Great Class with a Fine Writer and Teacher today

Steven Harvey's Mnemonics of Memoir class today at Writers Circle could not have been better!

Eleven men and women gathered around a table and Steven led us through a number of steps to writing memoir that helped all of us in some way. Although I teach memoir writing to mature adults through the Community Enrichment Program at Tri-County Community College and use many of these elements in teaching and my own writing, Steve gave us new ideas and we had discussion from the students in today's class. The youngest student present today will be a freshman at Young Harris College in Young Harris Georgia in the fall. Although he didn't think he would be interested in writing non-fiction, he says this class changed his mind.

Several of those in class today were former students of Steven Harvey either at YHC or they were in the MFA program at Ashland University where he teaches. Their comments about him did not surprise me. They were all very complimentary and appreciative of his teaching. 

One of his grateful students drove over from South Carolina. Her name is Laurie and I was delighted she and I could have lunch together after class. She has a great and unique story that she will publish one day. 

Almost every student said the only thing they would change was to make the class longer. Steve said he hoped we'd ask him back next year. It is for sure, we will ask him back next year. 

I think we bought all the copies of The Book of Knowledge and Wonder, his new memoir, that Steve had with him. 

Now I'm going to get busy writing some of the stories Steven inspired in me today. 

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If you live in Clay, Graham, or Cherokee counties in NC or Towns, Union or Fannin Counties in Georgia, and you want to write true stories, memoir and creative non-fiction, sign up for my writing class at Tri-County College in Murphy, NC  beginning September 1.

Writing Your Life Stories for Your Family or for Publication:

Glenda Beall has taught adults to write stories about their lives for a number of years. The stories are often written for grandchildren or other family because the writer wants to leave a legacy of what life was like before cell phones, before computers and video games, before families were too busy, and before they were scattered all over the country and around the world.

Each of us has a unique story, and in this class you learn: where to begin, how to begin, how to organize your work, what to write and what not to write, and how to write so that your audience will want to read your stories. Each student will have several stories completed and written by the end of the course in an entertaining and interesting form. Each student will carry home a number of tools he/ she can use in the future.  12 hrs. of instruction.

Instructor: Glenda Beall
September 1 – October 6    Tuesdays
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. $35 

Contact Lisa Thompson for registration information.

Here Is what is coming

Classes at  Writers  Circle are filling for the  summer. I have had many interested in Dr. Steven Harvey's class for Saturday, but our class is full with a waiting list.

Tara Lynne Groth's marketing and publishing class for August 22 has two places open now. This is an important class for serious writers who want to publish and sell their books. The deadline for registering for Groth's class is July 1. 

Michael Diebert, Poetry Editor for the Chattahoochee Review, a  literary journal, is teaching once again at Writers Circle studio. His subject is salvaging your poetry, using those bits and pieces of poems you have in your files to create new poems. Those who attend will go home with new poems they will be happy to submit for publication. 

Registration is now open

In September we will host Scott Owens, a favorite poet and instructor in our region. 

In October, Karen Holmes, poet and author of the  popular poetry collection, Untying the Knot will teach a class at Writers Circle.  

Michael Diebert teaches poetry class

Re-purposing Your Poems: The Art and Craft of Poetic Salvage

Saturday, July 25, 10 - 1 p.m.

Location: Writers Circle ,Hayesville NC
Fee - $35.00   Registration deadline is July 19

Description: Just as a car enthusiast scavenges a junkyard for working parts, just as a songwriter scavenges the musical past for something brand-new, this workshop will focus on the art of salvaging your work--not rewriting per se but rebuilding. 
Bring your failed poem parts from the past, pieces or bits which may still have potential but need spark: stagnant stanzas, flat lines, dull images, etc.  Using some examples and our own discussion and practice, we will jerry-rig and rebuild our poems (as Johnny Cash once sang) "one piece at a time."

Send registration form at top of blog with check to Glenda Beall, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904

Michael Diebert is poetry editor for The Chattahoochee Review and teaches writing and literature at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta.  He is the author of Life Outside the Set, available from Sweatshoppe Publications through amazon.com.  Recent poems have appeared and/or are forthcoming in The Comstock Review, jmww, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Plan to attend and meet Michael on July 24, Friday afternoon 4:30 p.m. for a chat and a reading at Joe's coffee house, 82 Main St. Hayesville, NC 28904

Writers Night Out on June 12 - Don't miss this one

Karen Holmes, facilitator for Writers Night Out says, "Yes, I'm bringing two of my good girlfriends from Atlanta, who also happen to be super poets, both with chapbooks. I've promised them a great mountain audience, so please come and prove me right!"

Featured readers

Trish Thomas (pen name: Patricia Percival), lawyer turned poet

Kathleen Lewis, co-editor of Flycatcher Journal 

A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best of the Net nominee, Lewis was a finalist for the 2014 Ron Rash Poetry Award. She is senior editor of the online journal, Flycatcher. A graduate of Wake Forest University, she also has an MA in Professional Writing with a concentration in creative writing from Kennesaw State University.  Her chapbook, Fluent in Rivers, was published in 2014 by FutureCycle Press. Her poetry and prose have also appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Yemassee, Still: The Journal, James Dickey Review, Heron Tree, The Southern Women’s Review, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. V: Georgia, among others. 

Thomas is the author of the chapbook, Bargain with the Speed of Light, published by Kattywompus Press in 2015. The book tells the story of a box of poems left by her brother after his death and how the mysteries there led to her practice of poetry.  Her poems also appear in Sixfold, The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. V: Georgia, Town Creek Poetry, Stonepile Writer's Anthology Volume II, and other venues. In what Thomas says, “seems like a past life,” she graduated from Duke University and the Emory University School of Law.

Lewis and Thomas are both part of the Side Door Poets group originated by Karen Paul Holmes, who also hosts Writers’ Night Out, which is a North Carolina Writers’ Network-West program, open to the public. 

Friday, June 12
6 pm social hour (the View Grill is open with a new menu -- food and drink available for purchase in the grill or in the ballroom)

7 pm featured readers in the ballroom
7:45-ish open mike for prose or poetry, limit 3 mins (please time yourself at home and make us want MORE)

Union County Community Center (at Butternut Creek Golf Course in the heart of Blairsville)
129 Union County Recreation Rd.
Blairsville, Georgia 30512
here's a map but note that the Holiday Inn on the map is now a Comfort Inn
http://www.uccommunitycenter.com/location.html

Your Writer Platform with Tara Lynne

Carol Crawford says: Tara Lynne Groth provides nuggets of practical information that writers can use right away to build their platform and market their work. Her class is dense with information and ideas -- I couldn't take notes fast enough. She makes social networking less mysterious and talks about resources all writers should know about - but not all of us do.


Register for Tara Lynne Groth workshop on August 22 by printing out the registration form found at top of blog page and send your check to Glenda Beall, Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904.

Make check to  Glenda Beall, please. Space is limited to ten students. Fee is  $35.00.
email: glendabeall@msn.com      phone: 828-389-4441