About Me

My photo
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."

Saturday, March 30, 2013

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH Coming Soon

Our fellow NCWN West member Jayne Joudon Ferrer hosts YOUR DAILY POEM. I subscribe and get a daily poem. Now that National Poetry  Month is ready to begin, Jayne is offering a chance for all  to get a poem a day during the month of April 2013. Want to? Click below.

If you know anyone who might enjoy celebrating National Poetry Month with a poem a day, invite them to visit www.YourDailyPoem.com, enter their email address in the "Subscribe" box, and click the "April Poetry Parade" option.
 
Thank you!
Jayn






Friday, March 15, 2013

Sunday, March 10, 2013

GWARLINGO - YOUR SUNDAY POEM



This is my first Sunday as a Gwarlingo subscriber. That means beginning this morning, every Sunday morning from now on, I open my e mail and find a poet featured.  

Imagine my joy when I opened and found the featured poet is the poet I consider "the best"--Kathryn Stripling Byer. 

I encourage you all to subscribe to Gwarlingo if you have not already done so.
What better way to start a new week? 


http://www.gwarlingo.com/2013/the-sunday-poem-kathryn-stripling-byer/#more-13609

Saturday, March 9, 2013

NORTH CAROLINA LITERARY REVIEW CURRENT ISSUE AND A CALL FOR POEMS


North Carolina Literary Review is a once a year print and on line magazine. There is an overall attempt to cover statewide literature. This issue also features some of our western NC mountain writers.


The current issue is on line now with the topic North Carolina: a state of Change, a Changing State. It contains book reviews, essays, interviews, poetry, short stories, art work, photographs. There is a review by Robert West of Kathryn Stripling Byer’s new poetry collection, Descent recently published at LSU Press.

“Unseen” and “The Names” are two poems by Fred Chappell.

“His Story, History, and Home: Gary Carden Receives North Carolina Award for Literature,” by Lorraine Hale Roobinson.

Guidelines for 2014. Poetry deadline is May 1, 2013.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

POETS - ANNOUNCING A CALL FOR POEMS ON THE TOPIC - "WHAT MATTERS?", ALSO A FULL LENGTH POETRY BOOK CONTEST AND A POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST

Nancy Simpson, 

Feel free to pass this to any of your poet friends.
Two Book Contests and Call for Poems for an Anthology
Received from Richard K
Submissions accepted March 1 – May 1, 2013
Email submissions to   –   jacarassist@gmail.com
Anthology - WHAT MATTERS?
WHAT MATTERS  to you? Are you passionate about lovers, politics, the environment, animals, health, discrimination, war and peace?  No limit on subject matter.  First poem free.  $3 additional poems.  Previously published are fine if you own reprint rights. Fee can be paid at the Donate link on our Contact page. Attach poems as Word documents and email to   jacarassist@gmail.com

Guidelines for the 2013 Book Competitions.
Email submissions to  –   jacarassist@gmail.com
Full Length Poetry Book Contest
Full length manuscripts must be 45 – 80 pages of poems,not including table of contents, acknowledgments page, biography, etc.
The entry fee of $15 will go towards publishing the book. We will publish 1 winner for every 50 submissions. Finalists will also be considered for publication.
Final Judge will be a nationally recognized poet.  Past judges have been Dorianne Laux and Toi Derricotte. The name will be released after the competition has closed.
You may submit more than one manuscript, but there is a separate fee for each manuscript submitted.
In the subject line of the email put your last name and 2013 Book Contest (example – Krawiec 2013 Book Contest). Submit completed manuscripts  as 2 separate Word attachments, single-spaced, 12 point type. Attachment one should contain a cover page with the title of your manuscript, a short biography, publication acknowledgments, and your name, address, email, and phone.
Attachment two should contain only your poems and a table of content.  Nothing more. Do not put your name anywhere in the body of the manuscript. Do not include acknowledgments in this attachment. Finalists may be asked to submit hard copies. Please feel free to simultaneously submit this manuscript to other publishers and contests. Just let us know if you win.
Winning manuscripts will receive publication and a contract that pays them 10% of all sales, after publishing expenses are covered, from the first 200 books sold. This royalty escalates to 33% of all sales, after expenses, from copies 201-400 sold. Once the 400 sales figure is reached, writers will receive 50% of all sales, after expenses.
Poetry Chapbook Competition
Chapbook manuscript must be between 25-35 pages long, including table of contents, an acknowledgment page, and a page for your biography.
The submission process for the Chapbook Competition is identical to the process listed above for the Full Length Manuscript, with these exceptions. In the subject line of the email put your last name and 2013 Chapbook Contest(Krawiec  2013 Chapbook Contest). Entry fee for the Chapbook Contest is only $10.


--
Check out our website

http://www.jacarpress.com/

http://www.rkeditor.com/

Now on kindle
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=sound+of+poets+cooking




-- 
Check out our website

http://www.jacarpress.com/

http://www.rkeditor.com/ 

Now on kindle
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=sound+of+poets+cooking

TIMOTHY GREEN for RATTLE CALLING FOR POEMS NOW


Dear Nancy Simpson,

I’m writing for two reasons—most importantly to make sure that everyone knows about our current call for submissions.  Between now and April 15th, we want to see as many poems written by Single Parents as possible for our Fall 2013 issue.  The poems don’t have to be about parenting, but simply must be written by those who identify as single parents.  As always, the criteria is self-selecting; just be honest about how you feel.  If you’ve been a single parent for a time, but have since remarried, for example, that counts if you think it should.  Joint custody counts if you think it should, and so on—it’s not our place to judge. 

We are also looking for personal narrative essays that are about parenting, and how it relates to and influences poetry.  There’s no length limit—we just want to enjoy the read.

We still have plenty of room in this issue, so if you have friends who are single parent poets, please help spread the word.  To submit, all you have to do is follow our regular guidelines (http://www.rattle.com/poetry/submissions/guidelines/) and mention that you are a single parent.

Of course every other issue (Summer and Winter) has no theme, and we’re always looking for great poems for those issues, too—so don’t hesitate to send new work any time you’d like, no matter what kind of parent you are or are not.

I’m pasting below our production schedule, so you know what’s coming up. As you’ll see, we’ve officially become a quarterly magazine, and our first ever spring issue is just off the press.  It’s a gorgeous collection, dedicated entirely to the work of Southern Poets—frankly, it’s our best issue yet, with a broad range of brilliant poems, beautiful photography, and a conversation with Georgia State Poet Laureate David Bottoms. 

To celebrate, we’ve decided to offer a free copy of Rattle Conversations with all subscription orders this March.  This 285-page anthology includes 14 of the best interviews with poets that Rattle has published, including Phil Levine, Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, Li-Young Lee, and many more.  The interviews are not dry and academic—they’re candid conversations with the greatest poets of our time, both entertaining and intimate. You can’t read it and not feel inspired. 

Anyway, it’s a $19.95 value, and it’s it’s free with all subscription orders placed this month—sorry, but I can’t send an email to thousands of people without at least mentioning it.  For $20 you’ll receive four issues of Rattle, plus theConversations anthology—there’s never going to be a deal better than that.  Order here, if interested (and ignore if not):
http://www.rattle.com/poetry/purchase/

What really matters, though, is the call for submissions.  We published several single parents poets by happenstance in 2012—including our Rattle Poetry Prize winner, Heidi Shuler—and we thought it would be interesting to dedicate a whole issue to that incredible feat.  35% of children in the U.S. grow up in single parent households—and still the poetry comes.  So if you have been a single parent poet yourself, please share some work.  And if you have friends who have been, please pass along this information.

Thanks, as always, for your support, and for loving poetry as much as we do.

Best wishes,
Tim




Rattle Production Schedule:

Issue - Release Date - Feature

#40 – June 2013 – Open
#41 – September 2013 – Single Parents (Deadline: April 15th)
#42 – December 2013 – Open / Poetry Prize

#43 – March 2014 – Love Poems (Deadline October 15th)
#44 – June 2014 – Open
#45 – September 2014 – to be announced…
#46 – December 2014 – Open / Poetry Prize
--
Timothy Green
Editor
Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
tim@rattle.com
www.rattle.com





Saturday, March 2, 2013

LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE RECOMMENDS THAT YOU READ DESCENT


Louisiana State University Press published yet another full length collection of poems by Kathryn Stripling Byer, on November 5, 2012, this her sixth collection.


















Descent (poetry) by Kathryn Stripling Byer
Louisiana State University Press
$17.95, paperback  ISBN: 978-0-807147504















Navigating the dangerous currents of family and race, Kathryn Stripling Byer’s sixth poetry collection confronts the legacy of southern memory, where too often “it’s safer to stay blind.”
Beginning with “Morning Train,” a response to Georgia blues musician Precious Bryant, Byer sings her way through a search for identity, recalling the hardscrabble lives of her family in the sequence “Drought Days,” and facing her inheritance as a white southern woman growing up amid racial division and violence. The poet encounters her own naive complicity in southern racism and challenges the narrative of her homeland, the “Gone with the Wind” mythology that still haunts the region.
Ultimately, Descent creates a fragile reconciliation between past and present, calling over and over again to celebrate being, as in the book’s closing manifesto, “Here. Where I am.”




A LOVE NOTE IN BLUE AND RED:

Lovers of Poetry, My Fellow Practicing Poets, and My Poetry Students who follow my thoughts that come from Living Above the Frost Line, you must buy Descent if you have not done already so. Well, of course, you do not have to if you do not want to buy the book. It's not my business to twist your arm. I can't stop myself.  Between the pages of this book there is immeasurable understanding of that long ago time.  You can gain much from reading it, wisdom for your life and advancement for your own poetry writing. --Nancy Simpson

Descent, a major collection is also endorsed by two of the south’s most prominent  poets: Alice Friman and David Huddle.

“From the glorious opening poem, the mourning sound of the morning train weaves through Kathryn Stripling Byer’s new collection, as much a part of the hills of home as are its sins and beauties. Oh, the longing to shed forever what we are and what made us, at the same time hugging the litany to us that brings it all back: Cullowhee Creek, Buzzards Roost, hay bales, blackberries, grandmother’s gladiolas and lace doilies, and the earth that knew us better than we knew ourselves. Such longing in these pages, such hunger, such ‘grabbing at air.’"
—Alice Friman

“A Kay Byer poem is utterly compelling from its opening lines: “Now take this, she’d say, her mouth / full of pins—a bird’s tail / of fastenings held tight / against revelation.” Even those of us who’ve read and loved her work for years scratch our heads and mutter to ourselves, How does she do that? The poems in her new book, Descent, both embrace and struggle against her heritage as a woman of the both the deep South and the southern mountains. Her work is to be cherished for its beauty, its courage, and the gift of its revelation. Her poems shine a light that we yearn for here in the darkness of the Twenty-First Century.”
—David Huddle

Want to buy the book?  Click below L.S.U. Press or Amazon.com
and City Lights Book Store in Sylva, NC 


Friday, March 1, 2013

NEW POETRY BOOK HOT OFF THE PRESS


FutureCycle Press announces the release of Enough, a chapbook of poems by Netwest member, Carole Richard Thompson. You may order from the author or online through Amazon athttp://tinyurl.com/awhcfen.



 


   About the Author

Carole Richard Thompson lives in retirement with her husband in the North Georgia Mountains. Her passion for life in all its complexities is reflected in her poetry, writings and paintings. Carole’s poetry has been published in A Sense of Place, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places, and FutureCycle 2011. Her short stories have appeared in the Liguorian magazine and Clotheslines anthology. Her essay, “The Common Thread,” won the 1991 NSDAR Best of Show and National Gold Honors Award in their National American Heritage Committee, Literature and Drama Division contest. Her poem, “The Whisperers,” was awarded 2nd place nationally in 2011. Carole is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network and the Georgia Poetry Society.


A Comment on ENOUGH

These poems by Carole Richard Thompson are spoken in the voice of a woman with a rich inner life, who lived from girlhood to become a seasoned woman. She attempts to be where she is supposed to be and daily seeks art in her life, admitting she collects to memory canvas portraits of some she meets. Empathy rises strong when she finds herself in some other woman’s skin. Nature informs this poet each day of her life, whether seeing a doe without its fawn, or after the time of drought seeing the return of twin waterfalls. She has lived through tornados, lived with one husband, has been found adrift in her own life, and found herself at times in the right/wrong place.  You will not hear one whimper from her, for she concludes that whatever life has given her, it is “enough.”


--Nancy Simpson

WRITERS NIGHT OUT in the North Georgia Mountains



Friday, March 8 
7 p.m. 
Brothers Willow Ranch Restaurant, Young Harris, GA  
Writers’ Night Out 

Featured Reader: 
Robert S. King 
poet & Pushcart Prize nominee 

Open Mike 
poetry or prose 
limit 3 minutes/reader  
sign up at door 
Second Friday of each month 
Brother’s Restaurant at Willow Ranch 
6223 Hwy 76 West, Young Harris, GA 
 (706) 379-1272 

wOpen to the public w Come early to order dinner w Sponsored by the NC Writers’ Network 
for more info, contact Karen Holmes (404) 316-8466