Wilton Barnhardt: How to punch up humor at NCWN Conference

Rebecca McClanahan

Did I say that the 2015 Hollins writer-in-residence Rebecca McClanahan will  lead a workshop on shaping the raw material of family history into an engaging and artful text?

• That the hilarious Wilton Barnhardt, author of the Charlotte-based novel, "Look Away, Look Away," will talk about ways to punch up the humor in your writing.

• That award-winning Charlotte poet Cedric Tillman will talk about cutting the fat and getting at the marrow of your poetry.

• That the dashing Davidson poet Anthony Abbott will tell you everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

• That Chantel Acevedo, editor of Southern Humanities Review, will lead a workshop on the structure of a novel.

• That Queens University writing professor Julie Funderburk will talk about poetry and time -- how it flies, slows, how we remember and forget, how we dread and anticipate.

• That Pulitzer-finalist poet Morri Creech will discuss how meter, rhyme and fixed forms can generate new and exciting poems.

• That the Charlotte-based literary agent Sally McMillan will serve on a panel about agents and editors.

Have I told you lately that there's all this and more?


The North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Fall Conference, Nov. 21-23, will convene at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel. 

Pre-registration closes Friday, November 14. Register now!

For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.

 

Salon Sundays in April at C.A.S.T.

Don your hats and gloves, your topcoats and spats. In celebration of National Poetry Month, John Amen of Pedestal Magazine is sponsoring Sunday Salons on April 13, 20 and 27, at C.A.S.T., 2424 N. Davidson St., 28205. Salon Sundays -- don't you love the sound? -- 2-4 p.m., will include poetry, music, the spoken word and theatrical stagings by Amen and Daniel Harris.
Headliners for April 13: Award-winning poets Anthony Abbott of Davidson and Sarah Lindsay of Greensboro; poetry slam champion Ed Mabrey and Iodine editor Jonathan Rice, recipient of the 2012 Irene Honeycutt Legacy Award.
For April 20: National Book Critics Circle award finalist Dorianne Laux, who teaches in the MFA  program at N.C. State, Guggenheim and NEA fellowship winner Joseph Millar and award-winning poet L. Lamar Wilson of Chapel Hill. The program will also include therapeutic harpist Beth Brown.
For April 27: Poet Morri Creech of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA faculty as well as award-winning poet Jacki Shelton Green and Walt Whitman Birthplace writer-in-residence George Wallace. Providing music: Tanja Bechtler, founder and director of the Bechtler Ensemble Music Series.

Dorianne Laux

Tickets: $15 adults; $12 seniors (60+); $10 students. For advance tickets: https://secure.ticketsage.net/websales.aspx?u=cast&evtid=11353 or call 704-455-8542.

Davidson writer wins Rose Post award

Anthony Abbott, a novelist, poet and retired Davidson College English professor, is this year's winner of the the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition.

Sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network, the Rose Post competition encourages nonfiction outside the realm of traditional journalism.

Abbott won for his essay "The White Dress," about a visit to Emily Dickinson's house.

"The writer's passion for this event was palpable," wrote author Anne Clinard Barnhill, who judged the contest. She praised the work for "the carefulness of the language used in this piece, the reverence for the subject -- a visit to Emily Dickinson's house -- and the poetic descriptions."

Second place winner in this year's contest was Terri Sherrill of Hillsborough for her essay "For the Love of Loggerheads."

Jeanette Cabanis-Brewin of Cullowhee won third place for "White Lobelia: An Open Letter to My Neighbor."

First-, second- and third-place entries receive $300, $200 and $100, respectively. Abbott's essay will be considered for publication in the magazine "Southern Cultures."

Abbott's latest book is the 2011 poetry collection "If Words Could Save Us."

Poems -- and a CD -- from Davidson's Anthony Abbott

You've got two chances in coming days to hear Davidson poet Anthony Abbott read from his new book of poems, "If Words Could Save Us" (Lorimer Press, $16.95.)

He'll be at Davidson College's Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. His reading will include music and a projection of images.
He'll also appear 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road.

This latest collection from Abbott, a retired Davidson College English professor, includes a CD featuring Abbott reading 21 poems from the book.