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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Members Matter

WVW member Debbie Richard has had three poems accepted for publication this Fall/Winter. "The Cellar" will appear in the Fall issue of Halcyon magazine, "The Whippoorwill" in the Fall issue of WestWard Quarterly, and "Lifeline" in the December issue of The Storyteller.

Debbie's memoir, Hills of Home, about growing up in Appalachia, in the hills of West Virginia, was published in May 2014 by eLectio Publishing of LIttle Elm, TX. Hills of Home has recently been accepted into TAMARACK: The Best of West Virginia in Beckley and West Virginia MarketPlace in the Capitol Market in Charleston. A copy is housed at the West Virginia Archives and History Library.

Visit her website at www.debbierichard.com

Friday, September 19, 2014

Denise Giardina to read at Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg

BOOK DISCUSSION AND MEET THE AUTHOR: Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina

Author: Denise Giardina

When: Thursday, February 12, 2015 from 5:30-7:30pm

Cost: Free, but a ticket is required.

     Call the Carnegie Hall office to register 304-645-7917.

Class size: minimum 5; maximum 400

Ages: 16 and older

Location: Carnegie Hall - 105 Church Street - Lewisburg, WV

 

Join us for an interactive discussion of Storming Heaven, by Denise

Giardina. After the discussion, you will have an opportunity to meet the

author. Denise Giardina's book, Storming Heaven, uses four strong,

entirely different voices to "evoke the passion and the pain of unionizing

the coal mines of Kentucky and West Virginia in the early 20th century. The

canvas is broad, the action complex but even minor characters quicken to

life in this memorable, beautifully written novel. The inhabitants of the hills

of Appalachia see their beloved land stolen by the coal companies; forced

to work in the mines, they are cheated out of their pay. Families starve, die

of malaria and dysentery and slowly, almost against their will, begin the

fearsome job of fighting back. In 1921, an army of 10,000 workers marches

on a single town. The coal companies, the police, and finally the federal

government close in; hundreds are killed and the man who masterminded

the attack is shot. As fast-paced and compulsively readable as a thriller, this

novel never overlooks the gentler pleasure of living on the land, falling in

love, raising a family. Stunning sensory images sear scenes on the mind's

eye. Giardina (Good King Harry) has written one of those rare books that

portrays a small world with impeccable clarity while telling an exciting story

in vigorous, elegant prose." (Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information,

Inc.)

This book club is offered in conjunction with the Coalfields and Molasses Making exhibit,

which will be on display at Carnegie Hall during the months of January and February 2015.

 

Monday, September 15, 2014

2014 Literary Tea series in Lewisburg

West Virginia Writers is once again co-producing the Literary Tea series alongside the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in Lewisburg.  The five week event will feature professional actors from the theatre as well as area winners of the WV Writers Writing Contest reading prose stories while attendees enjoy cookies and tea.

This year the Literary Tea series will begin Monday, September 22 at 5:30 p.m. at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in downtown Lewisburg.  West Virginia Writers first reader will be Dawn Baldwin, who was the 1st Place Winner in our Pearl S. Buck Award for Writing for Social Change category in 2014 for her entry "What the Wild Things Are."  Dawn also placed honorable mention in the same category for her entry "Of Stars and Leaves."

Everyone is invited to attend and the event is free.

The prose teas will continue Sept 22, Sept 29, October 6 and Oct 13.  There will follow a community poetry tea on October 20, also at 5:30 p.m. which will be open for participation to all poets or even simply readers of existing poetry. 

All Literary Tea events will take place at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre on Washington Street in Lewisburg.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Blair Mountain Press Sale

15th Anniversary Sale

1999-2014

 

Books are $10.00 each and are listed on the website —www.blairmtp.net—so that you can read descriptions

 

Signed copies, and an inscription on request, neither of which Amazon can do.

 

New Title, 2013

Poems: What Love Is

Victor Marshall Depta

ISBN: 978-0-9768817-8-0

 

What Love Is on a School Bus

 

 

If he were less vulnerable, maybe years later, in his thirties when he's

outgrown his scrawny, miserable fourteen-year-old body and has the

strength for objectivity, he would, embarrassed as adults are by love

beyond their ironies, spoil the scene with realism

 

with spring, first of all, comparing the jonquils and forsythias to the

yellow school buses, dingy and mud-spattered, and stinking with

exhaust behind the vo-tech building

 

and then spoil the scene by describing the dreary students, drained of

their joy by the classroom, straggling in lines to board them homebound

to the camp houses, the black dust and burning slag heaps, the tipples

and coal trains in the mountains

 

and spoil it, then, with all the clichés of the adolescent—the acne, the

oily face, the smell of stale, anxious sweat, the burden- some books,

the bullying and blustering, the furtive glances, the awkward profanity

 

he would, as an adult, embellish the scene, perhaps with pathos, or with

hilarious, slapstick absurdities and obscene love, but the boy can't be

touched by any of that, not even by his fourteen-year-old ignorance, not

even by what would follow, flesh to flesh

 

I am not my clichés

I am not my body

I am is what love means

I am love's body




Blair Mountain Press

114 East Campbell Street

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

502-330-3707

victordepta@fewpb.net

bettyhuff@fewpb.net

www.blairmtp.net

 

Saturday, June 14, 2014

WV Writers Annual Writing Contest Winners List 2014

The winners of the 2014 West Virginia Writers Annual Writing Contest were announced during our Annual Awards Banquet at the WVW Summer Conference, June 14. 

You can now download the 2014 WINNERS LIST

Keep in mind this is the preliminary winners list and does not yet include the winners of the Writers Wall and People's Choice contests from the conference itself.  Check back mid-week for those.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest this year. It was a pleasure to have served as contest coordinator.

--eric fritzius

Friday, June 13, 2014

WV Writers 2014 Conference is ON!

The WV Writers 2014 Summer Conference is THIS WEEKEND, June 13-15, 2014, at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, W.Va. 

Walk-in attendees are welcome!  You can find out information about the conference, including workshop descriptions and presenter bios. 

Monday, June 02, 2014

WV Writers Conference Schedule

The following is the current schedule for the WV Writers Summer Conference
 
Friday, June 13, 2014
 
2:00-3:00 p.m.
 
1)     Renee Nicholson - Break Dance: Discovery How Line Break Works (or Doesn’t) in Your Poems –
2)     Rhonda Browning White – Short Stories: She May be Little, but She’s Tough;
3)     Marilyn Shank – Kids, Tweens, and Teens: Developmental Stages;
4)     Michael Knost – Flashbacks and Backstory;
5)     Kambri Crews – Publicity & Marketing: Sell Yourself .
 
  
3:15-4:45 p.m. (90 minute session)
 
1)     Kirk Judd – Journey to the Center of Your Mind;
2)     Laura Bentley – Writing Your First Novel: The Journey of a Hybrid Writer;
3)     Danny Boyd – Building Blocks (of good stories for screen and graphic novels);
4)     Sam Holdren – Screenwriting;
5)     Andrew Wheeler – False Memories/Confessions Created by Erroneous Forensic Analysis (60 min)
 
  
6:00-7:00 p.m.
 
1)     People’s Choice – Prose competition;
2)     Dave McCormick – Songwriting;
3)     Belinda Anderson – The Wounded Hero and Other Archetypes: Writing Middle-Grade Characters with Depth;
4)     Joey Madia – Selecting and Reading Your Work;
5)     Sandy Tritt – Writing the Story Only You Can Tell (Memoir)
 
 
 
7:15-8:15 p.m.
 
1)     People’s Choice - Poetry competition;
2)     Pam Hanson – Writing for the Inspirational Market;
3)     Dave McCormick – Creative Writing Basics;
4)     Natalie Sypolt – Whose Story is it?: Exploring Perspective and Narrative Distance in Fiction;
5)     Author Readings: Laura Treacy Bentley, Daleen Berry, Geoff Fuller
 
 
 
8:30 p.m.
 
Entertainment – Kambri Crews; The Fearless Fools
Bonfire (weather permitting)
 
 
Saturday, June 14, 2014 
 
8:30-9:30 a.m.
 
1)   Maggie Anderson – Writing Groups of Related Poems
2)    Natalie Sypolt – It’s Not Your Grandpa’s Mountain Story: What is Today’s Appalachian Literature?
3)    Belinda Anderson – Manuscript Checklist
4)    Patricia Wiles – Awaken the Child Within
5)    Naomi Sloan – Memoir and Imagination: Creative Non-fiction from Blog Posts to Personal Essays
 
 
 
9:45-10:45 a.m.
 
1)     People’s Choice – Prose competition;
2)     Maggie Anderson – Gathering the Storm: Putting Together a Poetry Manuscript;
3)     David and Naomi Sloan – How to Write with a Significant Other (and Survive);
4)     Sandy Tritt – Pass the Tissues;
5)     Rhonda Browning White – Beginnings and Endings: Hit ‘Em Coming and Going;
 
 
 
11:00-12:00 noon
 
1)     People’s Choice – Poetry competition;
2)     Pam Hanson – How to Write a Romance Novel
3)     Joey Madia – The Art of the Knights and Dragons Style Fantasy Genre
4)     Marilyn Shank – Coping with Grief and Trauma: It’s Not the Same for Children and Adolescents
5)     Kambri Crews - Publicity & Marketing: Sell Yourself (Repeat)
6)     People’s Choice – Youth competition
 
 
 
1:15-2:45 p.m. (90 minute session)
 
1)     Laura Treacy Bentley – Writing Your First Novel: The Journey of a Hybrid Writer (Repeat)
2)     Steve Goff – Improv Your Creativity, Improv Your Writing
3)     David Sloan –How to Deal with Complexity in Plots
4)     Andrew Wheeler – Crime Scene Reconstruction and the Investigative Process
5)     Kambri Crews – Non-Fiction Book Proposal (60 min)
 
 
 
3:00-4:00 p.m.
 
1)     Renee Nicholson – From Your Page to Their Page: Publishing Your Poems
2)     Daleen Berry & Geoff Fuller – Panel Discussion: Their book The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese: The Truth Behind the Headlines
3)     Mountain State Press Reception: New publications by Belinda Anderson & Kirk Judd
4)     Patricia Wiles – Children’s Writer’s Journey
5)     Rhonda Browning White – Cut It, Cut It, Cut It! Self-Editing for Writers
 
 
 
4:10-5:00 p.m.
Authors reading/signing - various presenters
Natalie Sypolt – Learn to do book reviews (tentative)
 
 
 
6:15 p.m.
Banquet with keynote speaker, Marilyn Shank, winner of the 2013 Christy Award
Presentation of contest awards
 
 
 
8:30 p.m.
 
Entertainment by:
Maggie Anderson and Renee Nicholson, poetry presentations
Music by singer/songwriter Dave McCormick
Bonfire (weather permitting)
 
  
 
 Sunday, June 15, 2014
 
9:00-10:00 a.m.
 
1)     Andrew Wheeler – Trial Review: A WV Murder Trial in Review
2)     Belinda Anderson – The Wounded Hero and Other Archetypes: Writing Middle-Grade Characters with Depth (Repeat)
3)     Podcasting Panel with Natalie Sypolt, Renee Nicholson, Eric Fritizus
4)     Michael Knost – Outlining Your Novel
 
 
 
10:15-11:15 a.m.
 
1)     Kirk Judd – Spoken Word Spoken Here
2)     Sam Holdren – Advanced Screenwriting
3)     Danny Boyd – Graphic Novels
4)     Joey Madia – Creating Strong Character to Tell Your Story (a subset of his broader workshops on playwriting)
 
 
 
11:30-11:50 a.m.
 
Farewell, drawings, conference feedback
 
1:15 – Board Meeting – All members welcome!
 
 

Friday, May 23, 2014

Conference pre-registration

From WVW Region 7 Representative Sherrell Wigal:

I just completed my Annual Conference registration to mail tomorrow.  I’m excited about conference this year.  What a great line-up of workshop leaders this year! Thank you President, Teresa Newsome for another great job with Conference.
     A week or so ago I stopped by Cedar Lakes and spoke with Gary Anderson (Coordinator of Conference Services) – Gary advised me that they have a new dining hall crew and are getting excellent comments about the food (yippee!) this year.  He also said they don’t have many room left for Conference.
     Gary and I also talked about the future of Cedar Lakes Conference Center and the staff is quite excited about the change of from a State agency to the Foundation.  This will allow for fewer restrictions for their facility and will open them up to apply for possible grants to allow them to make various improvements to the facility.
     Everyone get you pre-registration in ASAP.  This will help WVW in giving the staff at Cedar Lakes some idea of meal counts, etc., and with the preparation of the “goodie bags” for conference.   Also if you pre-register your name tag will be printed name (and you won’t have to hand-write your name).  Hope to see everyone there this year!

--Sherrell

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Meet the Author: Stephanie Kadel Taras

Main Library: Wednesday, May 14 at 6 p.m.; John V. Ray Room

Clendenin Branch Library: Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m.

Riverside Branch Library: Thursday, May 15 at 10 a.m.

Stephanie Kadel Taras grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When she started writing people’s life stories through her thirteen-year-old company, TimePieces Personal Biographies, she began to question her own identity as a West Virginian who moved away but still longs for home.  In this thoughtful mix of memoir and social history, Stephanie explores the history and culture of her home state and the choices women make in today’s mobile society. Weaving back and forth seamlessly between past and present, Mountain Girls features the lifelong friendship of two girls from Elkins, whose resilience, humor, and creativity shape unexpected lives. Mountain Girls won a 2012 book award from West Virginia Writers, Inc., while the book was still in production. A book signing will follow her presentation.

Adults and teens

Thursday, May 01, 2014

Meet the Author: Stephanie Kadel Taras

Main Library: Wednesday, May 14 at 6 p.m.; John V. Ray Room

Clendenin Branch Library: Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m.

Riverside Branch Library: Thursday, May 15 at 10 a.m.

Stephanie Kadel Taras grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When she started writing people’s life stories through her thirteen-year-old company, TimePieces Personal Biographies, she began to question her own identity as a West Virginian who moved away but still longs for home.  In this thoughtful mix of memoir and social history, Stephanie explores the history and culture of her home state and the choices women make in today’s mobile society. Weaving back and forth seamlessly between past and present, Mountain Girls features the lifelong friendship of two girls from Elkins, whose resilience, humor, and creativity shape unexpected lives. Mountain Girls won a 2012 book award from West Virginia Writers, Inc., while the book was still in production. A book signing will follow her presentation.

Adults and teens