Congratulations

Kudos to:

Rebecca Clay Haynes: Her short story "My Sister Was An Only Child" has been published in Bartleby Snopes. See the ballot on their contents page where you may vote it Story of the Month.

Linda Johnson: She has two novels and two short stories now e-published. Check her website www.LindaJohnson.us for links to the Amazon and Smashwords sites where you will find her e-books. Her short stories are published in full on her website where you can "sample" her writing.

Poetry Contests

NORTH CAROLINA POETRY SOCIETY

POETRY CONTESTS

DEADLINE: February 1, 2012

The North Carolina Poetry Society invites submissions to its nine 2012

adult poetrycontests, open to NCPS members and non-members

and (except for the Poet Laureate contest) to both NC residents and

non-residents:

THOMAS H. McDILL AWARD: any form, any style; maximum 70 lines.

CALDWELL NIXON JR. AWARD: written for children ages 2-12, any

form, any style; maximum 36 lines.

JOANNA CATHERINE SCOTT AWARD: traditional forms (except sestinas);

maximum 36 lines.

MARY RUFFIN POOLE AMERICAN HERITAGE AWARD: any form, any style

on theme of American heritage, brotherhood/sisterhood, nature;

maximum of 36 lines.

KATHERINE KENNEDY McINTYRE LIGHT VERSE AWARD: any form, any

style; maximum 36 lines.

GRIFFIN-FARLOW AWARD: Haiku.

POETRY OF COURAGE AWARD: any form, any style on theme of courage or crisis;

maximum 36 lines.

POETRY OF LOVE AWARD: any form, any style; maximum 36 lines.*

POET LAUREATE AWARD: a serious poem, any subject, any style, maximum of

110 lines. Open to poets currently residing in NC. The winning poem will be selected by

the North Carolina Poet Laureate.

FOR RULES AND GUIDELINES:

www.ncPoetrySociety.org

Pittsboro Writers' Morning Out

Writers' Morning Out meets Saturday, November 12, 11:00 AM at Davenport & Winkleperry, 18A East Salisbury Street.

All writers are invited.

Readings in our area

Tuesday, November 8, 7:00 pm
Durham Southwest Regional Library, 3605 Shannon Rd., Durham
Sheri Castle will read from and sign copies of The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers' Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes.

Wednesday, November 9, 7:00 pm

Auditorium A218, General Classroom Building (corners of N. Benbo and Sullivan Rds.), North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro
The Creative Writing Program welcomes you to an historic evening with the best of North Carolina’s Black poets writing and performing in the genre today, celebrating the special edition of the Obsidian Journal (Aforebo: A Harvest of North Carolina Writers of African Descent). Authors booksigning to follow. Featuring: Darrell Stover, Grace Ocasio, Carolyn Beard Whitlow, L. Teresa Church, Lenard D. Moore, Gideon Young, Ojaide, Tanure, Crystal Smith, L. Lamar Wilson, Sheila Smith McKoy, and Anjail Rashida Ahmad. This program is free and open to the public, a joint project with Obsidian Journal’s Sheila Smith McKoy, Editor (North Carolina State University) and Lenard D. Moore, Special Edition Editor of The African American Writers’ Collective.

Thursday, November 10, 12:30-2:00 pm2nd Floor Seminar Room, Bluford Library, 1601 E. Market St., Greensboro. Valerie Nieman will read from her novel, Blood Clay. She will also read:

Wednesday, November 16, 7:00-9:00 pm, The Burwell School, 319 N. Churton St., Hillsborough, with Marjorie Hudson

Thursday, January 26, Greensboro Newcomers Club

Friday, February 24, Wonderland Book Club, Raleigh

Sunday, December 11, 2:00-3:00 pm, Flynne’s Coffee Bar, 115 N.E. Broad St., Southern Pines

NEW! Friday, November 18, 7:00 pm
Cary Arts Center, 101 Dry Ave., Cary, NC
The Cary Playwrights’ Forum will present a staged reading of Marilynn Barner Anselmi’s play Taking Care of Mimi.

PAD Chapbook Challenge

ATTENTION ALL POETS!

There is a new PAD (poem a day) contest starting tomorrow.

Go to writersdigest.com Click on Editor Blogs , then select

Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer.

No registration required; no fees; just fun leading to a possible chapbook.

Creative Writing Workshop CCCC, Fall 2011

Creative Writing Workshop: Poetic Form and Song

Poets and songwriters will explore traditional poetic forms used in contemporary music and modern poetry. In this workshop, students will examine songs with lyrics as well as instrumentals influenced by a variety of poetic structures, rhyme schemes, or traditional forms. Each student will choose a form to draft a poem or lyrics. Acoustic string instruments are welcome. Instructor: Chris Bouton.

Course #: C-3758
Date: Saturday, 10/29/2011
Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm
Cost: $45.00

Fall registration has begun! Call 919-545-8044.

Poem: European Royalty

The winning entry in our Third Annual Poetry Contest.

EUROPEAN ROYALTY

The last few times I was in the European Union,

it took a lot more than a dollar to equal one euro.

Didn’t matter where you went, that euro, like a Monarch,

was seated two or three steps above.

Near The Pantheon, I chose a large green apple

from a streetside cart, the peddler waggled four fingers.

I gave him his four Euro for my one apple.

I took a picture of a man lingering in the doorway

of a ristorante near Trevi. He tapped his pants pocket,

raised his hand. Skin rub of thumbpad against fingers,

then peace sign, all the while nodding his head and

shadowing me like a Pittsburgh Steeler defensive back.

“I deleted it” I called in English and turned the camera

so he could see himself draining into Europe’s smallest trash can.

An empty street café in late afternoon shadow of The Vatican

I ordered minestrone and house wine for 22 euro.

The waiter shoo-ed me by swiping at air with his towel.

“Oh no, oh no, I make no money of you!”

Then down the street from an abbey in a neighborhood

far down the Paris dance card, a French teen-ager,

simple clothes wound round small stature, held a tight bunch

of short-stemmed lilacs and a card lettered 10e.

I twirled my hand round the camera “Photo?”

She smiled oui, extended her forehead toward me.

Click.

Later I looked at her digital-self and asked

why oh why hadn’t I reached to buy her lilacs?

I can smell them even now.

By: Mary Barnard                                            

10/6/11