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Astonished to Wake by Julie Suk
Jacar Press17.95, paperbackISBN: 978-0-9364810-5-0January, 2016PoetryAvailable from the publisher
"The poetry of Julie Suk is at once deceptively spare and metaphorically rich, and the sensual mystery of her perfectly pitched and etched lines is haunting, elemental, and wild," —R. T. Smith
In her sixth collection, Julie Suk continues to write poems that are deeply sensuous and unflinching.
"Oh the things we would all say to the stars in the sky if we found ourselves alone in a lifeboat at sea."—Charles Simic, former Poet Laureate of the United States
Julie Suk is the author of five previous volumes of poetry. The Angel of Obsession won the University of Arkansas Poetry Competition, the Roanoke-Chowan Award, and was on the short list for the Poets Prize. The Dark Takes Aim (Autumn House Press) was awarded the Brockman-Campbell and the Oscar Arnold Young awards. Suk is also a recipient of the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and received the Irene Honeycutt Lifetime Achievement Award from Central Piedmont Community College. She was formerly a managing editor of Southern Poetry Review, and co-editor of Bear Crossings and the Anthology of North American Poets.
The Work of Creation by Luke Hankins
Wipf & Stock$20.00, paperbackISBN: 978-1-625643605January, 2016Nonfiction: Lit Crit / EssaysAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"In his generous and illuminating volume of prose, The Work of Creation, Luke Hankins demonstrates how much of poetry and the maturation of our engagement with it rely upon a power to contain opposites, particularly as they problematize our historical moment. With the wide-angle of a theorist and the jeweler's monocle of a close reader, the author here sets out to revalidate and reposition the poet's work as part of a more fundamental set of contemporary challenges: to seek the genuine in the fractured, divine union in uncertainty, magnanimity in despair—and thus to forge greater intimacies among aesthetics, ethics, and psychology. In praise of the devotional, the book honors a radiance of doubt that eschews both easy ironies and dogmatic polemics. The subtext here is gratitude, a love of work, and a deepening summons to the complexity of art as bound to the complexity of our condition. A beautiful book."—Bruce Bond, author of Immanent Distance: Poetry and the Metaphysics of the Near at Hand
"This collection is tuned to the pitch of listening—listening with fine intelligence as Hankins explores the nuances of poetry, culture, and history: the soul."—Claire Bateman, author of Leap and Scape
In The Work of Creation, poet, editor, and translator Luke Hankins explores literature, art, aesthetics, ethics, religion, and the life of the spirit in a number of genres, including literary criticism, meditations on art and aesthetics, personal essays, and interviews. Collected in this volume are pieces that have appeared in such places as Books & Culture, Contemporary Poetry Review, Image, The Writer's Chronicle, and the American Public Media national radio program On Being.
Luke Hankins is the author of a collection of poems, Weak Devotions, and the editor of Poems of Devotion: An Anthology of Recent Poets (both from Wipf & Stock). Hankins serves as Senior Editor at Asheville Poetry Review, and he is the founder and editor of Orison Books, a non-profit literary press focused on the life of the spirit from a broad and inclusive range of perspectives.
Hats Off! to Judy Hogan, author of The Sands of Gower: The First Penny Weaver Mystery, who appeared on the "Wacqueline Stern Show" on Carrboro's WCOM 103.5 FM. For the podcast click here; for the video click here.
Holy Ghosts of Whiskey by Marty Silverthorne
Sable Books$10.95, paperbackISBN: 978-0-9968036-2-5January, 2016PoetryAvailable from the publisher
"Marty Silverthorne shows us how memory and the past concretely inform each other: all that happens—the handed-down stories, the unimprisoned present—live as witnesses for the stalwarts, the listeners and readers who stand for generations to find out and to hear what Marty Silverthorne sees and hears. Holy Ghosts of Whiskey works like that. The pleasure of his words warm like good whiskey."—Shelby Stephenson, North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee and North Carolina Poet Laureate (2015-2017)
"Holy Ghost of Whiskey is a beautiful commitment to the god-force of memory. Marty Silverthorne reminds us over and over again how poetry strengthens our root. These deep evocations of language and ghosts create pathways that charm us into honky tonk heavens. From beginning to end these poems offer a haunted awareness of the joys, sacrifices, and sorrows that are singing in the hinges of three room shot gun shacks. These poems lift up the roots and reveal well-crafted tenderness and emphatic imagination that bears witness to the longings and challenges we all have confronting our angels, our ghosts, loves, and losses. Holy Ghost of Whiskey makes us dream about the rapture of what it means to be eat up with music."—Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee
"Some academics use the term 'regionalist' as a slight. It's true that, in lesser hands, regionalism sometimes devolves into local color nostalgia and sentimentality, into romanticism, but Marty Silverthorne's Holy Ghosts of Whiskey is a tumbling, musical urgency of 'smoke ring eulogies,' 'voices singing through the hinges,' bruises shining through worn blouses, cold, cold hearts and 'buzzards high in the Tuscarora pines.' It's a regional collection in the best sense of the term. These vibrant poems are distilled from 'the poverty of fatback and biscuits,' they're spiriting hymns worming their way to us from an eastern North Carolina landscape that isn't quite dead yet, rising from the coiled copper of liquor stills, from kerosene lamps and radio gospel. These poems will take you there so that you remember it."—John Hoppenthaler, author of Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, Lives of Water
Marty Silverthorne lives in Greenville, NC, where he earned a M.S. from East Carolina University. He received the Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award in 1993 and has been awarded several grants from the NC Arts Council. His poems have appeared in The St. Andrews Review, Carolina Literary Companion, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee, and others. He has published two chapbooks: Dry-Skin Messiah and Pot Liquor Promises.
Hats Off! to Marilynn Anselmi whose script "Reading Signs" won Second Place in the 2016 10-Minute Play Contest sponsored by the Winston-Salem Writers. "Reading Signs" tells the story of a daughter and her Alzheimer's afflicted mother who try to find common ground in the disappearing landscape of their past.
Dark Paths to Light by Gil Alligood
Outskirts Press$18.95, paperbackISBN: 978-1-4787-0963-3November, 2015FictionAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
The story takes place in current times. The characters are on a mission to prevent a group of terrorists from executing their plan that would cause major catastrophe in the Mideast and the world.
The major characters are Craig Johnson and his wife Kitty. When Craig discovers that his wife is in the hands of terrorists, he must thwart an international terrorist plot in Israel to rescue her. Craig and his team find themselves involved in Black operations as they make their way through several countries to reclaim Kitty..... and ensure peace.
The story is based on today's international political climate and rich in foreign culture, politics, and intrigue. Dark Paths to Light is a timely, nail-biting adventure fraught with difficulty and danger.
Gil Alligood's stories are based on research as well as his own experiences as a pilot in the United States Air Force (retired colonel),a consulting engineer, and a private pilot flying his Piper Arrow—providing background information for adventure and intrigue. He currently lives in Washington, North Carolina, where he serves his church as a Bible School teacher, and is chairman of the local airport advisory board. His previous novel The Devil's Pace examines the culture and amorous adventures of a young girl in 1953 in Eastern North Carolina.
Hats Off! to Sheila Webster Boneham whose book Catwalk has won the 2015 Maxwell Award for "Fiction: Young Adult or Humor" from the Dog Writers Association of America. Catwalk is the third book in Boneham's Animals in Focus series, which includes cats and dogs in all the books. The first book in the series won the Maxwell in 2013, and the second book was a finalist last year. Three of Sheila's books have also won Maxwells in nonfiction. Woof!
Fallen Land by Taylor Brown
St. Martin's Press978-1-250077974$25.99, hardcoverJanuary, 2016FictionAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"A story of love and loyalty set within the madness and chaos of war, Fallen Land is also a thrilling fugue, in both senses: of flight, and intricate composition. It is also the story of a revenge quest, the horrors of Sherman's March, a noble horse named Reiver, of sacrifice, endurance, and redemption. No one who reads Fallen Land will ever forget it. In this first novel Taylor Brown proves himself a fresh, authentic, and eloquent new voice in American fiction." ―Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek, Boone, and The Road from Gap Creek
"A shattering debut that puts one strongly in mind of the young Cormac McCarthy, and the best historical fiction I've read in ages." ―Pinckney Benedict, author of Town Smokes, The Wrecking Yard, and Dogs of God
"It is rare thing for a writer to have the talent and scope to exhibit both the worst and best of humanity in one book, much less in one scene, but that's what Brown does here: He literally floods the page with violent beauty and devastating grace. Well-known and oft-praised writers will look back on long and storied careers only to wish they had written a debut novel as flawless as Fallen Land." ―Wiley Cash, author of A Land More Kind Than Home
Fallen Land is Taylor Brown's debut novel set in the final year of the Civil War, as a young couple on horseback flees a dangerous band of marauders who seek a bounty reward. Callum, a seasoned horse thief at fifteen years old, came to America from his native Ireland as an orphan. Ava, her father and brother lost to the war, hides in her crumbling home until Callum determines to rescue her from the bands of hungry soldiers pillaging the land, leaving destruction in their wake. Ava and Callum have only each other in the world and their remarkable horse, Reiver, who carries them through the destruction that is the South. Pursued relentlessly by a murderous slave hunter, tracking dogs, and ruthless ex-partisan rangers, the couple race through a beautiful but ruined land, surviving on food they glean from abandoned farms and the occasional kindness of strangers. In the end, as they intersect with the scorching destruction of Sherman's March, the couple seek a safe haven where they can make a home and begin to rebuild their lives. Dramatic and thrillingly written with an uncanny eye for glimpses of beauty in a ravaged landscape, Fallen Land is a love story at its core, and an unusually assured first novel by award-winning young author Taylor Brown.
Taylor Brown grew up on the Georgia coast. He has lived in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and the mountains of western North Carolina. His fiction has appeared in more than twenty publications including The Baltimore Review, The North Carolina Literary Review, and storySouth. He is the recipient of the Montana Prize in Fiction, and was a finalist in both the Machigonne Fiction Contest and the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. His short story collection In the Season of Blood and Gold was a finalist in the short-story category of the 2015 International Book Awards. An Eagle Scout, he lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Hats Off! to Ellen LaConte who was featured, along with her debut novel Afton, in a Writer's Profile in the Winston-Salem Journal's arts/entertainment weekly magazine, Relish. Afton has been well-received, leading to several book club invitations and event opportunities.
Hats Off! to June Guralnick whose new full-length play, Birds of a Feather: a Comedy about De-Extinction, has been selected from nationwide submissions for further development and a staged reading by Turn to Flesh Productions in New York City.
Hats Off! to Ray Morrison whose short story "Dawn Branch" was a finalist for the 2016 Hamlin Garland Award for the Short Story and will be published in the Spring 2016 issue of the Beloit Fiction Journal.
The Changing Season by Steven Manchester
Story Plant$26.95, hardcoverISBN: 978-1-611882261February, 2016FictionAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"The Changing Season is a story that will bring you back to that awkward period of time between childhood and adult life. I highly recommend this book."—Richard Paul Evans, #1 New York Times bestselling author, The Christmas Box and The Mistletoe Promise
"The Changing Season is a thought provoking coming of age tale that explores the complicated themes of love, faith, family, and above all, loyalty. Mr. Manchester's portrayal of a boy at the cusp of manhood is evocative and sympathetic."—Susan Wilson, New York Times bestselling author, One Good Dog
This was supposed to be a simple summer for Billy: one more lazy expanse of time before college began. He'd fill the hours playing with Jimmy his canine best buddy going camping and doing all the things he promised Jimmy they'd do before Billy left. But that was before the accident that shook the entire town. It was before the summer job that turned into something so much more than a way to get a paycheck. And it was before Vicki. This summer was destined to be many things to Billy, things he didn t truly understand until now. But it was definitely not going to be simple. An enormously touching, richly textured, deeply moving novel of new adulthood, The Changing Season is an experience to savor.
Steven Manchester is the author of the #1 bestsellers Twelve Months, The Rockin' Chair, Pressed Pennies, and Gooseberry Island, as well as the novel Goodnight, Brian. His work has appeared on NBC's Today Show, CBS's The Early Show, CNN's American Morning, and BET's Nightly News. Recently, three of Manchester's short stories were selected "101 Best" for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
Hats Off! to Clay County NCWN Regional Rep Glenda C. Beall, who interviewed Steven Harvey, author of the memoir The Book of Knowledge and Wonder, in which the author pieces together the life of his mother, Roberta Reinhardt Harvey, who committed suicide when he was eleven.
Oh, Nelly ! The Life and Loves of Penelope Evangeline Dougherty 1883-1963 by Richard David Randall
Force 10 Publishing$13.23, hardcover / $2.99, e-bookISBN: 978-0-9962482-0-4July, 2015MemoirAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
Meet Penelope Evangeline Dougherty, otherwise known as "Nelly."
"I've known genuine love's fierce passion and the love one feels for a soul mate. I've known parenthood's unmatched joy and agony. I've known abject poverty and financial contentment. I've known terrifying adventure, death's near misses, and the double-edged sword of revenge."
Inspired by a mysteriously discovered, time-worn autobiography started by Nelly, her story is vividly brought to life once more for us, knitted with great love and a healthy dose of imagination into a compelling narrative by her grandson.
Hats Off! to Phil Bowie who took second place in the British Flash 500 short-story contest with a tale called "Mister Sad." He has a fourth book in his suspense series out, and does a new blog post about writing every Monday on his website www.philbowie.com.
Hats Off! to Ruth Moose whose poems appeared recently in Salt magazine and Chatham magazine.
Hats Off! to Crystal Simone Smith who will receive the first Absher Initiatives Literary and Arts Grant. Her projected work will combine watercolor and haiku, a customary pairing call haiga. Although less conventional, the work will also incorporate another form of Japanese poetry called haibun, a prose poem accompanied by a haiku. The collection will be published in 2016.
Another Sunday by Cynthia Strauff
Lulu$27.00, paperback / $2.99, e-bookISBN: 978-1-4834-3817-7November, 2015Fiction: Historical / Literary / Women'sAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
In the fall of 1901, beautiful, self-centered Celeste Wells twirls her parasol as she strolls down Baltimore's North Avenue, waiting to be noticed by handsome, shy Willie Strauff. She is certain that life will deliver her dreams—love, and a house on Mt. Vernon Place.
But destiny selects a different path. As the vagaries of fate and her own decisions result in blow after blow, she finds an inner-strength, replaces her dreams and accepts her circumstances as life comes full circle.
In this historical novel, a young woman embarks on a journey of self-discovery during the early twentieth century where she must rely on newfound courage to persevere through the challenges before her.
Cynthia Strauff (Schaub) is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards for her poetry and prose. A native of Baltimore, she holds graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Dick Schaub, and her cats. Another Sunday is her first novel.
Hats Off! to Jeanne Julian whose poetry chapbook, Blossom and Loss, won the 2015 Longleaf Press Poetry Chapbook Contest. Jeanne received $200, fifty contributor copies, and publication.
Lot Boy by Greg Shemkovitz
Sunnyoutside Press$16.00, paperbackISBN: 978-1934513491July, 2015Fiction: Literary / Rust BeltAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Greg Shemkovitz's Lot Boy shines a relentless spotlight on what we keep trying to understand—father-son relationships, the elusive American Dream, how to escape Sisyphean tasks. This is a first-rate page-turner, written by a man who grasps the plight of blue collar workers. I recommend it highly."—George Singleton, Between Wrecks
"Greg Shemkovitz's rust belt noir is a gritty, vulgar, hilarious example of why you should never turn your back on a mechanic. Lot Boy does for Buffalo what Donald Ray Pollock has done for Ohio. Best of all, it's accomplished by a Pynchonionally large cast of untrustable characters with grease under their nails and surprises in their hearts."—Patrick Wensink, bestselling author of Broken Piano for President
"If Eddie Lanning knows what's good for him he'll start to behave himself. Then, maybe, he'll get a piece of the family Ford dealership. But don't count on it in this funny, antic, swift-moving novel about independence, the call of the road and learning the hard way. Lot Boy is a terrific debut by a writer with talent to burn."—Porter Shreve, The End of the Book
Eddie Lanning has grown up with the run of his father's Ford dealership, but lack of ambition and an immature attitude leave him trapped as the "lot boy" who covers the most menial and unskilled tasks and errands. Eager to escape both snowy Buffalo and his family legacy, Eddie allows a habit of petty theft to escalate into warranty fraud as he is drawn by fellow employee Spanky into a dangerous parts-selling scheme. This sensitive portrayal of both inchoate youthful rebellion and the invisible bonds of family and home effectively emphasizes the difficulty of Eddie's final choice.
Greg Shemkovitz teaches writing and literature at Elon University. His fiction has appeared in Gihon River Review, the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Prick of the Spindle, and elsewhere. Lot Boy was a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and is his first novel.
Hats Off! to JS (Stan) Absher whose poetry collection Mouth Work won the Lena M. Shull Book Award sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society. The final judge was Ann Garbett. Mouth Work contains poems that reflect Stan's father's childhood in northwest North Carolina and his own upbringing in the Blue Ridge and Brushy Mountains. Mouth Work will be published by St. Andrews University Press and launched at Poetry Day at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory on April 2.
Hats Off! to Katherine Van Dis whose short story "Jellyfish Moon" appears in The Carolina Quarterly.
Hats Off! to Joan Leotta whose poem "Jay Feather Day" was selected for January's Poetry in Plain Sight, sponsored by the Winston-Salem Writers. Her poem "Joan Miro and Me" is forthcoming in Silver Birch Press, and her poem "Dressed Stones" is set to run in the February issue of Ruby magazine.
Hats Off! to Ashley Memory of Raleigh whose poem "Why I Love Used Books" received an honorable mention in the 2015 Rash Award in Poetry from Broad River Review.
Hats Off! to Heather Adams whose story "A Pop of Color" is an honorable mention in the 2015 Rash Award in Fiction, sponsored by the Broad River Review.
A Fox with Earrings: What's a little MURDER among friends? by Loyd Little
Oak Tree Press$12.95, paperback / $4.99, e-bookISBN: 978-1610092050October, 2015Fiction: MysteryAvailable from the publisher or www.Amazon.com
Nolan Chastain, a real estate agent, is three months into a consuming affair with Cass Tolley, a woman he's known and been fascinated with for more than a decade. On Friday, after the first day of showing million-dollar homes to a recently retired Air Force general and his wife, Nolan arrives at Cass' home to find police cars and blue lights—Cass has been shot and killed. Many had motive to kill her; far from virtuous, Cass had slept with most of the men she had ever known. Jealous spouses and men scorned headline the list. Nolan's insatiable curiosity and desire to see justice inspires his compilation of suspects—ironically all friends. An exaggerated conversation concerning Krugerrands (Cass' versions were always outrageous) tips the scales, but toward whom? How is the general involved? Which story does he believe? And what has the fox with earrings have to do with anything?
Loyd Little's published novels include: Parthian Shot, winner of the PEN-Hemingway Award and a Playboy Book-of-the-Month Selection (Viking Press in hardcover/Ivy Press in paperback, 1975), In the Village of the Man (Viking-Penguin Press hardback, 1977), Smokehouse Jam (Available Press, a division of Ballantine Books, 1989,) and Roll On Sugaree (Author House, 2013).
Published short stories: "Out With the Lions", published in Free Fire Zone: Short Stories by Vietnam Vets (McGraw Hill, 1973) and "The Moon in June" (Playboy, March, 1977). Fragile Islands of Memories, a nonfiction picture book about the Hre Montagnards around Gia Vuc, a Special Forces camp where he served in 1965 (available at http://www.gia-vuc.com/loydsmemories.htm).
A graduate of the University of North Carolina, he has taught creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the state's community college system and has lectured at various literary events. He has been a critiquer of novels and short stories for more than twenty years for the North Carolina Writers' Network, as well as an active member of the Network. He was the editor/managing editor of four newspapers in North and South Carolina: www.loydlittle.weebly.com.
My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily by Gilda Morina Syverson
Pegasus Books in conjunction with Divine Phoenix Books$17,95, paperbackISBN: 978-1-941859-10-0December, 2014Memoir: Travel, Family RelationshipsAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Gilda Morina Syverson's beautiful memoir, My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily, is so rife with Italianate passion and sentiment that I was often spirited away—not just to Rome and Sicily, but to my parents' kitchen, and the precincts of my past I most cherish. This is a travel book in every sense. Syverson—a savvy, funny, elegant tour guide—expertly escorts us through the gorgeous time-locked terrain of Italy, but also along the often precarious byways of the heart. This book risks everything: its humanity, its courage, its sheer unbridled candor, the moving sweep of its poetic language and its refusal to turn away from the breathtaking mystery of love and ancestry. Bravissimo!" —Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2012-2014, author of Half of What I Say Is Meaningless, Essays
"Here's what's in store for you: A delightful journey into the heart of Italy, into the heart of this family, into the heart of what it means to be human. My Father's Daughter is a beautifully crafted, moving, entertaining memoir that will win you over from page one. If five stars is the highest rating, I give this book six." —Judy Goldman, author of the memoir Losing My Sister
"Travel south from Rome with Gilda Morina Syverson. Let her show you her ancestral land through the eyes of her closest ancestors, her parents, who travel with her and her husband. It's a trip well worth taking… vividly observed, richly detailed, gently humorous, and deeply poignant. The only thing better would be a trip to Italy." —William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Cape Cod and The Lincoln Letter
In this travel trilogy, My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily, we are captivated by this passionate adventure with Gilda Morina Syverson as she journeys with her Italian-born father, Italian-American mother, and very-American husband among ancient sites of Rome, south to Sicily through landscapes of a picturesque countryside, seaside villages, and her family's ancestral roots. This tale is not only about the land but also about relationships, family, love, mystery, and ancestry. With joy, angst, humor, and a quest to unearth a heritage, the journey of a lifetime is about to begin.
Gilda Morina Syverson, artist, poet, writer and teacher, is the author of the memoir My Father's Daughter: From Rome to Sicily published by Pegasus Books in conjunction with Divine Phoenix Books. Syverson's story was a Novello Literary Award Finalist. She is the author of two poetry books: Facing the Dragon and In This Dream Everything Remains Inside. She has taught in the creative arts for over thirty-five years including fifteen years of memoir writing at Queens University of Charlotte. Her website is www.gildasyverson.com.
Hats Off! to Katherine Soniat, whose hand-sewn poetry chapbook, The Goodbye Animals (Foothills Press, 2014), won the 2014 Turtle Island Poetry Award.
Hats Off! to NCWN board member Terry L. Kennedy who was featured "In the Spotlight" on the website of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP).
Hats Off! to Heather Bell Adams of Raleigh who won First and Second Place in the Novel Excerpt category of the 2014 Knoxville Writers' Guild Contest.
Tryon Diary:Tales from the Friendliest Town in the South by Susan McNabb
Susan McNabb$12.99, paperback / $4.99, e-bookISBN: 978-1505549393January, 2015EssaysAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Susan's humor is as subtle as a sharp razor blade and her columns always look at life and people from a positive point of view—a wonderful feature that should be a great read for anyone in book form."—Jim Wright, Mayor of Tryon
"Susan's snippets of life here are fun, chatty, sometimes very personal, and sometimes just a little bit peppery. Tryon Diary is charming and insightful—a must read!"—Patti D'Arbanville, actress and Tryon resident
"Susan eloquently captures the quirks and bona fides of Tryon's diverse population, always with a warm heart willing to see potential oddity as charm."—Richard Christian Nelson, portrait artist and Tryon gallery owner
Fall in love with Tryon, North Carolina, in this collection of Susan McNabb's insightful and often funny weekly newspaper columns from the Tryon Daily Bulletin as she discovers the unexpected in small-town life after nearly three decades in Hollywood. Included are her thoughts on Tryon native Nina Simone, the Mule Club, and rented goats.
Susan McNabb is the author of Tryon Diary, a collection of columns from the Tryon Daily Bulletin, "The World's Smallest Daily Newspaper," in which she chronicles her adjustment to small-town life in North Carolina after nearly three decades in Los Angeles. Susan grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and received an English Literature degree from the University of Tennessee before moving to L.A. to pursue modeling and commercial acting. Now settled in Tryon with her husband and rescued dogs, Susan is also an accomplished potter and fiber artist. You can visit Susan at www.susanmcnabb.com or on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.
Hats Off! to Kim Church whose debut novel, Byrd, has been named a semi-finalist for the Chautauqua Prize.
Sawdust and Soul by William J. Everett and John W. de Gruchy
Wipf and Stock$14.00, paperbackISBN: 978-1-6256444633December, 2014Memoir: SpiritualAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"The title and subtitle are exactly right. This is 'A Conversation about Woodworking and Spirituality' in which 'sawdust flies in all directions, but the soul also takes wings.' So, reader, prepare to pause often to reflect on your own life journey as you listen to Everett's and de Gruchy's. This is wisdom beautifully communicated." —Ecological theologian Larry Rasmussen
"This absorbing and often moving conversation about friendship, faith, and the woodworker's craft invites us to explore the inner journeys that accompany the working and shaping of wood. The obvious joy of the authors in the soul-deepening craft will strike an immediate chord with fellow woodworkers—and invite some who have not yet felt the warm texture of newly planed wood grain under their fingers to go out and buy their first tools."—Bishop Peter Storey of South Africa
"In Sawdust and Soul I felt like I was standing across a workbench from two friends reminiscing, philosophizing, and reflecting about woodworking, the influence it has on their lives and their relationship. The journey I experienced with Bill and John resonates with my own." —North Carolina woodwork designer and craftsman Gregory Paolini
An American ethicist and a South African theologian reflect on their work with wood and how it has helped them find creativity and meaning in experiences of both loss and transformation. Through their friendship, correspondence, and work together they have developed a rich narrative about the way this craftwork has shaped their relationships with family, friends, and their natural environment. Their conversation invites both craftspeople and religious seekers to join them on a spiritual journey toward fresh insight and inspiration. The book is enhanced with numerous photographs of the authors' work as well as with line drawings by Isobel de Gruchy.
William J. Everett taught Christian ethics in graduate schools for over thirty years before turning to woodworking. In addition to his academic books and articles, he is the author of Red Clay, Blood River, an eco-historical novel, as well as Turnings, a collection of his poetry. He lives in the hardwood forest of western North Carolina.
One of South Africa's most celebrated theologians, John W. de Gruchy is also a woodworker, with pieces in many churches, schools, and homes throughout the country and abroad. Among his recent books are Confessions of a Christian Humanist and Led Into Mystery. He and his wife Isobel are members of the Volmoed Christian Community near Hermanus, South Africa, where he writes, gives seminars, and does woodworking, while Isobel paints and writes poetry.
Hats Off! to Laurence Holden who will have recent poems appearing in the March issues of Snapdragon: a Journal of Art & Healing and Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel (vol 18, 2015).
Hats Off! to Tom Wood whose short story "A Live Wire in Deadwood" is now available as an e-book and will be published later this year as part of the Tennesseans West by Western Trail Blazer. An enterprising young reporter from Nashville, Tennessee, meets railroad porter Nat Love at the turn of the twentieth century. Mister Love has an amazing story to tell, beginning how he was born a slave on a plantation in Nashville and headed West at age fifteen, where he was known and feared as Deadwood Dick.
Hotel Worthy by Valerie Nieman
Press 53$14.95, paperbackISBN: 978-1-941209-18-9March, 2015PoetryAvailable for pre-order at your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Check into Hotel Worthy and you'll never want to leave. There abides in its pages an uncanny past wrought into poems that spring from a memory that unites the dead with the living, restores the abandoned, returns the missing. This is a startling book. The language—its lyric nuance, its plaintive harmonies, its ceremonial beauty—is unforgettable. In the words of the poet, 'Each blow of wood on wood / sets ripples on the water: / deo gratias, deo gratias.' Deo gratias indeed—for Hotel Worthy."—Joseph Bathanti, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina and author of Concertina: Poems
"At last, a book that states clearly the purpose of life. According to Val Nieman's Hotel Worthy, it's to know things, especially the names for things—Candor peaches, Marvel-of-Peru, pipsissewa. It's a pleasure to hear the quiet, sure voices of these poems, to be caught off guard when some swoop wide at the end like the trumpets of lemon lilies, to be reminded that "the personal . . . holds hands with the larger all the way up.'"—Sarah Lindsay, Lannan Literary Fellow and author of Debt to the Bone-Eating Snotflower
"What are we to do with the lost, broken, failed things of our lives? How do we piece together the shards of relationships that didn't last, salvage the ghosts of our younger selves? Like a daring archeologist, the poems of Hotel Worthy dig [deeply] into the intimate layers of years, excavating the fossils of memory, love, loss, and family history. These poems compel us to have the courage to emerge from our past shipwrecks and embark anew. This collection is a road map for beginning again."—Ansel Elkins, author of Blue Yodel, winner of the 2014 Yale Series of Younger Poets
These are poems of love, loss, and survival, ranging across a landscape from the North Carolina coast to the painted caves of the Perigord.
Valerie Nieman's poems have appeared widely and been collected in two chapbooks and her debut collection, Wake Wake Wake (Press 53). She has held writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. Her books of prose include three novels, with the most recent, Blood Clay, being honored with the Eric Hoffer Award. She is a graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte. A professor of creative writing at North Carolina A&T State University, she teaches at John Campbell Folk School and other venues, and serves as poetry editor for Prime Number Magazine. You may encounter her on a train, or solo hiking, or over a cup of lemon-ginger tea at a local bookstore.
Converging Waters by Sam Love
Nexus Poetry Media$12.95, paperbackISBN: 978-1-502367785January, 2015PoetryAvailable at your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Sam has a great sense of humor, no small thing in poetry where everybody is VERY serious. I'm still laughing at some of the poems." —Peter Makuck, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at East Carolina University
"Reading Converging Waters is like taking a guided tour of places you have forgotten to think about. The poems are delectably short, served up as a rotating menu of thoughtful snacks or well-seasoned appetizers. Most will leave a smile on your lips or, if they're serious, a question mark filling a surprising void."—Alan Welch, New Bern poet
New Bern's converging rivers, historic houses, and contemporary fads play a major role is shaping the insightful and witty poetry in a new book, Converging Waters, by author Sam Love.
This title emerges from his poem "New Bern Nexus" where he writes: "Converging waters often birth sacred places, places that pry open beleaguered souls."
Many of his poems will make you smile. His poem "The Perfect Holiday Meal" pokes fun at fad diets that create a cook's nightmare. To the author no subject is sacred. For example in "Downstream Loop," we follow the journey of a carelessly tossed plastic bag through the ecosystem to its return back to us as part of our food chain. Even the tragedy of a neighbor losing his hunting dog and being left with his wife's poodles can inspire a story poem. In "A Real Man's Dog" the good ol' boy attempts to train his wife's poodle to be his hunting dog.
"I like to explore the interconnections surrounding a single event or object so that we can gain new clarity about our world," Sam said. "For example in my poem "Blueberry Mourning" one blueberry in my cereal inspired me to write a poem exploring the miles per gallon of a blueberry traveling from Chile to my bowl in New Bern."
Sam Love is a writer living in New Bern. His nonfiction articles have been published in major magazines including, Smithsonian and Washingtonian. He is the author of two novels, Electric Honey and Snap Factor. He is one of the organizers of the First Tuesday Poetry Open Mike in New Bern.
Hats Off! to Laurel Ferejohn whose short story "Bear" is a finalist for the World's Greatest Short Short Story (judge: Robert Olen Butler), and will appear in the new issue of the Southeast Review, 33.1.
Hats Off! to Joan Leotta, whose poem "Ora Pro Nobis" is forthcoming in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing (March).
Hats Off! to Randy Lee White who has two poems forthcoming in Helix Literary Magazine.
Song of Moving Water by Susan Schmidt
Kakapo Press $15.00, paperbackISBN: 978-0986383519February, 2015Fiction: YA Available from www.Amazon.com
"'Groundtruthing,' she calls it—ways of knowing the land—from a mountain man's gift for hunting ginseng… to a woman's skill at putting by food… to a scrappy Quaker ecologist's understanding of the webs of life. This closely observed novel takes you deep into the embrace of the mountains."—Valerie Nieman, author of Blood Clay and Neena Gathering
As paddler, flyfisher, bass fiddler, gardener, and Quaker naturalist—Susan Schmidt writes about ecology, geology, women's ways of knowing, bluegrass music, square dancing, chestnut trees, quilting, endangered species, local food, and environmental organizing in her new young-adult novel, Song of Moving Water.
"Don't blame yourself for other people's decisions," Aunt Ruby tells Grace. At seventeen, Grace feels guilty that her father drowned in the river when she was ten. Just when she has moved back home, the power company proposes a dam that will flood her family farm. She builds confidence to raise her voice.
With a backdrop of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Song of Moving Water is a young woman's coming-of-age story and a fictional environmental impact statement. When Grace returns to her father's homeplace seven years after his death, a proposed hydroelectric dam threatens the remote valley. Learning about farming and faith from her Aunt Ruby and about foraging herbs from neighbor Amos, Grace begins to value the self-sufficient community in contrast to her mother's social whirl in Richmond. In the country, Grace goes to a square dance at the elementary school; in the city, she goes to a debutante party at the Country Club. Grace plans on college, but her childhood friend Sally Bee is already married with two babies. Grace has a crush on Sam, aquatic ecologist and Quaker pacifist who is looking for an endangered species to stop the dam.
While canoeing with Sam, Grace learns how to read a river and the Tao of water. In contrast to Sam, Grace's stepbrother Jared is a vain business student who slaps her in a political argument. With comic rivals, Amos and Farley, the half-Indian/half-black musician up the creek, Grace goes to the Galax Fiddle Festival, and Farley competes in the fiddle contest. Reclaiming her mountain heritage, Grace organizes neighbors to celebrate their river, and she sings to protest the dam that may flood her family farm.When she skinnydips in a mountain pool, Grace accepts her growing maturity and forgives her own gracelessness. Walking the woods, Amos shows Grace the flowering shrub, Hearts-a-Busting, to remind her to keep her heart open.
Susan Schmidt writes Song of Moving Water with the insight of a scientist, the imagery of a poet, and the big heart of one who loves the Appalachian highlands and their people. Poised on the cusp of adulthood, Grace comes back to McDowell County to learn what no classroom can teach: family secrets, spiritual knowledge, sexual stirrings—all against the backdrop of a newborn environmental movement.
As developmental editor, Susan Schmidt polishes science and history books, novels, and memoirs—with the same mindfulness as pruning apple trees. She has been a professor of literature and environmental decision-making, sailboat delivery captain, and government science-policy analyst. She has a doctorate in American literature and a Masters in Environmental Sciences. To witness natural diversity, she walked the Camino de Santiago, Cornwall Coastal Path, Scottish Highlands, Ring of Kerry, and Appalachian Trail; surveyed birds in Kenya and Ecuador; paddled Prince William Sound and Milford Sound; and delivered sailboats to the West Indies. Her homeplace is the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, and her homeport is Beaufort, North Carolina, where she walks beaches with her Boykin Spaniel. Susan Schmidt's two new books are Song of Moving Water, an environmental novel, and Salt Runs in My Blood—poems about journeys in boats and walking long trails. Her poems appear in Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina and won the 2012 Guy Owen Poetry Prize. She wrote Landfall Along the Chesapeake, In the Wake of Captain John Smith (Johns Hopkins University Press), an ecological history and boat adventure.
Hats Off! to Linda Vigen Phillips whose YA novel in verse, Crazy (Eerdmans, 2014), has received these recognitions: Junior Library Guild Selection; New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2014; Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) BFYA nomination 2015; and Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2015.
Hats Off! to Ron Jackson whose short story "The Station" has been accepted by Firewords Quarterly.
Hats Off! to Art Taylor who had two stories named finalists for this year's Agatha Awards: "Premonition" from the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays; and "The Odds Are Against Us" from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
Hats Off! to Joan Leotta whose poem, "The Cardinal's Mirror," was accepted for the Poeming Pigeon Anthology (The Poetry Box). Also, she is this month's 30/30 poet for Tupelo Press. For the month of February, she will post one poem a day—and it's for a good cause! For a $5 donation, Joan will dedicate a poem to you. For a $25 donation, she will write an entire poem just for you! To donate, click here. To read this month's poems, click here.
Hats Off! to Marilynn Barner Anselmi whose script, The Osanbi Deal, has been selected to be presented at the North Carolina New Play Project in Greensboro. Production will run April 10-19, 8 pm (Sunday 2 pm) at the Greensboro Cultural Center, Stephen D. Hyers Theatre.
Hats Off! to Anne Anthony whose story "The Coal Room" was shortlisted in the Brilliant Flash Fiction "Life is Good" writing contest.
Hats Off! to Heather Bell Adams who is a semi-finalist in the 2015 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, which qualifies her to participate in the Masters Workshop in Fiction.
Prissy on the Moon by Dolores Andral
Laurel View Press$17.99, hardcoverISBN: 978-0-990397809August, 2014Children's: Picture BookAvailable from www.Amazon.com
Not one to let boredom get the most of her, Prissy imagines herself living on the moon! Imagination collides with reality, however, when she uses her "outside voice" indoors and jumps on the furniture in her space odyssey, and then crashes into her mama as she flies through the house on her spaceship! When Prissy finds out about a party that will include fun, family, and food, she decides to just visit the moon so she can enjoy a bit of both worlds.
Dolores Andral received her MFA from Queens University in Charlotte, NC. When she is not writing she is caring for her home, husband, and four busy children!
Hats Off! to Ellen Fischer who will be one of the featured writers at the O.Henry Book Fair, on February 21. She'll read from her book If An Armadillo Went to a Restaurant, illustrated by Laura Wood.
Blood & Parcels by T.Q. Bernier
Lulu Publishing$23.99, paperback / $3.99, e-bookISBN: 978-1-4834-0438-7 (pb) / 978-1-4834-0439 (e-book) January, 2014Family Saga/DramaAvailable from www.Amazon.com
"Blood & Parcels is a wonderfully conceived and eloquently orchestrated epic tale of one family's generational journey through time. Masterfully and skillfully rendered characters are weaved in a story with extraordinary vivid details set in the 1800s and culminating in the present, punctuated with intense familial love and loyalty. It is engaging and captivating in its totality, leaving the reader thirsty for more. Every so often, amid the throngs of published authors, there emerges a talent so pure that it cannot be perceived as anything other than brilliant. Bravo!"—Marie Rose Rivera, Stay-at-Home Mom and Entrepreneur
"T.Q. Bernier's novel, Blood & Parcels, takes the reader on a journey through history filled with adventure and intrigue. With stories of honor, betrayal, love found and love lost, and finally to a place of redemption. Her characters are highly complex. As she develops the multiple layers to their personalities, the reader is consumed with a sense of urgency to know what happens next. You are caught up in the trials, tribulations and sheer will for survival of these characters. Their sense of honor and loyalty to family runs deep through this narrative. For someone whose family history in many ways follows a similar path, it was fascinating to get caught up in familiar places and surnames. A true testament to this great adventure is that the author leaves you wanting more....Congratulations, T.Q. Bernier!! From an American woman, who as well, is so proud of her French Caribbean Heritage. Well Done!"—Rosemarie Danet Correa, RFID Project Manager, United Space Alliance, Kennedy Space Center and President of Florida French Connection
"I have just finished reading Blood & Parcels, and 'Wow' is all I can say. I was thoroughly captivated by the characters, absorbed right into the times and places, felt the pain, the love, and the joy. T.Q. Bernier, I want more! I can't wait for your next novel. I definitely recommend Blood & Parcels to everyone for a fabulous read."—Marilyn Pearson, Business Owner, Appliances Plus
Catherine never anticipates that her marriage to Jonah Dusant would be a death blow to the Dusant business empire. Amid the heat of a brewing war between nineteenth-century Germany and France, her union with the powerful family exposes deadly secrets. From the high court of France to the pristine shores of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Blood and Parcels crosses five generations and spans a continent to tell the story of the inescapable bonds of family and ancestral duty. It weaves a riveting tale of love, lust, daunting loss, difficult decisions, betrayal and murder.
Of French, Caribbean descent, T.Q. Bernier was born in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. She worked in the banking industry specializing in mortgage loan underwriting and retired in 2012 from one of the largest banks in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands to pursue her writing career. She and her husband, James, have three children and reside in Cary, North Carolina.
Hats Off! to Heather Bell Adams of Raleigh who placed twice in the 2013 Southern Literary Contest sponsored by the Union County Writers' Club: First Place in the poetry category for her poem entitled "Empty Space;" and Second Place in the short fiction category for her short story entitled "Green River Gorge."
Hats Off! to Katherine Crawford who writes a weekly parenting/outdoors/general life column for The Greenville News in Greenville, SC. It runs every Thursday.
Hats Off! to Joan Howard who had five poems published in The Eclectic Muse: A Poetry Journal, Volume 19, Christmas 2013.
Hats Off! to T.Q. Bernier who recently published her debut novel. Blood & Parcels begins in nineteenth-century France amid the stirrings of World War I and follows five generations of the powerful, somewhat underhanded Dusant family from France into the sultry heat of the Caribbean.
GREENSBORO, NC—Warp, weave. Thieve and lie. Hearts that beat—and break. Fiction is action, and a good story demands a writer's best verbs. Need proof? Just check out the titles of the fiction course offerings at the upcoming North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Spring Conference on Saturday, April 12, at UNCG.
Nancy Peacock, author of the novel The Life & Times of Persimmon Wilson, will lead the Two-Part Fiction Workshop. The title? "The Warp and Wave of Fiction."
Two-part workshops meet twice during the conference, once during Workshop Session I (in the morning) and again for Workshop Session II (in the afternoon). Peacock, whose first novel Life Without Water was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book, says about her course:
Writing good fiction is not the same as laying a brick wall: first the characterization brick, then the setting brick, then the action brick. Instead, all the elements (character, plot, setting, action, structure, description, emotion, and more) must work together to form the tapestry of storytelling. In this class we will examine successful storytelling through reading and commenting on students' work and the work of published writers, as well as through class exercises.
In addition Drew Perry will lead a fiction workshop titled "Thieves & Liars: How We Build the World."
This workshop will address something critical to the crafting of stories and novels: When and how to steal from the world around us (hint: early and often), and when to make things up (another hint: when the story demands it). Registrants will talk about how things like landscape, humor, oddity, and stray detail are often the most important ways of entering into a piece of work—and keeping it alive in draft after draft after draft. Another way of thinking about this: attendees will talk about how to use their own strange obsessions most productively in their writing. So someone really loves, say, tractors. Or tigers. And they keep appearing on the page. Registrants will find ways to make that feel less weird, and more like they're working.
Perry is the author of two novels: This Is Just Exactly Like You, which was a finalist for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and an Atlanta Journal Best of the Year pick for 2010, and Kids These Days, just published by Algonquin Books. He teaches writing at Elon University and holds an MFA from the writing program at UNC-Greensboro.
In the afternoon session, Kim Church will lead a fiction workshop titled "The Beating, Breaking Hearts of Fictional Characters." Church's debut novel, Byrd (Dzanc Books, March 2014), is the fragmented family history of a child secretly given up for adoption.
The heart of fiction is character; but what is the heart of a fictional character? How is it revealed to the writer, and how does the writer express it? This workshop, for fiction writers at all levels, will focus on how to create characters that are unique, lively, and memorable—characters we might like to spend time with after the workshop is over. To prepare for this session, registrants should think of a memorable event from their own life—something that touched or scared or excited or confused or changed or defined them in some small way. Something they don't mind sharing with others, a moment they'd like to put in a time capsule. Attendees should not write about it beforehand, but come with an idea. And paper and pen.
Registration is now open. The nonprofit North Carolina Writers' Network is the state's oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
Regarding My Son by Sonia Usatch-Kuhn
Finishing Line Press $14.00, paperback May, 2014 Poetry Available for pre-order from the publisher
"Sonia Usatch-Kuhn's memorable chapbook, Regarding My Son, is the odyssey of a mother and son through and beyond the 'barren pit' of schizophrenia. The mother-speaker is habitually, often desperately, 'frozen outside' of her beloved son's 'blackened confusion,' herself at every moment about to detonate. In prayerful language, at once poised at the brink of desperation and dogged hope—without a whit of sentimentality, cold-eyed, often fierce, always permeated with love—Usatch-Kuhn inches the reader ever closer to the stunning feat that only poetry can achieve—the ultimate triumph of recovery: 'I open my eyes / caress your cheek / weave you whole again.' These poems brave utterance in face of the direst odds. Such courage."—Joseph Bathanti, Poet Laureate of North Carolina
"Sonia Usatch-Kuhn has created a heartbreaking—and ultimately, heartwarming—portrait of a mother's love for her son, the loss that she endures as a result of his schizophrenia, and, finally, hope for the future. As the book unfolds, we travel with this mother into the recesses of her son's illness; we visit him in the psych unit, where she writes, 'I look for promise…' We cheer for him as he comes home on a day pass, laugh when he cracks a joke, and understand when, in 'The Untying,' she writes: 'I have been pregnant/too long with you….' There are ample rewards here for the reader, none more moving than the final poem, 'The Reward,' in which a jagged timeline is presented, from the depths of 1978 to the joy of the son's college graduation in 2012. Haunting and memorable, this book deserves a wide audience." —Judy Goldman, author of Losing My Sister
"In Regarding My Son, Sonia Usatch-Kuhn portrays a mother's emotional journey into her son's schizophrenic world. She accompanies her son faithfully, no matter how distant he seems or how disheveled he becomes, hoping always 'to weave you whole again,' until at last he emerges with her into a new world of light and language and love. Usatch-Kuhn's poems shoot straight to the heart, each one a tiny, but crystal clear, window into her years of disappointment, pain, endurance, faith, and ultimately her joy as her son achieves 'affection / self-reliance / independence / leadership…' These are strong poems, spoken with a powerful and distinctive voice." —Jack Coulehan, MD, author of Bursting With Danger and Music
Regarding My Son is a journey in poetry about my son's diagnosis of schizophrenia through his recovery and college graduation in 2012. The poems deal with the issues of my observations of the hospital wards, the pain, hopelessness, stigma, hope, fear, wonder, frustration, doubt, and the process toward recovery as we took the path hand in hand.
Sonia Usatch-Kuhn, in facing the blank page, found release for the myriad feelings she experienced when her son Lance was diagnosed with schizophrenia thirty-five years ago. She is grateful to him for generously agreeing that these poems be shared. Some have appeared in The Journal of Poetry Therapy, Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making, on the CD Woman In Darkness, The Best of Raleigh Reading Series, and The Best of Fuquay-Varina Reading Series. Main Street Rag and What the Fiction Journal published short stories. She authored Noodle Kugel & Life's Other Meichels, compiled and edited Living in the Rooms of our Lives, and The Book of Asher: Memoirs of a Passionate Jewish Life. She taught Healing & Madness at SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine. Sonia has garnered praise for her portrayal of characters on Community Theater stages.
Hats Off! to Sheila Webster Boneham whose essay "The 'I' States" appears in the Winter Issue of The Museum of Americana: A Literary Review. Sheila also has blogged about the essay.
Goddess Spells for Busy Girls by Jen McConnel
Weiser Books$14.95, paperbackISBN: 978-1-578635481February, 2014NonfictionAvailable from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
Goddess magic is powerful magic: with the help of the right goddess, simple spells can yield amazing results. In Goddess Spells for Busy Girls, Jen McConnel offers eighty spells imbued with the vibrant force of twenty-five goddesses from around the globe.
McConnel provides an introduction to twenty-five celestial ladies, to make sure you are asking the right goddess for help: Athena for memory retention, Aphrodite to gain confidence, Persephone to find you path, and Sekhmet to prevent illness. Each section includes the history and lore behind the goddess, and three simple spells to invoke her help.
For the busy young woman who wants it all but needs help getting it, Goddess Spells for Busy Girls can help you achieve love, balance, protection, and abundance in your life.
Jen McConnel first began writing poetry as a child. A Michigander by birth, she now lives and writes in the beautiful state of North Carolina. When she isn't crafting worlds of fiction, she teaches college writing composition and yoga. Once upon a time, she was a middle school teacher, a librarian, and a bookseller, but those are stories for another time. Visit http://www.jenmcconnel.com to learn more.
Hats Off! to Laurence Holden who has two poems in winter issue of Written River: Journal of Eco-Poetics.
Hats Off! to Laurence Holden whose poem "Death, at Night" won Second Place (Educator Category) in the Georgia Poetry Society's annual awards. Click here to listen to Laurence read his poem.
Hats Off! to Joan Howard whose poem "Exhaustion" appears in Miller's Pond Winter Edition 2014. She also has four poems in the anthology Red Fox Run published by Ridgeline Alliance.
Hats Off! to Katherine Scott Crawford whose debut historical novel Keowee Valley is the #1 e-Bestseller at Amazon in the categories of western, historical, and historical romance. Keowee Valley is set in the Revolutionary-era Carolinas and in the Cherokee country. Pat Conroy calls it, "A terrific first novel."
Hats Off! to Catherine Carter whose poem "The Wooly Adelgid" won the Still 2013 Poetry Contest award and was published in the Fall 2013 issue.
GREENSBORO, NC—"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly," said Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his 1913-1914 collected lectures, On the Art of Writing, "and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
The first cut is the kindest cut—as are the second and third (and fourth). That's the theme of this year's Two-Part Creative Nonfiction Workshop at the North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Spring Conference, led by Jonathan Farmer, titled "The Kindest Cut: Writing Energetic Nonfiction." Registration is now open.
Two-part workshops meet twice during the conference, once during Workshop Session I (in the morning) and again for Workshop Session II (in the afternoon). Farmer, Editor-in-Chief and Poetry Editor of At Length magazine and the poetry critic for Slate, describes his course as follows:
When we're working from reality, the need to say what happened puts a lot of pressure on our style. In this workshop, we'll experiment with cutting a surprising number of words from our own and each other's writing in order to uncover some of the possibilities we've already woven into our prose. We'll also look at examples of efficient nonfiction writing for models of the ways we can answer the pressure to say everything with language that carries the weight and vitality of our reckoning. All participants should bring at least five copies of a double-spaced excerpt from a nonfiction project—ideally one that you're currently working on—that's between 500 and 750 words long. (It's fine if it cuts off suddenly.)
In addition, Steve Mitchell and Carol Roan will lead a workshop titled "Writing from Experience."
Writing is more than something that happens in our heads. Every element of our selves has a voice we might use. How do we engage this wealth of experience in our writing? This workshop will use short exercises and prompts to open up the question. This workshop will be great for those interested in creative nonfiction—but also for fiction writers and poets as well.
Steve Mitchell is the Pushcart-Prize nominated author of the short-story collection, The Naming of Ghosts (Press 53). Award-winning writer Carol Roan's most recent books are Speak Up: The Public Speaking Primer (Press 53) and When Last on the Mountain: The View from Writers over 50 (Holy Cow! Press).
The North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Spring Conference will be held Saturday, April 12, in the MHRA Building at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The nonprofit North Carolina Writers' Network is the state's oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
Hats Off! to Jack J. Prather who earned finalist honors and a $250 prize in the 2013 Pundit Contest at www.allvoices.com. His reflections about the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was one of 35 articles selected from 66,000 that were eligible for the contest. The judging panel included noted journalist and writer Eleanor Clift.
Hats Off! to Joseph Mills whose poetry chapbook Exit, Pursued by a Bear, was one of two winners in the 2013 November Pad Chapbook Challenge, sponsored by Writer's Digest. In Exit, Pursued By a Bear, Mills uses Shakespeare and stage directions to guide his poems while still trying to incorporate the November prompts.
Beth's Birds by Deanna K. KlingelIllustrated by Steve Daniels
Peak City Publishing$11.99, paperbackISBN: 978-1-9-357-11377-7February, 2014Children's, Picture BookAvailable from the author
Little Beth shows how she recognizes and names her backyard feathered friends. Her antics are delightfully illustrated by Steve Daniels. This is the first in the series of Little Beth Books, backyard nature for pre-K—2nd grade.
NCWN Member Deanna K. Klingel lives in the western corner of the state in Sapphire Valley with her husband Dave and golden retriever Buddy. She enjoys traveling with her books to events and schools.
Hats Off! to Alice Osborn whose poem "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" appears in Quantum Fairy Tales.
Hats Off! to Sheila Webster Boneham whose book Drop Dead on Recall (Midnight Ink, 2012) has won the Maxwell Award for Fiction in the Dog Writers Association of America's annual competition. Three of Sheila's nonfiction books have won Maxwell's in the past.
Hats Off! to Tamra Wilson whose essay "Mayo's" will appear in the upcoming issue of The Nassau Review.
Hats Off to Joan Leotta whose short story "Cottonwood Grove" will be published by Western Trail Blazers as a single release with the option to anthologize it in the future.
Hats Off! to Joan Leotta whose short story "Red Apron" won $100 in the 2013 Intergeneration Storytelling Contest. Her story "Rings" received a Certificate of Distinction from the same contest, sponsored by the Intergeneration Foundation.
Me Now - Who Next? (The Inspiring Story of a Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery) by Bill Ramsey
Lifeswrite Press $14.95, paperback / $4.99, e-book ASIN: B00FIE62MI January, 2014 Memoir Available at www.Amazon.com
Angela Leigh Tucker had not expected death that day. Newlywed, thirty years old and a successful public relations professional, she and her husband were driving home when a semi-truck hurtled over the lane divider and crushed their SUV. Her husband died on impact. She was left hanging onto life by a thin, golden thread. With her brain severely injured and her neck, shoulder, and ribs broken, she had instantly lost everything but her will to live.
In the two years following the crash, with the help of doctors, therapists, friends and family, she fought to recover and to rebuild an entirely new life. This is the inspiring story of her recovery.
Today, Angela lives independently in New York City. The injury transformed her life in many surprising and positive ways. Today, she is an advocate for millions of people who have survived and now live with their own brain injury. She has "been there" and her experience informs and inspires us all.
During his forty year professional career, Bill Ramsey wrote technical manuals, magazine articles, and business newsletters. Retired and living in the mountains of western North Carolina, he now focuses his writing on real-life topics. This is the most recent of his books. Learn of the others at www.LifesWrite.com. "Meeting Angela for the first time just weeks after her tragic crash inspired me to research the topic of traumatic brain injury and to focus on her unrelenting and spirited battle to survive and recover. She is an amazing teacher and an inspiration. Writing about her has changed my life. Reading about her can change your life too."
Tule Publishing Group, LLC $3.99, paperback ASIN: B00I80NDLC January, 2014 Publishing Available at www.Amazon.com
"A master class in writing compelling and unforgettable fiction. Writing the Bestseller deserves a spot right beside your keyboard..." —Elizabeth Boyle, NYT bestselling author of Love Letter from a Duke and If Wishes Were Earls
Writing the Bestseller offers practical advice and wisdom from a dozen successful authors who have sold hundreds of thousands of books, experiencing all the ups and downs of the publishing industry. What to do, what not to do, as romance and commercial fiction have their own rules.
Writing the Bestseller doesn't sugar-coat the work involved. Instead, authors who've been there tell you how to understand the genre and reader expectations. The rewards of writing a bestseller are worth the effort, and these authors share what they've learned over the years so you, too, can succeed in today's competitive market.
The contributors include NCWN member Kim Boykin.
Hats Off! to Erika Hoffman: she needs your vote! Her story "The Bucket List" is one of five finalists in a weekly writing contest sponsored by Midlife Collage. Go to www.midlifecollage.com to read and comment on the stories! Then vote for it in the Closing Argument section. It's an extremely close race, and voting ends at noon on Sunday, February 3. So get out the vote! Every vote counts.
Hats Off! to Joseph Cavano, who is proud to announce that his baby, "The Widows Tale," has been accepted for publication. It will appear later this year in the Press 53 anthology, Everywhere Stories: Fiction from a Small Planet. Editor Cliff Garstang received over 600 submissions. The author has just completed a new short story collection he hopes to have published sometime in 2014.
Hats Off! to Kim Church of Raleigh, author of the debut novel Byrd, will be featured at the 20th annual Virginia Festival of the Book, produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The Festival, which takes place March 19-23, is held in venues throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle County, VA, and is now the largest educational book event in the mid-Atlantic, drawing a cumulative annual attendance of more than 20,000.
Senior Scribbles: Second Dose by Chuck Thurston
Second Wind Publishing $9.99, paperback ISBN: 978-1-938101915 January, 2014 Humor Available from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
"Chuck Thurston is one of those rare writers who…..leads you off in one direction only to deliver you somewhere else, and it is always somewhere you find fascinating……because, though Thurston seems to be writing about himself, he turns out to be writing about you……with such generous respect for the reader that you feel both welcome and in awe, as though you've been invited into someone else's home, and through its windows is new world.
"In the same manner, these pieces redefine nostalgia…..normally presented in print as a treacly memorial to the better that once was. Thurston gently pooh-poohs this, demonstrating that the only value of the past is to bring value to the present and, rather subtly, to point to a future we need not fear.
"This then is the book you buy for a cynical friend who sees no value other than survival, and it is the book you buy for yourself when you realize your friend is not alone. Senior Scribbles.…is not an emotional how-to....it is a why to. Through laid-back humor and the sense that only what is important is important, Chuck Thurston manages to shine a gentle light on his life. That brightness illuminates ours.—Hesh Kestin, author, The Iron Will Of Shoeshine Cats
In this series of insightful, humorous essays, Chuck Thurston delights, informs and inspires his readers. This second in a series of wide-ranging vignettes is full of misdirection, nostalgia, personal insight, warmth and beautiful writing.
Chuck Thurston is one of five brothers raised on a small farm in Pennsylvania. He served in the United States Coast Guard and flew in search and rescue seaplanes. He spent over thirty years at IBM. In earlier days, in between times, and in later years he has been: a turret lathe operator in a factory; a newspaper reporter and columnist; a pick and shovel grunt for a landscaping company; an instructor for North Carolina State University in their Industrial Extension Service. He has a BS from Elmira (NY) College, and graduate degrees from SUNY Geneseo and Appalachian State University. He is married to Heidi Wibroe Thurston from Copenhagen, Denmark. The couple lives in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Their three children are grown with families of their own, and have contributed seven grandchildren—and two greats—to the mix. He has published columns, editorials, and essays in many newspapers and periodicals. Senior Scribbles: Second Dose is his second book in this series. His first, Senior Scribbles Unearthed, is available on Amazon.
Hats Off! to Joan Leotta whose poem "Around the Round Oak Table" has been accepted by Fragrance, a British publication. She first heard about the call for submissions through the NCWN website.
Hats Off! to Richard Krawiec, who has been asked to be on the Advisory Panel of Writing for Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating empathy through education and creative writing in order to develop a foundation of compassion on which to build a more peaceful world.
Hats Off! to Gwenyfar Rohler, whose novella is serialized this year in Encore Magazine. Titled "Contract Killer: Memoirs of a Reluctant Reaper," the latest installment is here.
Bad Blood by Ann Phillips
CreateSpace $12.99, paperback / $7.99, e-book ISBN: 978-1482093896 February, 2013 Fiction Available at www.Amazon.com
Book Two in the Revenge Series!
Nathe and Addie Watson are warned by Amps, a ghost from Nathe's past, that the Hooper-Watson Feud might still be fermenting. Nathe thinks it's due to Bad Blood. Bad Blood—the fact that a person is bad because of his or her blood line. Is that possible? The struggle involves Glee Hooper, his wife's nephew, which hides activity in the mountains that's illegal.
Their daughter, Lottie, has become an object of a bet that is meant to revenge the Watson family. Can Lottie survive her marriage? Is there anyone that can intervene and save her?
The Hooper and Watson families struggle with mistrust and betrayal. Can you settle debts involving blood, or do one of the two families need to escape from the mountains to stop the fighting?
Watch the book trailer here!
Ann Phillips is mother to five children and grandmother to fifteen. Writing has always been a part of her life, whether she was making brochures for church or her varied businesses, or just making elaborate "lists" to organize her life. Her interest in genealogy inspired this series. Revenge and Bad Blood are partially based on a story of distant family members in Jackson County, North Carolina, where a "feud" took place between the Hoopers and the Watsons. She is kin to both sides. Her mother is a Hooper. Her grandfather married a Watson. When the feud occurred, a nine-year-old boy witnessed those atrocities. His true name was believed to be Leander Watson. Her website is http://annrobbinsphillips.weebly.com.
Allegiance and Betrayal by Peter Makuck
Syracuse University Press $19.95, paperback ISBN: 978-0-8156-1015-1 March, 2013 Short Stories Available from your local bookstore, the publisher, or www.Amazon.com
"These stories dramatize the paradoxes of felt or forced connections as in a first kiss from a troublesome married cousin that burns the narrator's cheek like a brand. Allegiance and Betrayal sears the reader with recognition." —Allen Wier, author of the award-winning novel Tehano
"Makuck returns to one of the most fertile wellsprings of literature—the family. With grace and wit, he dramatizes family matters in post-World War II America, drawing attention to why families matter and what is the matter with so many of them. . . . As he points to the tragic and comic ways family members exacerbate and resolve their differences, he repeatedly surprises us with the mysterious ways people act. These stories are destined to beguile." —Henry Hart, author of James Dickey: The World as a Lie
The stories in Allegiance and Betrayal are set in cars, on top of a water tower, in a bar, on a fishing boat, at a family farm, and at a swimming pool. Each story carries an aura of the mystery surrounding family relations, the enigma of love, the gaping rift between generations, the give-and- take between husbands and wives, and the inevitability of loss. The book begins with a suite of three stories about Tim Budney. In the first, he reluctantly leaves home and his beloved hot rod Ford to attend a small Catholic college; in the second, he experiences a conflict of allegiances—loyalty to a friend versus lying to his teacher and priest; in the third, he imagines that his uncle, a pool hustler, is in danger and returns to the uncle's tavern where he witnesses something unforgettable. In other stories, a Yankee house painter trying to sell his car encounters a tricky, Bible-quoting southerner; a married couple hurtfully moves away from their friends of twenty years without saying goodbye or leaving an address; a near fatal scuba dive revives a friendship of many years; a family reunion turns ugly on the subject of religion; and a high school French teacher arranges an offshore fishing trip to settle a score with the football coach.
With deft prose and a generous spirit, Makuck explores the deep but subtle range of human emotion. Humorous and tender, these stories offer rich portraits of individuals struggling to overcome failed dreams and searching for an answer to the question of what truly matters.
Peter Makuck is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at East Carolina University. He is the author of Long Lens: New and Selected Poems and two collections of short stories, Breaking and Entering and Costly Habits. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in the Georgia Review, Hudson Review, Poetry, Sewanee Review, the Nation, and Gettysburg Review.
Sam's Place: Stories by Bob Mustin
AuthorMike Ink Publishing $14.99 paperback, $7.99 e-book ISBN: 978-0-9852146-6-1 March 2013 Fiction Available at your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
Justice can be tough at Sam's Place, but the good times are better than good.
Step inside and you can play a game of eight ball, nurse a beer, or get to know a wayward preacher, a reformed hooker, an Iraq vet amputee - or Sam himself. You may watch a baby being born, see a deadly knife fight, or simply hear tall tales. But there's always a rough-hewn truth within the lies, and Sam's there to manage everything from birth to death with a righteous cant. All things considered, it isn't a bad world.
Sam's Place is a collection of interwoven short stories that revolve around a local watering hole in the Alabama town of Striven. Pull up a chair and get to know the locals in this powerful and entertaining world that is Sam's Place.
Bob Mustin has had a brief naval career and a longer one as a civil engineer, and has been a North Carolina Writers' Network writer-in-residence at Peace College under the late Doris Betts' guiding hand. In the early '90s, he was the editor of a small literary journal, The Rural Sophisticate, based in Georgia. His work has appeared in The Rockhurst Review, Elysian Fields Quarterly, Cooweescoowee, Under The Sun, Gihon River Review, Reflections Literary Journal, and many sites in electronic form. His website is www.bobmustin.com.
The Mountains-to-Sea Trail Across North Carolina: Walking a Thousand Miles through Wildness, Culture and History by Danny Bernstein
The History Press $19.99, paperback ISBN : 9781609497200 February 2013 Outdoors/Fitness Available from the publisher, your local bookstore or outdoor outfitter, and www.Amazon.com
"Remindful of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, Danny Bernstein's The Mountains-to-Sea Trail also isn't a trail guide per se. It's a travel book. Whereas Bryson could be dour (not to say grumpy) at times, the reader senses right away there's no other place Bernstein would rather have been than on that trail and adjacent byways, recording the incidents and personalities, anecdotes and reflections, landscapes and legends, and natural history observations brought to life in her book. This will find its place among the front ranks of books depicting outdoor life and travel in North Carolina." —George Ellison
The Mountains-to-Sea Trail Across North Carolina: Walking a Thousand Miles through Wildness, Culture and History focuses on the beauty, quirkiness, and vibrancy of the 1,000 miles trail from Clingmans Dome in the Smokies to Jockey's Ridge in the Outer Banks. Danny recounts her walk through North Carolina and discusses the highlights and challenges of walking the MST. Meeting people is also a vital part of walking the trail. As a mountain hiker from western North Carolina, she talks about the unexpected and unusual sights she encountered in the rest of the state and show slides.
The route takes in Frazer fir trees and pelicans, old grist and textile mills, working cotton and tobacco farms, Revolutionary War sites, and two British Cemeteries complete with Union Jacks. Author Danny Bernstein shares stories that will captivate the curious, adventurous, hiker, biker, and history and culture buff.
See the book trailer here!
Danny's mission is to get people out of their cars and hiking. Her motto is "No place is too far to walk if you have the time." Danny plans to die with her boots on.
A committed hiker for over 40 years, she's completing the Appalachian Trail, all the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the South beyond 6000, many other hiking challenges, and, of course, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. She maintains sections of the MST and the A.T. She's written two hiking guides, Hiking the Carolina Mountains (2007) and Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains (2009) published by Milestone Press and blogs at www.hikertohiker.com.
Hats Off! to Malinda Dunlap Fillingim, whose poem "Biscuits" has been selected by the Winston-Salem poetry project, Poetry in Plain Sight, for its March 2013 edition.
Hats Off! to Glenda Barrett, whose poem "Final Wish" was accepted by Barely South. Also, her essay "The French Harp" was accepted for Bread 'n Molasses.
The Book of Asher: Memoirs of a Passionate Jewish Life by Sonia Usatch-Kuhn
AuthorHouse $41.99, paperback ISBN: 978-1-47726-470-6 January, 2013 Memoir Available from the publisher, your local bookstore, or Amazon.com
Asher Leon Edelstein has been described as a spirited, learned, force of nature—a complex, focused man on-the-go. He lived his life guided by seven principles: gratitude, friendship, smiles, connectedness, honor, reverence, and acceptance. Become acquainted with this Raleigh, North Carolina, dynamo, who consistently remained true to his love of Torah, family, and every stranger who crossed his path under all manner of circumstance. Feel the energy of the first Jewish basketball player for Georgia Tech, his escapades on the golf course (including Augusta), his "sweetly-filled" teaching method that endeared him to his coming-of-age bar and bat mitzvah students. Asher's cantorial voice enthralled the congregants of Beth Meyer Synagogue. Storyteller, food lover, and mover and shaker, Asher was inspirational.
Sonia Usatch-Kuhn is the author of Noodle Kugel & Life's Other Meichels and the editor of Living in the Rooms of our Lives. Her poems, short stories, and articles have been published in Main Street Rag, The Journal of Poetry Therapy , and numerous anthologies. She was a contributing author for Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making. Usatch-Kuhn has been a correspondent for the Raleigh News & Observer's community paper, Southwest Wake News , and for the NBC produced website, MyNC.com. On Long Island, she taught second-year medical students at Stony Brook School of Medicine. She is passionate about the words of playwrights and has appeared on stage in New York, Raleigh, Durham, and Cary. She and her husband call Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, home.
Hats Off! to Valerie Nieman, whose poem "Live With It," published in the ...and Love... anthology edited by Richard Krawiec, has been accepted for the new Virgina Quarterly Review Instapoetry project. She's "jazzed to think of this poem visualized."
Shadows Trail Them Home by Scott Owens and Priscilla Campbell
Clemson University Press $15.00, paperback ISBN: 0-978-9835339-7-9 December, 2012 Poetry Available from the publisher
"Shadows Trail Them Home is an excellent and compelling novel in poetry, an important contribution to the cultural canon of American life, presented in an engaging but disturbing context. It needs to be read by a wide audience, not only those who have faced abuses as children, as the two main characters have and, consequently, suffer severe (but not disabling) life-long responses, but also by a reading public that treasures poetry that fuses superior writing with major social issues. This penetrating book is compassionately narrated, as it articulates the extent to which the past can never really be overcome, even though one may be bent on altering it." —Ronald Moran, author of The Jane Poems and Waiting
"The story of Norman and Sara exposes innumerable shades of joy and pain in our deepest human drive—the one that dances us toward, away from, but ever toward love." —Suzanne Hudson, prize-winning author of In the Dark of the Moon
"Scott Owens and Priscilla Campbell create characters by reading our souls, create scenes by framing the pictures that live in our memories, too raw to remember, too vivid to ever completely ignore, and in these poems, they have a die-hard nonfiction writer turning pages as fast as possible to see what happens next. I didn't know poets could do that. Scott Owens and Pris Campbell can." —Shari Smith, author of Gunpowder, Cowboy Boots, and Mascara
Scott Owens is the author of ten collections of poetry. His prior work has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Next Generation/ Indie Lit Awards, the North Carolina Writers' Network, the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of South Carolina. His more than 1,100 published poems have been in Georgia Review, North American Review, Chattahoochee Review, Southern Poetry Review, The South Carolina Review, Poetry East and elsewhere. He is the founder of Poetry Hickory, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234, and vice president of the Poetry Council of North Carolina and the North Carolina Poetry Society. He has taught at the college, high school, middle school, and community levels for more than twenty-five years. Born and raised in Greenwood, South Carolina, he currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, North Carolina.
The poems of Pris Campbell have been published in numerous journals. The most recent include PoetsArtists, The Dead Mule, Outlaw Poetry Network, Rusty Truck and Wild Goose Review. She has had six poetry collections published by the small press and has been included in a number of anthologies. Her most recent collections include Sea Trails, a riff from her trip down the east coast in a twenty-two-foot sailboat, published by Lummox Press, and Postscripts to the Dead, published by MiPOesias Publishing. One of her poems is featured in The Poet's Market 2013. Nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and numerous Best of the Net awards, she also was recently contacted by Pearson Publishing for permission to include one of her poems in their next textbook alongside Margaret Atwood. A former Clinical Psychologist, she has been sidelined by ME/CFS since 1990 and makes her home in the greater West Palm Beach, Florida. Her website is www.poeticinspire.com.
Hats off! to Carol Cooley, whose essay was chosen for a second volume anthology, Unruly Catholic Women Writers, Creative Responses to Catholicism. The essay collection will be published by SUNY Press. The release date is slated for November 2013.
Hats Off! to Kathryn Etters Lovatt of Camden, SC, who has been named SC Arts Commission's Prose Writer for 2013. This $5,000 grant is awared every other year.
GREENSBORO, NC—Pre-registration for the 2013 North Carolina Writers' Network's annual Spring Conference is now closed, but attendees can still register on-site Saturday, April 13, at 8:30 a.m., at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
The 2013 Spring Conference will move into a new home in UNCG's Moore Humanities and Research Administration (MHRA) Building. Located at the corner of Spring Garden and Forest Streets, the MHRA Building offers easier access to those coming from off-campus.
In addition, UNCG's Creative Writing Program—a co-sponsor of the Spring Conference—will provide free parking for registrants in the adjacent Oakland Avenue Parking Deck.
The NCWN Spring Conference draws writers, at all levels of skill and experience, from across North Carolina and beyond for a full day of workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and the business side of writing. Attendees will be treated to faculty readings and can share their own work at the open-mic reading. They also can sign up for "Lunch with an Author," their chance to engage in informal conversation with accomplished writers.
Conference-goers this year will need to pre-register for "Lunch with an Author," as there will be no on-site registration available for this conference offering. Food will be provided, so that participants can spend less time waiting in line, and more time talking with the author of their choice. (Spaces in "Lunch with an Author" are limited, and are first-come, first-served.)
Courses include two all-day, two-session workshops: "Animating Fiction" with Lee Zacharias, and a creative nonfiction workshop, "Writing Personal Essays and Memoir." One-session course offerings will be led by John McNally and Lynn York (fiction), Scott Huler and Cynthia Nearman (creative nonfiction), and Carolyn Beard Whitlow and John Rybicki (poetry). Scott Nicholson will teach a class on self-publishing e-books, while Terry L. Kennedy and Ross White will lead a workshop for "Authors as Entrepreneurs."
In the afternoon, a Publishing Panel including Stephen Kirk of John F. Blair, Publisher, Robin Miura of Carolina Wren Press, and Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53, will answer questions about what they look for in a manuscript and the evolving realities of 21st Century publishing. After looking ahead to the future of books, Andrew Saulters of Greensboro's Unicorn Press will close the day with a look back, leading a hands-on demonstration of traditional bookbinding, so that conference registrants can turn their well-crafted words into well-crafted objects.
Registration is available online at www.ncwriters.org or by calling 336-293-8844.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers' Network is the state's oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
Macaroni Ponytail by Irene Menendez
Authorhouse $19.95, paperback / $3.99, e-book ISBN: 978-1-4772-8589-3 November, 2012 Children's Illustrated Story Book Available from your local bookstore, the publisher, and Amazon.com
This inspired and true story began when our grandchildren, Emily and Speight, visited my husband Bill and me during the summer of 2012. Our daughter Jennifer challenged us to potty train Emily while she was visiting. The challenge turned out to be both fun and successful, with all of us collaborating as the amazing experience developed. We want to share this experience with others in the hopes that it will spark imaginations everywhere so children can be potty trained in a fun and fanciful way. We thank you for reading Macaroni Ponytail and hope you and your child enjoy it as much as we enjoyed experiencing and writing it. (Irene Menendez)
Irene Menendez and her husband Bill called Long Island, New York, home for over forty years where they both had careers in corporate America. They are now retired and enjoying life in Wilmington, North Carolina. Irene loves to create and Bill's passion is golf. They never suspected they would start writing children's books. Macaroni Ponytail is the first in a series of children's books inspired by their experiences with their grandchildren Emily and Speight. Their goal in sharing these stories is to stimulate and spark imaginations everywhere.
Hats Off! to new author in town, Irene Menendez. Macaroni Ponytail, her first illustrated children's book, appeared in "New and Notable" by Ben Steelman of the Wilmington Star-News, and her first booksigning was held at Two Sisters Bookery in Wilmington with standing room only.
Cold Feet by Karen Pullen
Five Star Cengage $25.95, hardcover ISBN: 978-1432826376 January 16, 2013 Mystery Available from your local bookstore or www.Amazon.com
""Stella Lavender [is] the appealing 26-year-old heroine of Pullen's absorbing first mystery … Readers will hope to see a lot more of Stella in future installments."" —Publisher's Weekly
"Stella Lavender, an SBI undercover narcotics agent, really wants to work homicide. Her boss should listen because she has both the smarts and the nerves. Karen Pullen combines good suspense with such nice touches of humor that this strong debut promises to turn into a habit-forming series." —Margaret Maron, award-winning author of the bestselling Deborah Knott series
"Karen Pullen of Pittsboro has just had her debut mystery published and it's a winner. The protagonist, Stella Lavender, is an undercover narcotics agent who gets pulled into a murder investigation at a local bed and breakfast. The author herself runs the Rosemary House bed and breakfast in Pittsboro so she definitely knows her stuff. Before that she was a math teacher and an engineer so she brings a wealth of different experiences to her writing which makes it all the richer." —Sarah, Quail Ridge Books & Music
What happens when an undercover drug agent, two religious scammers, a stalkerish ex-girlfriend and a cocaine dealer attend an elegant outdoor wedding in central North Carolina? Someone gets cold feet. In this traditional mystery, SBI agent Stella Lavender investigates her first homicide. BookList: "The fast pace; multiple plot strands, which work together nicely; and the well-drawn characters, including strong-willed, intelligent Stella, distinguish this promising new series."
Karen Pullen left a perfectly good job at an engineering consulting firm to make her fortune—(er, maybe not)—as an innkeeper and a fiction writer. Her B&B has been open for twelve years, and she's published short stories in Every Day Fiction, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Outreach NC, and Spinetingler. She lives in Pittsboro. Her website is www.karenpullen.com.
Hats Off! to LC Fiore and Richard Krawiec, who finished first and second respectively in the Winston-Salem Writers Ten-Minute Play Contest. Fiore's "The Pit" and Krawiec's "Disabilities" will be given a staged reading and a discussion, moderated by Nathan Ross Freeman, in late April.
NORTH CAROLINA--There are only three days left for contestants to submit to the 2012 Doris Betts Fiction Prize. All entries must be postmarked by Wednesday, February 15!
This competition honors acclaimed author and North Carolina native Doris Betts, three-time winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award and recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature, among many other honors. The Doris Betts Fiction Prize awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Finalists will also be considered for publication in NCLR.
Thomas Wolf of Chapel Hill won the 2011 Doris Betts Fiction Prize for his story "Boundaries." This was Mr. Wolf's second award, having also won in 2007 for his story, "Distance." "Boundaries" will be published in the 2012 issue of NCLR, along with the second-place story, "The Honey Wagon," by Joseph Cavano.
The 2011 competition drew nearly 100 entries. The Doris Betts Fiction Prize is sponsored by the Network and managed by the editorial staff of the North Carolina Literary Review. Published since 1992 by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, NCLR has won numerous awards and citations.
The Doris Betts Fiction Prize Postmark deadline: February 15 (annual)Submissions accepted: January 1 – February 15
Eligibility and Guidelines:
North Carolina Literary Review ECU Mailstop 555 English Greenville, NC 27858-4353
NORTH CAROLINA--There is only one week left to submit to the Doris Betts Fiction Prize and only three weeks left before the closing of the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition. Time's running out, so send in your submissions!
The Doris Betts Fiction Prize awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Finalists will also be considered for publication. The Doris Betts Fiction Prize is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network and managed by the editorial staff of the North Carolina Literary Review. For full submission guidelines, click here.
The Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition accepts one-poem submissions. The contest awards the winner $200, publication in the Crucible literary journal, and an invitation for the winner to read his or her poetry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Founders Day activities. The contest is administered by Terry L. Kennedy and the MFA Writing Program at the UNC-Greensboro. The Final Judge is Maria Hummell, author of the novel Wilderness Run (St. Martin's) and the chapbook City of the Moon (Harperprints). For full submission guidelines, click here.
Both contests are open to any writer who is a legal resident of NC or a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. NCLR subscribers with NC connections (who live or have lived in NC) are also eligible to submit to the Doris Betts Fiction Prize only.
Hats Off! to Lavonne Adams of Wilmington, whose new poem "Disparity," appears in the Winter 2012 issue of CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women.
. . . to Sandra Ann Winters, whose poem "Death of Alaska" won first prize and 1000 Euros in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition, sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre in Ireland. The Centre flew her to Cork, Ireland, where she read her winning entry February 16 at the Cork Spring Literature Festival 2011. Her poem will be published in the Irish poetry journal, Southword. Announcement of her winning entry can be found at the festival blog site: http://www.munsterlit.ie/ .
.... to Linda Rohrbough. Linda has an iPhone App of her workshop "Pitch Your Book" and her first novel The Prophetess I: At Risk, both coming out in Spring of 2011.
. . . to Suzy Barile, Wake Tech Community College instructor, whose essay titled "Richard Caswell Swain 1837-1872" is included in Shannon, Illinois: 150 Years -- 1860-2010, published for the Illinois town's sesquicentennial celebration. Swain was one of the first physicians in the then-frontier town of Shannon and Barile's great-great uncle. She also is the author of Undaunted Heart: The True Story of a Southern Belle & a Yankee General (Eno 2009).
......David Rigsbee's new chapbook The Pilot House, winner of the 2009 Black River Chapbook Contest, has just been published by Black Lawrence Press. More information is available at http://blacklawrence.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/a-sneak-peek-at-the-pilot-house/.
. . . to Sandra Adams. Two poems by Sandra Ervin Adams, "Shame," and "Family of Man," appear online in the February 2010, Black History Month edition of The Dead Mule.
Maureen A. Sherbondy www.maureensherbondy.com
At an early age I set four goals for myself: (1) earn a college degree, (2) marry, (3) have three children (yes, three, I have always been very decisive) prior to thirty, and (4) publish a book.
By twenty-nine I had checked the first three items off my life's to-do list. Item four eluded me. Get a book published. Was I crazy? What was I thinking? I hadn't even majored in English in college. I had no publishing contacts, yet I continued to write and read and refine my craft. Alone. It was a solitary act, this writing business. I managed to send some poems and stories out and get a few pieces published. But a book! This task seemed impossible.
Then in 1996 I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. Everywhere I went, someone was either writing or talking about writing—at the local Starbucks, in the YMCA locker room, at temple. For the four years I had lived in Pennsylvania, I had never once bumped into another writer. This state was different, though. Someone told me about the North Carolina Writers' Network. I was so excited to hear that an active, thriving organization existed for people like me.
Soon, I signed up for my first NCWN conference and felt both excited and terrified. But the other writers, from Tony Abbott to Dave Manning, were so friendly. I remember people wore nametags with their chosen genres scrawled on their tags. This was a great conversation starter. Many friendships took root and blossomed. Writers whose work I admired taught informative, helpful classes. These workshop leaders were enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I took notes, learned how to write better, and discovered local journals. On display tables, workshop leaders and other NCWN authors exhibited their books of poetry, fiction, or essays. I remember drooling over the covers. In my head a little voice whispered, One day my book will be on that table. This tangible goal gave me something to work toward. When my mailbox overflowed with rejection letters, when I lost yet another book contest, I thought about my book displayed on that conference table.
If I had not attended the NCWN conferences, I never would have had my first book published. Every time I attended the Fall Conference, I walked the perimeter of the vendor room, where publishers set up tables and sold their books. There, I met Scott Douglass, owner and editor of Main Street Rag Publishing. Every time I returned to the conference, I talked to him, bought some of his fine books. He was publishing wonderful North Carolina poets and poets from other states.
At the 2006 conference, I once again stopped at his table and spoke with him. By this time, my work had appeared in over a hundred literary journals, and my poetry manuscript had landed on the finalist lists of several book contests. But I was frustrated, still missing that elusive book contract. Would I be sending manuscripts to book contests when I was ninety years old? Was this last goal on my list unattainable?
I will remember this next moment always. Later in the conference, as I was talking to Susan Lefler, a poet friend whom I met years earlier at another conference, Scott Douglass tapped my shoulder and said, "I don't usually do this, but I am inviting you to submit a book to me for consideration."
My jaw must have dropped. I could hear my heart pounding. At first, I thought he was talking to someone else. I had been waiting my whole life for someone to say these words. So, the rest is history. I sent the book, and After the Fairy Tale was published in 2007. I was ecstatic.
Until then, I had never thought beyond achieving that book publication goal. After a book is published, actually months before, the author becomes a marketer. Having a new goal of selling my book, I quickly learned that the NCWN was an extremely important promotional resource. I was able to post my Web site link on their Web site, to mention my good news in their Book Buzz, and also to announce my upcoming readings in their calendar. And, of course, I returned to the Fall Conference with my books. Standing over the display table there and seeing my first book was a preeminent life moment. On the outside I was calm and quiet, but on the inside I was jumping up and down yelling, "I did it!"
I strongly recommend joining the NCWN for writers who are interested in improving their craft, meeting a community of supportive writers, learning about the publishing universe, and promoting their books and events. The NCWN has, in Frost's words, "made all the difference" in my book publication journey.
Greensboro, NC – New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb will discuss "Keepers of the Legends: Writing about North Carolina" at the 2009 North Carolina Writers' Network Spring Conference, which takes place Saturday, April 25, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. in the Elliott University Center at the University of North Carolina–Greensboro.
The annual event draws more than 100 writers for intensive workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, poetry, publishing, and public speaking, led by distinguished writing faculty from across the nation. This year's conference will also feature a Publishing Panel with book and journal editors, a Faculty Reading, an Open Mike Reading for conference attendees, and "Lunch with an Author," in which attendees share lunch and personal conversation with one of the authors on the faculty.
McCrumb is an award-winning Southern writer, best known for her Appalachian "Ballad" novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains, including the New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket. Her novels have won the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature, the AWA Book of the Year Award, and the AWA Best Appalachian Novel. A North Carolina native and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, McCrumb has been named a "Virginia Woman of History" for literary achievement and has won the AWA Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award. A film of her novel The Rosewood Casket is currently in production.
Conference participants may select from a variety of half- and full-day workshops, including "Nowhere to Hide," a creative nonfiction workshop with Sir Walter Raleigh Award-winning writer Lee Zacharias; "Local Atmospheres," a poetry workshop with renowned poet David Roderick; "Writing Life Stories" with author Marianne Gingher, the former director of the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill; and "Playwriting Improv" with playwright Alan Cook.
Other instructors include Quinn Dalton, Jack Riggs, and Valerie Nieman on fiction; Carolyn Beard Whitlow on poetry; Carol Roan on reading and speaking for an audience; and NCWN executive director Ed Southern on nonfiction.
Registration for the conference—made possible with support from the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, UNC-Greensboro, and the North Carolina Arts Council—is $100 for Network members, $150 for non-members.
For more information and to see a full schedule click here
Carrboro, NC, 9 January 2007 – the North Carolina Writers' Network (www.ncwriters.org) is hosting a fundraiser brunch to honor writer, Will Blythe and his family on Saturday, February 10th at the Fearrington Barn beginning at 10:30 am. In addition to serving as editor of Esquire Magazine, Blythe also earned renowned for his book To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry. The event additionally recognizes the other literary members of the Blythe family including Will's sister, Anne and his grandfather, Literary Hall of Fame inductee, William LeGette Blythe. The brunch occurs at the Fearrington Barn in Pittsboro, NC before the Carolina-Wake Forest basketball game on February 10th with traditional southern cuisine by Mama Dip, a reading and book signing by Will Blythe, live Celtic Music, and a cash bar.Will's book is getting so much buzz, with the incredible title To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, ostensibly about the Carolina-Duke basketball rivalry, but really about so much more. It's hilarious, pensive, poignant, Southern, Northern, and altogether charming. Like the rest of us, Will worries about his sanity. He consults famous Columbia professor Robert Thurman and ruminates, "I had to know from the point of view of a renowned scholar and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism whether hatred of Duke might cause me to be unduly reincarnated, forced to spend billions of years as praying mantis or a screech owl or a coyote baying at a coldhearted moon…Baying seemed an especially apt fate." Duke fans will be welcome at this unique event----you may want to come just to defend yourselves! Tickets to the event are $79.00, based on Will Blythe's graduation date from Carolina in 1979. Proceeds go to help the NC Writers' Network continue their efforts to support and connect NC writers. For details or to reserve tickets, please call 919-967-9540.
CARRBORO, N.C. - The North Carolina Writers' Network will hold its 2006 Annual Spring Conference on Saturday, May 20 at Peace College in Raleigh, N.C. from 8:30 am. until 6:30 pm.
A Writer's Life: Blank Page to Book Tour will include workshops to help writers find inspiration for new material, refine their work, get published and promote their writing. Panels will include well-known writers and poets who will offer tales of challenges, tips on problem-solving, and wisdom on how to balance the writing life with family and other work. The conference features workshops with accomplished writers of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. A special feature is a workshop on poetic sequences with master poet James Applewhite. The conference also features a panel of booksellers, promoters, and agents who will give insight into the business side of writing.
"This conference takes you through a day in the life of a writer," says Cynthia Barnett, Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers' Network. "From writing new pages in the morning, to conferring with fellow writers, to getting advice on the business of publishing and coaching on reading out aloud. This year's program offers more than ever."
The day-long conference features books for sale by Writers' Network members and conference faculty, publishers, open mike sessions, and a raffle drawing. The day will conclude with one-on-one critiquing sessions with Bridgette Lacy, feature writer for the News & Observer; Carol Henderson, teacher and author of critically acclaimed Losing Malcolm: A Mother's Journey Through Grief; playwright and poet Howard Craft, recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship and two-time winner of North Carolina Central University's New Play Project; and Lynn York, author of novels The Piano Teacher and The Wine Maker.
Registration for the conference is $120 for Writers' Network members and $145 for non-members. One-on-one manuscript critiquing sessions are $75, arranged in advance.
Founded in 1985, the nonprofit North Carolina Writers' Network is reportedly the largest statewide literary arts organization in the country. The mission of the North Carolina Writers' Network is to connect, promote, and lead emerging writers and established writers through workshops, conferences, and other programs and services. The Network builds audiences for literature, advocates for literacy and the literary arts and provides information and support services for writers at all levels.
Thomas Wolf (that's Wolf with no e) of Chapel Hill is the winner of the Doris Betts Fiction Prize for his story "Distance." North Carolina Literary Review editor Margaret Bauer remembers that when she saw the story come in, she thought, "With a name like that and living in North Carolina, I guess you have to be a writer." Wolf will receive a prize of $200 from the North Carolina Writers Network. Second place, $100, is awarded to Gregg Cusick for "Five is Red."
The North Carolina Writers' Network (NCWN) announces three Inductees for 2006 to The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, a biennial program begun in 1996. Past inductions have been held at the historic Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, in Southern Pines, N.C., but this year the ceremony, free and open to the public, will be at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham on Friday, November 10, at 7:30 p.m. Please join us for an evening's entertainment all North Carolinians can enjoy!
To be honored are poet Gerald Barrax, poet and prose writer Fred Chappell, and journalist and mystery writer Elizabeth Daniels Squire. The Induction opens NCWN's annual Fall Conference that 400-plus writers from beginners to published professionals are expected to attend. Acclaimed writers Kathryn Stripling Byer, North Carolina's Poet Laureate; James Applewhite; Shelby Stephenson; Betty Adcock; Lenard Moore; and Margaret Maron will present. UNC-TV's "Bookwatch" host, D.G. Martin, will emcee.
Poet, teacher, and literary editor Gerald William Barrax (1933- ) earned his B.A. from Duquesne and M.A. from the U. of Pittsburgh. He was Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at NCSU from 1970 until his retirement in 1997; editor of Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review; and poetry editor for Callaloo, the premier African Diaspora literary journal. A major influence on young writers, Barrax has been anthologized in more than three dozen works. His noted book Leaning Against the Sun: Poems (1992) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Among his other awards are the Raleigh Medal of Arts (1993) and the Sam Ragan Award for Contribution to the Fine Arts.
Fred Davis Chappell (1936- ), born in Canton, N.C., earned a B.A. in fiction writing and later an M.A. from Duke. Upon graduation in 1964, he went to teach English at UNC-Greensboro, retiring in 2004 after a long and distinguished career. Chappell is author of over forty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He was Poet Laureate of North Carolina 1997-2002, and reviewed poetry for the Raleigh News & Observer, publishing his last column on June 25, 2006. One reviewer called him "truly a national treasure." Both humorist and visionary, with a gifted eye for details of character, Fred writes poetry and fiction that has earned the following accolades: The North Carolina Award for Literature; Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in Poetry; France's prestigious Prix de Meilleur des Livres Etrangers; and the T.S. Eliot Prize. "Anybody who knows anything about Southern writing," Lee Smith said in 2005, "knows that Fred Chappell is our resident genius, our shining light."
Elizabeth Daniels Squire (1926-2001), reporter, philanthropist, nationally syndicated columnist, and mystery writer, was born in Raleigh, N.C., to Jonathan Daniels and Elizabeth Bridgers Daniels. She graduated from Vassar College, then became a reporter for the New York Times. Squire published fiction and non-fiction on palmistry, mail-order shopping, journalism heroes, and crime detection. Liz told a reporter, "My life has been interesting every minute, which is why I constantly steal bits of it to weave in with my fiction—like a flood or an encounter with a rattlesnake." In 1994 she created the character of Peaches Dann, an absent-minded detective. An Agatha Award winner, Liz was working on her ninth mystery at the time of her death.
For more details, see www.ncwriters.org.
Final judge Sharyn McCrumb selected Billie Harper Buie of Asheville, NC as the winner of the 2007 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize of the N.C. Writers Network, for her short story, "Shining Rock Wilderness." McCrumb praised Buie's story highly, saying, "This was a moving story, well told, and without a pat happy ending. . . . This story read as if one were hearing a real housecleaner talk about her day, and it is the convincing voice of this character, coupled with the poignant vignette of an abused child, that made 'Shining Rock Wilderness' such a memorable work." Buie will receive a $1,000 prize from the Network, and her story will be considered for publication by The Thomas Wolfe Review. In addition to Buie, McCrumb gave honorable mentions to Jason Mott of Bolton, NC, for his story, "The Dream that was Arcadia," and to Leslie McCray of Cartersville, GA, for her story, "Climbing the Sphinx."
McCrumb, the highly acclaimed author of two NASCAR novels, Once Around the Track and St. Dale, is perhaps best known for her Appalachian "Ballad" novels set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains. Her novels include New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket, which deal with the issue of the vanishing wilderness. Other novels include The Ballad of Frankie Silver and Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the Appalachians. St. Dale won a 2006 Library of Virginia Literary Award as well as the AWA Book of the Year Award. Once Around the Track will be published this June.
Billie Harper Buie, who lives in Asheville with her husband and three children, is a member of the Great Smokies Writing program at UNC-Asheville where she has been a member of its advanced prose workshop for six years. Buie has recently had a story published in CALYX journal. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and has an MA in landscape architecture from N.C. State. Jason Mott received his BFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where his is also pursuing his MFA. McCrumb said of his story, "This story was like a day trip into a disordered mind. Creating a believable OCD character who is neither absurd nor extreme is a difficult task, and this writer managed it well." Of Leslie McCray, McCrumb wrote, ". . .this is the writer I voted 'Most Likely to Be Able To Quit Her Day Job Someday.' She writes likeable characters, and she tells a good story with a clear point to it." McCray and her husband operate a community theatre in Cartersville, GA, where she is involved in local arts organizations. She has finished a collection of short stories, started another, and is polishing her first novel.
For teachers of creative writing workshops, for public school teachers of all grades and for anyone who works with marginalized populations, a special Sunday afternoon workshop is being offered to teachers just this year as an introduction to Pat Schneider's groundbreaking writing techniques. Pat Schneider, the founder of the Amherst Writers & Artists Method, who had originated these workshops in a MassachusettsSewanee Review, Minnesota and, Ms. Magazine. For more about Pat Schneider and her work, see www.patschneider.com. housing project 15 years ago and now has 400 certified writing workshop leaders, will teach the class herself. She has published widely in literary journals and magazines, including Review
The workshop, Sunday, July 9, 1-5 pm will begin with a short introduction and a DVD presentation on working with young writers. Participants can receive .4 contact hours of Teacher Continuing Education credits. This four hour workshop will be held at The Peace College Campus in Raleigh, NC. and is sponsored by the N.C. Writer's Network. The fee is $60 for the afternoon.
The North Carolina Writers Network, founded in 1985, is one of the largest statewide writer's organizations in the nation. It fulfills its mission to connect, promote, the writing community by offering national spring and fall conferences and also critiquing services. The Network awards writers more than $30,000 annually in honoraria, competition prizes, and stipends through its competitions. For further information about the workshop, you can go to the website: www.ncwriters.org or call Virginia Freedman or Marjorie Hudson at (919)967-9540.
Carrboro, NC, 30 Oct. 2007 – This fall, North Carolina writers are eagerly anticipating the state's most valuable professional development opportunity to explore the publishing and writing world: The North Carolina Writers' Network Fall Conference on Writing and Publishing.
The conference runs from 5pm Friday, Nov. 16 to 1pm Sunday, Nov. 18 at the Hawthorne Inn Hotel in downtown Winston-Salem. Registration is open through Wednesday, Nov. 7. Registration ends at midnight on Nov. 7 if registering online www.ncwriters.org; it ends at 5pm if registering by calling the NC Writers' Network at 919-967-9540. Walk-in registration is also available.The conference features three days of classes, panels and special events on the craft of writing, techniques for getting published, and networking opportunities with editors, agents and other writers. It offers more than 35 classes and workshops; manuscript critiques with distinguished teaching writers; pitch sessions with agents and editors; faculty readings; master classes in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry; a cocktail reception on Friday with honored Winston-Salem guests and faculty, and more. The keynote speaker is well-known author Jill McCorkle, a Lumberton native, at 9pm Friday. (The Jill McCorkle keynote is free and open to the public. All other speakers and events are for conferees only.) Robert Morgan (Gap Creek; Boone: A Biography), a native of Hendersonville, will give a talk at Saturday's banquet. Winston-Salem educator and filmmaker Nathan Ross Freeman of the Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute will perform with four young poet friends at Saturday's luncheon. Saturday morning's "Breakfast with Author" talk features Carole Boston Weatherford of High Point (whose latest book, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, is a Caldecott Honor Book) in conversation with Kim Underwood of the Winston-Salem Journal. Sunday morning's "Breakfast with Authors" features Salisbury native and New York Times best-selling author John Hart (King of Lies; Down River) and Louise Hawes of Pittsboro, a children's' and short story writer whose 14 books include the new Anteaters Don't Dream, in conversation with editor Lauren Mosko. UNC-TV's "Bookwatch" host D.G. Martin recently wrote, "If you ask me, 'How do I get published?', my answer will be: Go to the Writers' Network Fall Conference. Then we'll talk…… You will rub shoulders with North Carolina literary heroes like Jill McCorkle, Robert Morgan, Randall Kenan and Tony Abbott. Over the years, this conference has been instrumental in generating publishing deals for North Carolina writers. It has a reputation as one of the best - and most affordable - conferences of its kind for writers in the country." The North Carolina Writers' Network is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to connect, promote and lead the writing community from beginners to published professionals. Its annual conference is held in different regions of the state each year. The Network's publications, programs and services are made possible with support from the North Carolina Arts Council.
Carrboro, NC –From July 8 to 13, the North Carolina Writers' Network will offer five days of writing workshops at Peace College, close to downtown Raleigh. This offering is an intimate alternative to the large summer conferences and a rare opportunity to create new bonds in your writing community, get manuscript critique, and take time to focus on generating new ideas. This year's Writing Residency program has expanded to include four workshop areas: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and the Amherst Writers and Artists Method. To register or for more details, please go to www.ncwriters.org or call (919) 967-9540.
The Elizabeth Daniels Squire Summer Writing Workshops include:
Poetry workshop : Inspiration and Crafting the Poem, with Evie Shockley This workshop will encourage poets to identify and capitalize on their strengths, but also to step outside of their comfort zones and experiment with techniques and topics that are less familiar to them. –
Fiction workshop: Strategies and Winning Game Plans, with Bill Henderson In this workshop, beginning and experienced writers will read and critique each other's work with particular attention to character, story or chapter structure, and style, the three key elements of a winning game plan.
Creative Nonfiction workshop : True Stories, with Sebastian Matthews .This class is designed for both beginning and advanced writers. In it, we will work with a variety of creative nonfiction forms, including personal essay and memoir. We will read and discuss published creative nonfiction, workshop each other's work and explore revision strategies.
Amherst Writers And Artists Method workshop: From Revery to Revelation -- Freeing the Voices Within, with Carol Henderson Based on the Amherst Writers and Artists method, this workshop is appropriate for all skill levels -- from the professional, looking to discover new creative sparks, to the beginner, eager to delve into the challenges of writing for the first time. Come prepared to write a lot.
The North Carolina Writers' Network serves writers at every stage of development through programs that offer ample opportunities for professional growth in skills and insight. The Network builds audiences for literature, advocates for the literary arts and for literacy, and provides information and support services.
www.ncwriters.org or call (919) 967-9540.
Carrboro, NC – On Saturday, June 2, 2007, the North Carolina Writers' Network will bring its annual Spring Conference for Writers to the UNCG Campus in Greensboro, NC, for the first time. In collaboration with UNCG's Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, the conference will feature talented area faculty and keynote Fred Chappell, past poet laureate of North Carolina.
This conference is a rare opportunity for area writers and aspiring writers to work in small-format All Day Workshops with Quinn Dalton (Fiction) and Marianne Gingher (Memoir). In addition, attendees will have access to intensive courses in Poetry (Stuart Dischell and Carolyn Beard Whitlow), Creative Nonfiction (Lee Zacharias), and Fiction (Michael Parker). Editors from Press 53, Main Street Rag Press, International Poetry Review, and the Greensboro Review will provide a panel about what it takes to get published.
Two conference events are free and open to the public:
The conference will take place at the Elliott University Center, from 9 am to 5:30 pm.
Workshop attendance is limited to registrants only. For more information or to register for the conference, see www.ncwriters.org or call 919-967-9540.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Center for Creative Writing in the Arts aspires to foster the efforts of those who believe in the power of the crafted word to transform and to improve our lives as individuals and as a society. The beginning wordsmith and the established word master, the student and the professional alike will find in the Center a place from which to draw strength, encouragement and support in producing their work and in finding the opportunity to share it with others.
Sherry Shaw of Gastonia, NC is the winner of the 2006 Thomas Wolfe Fiction prize.Humphreys, the distinguished author of four widely acclaimed novels, most recently Nowhere Else on Earth (2000), also named two honorable mentions, "The Descent" by Lis Anna of Asheville, NC, and "Outside the Lines" by Therese Fowler of Raleigh, NC. A former student of Doris Betts at UNC-CH, she received her M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, where her fiction took top honors. Shaw has won a Fellowship in Literature from the NC Arts Council and a grassroots artist grant from the United Arts Councils of Mecklenburg /Gaston County. She lives in Gastonia with her husband and has recently completed a novel.
"To win is a great honor," Shaw said. "This competition is but one example of how the North Carolina Writers Network is a great resource for writers and book lovers across our state. Conferences, author readings and other events create a feeling of community that inspires me to write. You know they are there for you and they want to help you to succeed. Whether you're a writer or simply love books, their work is key to promoting literature."
The first honorable mention winner, Lis Anna, is a prize-winning writer, film maker, and photographer. Her films have been screened internationally, and her photography published in Asheville Through the Seasons, a coffee table book by Twin Lights Publishers. Therese Fowler, the second honorable mention winner, is a 2005 graduate of North Carolina State University's new creative writing MFA program. She works as editorial assistant for the literary journal, Obsidian III.
The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, one of the N.C. Writers Network's most popular and successful competitions , had been suspended for several years, but was re-instituted in 2005 by the Board of Directors, and will be continued annually. The final judge for the 2007 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize has not yet been selected, but will be announced in the coming months.