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Nancy Simpson's LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, New and Selected Poems was published by Carolina Wren Press (N.C. Laureate Series, 2010.) She is the author of ACROSS WATER and NIGHT STUDENT, State Street Press, still available on WWW at Alibris and Books Again. Her poems have been published in Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review and other literary magazines. "Carolina Bluebirds" was published in THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, Anhinga Press). "Grass" was reprinted in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Southern Poetry Review: DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY ( U.of Arkansas Press.) Seven poems were reprinted in the textbook, SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN POETRY,(McFarland.) Two poems were published in SOLO CAFE, Two more poems were published in SOLO NOVO."In the Nantahala Gorge" was published in Pisgah Review. "Studying Winter" was reprinted in Pirene's Fountain Anthology and "The Collection" in Collecting Life Anthology. Most recently, Southern Poetry Review Edited by James Smith, published "Our Great Depression," and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: NORTH CAROLINA,Edited by William Wright, reprinted "Leaving in the Dead of Winter."

Sunday, July 20, 2014

A BOOK REVIEW By NANCY SIMPSON



Untyying the Knot, A Book Review  by Nancy Simpson


Untying the Knot  (Kelsay Books, 2014) by poet Karen Paul Holmes is a first book that arrives in the hands of its reader fully accomplished with maturity not often seen in a first attempt. This is a book you will want to read cover to cover in one sitting. Be assured that is easy to do, for it is much like reading a satisfying short story with rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  I am not trying to confuse you, it is not fiction. Make no mistake, this is poetry drenched in emotion with vivid imagery and fine tuned line breaks. In her art, the poet takes risks. She’s painfully honest. As a reader, we suck in breath and whisper, wait, wait, be careful, but the author releases all, knowing she can never take back one word.

Holmes connects quickly and fully with the reader on a sensory level, on an intellectual level and on an emotional level as she reveals step by step the breaking of the circle of life, the untying of her marriage that has lasted for over thirty years. Being left, humiliated by her husband and a friend, she uses up all her options to survive it, even tries to reconcile for the sake of the family. The most powerful poem in the book is “Telling My Mother” reprinted for you in full below.

Finally she leaves, hoping to find a new way to live. There is much of humanity in these poems. We can learn from this book, if you do not already know. If you have been divorced yourself, be prepared for a flood of old horrors to over take you and blind you. Do not imagine you can remain open minded about anything as simple as a metaphor or a caesura. You might have to read the book a second time, as I did. 

Untying the Knot is a book that deserves to be read for the sheer enjoyment of poetic accomplishment. The humor comes through, the skill of writing, and the skill of handling such topics as “She Who Will Not Be Named.” Step by step, we learn “I’m Really Not Crazy, but She Is”--and that’s when we get a glimpse of her-- named “C.” Finally she the other woman is identified as Catherine, a name destined to fall to the bottom of the Popular Girl Names List. 

It was hard to choose my favorite poem because as you will see, there are many very good ones. I choose the first one in the book, “Drawn Into Circles,” for I have known this poem since I read it in draft form and knew then it would always be a favorite. It is an excellent first poem in the book because it  sets up the Circle of Life theme. Holmes writes, “How life loves/a circle:/the sun/ cups of tea,/ pizza, roses, embraces/ wedding rings/ cathedral domes, bells/ with notes radiating like ripples from skipped stones/. The complete poem is  reprinted for you below. 

I recommend this book. Buy a copy for yourself and buy a copy for someone who needs it now.


From the Back Cover of Untying the Knot

—Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men and Facts About the Moon
These poems are poems about the pains of a broken marriage. About half the people who have ever been married would be eligible to write on the subject, but very few, if any others, could do it with such grace, humor, self-awareness, and without a dollop of self-pity, as Karen Paul Holmes has in Untying the Knot. This is a courageous deeply human book.
—Thomas Lux, author of Child Made of Sand and God Particles
In Karen Paul Holmes’s Untying the Knot, betrayal and sorrow are recontextualized into an acknowledgment of the transitory nature of relationships and the capacity to find joy through language. Indeed, in this work, one that dignifies a sadness so many feel, “a spark ignites the dry leaves” in lucid and radiant ways, creating poetry that not only enriches us, but possesses the potential to teach us ways to navigate and ultimately transcend the difficulties of divorce and the feelings of loss and grief such division engenders.
—William Wright, series editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, author of Night Field Anecdote and Bledsoe 
About the Author
Karen Paul Holmes has an MA in music history from the University of Michigan. She eventually moved south and worked her way into a career that involved her love of writing: She became Vice President-Marketing Communications at ING, a global financial services company. Karen is now a freelance writer and owner of two naughty Welsh Terriers.
Karen founded/hosts the Side Door Poets group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2012, she received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant for poetry. Her publishing credits include a number of journals and anthologies, including Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Main Street Rag, Caesura, POEM, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, American Society: What Poets See (FutureCycle Press), and the Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia (Texas Review Press). You may contact her through her web site: www.simplycommunicated.com.

TWO POEMS BY KAREN PAUL HOLMES

Telling My Mother

She’s 85. Upsets make her heart palpitate
so we couch what we say. Or maybe we always have.
Now that Ken has been gone six weeks
my siblings and I confer on how to tell her
that he left me.
She loves him.

I wait until my sister travels to Florida
as back-up support for Mother, then call. Hear myself
somehow keep my voice from quaking.
He wants to separate for a while...depressed
since thyroid surgery. I think
he’ll be back.

She’s sad for me but surprisingly supportive.
Motherly. Modern. Sometimes couples do well
with a break: Their marriage becomes stronger.
I didn’t know any of her friends did that
but I believe her.

She visits me in Appalachia a few months later.
As we walk by the lake, he calls my cell. Some business
item to discuss. As usual, we try to keep a light note.
He chirps, Say hi to Baba.
(The name our daughter calls her.)
I cannot say to him
You’ve broken Baba’s heart too.

I put the phone in my back pocket
take her thin hand, let her rest on a fieldstone bench.
To her questioning face, I tell a small lie
His calls don’t bother me anymore.
I do not give her his regards.

Next day, she and I are driving
the two hours back to my mountain cabin after I’d read
at an Asheville Bookstore. Before we get
to the hairpin curves, it suddenly feels right to say
He had an affair.
He lives with her now.

She’s not surprised. Maybe by 85 she’s heard it all.
My contact lenses fogging, the road is a blur, but no
slowing down She was my good friend.
Mother, angry now, controlled
He never loved you enough.
He expected you to be perfect.

Though I know the route, I get lost--
we pass thick dark pines, cliffs, the fast Nantahala,
feel lucky for this scenic detour.
At home, I sense a burden was tumbled
clean in the rapids, washed
down the river.

Drawn Into Circles

Last evening, I placed fresh towels on both dog beds
heard scratching and rearranging in the night.
This morning, each dog lay curled
into a circle of towel
like a bird’s nest.

How life loves a circle:
the sun
cups of tea
pizza, roses, embraces
wedding rings, cathedral domes, bells
with notes radiating like ripples from skipped stones
the egg, the womb, the opening, downy heads
sucking mouths, breasts, eyes filled
with delight for bubbles
and bouncing balls.

Why do we box ourselves into corners
put our babies into rectangular cribs
build square houses and boxy buildings
drive cars to perpendicular crossroads
stare at newspapers, monitors, dollars
go to our rest in hard-edged coffins
slowly lowered into matching graves?

It’s a comfort
to imagine our rounded bones
becoming round bits of the globe
our spirits rising to orbit among spiral galaxies
joining those who completed the circle before us. 

(Please leave a comment.)

Buy your copy from  Kelsay Books/Aldrich Press
24600 Mountain Avenue, 35
Hemet, California 92544 (Book cover price  $16.00)
Buy on line from the press at $14.40
Also available at amazon.com for $14.40
or contact the author for a signed copy. (www.simplycommunicated.com.

Monday, July 14, 2014

The Texas Review Press Breakthrough Poetry Prize: North Carolina.


IMPORTANT for NC Practicing poets: Calling for a NC poet's first a full-length poetry collection of poems.

WOW -  No reading fee.


Full-length poetry manuscripts are now being considered for The Texas Review Press Breakthrough Poetry Prize: North Carolina. The TRP Breakthrough Prize is designed to find and champion emerging poets in every state of the American South. This year, we seek book-length manuscripts of 50-80 pages from residents of North Carolina who have not published a full-length collection of poems.  Please include a cover letter with your submission, as well as two title pages—one with your contact information, including e-mail address, mailing address, and phone number—and the other with the title only. Include an acknowledgments page for previous publications. Paul Ruffin to judge.

There is no reading fee. The Breakthrough Poetry Prize entails publication of the winning manuscript, national distribution via the Texas A&M University Press Consortium, plus twenty-five free copies furnished to author upon publication.

All submissions must be sent as e-mail attachments to vercimber@hotmail.com in one of the following formats: MS Word 1997-2003 (.doc), MS Word 2007/2010 (.docx); Rich Text Format (.rtf); or Portable Digital Format (.pdf). Please include a short (75-100 word) bio as a separate attachment in one of the above formats. Please send your manuscripts to William Wright at vercimber@hotmail.com. Also, please put in the subject heading of the e-mail NC Breakthrough followed by your name in parentheses, e.g., NC Breakthrough (William Wright).
 Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2014 . Texas Review Press looks forward to considering your work.  
William Wright, Ph.D.
Contributing Editor, Shenandoah
Founding Editor, Town Creek Poetry

IMPORTANT NC WRITERS NETWORK WEST MESSAGE


announcement from Lucy Cole Gratton

Just a note to remind you that NetWest
will NOT have a reading at John Campbell
Folk School this month.  The Folk School’s
schedule is extremely crowded in July
and they have  not been able to fit us in
for several years. 

So this Thursday, relax and read some of
your own work.

Be ready to support Glenda Beall and
Estelle Rice in August.  That should be
worth waiting for.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

FREE WRITING WORKSHOP OFFERED, REGISTER NOW

HEADS UP to NC WRITERS NETWORK MEMBERS and Western NC mountain writers.
A golden opportunity for short story (fiction ) writers.

John C Campbell Folk School is offering a free writing  WEEK END class with only a $25.00 registration fee.


Here's the class info:
WHO'S YOUR DADDY? BUILDING CHARACTERS FROM THE CRADLE 
Date: Friday, July 11 - Sunday, July 13, 2014
Subject: Writing 
Instructor: Valerie Nieman
Share:

Writers are challenged to create deep and complex characters. We'll discuss where our characters come from, and then work on techniques for “building” them through clustering, interpreting family structures, and placing them in moral dilemmas. Writing exercises will help you discover more about your characters and understand why they do what they do. Suitable for fiction and nonfiction writers at all levels.

Best,
Ellen Schofield, Program Coordinator for NC Writers Network West


call, Register now.

Tammy Godfrey
Assistant Program Manager
John C. Campbell Folk School

Monday, July 7, 2014

WRITERS NIGHT OUT Features Lucy Cole Gratton


                            
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  Karen Holmes for Info
(404) 316-8466, kpaulholmes@gmail.com

Lucy Cold Gratton

Local Writer Reading at Writers’ Night Out

Writers and readers are invited to Writers’ Night Out, a free monthly event at the Union County Community Center. On July 12, the featured reader is Lucy Cole Gratton who writes poetry and short essays of interest and misadventures about activities around her property on Lake Apalachia.  The program begins with a social hour at 6 p.m. (dinner available for purchase). The reading follows 7 p.m., and there’s also an open microphone for those who’d like to read their own writing.  
Gratton is a retired CPA living in Murphy, NC. After retirement and her move to the mountains, she served as Executive Director for the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition for several years. She continues to assist with accounting for the Coalition as well as serving many volunteer hours. Writing for herself for many years, she has only lately sought to get published with some success.  Her interests in protecting our natural environment are reflected in her writings and life here. 
Gratton is an active member and volunteer of the North Carolina Writers Network (NCNW) and has attended several poetry classes at the John Campbell Folk School, where she has also been a featured reader. She holds a BA in mathematics from Agnes Scott College and a Masters degree in Education in mathematics from the University of Florida.
Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by NCWN-West and normally takes place on the second Saturday of the month (third Saturday in October). Prose writers or poets wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up at the door to read for three minutes. The four-year-old event recently moved at the Union County Community Center, 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  Signs will be posted to direct attendees to either the upstairs ballroom or A-B conference room for the event. For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.