 2022

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


 

Thursday, June 30, 2022

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


Please share this post with others who would be interested. Thanks for all your help.


Saturday, June 25, 2022

Joseph Bathanti and Mountain Wordsmiths

 The large group of writers who attended Mountain Wordsmiths Thursday morning had the pleasure of hearing Joseph Bathanti read and talk for about thirty minutes. Then he answered questions and had dialogue with those who were eager to talk to him about his poetry, his writing program, and his environmental views about mountaintop removal. 

One of the things I like best about Joseph is his casual demeanor and his genuine appreciation for his audience. We all felt we could speak up and join in the discussion. To purchase his latest book visit this link to LSU Press. His new book is Light at the Seams. Read more about it. You will want to own this book.



Carroll Taylor is the founder and leader of Mountain Wordsmiths and none of us knew it would be such a popular event for NCWN-West. Carroll's easy manner and casual ways make everyone feel comfortable. At this recent event, we had Ken Chamblee, noted poet, Pat Zick, author of novels, nonfiction, and now Netwest county Representative for Cherokee County in North Carolina. We had Jill Jennings from Florida sitting in with us as well as other writers from distant places. 

Part of the enjoyment of this online group is seeing the poets and writers from the far reaches of the NCWN-West region gather to visit and share their views and their writing. Mountain Wordsmiths has brought our Netwest writers closer than ever. I used to try to visit the distant counties and meet with reps and members, but COVID put a stop to that. However, we will not be stopped.

Carroll Taylor

Karen Holmes
Carroll's Mountain Wordsmiths and Karen Paul Holmes's Writers' Night Out are on Zoom and each month we are delighted to see local friends and writers and poets from across the country on our Zoom screen. 

Please feel free to join us for these events you can only find on Zoom. 



Contact Carroll at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com for Mountain Wordsmith's Zoom invitation. Contact Karen Paul Holmes at kpaulholmes AT protonmail DOT COM to receive your link for Writers' Night Out. You can ask Karen and Carroll to put you on their contact list and you will receive the announcement of the guests each month and the Zoom link.

If you have questions for me, Glenda Beall, about reading or attending, email glendabeall@msn.com


Thursday, June 23, 2022

Support John C. Campbell Folk School - It supports you.

 About John C. Campbell Folk School

The Folk School transforms lives, bringing people together in a nurturing environment for experiences in learning and community life that spark self-discovery. Located in scenic Brasstown, North Carolina, the Folk School offers year-round weeklong and weekend classes for adults in craft, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography, and writing.

NCWN-West is proud that the folk school advertises with us on our website and our blog. Please help us spread the word about this great place to learn about ourselves, learn a craft or an art, and meet so many terrific people. The writing program is excellent. Check out the classes you will find there.


Friday, June 17, 2022

Distinguished Poet Joseph Bathanti to be Featured Reader for Mountain Wordsmiths


JOSEPH BATHANTI

Mountain Wordsmiths writers are honored to have as our featured reader the distinguished poet, author, and former Poet Laureate of NC, Joseph Bathanti on Thursday morning, June 23, at 10:30 via Zoom. 

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

Bathanti is the author of ten books of poetry. 

His novel, East Liberty, won the 2001 Carolina Novel Award. His novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. His book of stories, The High Heart, won the 2006 Spokane Prize. They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, his book of nonfiction, was published in early 2007. The novel, The Life of the World to Come, was released by the University of South Carolina Press in late 2014. His more recent book of personal essays, Half of What I Say Is Meaningless, winner of the Will D. Campbell Award for Creative Nonfiction, is from Mercer University Press. A new volume of poems, Light at the Seam, is forthcoming in 2022 from LSU Press. 

Bathanti is the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education & Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College in Boone, NC. He was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-14) and received the 2016 North Carolina Award for Literature.

He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, NC, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program. Bathanti lives in Vilas, NC, with his wife, Joan, and two children. He and his wife met while both were working with the VISTA program.

NCWN-West is continuing to stay in touch by using technology to share our writing. 

We will offer writing events and writing classes online until we can safely meet face-to-face again. Many writers are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of Zoom meetings because of the ability to join us 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.

                                                                       

Monday, June 13, 2022

Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

The Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in Burnsville NC is back this year. 
September 8-10


Click on this link  https://cmlitfest.org/  and see who will be presenting. They are an impressive group.

For a number of years I have wanted to attend this event, but could not. As I read about this year's September literary festival, more than ever I wish I could be there.

If you live near Burnsville or can afford to go and stay all weekend, by all means, you should go. And if you do, please write an article about it that we can post here on our site for writers.

For Registration information visit this site.

https://cmlitfest.org/2022schedule/




Monday, June 6, 2022

Multi-Talented Carrol Taylor: Zoom Reading June 10, 7 pm

Writers' Night Out - June 10, 7 p.m.

Reading + Discussion... + Open Mic 
Carroll Taylor, multi-genre writer


"When Sissie Stevenson reluctantly begins her fifth grade year at Slippery Branch Elementary School, she has lots of questions that need answers. How can she stop the class bully from picking on her cousin and best friend Spud McKenna?"
Chinaberry Summer, Young Adult Novel by Carroll Taylor


NCWN-West invites you to join us via ZOOM (see link below). 




Carroll S. Taylor is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side. Both books emphasize themes of generational storytelling and anti-bullying, interwoven with learning about reptiles and amphibians. Her children’s book, Feannag the Crow, teaches children about making friends and appreciating both their diversity and their unique talents.

Her poetry has appeared in the Georgia Poetry Society’s Reach of Songyourdailypoem.com, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International online art galleryOld Mountain Press, and the anthology Poems to Lift You Up and Make You Smile.

In November 2021, Taylor and three other local Appalachian authors were honored by their illustrator with a mural featuring animals and characters from their children’s books. The mural was installed on the outside wall of Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, GA, to encourage children to read. Taylor is also a member of Scribes On Stage, and she co-wrote and directed a one-act play about the history of Clay County, NC; Hayesville; and the Cherokee Trail of Tears. “Beneath the Sky and Waters” was performed onstage at the Peacock Performing Arts Theatre in April 2022.

After teaching in high school and university settings for more than forty years, Taylor retired with her husband in Hiawassee, GA. To learn more about her, visit chinaberrysummer.com.


Sign up for Open Mic: 3-4 minute max, poetry or prose (2 poems only, please) by emailing glendabeall@msn.com