About Me

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Nancy Simpson's LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, New and Selected Poems was published by Carolina Wren Press (N.C. Laureate Series, 2010.) She is the author of ACROSS WATER and NIGHT STUDENT, State Street Press, still available on WWW at Alibris and Books Again. Her poems have been published in Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review and other literary magazines. "Carolina Bluebirds" was published in THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, Anhinga Press). "Grass" was reprinted in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Southern Poetry Review: DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY ( U.of Arkansas Press.) Seven poems were reprinted in the textbook, SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN POETRY,(McFarland.) Two poems were published in SOLO CAFE, Two more poems were published in SOLO NOVO."In the Nantahala Gorge" was published in Pisgah Review. "Studying Winter" was reprinted in Pirene's Fountain Anthology and "The Collection" in Collecting Life Anthology. Most recently, Southern Poetry Review Edited by James Smith, published "Our Great Depression," and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: NORTH CAROLINA,Edited by William Wright, reprinted "Leaving in the Dead of Winter."

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hello Poets and Writers, From Living Above the Frost Line, in the Blue Ridge Mountains



Friends and Fellow writers,
Happy New Year.
This photo was taken Jan. 2009,
by my hand, through my eyes,
off the deck of my home.






Dear Poet and Writing Friends, You may have been wondering - "Where is she?" or maybe not. You may not give a hoot. I need to know. Here at the end of 2011, I totally lost this blog and the opportunity to communicate with you.  Looks like my site is back this morning. I am shouting with joy, with hope LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE will hold and  continue as we move into 2012. It was a crisis for me. I hope to never have to go through that horror again.  I do not have a clue what took my site down. I do not know how it came back this morning.

If you know me, you know I am intelligent. I can do this. I have a storehouse of information to share with poets and writers. I hope to continue but not sure you have interest in poetry at all. I do not know if you are interested in southern and Appalachian poets and writers - their new books and where you can buy them at their press.  I've featured many southern and Appalachian writers throughout the past three years.  I have a line up for 2012. I have suggestions and an updated list of markets calling for poems now. Are you interested?

Or is there some other reason you visit this site? The links to yet other writing sites? The latest news of writing events in the mountains of western NC and North Georgia?

Sorry to put you on the spot. Are you interested? Comments please.  What are your interests?






Sunday, December 18, 2011

Two Poems by Nancy Simpson - You can read them on Line- FUTURE CYCLE PRESS

Nancy Simpson ends the year on the up-swing - with ten poems accepted this year. You can read two of the most recent on line - FutureCycle Press. "First Responder" in  AMERICAN SOCIETY - What Poets See 2011. (34) and "Years Later- Still the Old Dream" in Future Cycle Anthology 2011, (27)


http://futurecycle.org/FutureCyclePoetry/SimpsonBio.aspx
click on poems at the bottom of the page

Friday, December 16, 2011

GIVING BOOKS AS CHRISTMAS GIFTS ? GOOD FOR YOU!

If you looking for a gift book for a woman on your Christmas Shopping list, consider buying Living Above the Frost Line,
New and Selected Poems.Especially if the woman lives in or is fond of the Blue Ridge - Southern Appalachian Mountains. LivingAbove the Frost Line is a 2011 finalists for SIBA - Southern Independent Booksellers Award, nominated for The Weatherford Poetry Award and  Oscar Arnold Poetry Award, reviewed in FutureCycle Press, Independent News, Asheville Citizens Times, Prairie Schooner and in the current issue of Asheville Poetry Review.

(from back cover of Living Above the Frost Line - 
New and Selected Poems)
“NANCY SIMPSON’S POEMS SPEAK WITH A VOICE that knows where it comes from, honoring that place and the web of relationships that exist within it. She can make the world shimmer in a single line. She can break your heart. She can sing. She does what a poet has to do, wake the reader into a fresh vision of reality.” —KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER, North Carolina Poet Laureate Emerita
“HARD-WON, SOMETIMES HARD-BITTEN, the poems of Living Above the Frost Line emerge from the page like daffodils from a snow bank: colorful, hardy and defiant. It is a privilege to be admitted into Nancy Simpson’s intense vision of the world, a pleasure to stand for a while in its light.” —FRED CHAPPELL, North Carolina Poet Laureate Emeritus
“LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE showcases the arc of a life lived richly and rendered in finely made poems of heartbreak—and beauty. Nancy Simpson possesses a wise world view grounded in and informed by the intricacies of place, offering all of us the great haven poetry can be in hands as capable as hers.” —CLAUDIA EMERSON, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
“REPLETE WITH A QUIET WISDOM, Nancy Simpson’s poems are powerfully focused on the landscape and the people who inhabit this giving, fragile land she cherishes but cannot always protect. The poet wastes nothing as she trains her vision on both the ordinary and the sublime, ‘having learned the leaves of trees, /the language of ants, not much scares her.’ Nancy Simpson shows us how to learn to love and forgive the world in poems that are always wise and generous of heart.” —JUDITH ORTIZ COFER
“IN LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, Nancy Simpson takes us to the top of a Carolina mountain and gives us a clear lens through which to mark the seasons of a lifetime. These poems reflect the history of a place and the hardy people who know that ‘nothing is certain except death.’ Hardship and grief, yes, but also friendship, humor, compassion, and the electrifying power of imagination. Through image and insight, Simpson’s mountain becomes a sustaining force, and we rejoice in the parallel certainty of rebirth. —JUDITH KITCHEN
Order Nancy Simpson’s  Living Above the Frost Line: New and Selected Poems from 
Carolina Wren Press  120 Morris Street Durham, NC 27701
Bookstores and Schools can order wholesale by phone 
919 560 2738 
or e mail carolinawrenpress@earthlink,net
ISBN 978-0-932112-61-3 Laureate Series (2010) $15.95
Retail $14.35  at CWP.
Or buy from Independent Book Sellers who nominated the book for a SIBA Award.
City Lights Book Store in Sylva, NC (828) 516-9499
Phillips and Lloyds Book Shop (828) 389- 1492
Also available at amazon.com
or order from the author. one book - $15.95 cover price postage free or order through the month of December 2011, two copies for $20.00 post paid. (828) 389-6497
NANCY SIMPSON’s poems have been published widely in journals such as Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Tar River Poetry, The Southern Poetry Review and Kalliope. Her previous books are Across Water and Night Student. In 1991, she received the North Carolina Arts Council Writing Fellowship for Poetry. A longtime member of the North Carolina Writers Network, she co-founded Netwest to serve writers in the nine westernmost counties and Qualla Boundary. contact Nancy Simpson at (828) 389-6497   nance@dnet.net   www.nancysimpson.blogspot.com
ADD  SIBA FINALISTS TO YOUR GIFT SHOPPING LIST.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Hello fellow ECHOES ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE authors. Our anthology has been widely accepted and reviewed. You may have heard of the newest review by Mary Ickes in Western N.C. Women, but did you know she specifically mentioned your writing. You can read her comments. Click below.  Have you heard any other talk about ECHOES ACROSS THE BLIE RIDGE. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment.  Nancy Simpson, Editor

http://www.wncwoman.com/2011/12/01/book-review-3/


Mary Ickes said in a note to NCWN West that she did not read anything in the anthology that she did not like. Here is a list of the authors she mentioned in her review:


Steven Harvey, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Bettie Sellers, Gary Carden, Glenda Barrett, Glenda Beall, Ellen Andrews, Mary Michelle Bodine Keller, Estelle Darrow Rice, William V. Reynolds, Kitty Inman, Dick Michener, Charlotte Ross, Mary Lou McKillip, Lana Hendershott, Susan Lefler, John T. Campbell, Jayne Joudon Ferrer, Rachel Bronnum, Rosemary Royston, Maren O. Mitchell, Karen Paul Holmes, Brenda Kay Ledford, Marshall McClung, Richard Argo, Wendy Richard Tanner, StarShield Lortie, Ellen Lampe. Ickes also mentioned Byron Herbert Reece, 1917-1958, to whom the anthology was dedicated.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mary Ickes praises Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, edited by Nancy Simpson, an anthology which features stories, essays and poems by 62 authors who live and write in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Ickes said, "It would make the perfect holiday gift for anyone who loves great writing or who is interested in North Carolina’s culture and history."

NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS'NETWORK getting out the news reported:


Echoes Across the Blue Ridge Reviewed in WNC Women

Echoes Across the Blue RidgeWe just heard a rumor that the December 2011 issue of WNC Womenwill feature an ebullient review of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge: Stories, Essays, and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains (Winding Path Publishing, 2010). In a sneak peak, reviewer Mary Ickes said, “In all sincerity, I’ve never read a collection in which I liked every piece. Deciding which authors to include proved frustrating, because I wanted to mention everybody! GO NETWEST!”
From the book’s description:
Echoes Across the Blue Ridge consists of the work of 62 authors: members of North Carolina Writers’ Network West. The volume includes stories and poems reflecting the everyday lives of mountain people, their experiences, their outlook on life, and their overall philosophies. The subjects range from the mundane to hilarious comic sketches. The reader will laugh, cry, and feel the heart and soul of these writers.
Contributors include former North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer of Cullowhee; Gary Carden of Sylva; and an introduction by Robert Morgan, among many more.
This collection was edited by Nancy Simpson and received blurbs from acclaimed NC authors Ron Rash and Lee Smith. It would make the perfect holiday gift for anyone who loves great writing or who is interested in North Carolina’s culture and history.
Echoes Across the Blue Ridge is available anywhere books are sold, through the NetWest website, and throughwww.ncwriters.org.
Congratulations to NetWest and all who contributed to this important piece of North Carolina heritage.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A GIFT BOOK FOR THE CHILD ON YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST





Are you shopping for the child on your Christmas List? A child that perhaps lives in Georgia?
Here is the book to consider: THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA written by Susan R. Spain Illustrated by Elizabeth O. Dulemba.  










THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA - Book Signings!
     It's time, once again, to celebrate THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA! I hope you'll consider purchasing my latest picture book as a gift for your loved ones this year. And if not mine, Sterling Children's Books is working on one for each state. (Click Here to see if the one for your state is available yet.) CLICK HERE to learn more about my Georgia book and download free activities.
     And if you can stop by, I'll be signing copies at several Georgia independent booksellers over the next few weeks:

Scott's Bookstore
Newnan, Georgia
Wednesday, December 7 from 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Hall's Book Exchange
Gainseville, Georgia
Thursday, December 8 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Little Shop of Stories
Decatur, Georgia
Thursday, December 15 from 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Atlanta Symphony Store
Atlanta, Georgia
Friday, December 16 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm.



Monday, December 5, 2011

BEST GIFT FOR HIM ON YOUR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING LIST - THE HUNTED RIVER BY ROBERT S. KING

Give him, on your Christmas shopping list,  a book. Yes. Giving a man a book means caring enough to give something of worth. It's certainly not the same as is giving him a tie, or a coffee mug. Giving a book implies you chose something unique for him. Giving a book says, He's smarta man who reads. Think of the added opportunity to write inside the cover some words of gratitude, something like "Thank you for being you" or "With appreciation." If he cocks his head and lifts his eyes, he probably is thinking:  She knows I'm intelligent.