NCWN-West Hosts "A Day for Writers"
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SYLVA—NCWN-West and the Jackson County Regional Public Library will host A Day for Writers in Sylva on Saturday, August 24.
In 2017, this one-day conference brought together nearly sixty writers. It has always been the goal of this program to bring the "best to the west" with reasonable fees so all writers in the mountains can benefit from membership, even when they can’t travel long distances or stay in hotels overnight. This year's conference fees include coffee, pastries, soft drinks, water, and lunch.
Registration is now closed.
C. Hope Clark, author of two mystery series and founder of Funds for Writers, will be the keynote speaker. Clark’s Funds for Writers Newsletter has 35,000 readers, many who give her credit for their success. She will present two sessions at the conference, one on marketing and one on writing fiction, which authors will not want to miss.
Poets will enjoy the sessions with Joseph Bathanti, former poet laureate of North Carolina, 2012–2014. He is Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College, in Boone. Bathanti is recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award in Literature. He is the author of ten books of poetry. His most recent volume is The 13th Sunday after Pentecost (LSU Press, 2016). He will answer qestions at the Author Panel on Marketing and Publishing.
Karen Paul Holmes, poet and teacher, will discuss "Metaphors, Images and Similes," plus she will sit on a panel of authors to share her experience of publishing and marketing. Holmes has two full-length poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). She was chosen a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Media and appeared in their 2019 collection of twenty-two poets, including Billy Collins and Robert Pinsky.
Patricia Vestal and Katie Winkler will teach how to write a ten-minute play. Both of these writers have had their plays produced. NCWN trustee Katie Winkler has taught English composition and British literature as an adjunct and full-time professor for over twenty-three years at Blue Ridge Community College. During that time, she has been active with the college's drama department as a writer, actor, and director.
Vestal has taught play-writing at the college level and in workshops she developed as Literary Manager of an Orlando theater group. Vestal, a member of the Dramatists Guild and the NC Writers' Network, for which she is former co-Henderson County representative, holds an MA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her plays were produced off-off Broadway and on NYC TV.
Carol Crawford, who owns www.carolcrawfordediting.com and is a well-published nonfiction writer, as well as poet, will explain to writers what to do before they submit a manuscript. Crawford teaches annually at the John C. Campbell Folk School as well as at conferences. She has been teaching creative writing for two decades. She is the author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers, and has been published in the Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Heritage, the Concho River Review, the Chattahoochee Review, and the Journal of Kentucky Studies, among others. Crawford has been program coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since its inception in 1996.
Acclaimed author David Joy will present "Writing Centered in Place/Landscape as Character." His books have been highly praised as a voice of Appalachia. He hails from Jackson County, and his characters could live down the road from him, but, in fact, they are fictional. Joy is the author of the Edgar-nominated novel Where All Light Tends to Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novels The Weight Of This World (Putnam, 2017) and The Line That Held Us (Putnam, 2018). He is also the author of the memoir Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), which was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award. He is known for writing flawed characters, showing the bad and the good in them. Authors can learn a great deal from David Joy.
NCWN's Critiquing and Editing Service: A Reintroduction
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- Category: Network News
Did you know the North Carolina Writers’ Network offers an ongoing critiquing and editing service for its members? Through this program, Network writers have the opportunity to open a dialogue about their work with established writers and editors of varying backgrounds and areas of expertise.
Whether you write fiction or essays, poetry or travelogues, there is a critiquer waiting to help you and your writing take that next step. Check out some recent testimonials:
"It was unbelievably helpful . . . I was totally impressed, and it was well worth the price. You have a very satisfied member."
—NCWN member Reid Wilson
"I received Betsy Humphreys' edits. They are very useful and give me much to correct but also reflect upon! Great service and a very exciting opportunity!"
—NCWN member Karin Lukas-Cox
"I have been working on my novel for quite some time and really wondered if I was on the right track. Therefore, I decided it would be most helpful to send a few pages just to see what someone thought about it. I must say, I am really glad I did, as Mr. Manchester's words greatly inspired me to continue on."
—NCWN member Jennifer Bower
Fees
All manuscripts must have a minimum of 5 pages.
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Administrative Fee: First 5 – 50 pages: Each page thereafter: |
$30 per manuscript $3 per page $2 per page |
For example, the critique of a 100-page manuscript will cost $280:
$3 per page x 50 = $150
$2 per page x 50 = $100
Administrative Fee = $30
$280
Instructions
All prose manuscripts should be double-spaced, single-sided, with 1-inch margins and in 12-point, Times New Roman font.
Poetry must be single-spaced, with a limit of only one poem per page, with 1-inch margins and in 12-point, Times New Roman font.
Stage plays and screenplays must be submitted in proper format. Guidelines for stage plays and screenplays can be found here (courtesy of Story Sense) and here (courtesy of Writers Store).
Please number your pages.
Manuscripts should NOT be bound when submitted.
Please indicate your first preference plus two back-ups for a critiquer (see list below). Otherwise, we will select an appropriate critiquer based on availability.
To submit your work to the Network’s Critiquing & Editing Service, please send a single envelope or package with the following:
- Your manuscript, properly formatted
- A summary, synopsis, or table of contents for the critiquer’s reference (do not include this page when calculating the fee)
- Payment by check or money order, made payable to the North Carolina Writers' Network
- A self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage for your manuscript
Please mail to:
NCWN Critiquing Service
P.O. Box 21591
Winston-Salem, NC 27120
The critiquer will return the critiqued manuscript to you directly, using the SASE you provided.
If you have any questions, please call 336.293.8844 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
A Manuscript Consultation with your critiquer may be scheduled after the initial critique is complete, but is neither required nor guaranteed. The fee for a post-critique consultation is $50/hour, with no base fee. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if interested in scheduling a consultation.
Critiquers
For the complete list of critiquers, click here.