I Give You Scott Owens

Since 2009, after I resigned as Program Coordinator for our local writing organization, I brought writers together at my studio at my house. My guest instructors come and hold three hour workshops for a very small fee. My guests, both instructors and students, have seemed to be very pleased with this arrangement. Anyone who knows me knows that I am making hardly enough off this venture to pay for the overhead, certainly not making tons of money. I am happy when I make enough to pay the expenses for the teachers. I enjoy the classes and enjoy bringing good writers and poets here for the writers in our area.

My Gift

I think of Writers Circle as something I can do for the writing community in my area. It is my gift to my friends and fellow writers, and it is a gift that I enjoy as well. We have some of the best poets and writers teaching here. Recently, my long time friend and heralded poet, Gene Hirsch, spent a Sunday afternoon in the studio with six poets who found the time together exhilarating and stimulating. My friend, Mary Mike, and I enjoyed lunch on her sunny porch recently and discussed our notes on that class.

On Saturday, June 15th, we will have with us, Scott Owens, one of North Carolina's most important poets and also one of the busiest poets I know. Scott teaches at Catawba College in Hickory, NC.
His workshop title is: The Essential Practices of Writing.
This workshop will focus on four habits all writers need to foster in practicing their craft. Some time will be given to invention strategies, hopefully resulting in the creation of at least one new piece and students are encouraged to submit a short piece ahead of the workshop for possible review and critique. 

All questions and topics for discussion are welcome.
Call me at 828-389-4441 for registration information or visit here.

June Peacock and her book is Window in the Wall.

What a nice day I had with my friend Dot who accompanied me to City Lights bookstore in Sylva, NC where a delightful woman spoke and read small parts of her memoir. She is one of those seniors who have had an interesting and good life. She began her memoir when she was 89 years old. Now, this lady is not your ordinary elderly lady. She said her son told her ten years ago that she was in her dotage. Now she says he tells her she is in her post-dotage. She was funny and quite personable. The room was packed and everyone enjoyed this lovely lady. She encouraged all older people to write about their lives for their families. 

Her name is June Peacock and her book is Window in the Wall. June doesn’t type so she recorded or dictated her words for someone else to type.The book was written in response to a request from her daughter who gave her explicit guidelines to go by.
It was to be for her family, and will be treasured by each. However, it reaches beyond simple life experiences to be shared with family into the depths of struggle, reinvention, and joy that speak to the resilience of the human spirit. For all who read this, there is an honesty that will encourage each of us to seek a full and meaningful life, to welcome and accept new challenges of creativity and reflection, to look forward to the future, no matter our age. 

She was the first woman stock broker in Florida and one of only three women brokers in the country. She said she had what they were looking for when she got the job. She was a woman. At that time the feminists had prevailed and their demand for equal rights for women paid off for June. 

She lives in Raleigh in the winter and in her cove in the mountains of western North Carolina in the summer. She is not frail and seems to have all her faculties in good shape. I enjoyed speaking with June and look forward to reading her book. Oh, by the way, she said her 80th birthday was twelve years ago. 

To reserve a copy of her book, please call City Lights Bookstore at 828-586-9499. 

New Bookstore in Hayesville

Our independent bookstores have fallen like dead leaves off a tree in the past couple of years, and we lost our beautiful bookstore in Hayesville, NC where I live.

Well, today I found a terrific substitute for Phillips and Lloyd. The Friends of the Library bookstore is now in the main library building on the corner of Main and Tusquittee, and it is set up with everything neatly displayed and marked clearly. Within minutes I had found three books, May Sarton's At Seventy, published in 1984, Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, an Oprah Book Club pick, and another how-to book on cutting carbs. All three books cost 8 dollars.

Interesting display of books in Friends of the Library store

You'd never know this was a used book store

I like the warm and welcoming entrance on Main Street

Most used bookstores are dusty and cluttered, and the books are not well-organized. But this book store where the profits go to the library itself, is pleasant and I didn't want to leave. There was even a group of books on the craft of writing. The children's section is filled with books that kids love. A little girl was there today and she seemed to be completely absorbed by what she found. 

I can't wait to have time to browse this store for an hour or two. I don't feel so deprived now that I see we do have a bookstore in town and it is decorated nicely with plenty of light. Congratulations to our Friends of the Library volunteers and the library staff who are responsible for this improvement to our town.

Fiction Writers, Take Note!

The North Carolina Writers' Network 2013 Squire Summer Writing Residency will be held July 11-14, 2013, on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. If you've already registered, thank you! If not, consider signing up to experience the Network's smallest and most intensive conference of the year.

This year's weekend-long fiction workshop will be led by Elizabeth Lutyens. Scenes are the building blocks of a story or novel. Through dialogue, gesture, action/reaction, setting, and sensory detail, scenes give fiction the illusion of real life. For this workshop, excerpts from published fiction will model effective scene-work; in-class exercises based on scene will enhance skills and trigger inspiration. Your own writing will play an essential role. Using sample pages of your fiction, you will explore, within a supportive and constructive atmosphere, the most effective ways of honing existing scenes and creating new ones.

To read Elizabeth's full bio, click here. You can register online at www.ncwriters.org or by calling 336-293-8844.

from email by Charlies Fiore

This is an opportunity for mountain writers who need and want special attention for that novel or short story collection. The Squire Summer Writing Residency is one of those events people talk about a long time after attending. If you write poetry, or non-fiction, see more at www.ncwriters.org. 

Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken on giving poetry readings

While reading on the Poets and Writers blog, I came across this post by Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken. The subject is about reading poetry aloud and how you can often see what is wrong with a poem by reading it aloud. She also discusses planning for a reading. I like what she says, so I am including the link to her post. 

http://www.pw.org/content/one_for_the_cause_washington_state_poet_laureate_kathleen_flenniken

What do you think? How do you plan for a reading? If you aren't a poet or writer, do you go to hear readings? 

Dr. Gene Hirsch's Class at Writers Circle Sunday afternoon

Today at Writers' Circle we enjoyed Dr. Gene Hirsch who taught a class built around the theme of Humanism. In depth discussion from all six participants and Gene motivated us all to to write for meaning and to see how the reader brings her understanding of our words to gain her meaning of our poetry.

We appreciate Dr. Hirsch so much for his generosity to Writers Circle and to the writers in our area. He donated his time today so that the fees for the class can be used to purchase much needed equipment for the studio. The discussions about the poems we read, both those written by students in the class and from books, brought out interesting concepts on meaning and on humanism.

We hope Dr. Hirsch will visit Writers Circle again when he is in this area.

We have good news!

Congratulations to blogger and reader, Abbie Johnson Taylor, author of We Shall Overcome and How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

 A few poems and a short story of Abbie's were recently published in the spring/summer issue of Magnets and Ladders, an online magazine featuring stories, poems, and essays by people with disabilities. You can read the current issue, find more information about the magazine, and read submission guidelines at http://www.magnetsandladders.org/wp/


Visit Abbie's blog and website
http://abbiescorner.wordpress.com
http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com