Hear Karen Luke Jackson Read "Finding Home"

Karen Luke Jackson, EdD

Randell Jones has included Karen Luke Jackson's story "Finding Home" about moving to the Garden Hamlet at Highland Lake" in his latest anthology, Twists and Turns.  If you'd like to listen to her read it, click here.

An oral history tradition, contemplative practices, and clown escapades provide a scaffolding for Karen Luke Jackson’s work. Whether crafting a poem, teaching a class, or serving as an Anam Cara, Karen searches for life-giving “role/soul” connections and helps others do the same. Stories, she says, provide an opening. They allow us to explore the core of our human experience and capture snippets of sacred mystery in everyday life.

​An award-winning poet, Karen’s work has appeared in numerous journals including Broad River Review (Ron Rash Poetry Award), Ruminate (Janet McCabe Poetry Award, Honorable Mention), Kestrel, One, Emrys Journal, Friends Journal, Christian Feminism Today, eno, TOWN Magazine, The Pisgah Review, moonShine review, The Great Smokies Review, Kakalak, and several anthologies. Karen is also the author of two poetry collections, The View Ever Changing exploring the power of place and family relationships and GRIT chronicling her sister’s life as Clancey the Clown. She is currently working on a memoir that spans six generations of a South Georgia family.

​

Karen holds a bachelor's degree in history from Valdosta State University, a master's in education from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a doctorate in education from North Carolina State University. She has served as executive director of two nonprofits, worked and taught in higher education, and for the past twenty years been a facilitator with the Center for Courage & Renewal. In that capacity, she has led workshops and retreats for groups throughout the Southeast, including a monastic community, clergy and hospital chaplains, Duke University’s advanced leadership program for nonprofits, churches, environmental activists, and interfaith groups.

 

Being a grandmother and living in a cottage adjoining a goat pasture in Western North Carolina are two of Karen’s greatest joys. When she’s not writing or companioning people on their spiritual journeys, she enjoys sitting on a porch nestled between pines and listening to bird song.

 

Winter Writing Workshop in Cashiers, NC

Maren Mitchell Poems Published

 NCWN-West member Maren O. Mitchell has poems published in: 

Tar River Poetry, Vol. 62, No. 1, Fall 2022, "I have no earth-shaking news, my friend Janice." 
The Lake, an online UK journal, January 2023 issue, "Quantum Beats" and "To My Husband in the Time of Covid-19."
POEM, November 2022 issue, "Black Is Not the Lack of Light" and "We are all stray cats."
Twelve Mile Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2022, "Hickory Tree."

Her poems appear in The Antigonish Review, The Cortland Review, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, The South Carolina Review and Southern Humanities Review. Three poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her nonfiction is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide, (Line of Sight Press). Her chapbook, "In my next life I plan...," is forthcoming from dancing girl press. She lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

Brenda Kay Ledford's Work Published

 Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Snow Cream," will appear on  the " Written Tales" website on Christmas Day, December 25th, at 10:00 AM.

You may view her poem at:  https://writtentales.com

Additionally, her story, "Special Fashion Show,"  appeared in the "Good Old Days Magazine," January/February 2023  print issue.

www.GoodOldDaysMagazine.com

Congratulations to our western North Carolina Writers

 

Brent Martin of Macon County was awarded the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.

Network member and former Representative for NCWN-West, Brent Martin was selected as the winner of the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award by the Western North Carolina Historical Association for his nonfiction book "George Masa’s Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina" (Hub City Press 2022).

Annette Clapsaddle of Jackson County was voted Board President for the NC Writers Network.

Last year’s winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award was Network board member Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle for her novel, "Even As We Breathe"(University Press of Kentucky, 2020).

Clapsaddle was sworn in as the next board president of the North Carolina Writers’ Network on December 9, 2022 by a unanimous vote.

It is a pleasure to see our Western NC writers' accomplishments.

On December 13, an award ceremony will celebrate Brent Martin and all five finalists for 2022. The event will also be live-streamed via Zoom for those who cannot attend in person. Registration is available for this free event at: www.wnchistory.org.

https://www.ncwriters.org/news/blog/the-western-north-carolina-historical-association-recognizes-network-members-and-forthcoming-board-president-for-the-thomas-wolfe-memorial-literary-award/?fbclid=IwAR24m9k3fsvA0jqydw-Y_TSxBRm_an1YSaEvo9grC-KphYLdW8a9kV3ZlZs

Brent Martin Recognized at Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award Event

Brent Martin

    Author and conservationist Brent Martin who spoke to NetWest members on Writers' Night Out in July, is a finalist for the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  The award is presented by the Western North Carolina Historical Association to the best WNC author or book.  The ceremony is Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in a ceremony at 5 pm in the  at UNC-Asheville Reuter Center, , Asheville, 28804.

    The event will be held in the Manheimer Room at the Reuter Center at UNC-Asheville, 300 Campus View Rd, Ashville, NC. It will also be livestreamed via Zoom and recorded for those who cannot attend in person.

    Martin is author of George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina.  He spoke to NetWest members about his book and Masa and his photography. 

    Other finalists chosen from an original group of 34 nominations include:

Anne Chesky Smith - Murder at Asheville's Battery Park Hotel: The Search for Helen Clevenger's Killer;

Lance Greene - Their Determination to Remain: A Cherokee Community's Resistance to the Trail of Tears;

Heather Newton - McMullen Circle; and

John Ross - Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time.

    The event is free and open to the public but registration is required and a ticket/Zoom link will be emailed to attendees. If you are able, please consider making a donation with your registration. Donations are placed into a community fund and help us offer tickets to other events at no-cost for those who would be otherwise unable to attend.
       Originated by the Louis Lipinsky family and now supported by the Ruth Siegel and Jacques Sartisky Foundation and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Board, WNCHA has presented the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award annually for printed works that focus special attention on Western North Carolina since 1955 when Wilma Dykeman was presented the award for The French Broad.

    The December 13, 2022 award ceremony will celebrate the five finalists for the 2022 award with readings and remarks by each author.

John C. Campbell Folk School makes changes

 John C. Campbell Folk School has dropped COVID 19 restrictions. 

Read about it here.

Take writing classes at the Folk School with excellent instructors.

I am taking an online course next year from the Folk School. How nice it is to have the opportunity for both in-person and online classes with these top writers. 

The John C. Campbell Folk School changed my life in so many ways. I first took poetry classes with Nancy Simpson, Carol Crawford, Kathryn Byer, and many other writers. Later I taught writing at the folk school and that was a huge step in my life. 

Glenda Beall

Tom Hooker, Adair Sanders and Mike McCarthy to Sign Books in Brevard

Tom Hooker

    Local authors Tom Hooker, Adair Sanders and Mike McCarthy will sign their latest books at Broad Street Wines in Brevard, NC, on Friday Nov. 25th from 1pm to 4pm.  If you need a break from Black Friday shopping, plan to stop in and enjoy the perfect wine pairing for a cozy afternoon of reading.
        In Tom Hooker’s latest book, Year of the White Dog, the year is 1540.  Strangers wearing shells like turtles are on the rampage.  A young Chickasaw maiden named Swift Doe has a dream about a white dog.  Can her dream save her people?  Hooker lives in Hendersonville, NC, and his short stories and poems appear in a number of literary journals.  He is coauthor with Gary Ader of a novel, The War Never Ends, and author of another, Twenty-five Angels, in addition to his latest which he will be signing.
        Suspense soars when the body of a C.I.A Section Chief is found in the car trunk of a Supreme Court Justice.  Whodunnit?  Find out in Adair Sanders latest, And So It Ends.  Sanders, a Brevard, NC, lawyer and author is known for the Allison Parker Mystery series and Biologically Bankrupt, a memoir about generational dysfunction and addiction.  She has also published Out of the Ashes, A Collection of Essays.
        Some say working from home requires superpowers, and Mike McCarthy and his co-authors, Janis Allen and Gail Snyder, show you how to don your cape and fly over the challenges in Working From Home Is Your Superpower.  McCarthy has been a teacher and management consultant who writes books about business.  He is also author of two novels The Noah Option and The Rainbow Option.

Fall 2022 NCWN Conference Registration Closes Friday

Registration to attend Fall Conference 2022 closes Friday, November 11 at 4:00 p.m. EST (via phone or mail) and at midnight (via online).   The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn Resort, 1706 North Lumina Avenue, Wrightsville Beach, NC.

Four p.m. Friday is also the deadline for those already registered for the conference to cancel if necessary and receive a refund.

Learn more about Fall Conference and how to register here.

For recommended hotel accommodations, please visit the Venue section on the Fall Conference 2022 web page.

Listen to the WHQR, Cape Fear's NPR station, interview with Communications Director Katherine O'Hara about Fall Conference.

The 2022 Fall Conference of the North Carolina Writers' Network will open with a keynote address by Jason Mott, winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

He will be joined on the conference faculty by more than 20 other writers leading classes on the craft and business of writing, from “Cross-Country Flights and Hollywood Nights” to “Escape from Pompeii: How to Write While the World Around You Burns.” 

Instructors include acclaimed novelists Clyde Edgerton and Dana Sachs; poets Mark Cox, Melissa Crowe, Gabrielle Brant Freeman, and Amber Flora Thomas; journalists Russell Worth Parker and Brandon Sneed; editors Margaret Bauer and Emily L. Smith; and many more. 

Brenda Kay Ledford Receives Paul Green Award

 Brenda Kay Ledford; Photo by:  Seeing  Southern Photography

Author, blogger, and  poet Brenda Kay Ledford received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her book,  Blanche, Poems of a Blue Ridge Woman.

The Award's Ceremony was held at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina  on Saturday, November 5.  Ledford received the award for the book about her mother, Blanche.  Redhawk Publications released the poetry book in 2021.

According to Mary Ricketson, author and mental health counselor, "Blanche comes to life in this memoir of poems.  Ledford chronicles a story of her mother's life, flour sacks and all.  Blanche rises before dawn, dew soaks her brogans when she goes berry picking.  Hens scratch hieroglyphics in the front yard and the sun rises like a ruby over Shewbird Mountain."

Ricketson continues, "I can see the sparkling blue eyes of Blanche Ledford.  'My hands have served me well as blood veins crisscross the Blue Ridge Mountains.' These poems will make you fall in love with the amazing Blanche I knew."

Ledford's book is available at:  www.amazon.com and www.RedhawkPublications.com 

Novelist, Non-fiction Author P.C. Zick Featured at Writers' Night Out

P.C. Zick

P.C. Zick, a writer with a passion for sharing and helping other writers, will be featured at Writers' Night Out Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 pm.  This is a Zoom event.  To get the link contact Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com 

Zick’s passion for sharing her stories and helping aspiring writers realize their dreams motivates all her projects. And that’s whether she’s serving as an editor to others or creating her own books that entertain and inform her readers.

Zick writes in a variety of genres, including romance, contemporary fiction, and creative nonfiction. She’s had works in each of these genres published and has won various awards for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and novels.

Setting plays a significant role in her fiction, beginning with the three contemporary novels in her Florida fiction series, which explore the people and landscape of the Sunshine State. Her romances transport readers to some of her favorite places from Long Island to Chicago to Florida to the Smoky Mountains. Her four separate romance series explore various social issues as people of all ages navigate the complicated road to romance.

Zick has also written a variety of nonfiction books, which include a primer for beginning writers for drafting, writing, and publishing a book. Her book on vegetable gardening combines her husband’s passion for growing food and her love of cooking it. She has also published and annotated the journal of her great-grandfather based on his experiences as a Union soldier during the Civil War.

She and her husband split their time between Tallahassee and the Smoky Mountains near Murphy, where they enjoy gardening, kayaking, golfing, and hiking. To learn more, please visit www.pczick.com.

For open mic, please limit your reading to 3 to 4 minutes maximum for poetry or prose (2 poems only, please) so that everyone who wishes to read has an opportunity to share.  To sign up for Open Mic, send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you) by clicking here: glendabeall@msn.com 

Mary Ricketson to Read from Precious the Mule

Mary Ricketson

Mary Ricketson will read from her new poetry collection, Precious the Mule, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Friday, Nov 11, at 5 pm.  City Lights Bookstore is located at 3 E Jackson St, Ste 1, Sylva, NC, a small Main Street town tucked in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains. 

"Precious the Mule is a story of humanity, compassion, and kindness.  My neighbor’s mule got badly injured, frightening all of us who live in this cove.  Mingled with the natural beauty of winter and springtime at my home in the Appalachian mountains, this is the story of a relationship I developed with my neighbor the mule a story that joins sorrow and suffering with joy and hope."  Mary Ricketson.

Ricketson lives in Murphy NC, works as a mental health counselor and a blueberry farmer.  Her poems often reflect the healing power of nature, surrounding mountains as midwife 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, Keeping in Place, and Lira, Poems of a Woodland Woman, and new collection, Precious the Mule. 

Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference Accepting Applications

The Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference is accepting applications through Dec. 15, 2022, for its May 18 to 21, 2023 workshops in Brevard, NC. 

The Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference, a partnership between the Transylvania County Library Foundation and Brevard College, is a unique creative experience for writers which aspires to foster reading, writing, creativity, and a sense of place in Transylvania County.

"The Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference is a restorative and invigorating retreat into a beautiful community in a lush part of the country. The short story I worked on while in attendance benefitted from my workshop instructor's critical but kind eye, my peers' honest, thoughtful feedback, and the overall serenity of the small town, small campus environment. The mountains of North Carolina would seem to be made for writers."   Jake Lancaster, scholarship recipient and 2022 workshop participant.

You may email questions about applying to lgrwc@brevard.edu.

The Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference is open for applications to its fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction workshops.

May 18-21, 2023

Brevard, NC

Poet Ken Chamlee Reading in Hendersonville

 Has New Collection of Poems, "If Not These Things"

Kenneth Chamlee

    Poet Kenneth Chamlee will read, take questions, and sign books at the Brandy Bar, 504 7th Ave E, Hendersonville, next to White Duck Taco, Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 7 pm.

    Chamlee's newest collection of poems, "If Not These Things" (Kelsay Books, 2022), discovers new insights with fresh language in the familiar experiences of life. 

    "Writing and reading poetry helps me appreciate our natural world, better understand our social world, and accept the constancy of change in both," he said.

    His poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, and Cold Mountain Review, and in two contest-winning chapbooks, "Absolute Faith" (ByLine Press) and "Logic of the Lost" (Longleaf Press). 

    His poetic biography of 19th century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, "The Best Material for the Artist in the World," is due out in 2023. 

    A Professor Emeritus of English at Brevard College in North Carolina, Chamlee holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He is a 2022-23 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the North Carolina Poetry Society. 

     To learn more about Chamlee and his poetry go to www.kennethchamlee.com.

Final Mountain Wordsmiths Meeting for 2022

The final Zoom meeting for 2022 of Mountain Wordsmiths will be Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.  The meeting will feature spooky, scary stories or poems written or appreciated by anyone who wishes to share. You can also bring something to read that feels like October. You don't have to be the author of the piece you're reading. Bring a poem or short piece you like that was written by another poet/writer. Don't stay away because you don't have something to read. Come enjoy the beauty and fun of wordsmithing!

Mountain Wordsmiths will meet again in January 2023.

P.S. March through October 2023 meetings are open! If you would like to be our featured reader for one of those months, please let Carol Taylor know! 

Topic: Mountain Wordsmiths

Time: Oct 27, 2022 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

        Every month on the Fourth Thu, until Oct 27, 2022, 1 occurrence(s)

        Oct 27, 2022 10:30 AM

Zoom link and Open Mic sign-up: Contact Glenda Beall glendabeall@msn.com

Happy News for Carroll S. Taylor

 

Carroll S. Taylor, poet, novelist, and facilitator of Mountain Wordsmiths 

Congratulations to Carroll S. Taylor whose poem, "Warp and Weft" has been accepted for publishing by the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Fine Arts Gallery. It will be published online in the Arts Gallery about mid-November. It will be in the gallery for six months and will then be archived for two years.

Carroll is the author of two YA novels, Chinaberry Summer, and Chinaberry Summer on the Other Side. She also recently published a children's book Feannag the Crow with exquisite illustrations by CSA Books, the publisher.

Her poetry is published in a number of journals, reviews, and anthologies. She lives in Hiawassee, Georgia, and is an active member of NCWN-West. 

Brenda Kay Ledford's Poem Published

 Brenda Kay Ledford's poem, "Mountain Fall," has been published online at "Family Friend Poems."

www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/138514

Literary Hour on October 20, 2022 has been canceled.

Cold weather--as in freezing temperatures--descended on the mountains this week and will continue through Thursday night. Because the Literary Hour is held in the Open House and the temperatures may dip into the low forties by 7 p.m., we have canceled this month's Literary Hour. The scheduled readers, Richard Cary and CarolLynn Jones, will be rescheduled in 2023.

It may be cold, but the colors have been astounding. 

Pat Zick

NCWN-West, Cherokee County representative

A Good NIght at Writers' Night Out

We were fortunate to have Dana Wildsmith as our featured guest for Writers' Night Out on Zoom. 

She writes poetry and prose and I enjoy all of her books. The memoir, Back to Abnormal, begins with her stepping on a rattlesnake and being bitten. Tonight she told us how upsetting it was for her when people took it so lightly and made it seem to be her fault. Most of us think it just takes a shot of anti-venom and you are fine, but she explains in her book just how painful the whole thing is and that it continues for days and weeks. And she said you take many anti-venom shots, not just one. But, she didn't take the anti-venom shots because she was told that if she was allergic she could die from the shots. It was a horrible experience.

Dana lives on an old family farm in Bethlehem, Georgia, a town where people come at Christmas to have their holiday cards stamped. 

Dana's newest book is One Light, a book of poems that centers on the caregiving of a loved one.

Her mother, Grace, probably saved Dana's life when she was fourteen and her nightgown caught fire as she stood too close to the fireplace. The child had massive burns all over her body and needed extensive care as she recovered. But her mother never left her side. In the book, One Light, Dana writes poetry about her mother's care. But she also writes poems about caring for Grace in later life who developed a terrible form of dementia. 

Anyone who has cared for a loved one with any kind of brain disorder knows the sorrow and frustration that occurs. I found it enlightening when Dana wrote poems in her mother's voice and in her own voice exploring the situation. 

Dana teaches often at the John C. Campbell Folk School online and in person. She will be teaching a class in person in January 2023.

https://folkschool.configio.com/pd/809/writing-in-a-changing-world?st_t=2077&st_ti=2516&cid=2527&returncom=productlist&source=search

Register early to be sure you can get in. If you live in local surrounding counties, you may get a discount on the price.

We thank Dana for being our guest at WNO and look forward to reading her books which are available at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC, and can be purchased at most local bookstores. You can also order them from the publishers. Go to Amazon.com to learn more.

We welcome you to join us for Writers' Night Out no matter where you live. Writers from Florida, Wyoming, and distant counties in North Carolina attend each month. They often read at Open Mic. Contact Karen Paul Holmes or Glenda Beall if you don't receive an invitation with the link to the Zoom meeting. 

 

Valerie Nieman will teach at John C. Campbell Folk School - Prose workshop

 OCT. 30-NOV. 5 - 

The Breath of Life: Discovering and Depicting Characters

Prose workshop at John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. Registration is still being accepted.

www.folkschool.org  

Valerie Nieman teaching a workshop at the Lights in the Mountains writers' conference
for NCWN-West