POETS AND WRITERS READING POEMS AND STORIES

Once each month, Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories is held at the John C. Campbell Folk School in the Keith House Living Room.(Brasstown, NC). Two members of North Carolina Writers Network West read their original work for an audience of Folk School students and the community. These writers and poets come from all over the southwestern mountain area of North Carolina, north Georgia and South Carolina. The featured readers for this month's meeting, held at 7:00 pm on September 16th were:

Glenda Barrett

Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia is an artist, poet and writer. Her paintings are on display at Fine Art America. Glenda’s writing has appeared in Woman’s World, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Farm & Ranch Living, Rural Heritage, Psychology for Living, Nostalgia, Journal of Kentucky Studies and many others. Her poetry chapbook titled, When the Sap Rises, is for sale on Amazon.com

Nancy Simpson

Nancy Simpson is one of the practicing poets who lives among us. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Across Water, Night Student, and a new book, Living Above the Frost line - Selected and New Poems (Carolina Wren Press, 2010). Living Above the Frost Line is available in the Folk School craft shop, at Phillips and Lloyd Book Shop in Hayesville, NC. and at The Book Nook in Blairsville, Georgia.

Her poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, and in anthologies such as 100 Years of N.C. Poetry, The Poets Guide to the Birds, and Southern Poetry Review’s 50th Anniversary Anthology, Don’t Leave Hungry. Seven of her poems were reprinted in the textbook Southern Appalachian Poetry, McFarland Press.

Nancy earned an M.F.A. - Writing from Warren Wilson College and is Resident Writer at John C. Campbell Folk School. She is a longtime member of NCWN and cofounder of NCWN West. She co-edited Lights in the Mountains and recently edited Echoes Across the Blue Ridge which is also now being celebrated and sold in local bookstores throughout the mountains and on Amazon.com. This collection has a foreward by Robert Morgan and includes the work of many of the area's finest writers.

Left to right: Pictured are Writers Glenda Barrett, Glenda Beall, Shirley Uphouse, Mary Ricketson

Can you name these writers and the titles of their books? ( Question asked on May 29th, 2009)




(photo taken 1998 at Tri County Community College by Creative Writing Class. Instructor, Nancy Simpson.
Textbook used in the class was Prairie Schooner Fiction Issue.)


Recent Photo of Glenda Barrett taken when she was a visiting speaker at the John C. Campbell Folk School.


On the far left in the classroom photo is the Appalachian poet Glenda Barrett of Hiawassee, Georgia. Since the class when this photo was taken, Glenda Barrett has had hundreds of essays published, and her poetry collection WHEN THE SAP RISES was published at Finishing Line Press, ( Georgetown, Kentucky 2008). Some of the individual poems were published in Nantahala Review, Red River Review, Hard Row to Hoe and Kaleidoscope. Glenda is a long time member of NC Writers Network West. Her book is for sale at Amazon.com and Finishing Line Press.




Next, Glenda Beall of south Georgia, now living in the mountains of western North Carolina, had no poems published at the time of this 1989 classroom photo. Since then her poems were published in Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Heritage, Lights in the Mountains and thirty other magazines. Her poetry collection NOW MIGHT AS WELL BE THEN will be published at Finishing Line Press in October 2009. Glenda Beall became Netwest Program Coordinator, and she also became a writing instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She is the founder of the NCWN West website and the founder of Coffee With the Poets. http://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/




Next is Shirley Uphouse of Marble, North Carolina. She too became an active member of NC Writers Network West and is fondly remembered for the outstanding conferences she organized and for her years of dedication as co editor of LIGHTS IN THE MOUNTAINS, Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Shirley Uphouse is the author of a book:
My Dogs, My Friends
By Shirley Uphouse
ISBN: 978-1-4357-1944-6
$12.95 plus $3.00 shipping
This book is about the many dogs in the author's life mixed with some personal writing. My Dogs, My Friends covers more than 45 years of the author's training and exhibiting purebred dogs and her 20 years' experience as an AKC judge. The book is also full of pictures and has included several stories of dogs needing to be rescued that the author has placed in permanent homes. This is definately a book for dog lovers. If you are interested in ordering, please call Shirley Uphouse at 828-837-6007. Her blogspot is www.dogspuppiesandprose.blogspot.com








On the far right sits Poet Mary Ricketson of Hanging Dog, North Carolina with no poems published at the time of this 1989 classroom photo. Her collection, I HEAR THE RIVER CALL MY NAME was published in 2007 at Finishing Line Press. She is an active member of NCWN West, often seen at the monthly poetry critique group. For fourteen years, she has written a monthly column, "Woman to Woman" for the Cherokee Scout, Murphy, N.C. Her book is for sale at Amazon.com and Finishing Line Press.


The point of it all is that four woman who did not know each other took a night class, a creative writing class in 1989, and now all four in this above featured photo have had collections of their writing published. They embraced the study of writing and advanced their writing. I am proud to have been their instructor.

Posted by Nancy Simpson