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."

Friday, November 27, 2015

Calling for poems about a Craft such as carving or pottery.


Do you have  or has one of your local writer friends ever written a poem about some craft( carving, pottery or such)? I am starting to put together an exhibit for the museum next year and thought a poem like this would be a nice add on. The theme of the exhibit is Our Heritage our crafts.

Message from Mollie Sellers Robinson Seaver at Clay County Historical Arts Museum in Hayesville. Call Nancy Simpson for more information.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

EUGENE V. ELLIS MEMORIAL POETRY READING





Memorial Poetry Reading for Eugene Ellis



Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 pm



Callanwolde Fine Arts Center




Please join us in a celebration of the life of Eugene Ellis, a longstanding member of the Callanwolde poetry committee, who died on October 21, 2015. The event will include friends and fellow poets reading a selection of his poems as well as poems written in his honor. 
An informal reception with refreshments will follow the reading.

For over 30 years Gene Ellis was among the coordinators of the Poetry at Callanwolde reading series. In addition to scheduling and hosting monthly readings by mostly Georgia poets, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s he organized summer workshops and conferences which brought to Atlanta many distinguished American and British poets including Howard Nemerov, Anthony Hecht, Paul Muldoon, Philip Levine, Alice Walker, James Merrill and Adrienne Rich.

The reading will be held in the library which is on the first floor of the mansion. The Callanwold
e Fine Arts Center is located at 980 Briarcliff Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30306. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please email Ruth Windham at ruth.windham@gmail.com.

If you would like to receive a free copy of Alewives: Selected Poems by Eugene V. Ellis, please emailruth.windham@gmail.com with your mailing address. This book is being reprinted by Kudzu Editions with a new introduction and will be available in December.

A MESSAGE FOR FICTION WRITERS

This is for my fiction writing friends and students of writing. It is a quote from Nancy Peacock that rang loud and clear as true in my mind while working on my novel in process. 


"A good storyteller can go beyond the limitations of self. That's the point. That's the magic. It always begins with that relationship between author and character. That's who I write for, the character.
Naturally, I hope other people read my stories, and like them, but I don't write for those people. I don't write for them, or a marketplace, or what's hot, or a professor, or an editor, or agent. I write for my characters.
Have I honored them? Did I tell their story? Were we in the journey together? Did I listen to their guidance?
If yes, then I've succeeded."  --Nancy Peacock

Friday, November 6, 2015

CONGRATULATIONS TO CAROLE RICHARD THOMPSON FOR THIS NEW AWARD

Carole Thompson recently received the 2nd place POETRY award for  REACH OF SONG. Enjoy her poem, "ANTIQUING." It is a winner.




Antiquing

My eyes were drawn to a battered old basin.
Despite a chip in the enamel, my hands
felt comfort in the patina, much like the
surface of my grandmother’s claw foot tub.
Often, I rested against that perfect slope,
up to my chin in Ivory Soap suds.

In such a basin, a woman might snap beans,
slice cucumbers for pickling, or shuck corn.
In summer, Mother filled her basin high
with ripe berries to wash and “pick over.”
In time, jars of jam and jelly sparkled
from oilcloth lined shelves.

The basin rode home with me, beside
a flour sifter and small iron skillet.
 Driving in silence, from deep my memory,
a scene emerged , clear as the road before me:
A country kitchen, sink with hand pump,
woodstove nearby, kettle steaming on top.

A young man, stripped to his jeans, stands
by a table washing sweat and grime from
face and arms.  A young girl drinks coffee
with his mother at the kitchen table nearby.

’Come wash my back ?
 He grins, tossing the girl a cloth.
She shyly takes it, glancing quickly
at the mother, who nods her head, smiling.
Dipping into the basin, the girl begins washing
the strong, bronzed back, feeling his heat.
smelling his skin.

Her young face reflects a purity of emotion,
the total loss of self, that painful joy,
the first rending of the heart.

(definitive final copy)
--Carole Thompson 



 Carole Richard Thompson lives in the north Georgia Mountains with her husband Norm. Her poems have been published widely in the south. She is the author of a full length poetry collection from FutureCycle Press titled ENOUGH.


Carole Richard Thompson under the POET TREE at John C. Campbell Folk School.