Poetry Workshop With Andy Coe

July 13, 2008

 

Andy Coe will host a poetry workshop for the July meeting of the Writers Studio.

Hugo Award Winning Author and Artist Ron Miller

May 11, 2008

Hugo Award winning author and artist Ron Miller with over 50 published titles will host a roundtable discussion on the rewards and agonies of getting published. Ron Miller coauthored The Art of Chesley Bonestell with Fredrick C. Durant which won the 2002 Hugo Award in the Best Related Book field.

His artwork has appeared on scores of book jackets, book interiors and in magazines such as National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Analog, Starlog, Air & Space, Sky & Telescope, Newsweek, Natural History, Discover and Geo.

For his Wikipedia bio click here.

Renowned Poet Kelly Cherry at the Writers Studio

November 11, 2007

Kelly Cherry will be the guest author at the November 11 meeting of the Writers Studio.
The reading and discussion will begin at 4pm at the South Boston-Halifax CountyMuseum of Fine Arts and History (1540 Wilborn Avenue, South Boston, VA). Copies of Hazard and Prospect will be available for purchase. This event is free to the public.

Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems

by Kelly Cherry

Lyrical beauty and power, imposing metaphor, and thought both deep and precise are hallmarks of Kelly Cherry’s poetry, on view in Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems. With a dazzling mastery and range of tone, technique, form, and ideas, Cherry presents a lifetime of powerful writing that coheres into a single, seemless work. In it she responds to the natural world, to philosophical dilemmas, to spiritual longing, to political, ethical, and aesthetic questions, and, most powerfully, to love and loss. She shows us in sometimes searing poems where the hazards lie, and in transcendent verse a new, bright prospect, a “green place” on a farm in Virginia where time slows and holds and happiness abides.

The kind of day
when everything is so still
it seems to be an image of itself,
a mirrored photograph,
and only the secret lives of insects,
intense and determined among the leaves and grass,
enact the motivations of the real.
In this shadowless light
of uncontaminated noon, a fence post
gleams as if gilded, church spire where there is no church.
The impossibly beautiful blossoms of the crab apple
have spilled onto the ground,
an imperturbable pool of pink and white.
This illusion of the real, almost real.

“In the Field” published in Hazard and Prospectby Kelly Cherry.
Copyright © 2007 by Kelly Cherry. All rights reserved.
 

Praise for the Author:
“Here Venus rises not dewy and innocent but knowing, “strong and free,” a triumphant vision of femaleness that Cherry bestows as a benediction in the glorious closing poem, ‘To a Young Woman.’” —Booklist
 

Kelly Cherry is the author of seventeen books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction (criticism, memoir, and essay), including the poetry collections God’s Loud Hand, Death and Transfiguration, and Rising Venus. Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she lives with her husband on a small farm in Virginia.
 

Dr. Larry Aaron to Address the Writers Studio

May 13, 2007

Dr. Larry Aaron will speak on the subject of "The Writing to Publish Process." Dr. Aaron has several published books:

• Keppy’s War
• Barefoot Boy: An Anthology of Blue Ridge Poems 
• Danville in the Civil War (Editor)
• The Poet of Berry Hill (Introduction)
• Aaron Ancestors of Pittsylvania County, Virginia
• The Race to the Dan

He has also authored columns and articles in newspapers and magazines such as:

• Star-Tribune weekly newspaper, Chatham, VA, (newspaper reporter/feature articles)

• Richmond Times-Dispatch (newspaper)

• Magazine of History (magazine)

• Heritage Quest (magazine)

• Bluegrass Unlimited (magazine)

• Sons of the American Revolution National Magazine (magazine cover article plus additional articles)

• Blue Ridge Country  (magazine)

He has won many honors and awards:

• National Honor Society, George Washington High School, 1963-1964

• Marquis Who’s Who in America 2001-2007, Who’s Who in the World 2004, and succeeding years.  

• Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, multiple entries different years.

• Virginia Press Association Awards

• First Place, Feature Writing Series, 2001 and 2003;

• 3rd Place Sports Feature Writing; Finalist for Best in Show in Feature Writing Series 2003, 2nd Place Sports Feature Photo 2004

• Sons of the American Revolution, Virginia Society Awards

• Virginia Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Liberty Medal, Good Citizenship Medal

• Teacher of the Year 2003-2004 Air Force Association Chapter 240 Danville, VA.

• State Teacher of the Year 2004 for Virginia, Aerospace Education Foundation

• Teacher Appreciation Award 2004  For outstanding service at National College of Business and Technology for Danville Virginia campus.

• Teacher of the Year, Chatham High School  2004-2005

• Pittsylvania County High School Teacher of the Year  2004-2005

Dr. Aaron will be available after the meeting to sign copies of his books The Race to the Dan & Barefoot Boy

Acclaimed Author Emyl Jenkins at the Writers Studio

March 18, 2007

Emyl Jenkins will appear live, on stage to talk about her novel, Stealing with Style and to give a personal reading and answer questions.

When Emyl Jenkins decided to try her hand at fiction, she took to heart a common piece of advice: write what you know. Translating her 20-plus years in the field of antiques to the page, Emyl has penned the first book in a planned mystery series set in the world of antiques. Chockfull of fun, suspense, and Southern charm, Stealing with Style stars the sparkling heroine Sterling Glass, antiques expert and part-time sleuth. Emyl's fiction debut is being billed as "mystery and mayhem meets Antiques Roadshow" and is a guaranteed original, no fakes or reproductions here. Mystery fans will definitely want to set aside an afternoon to go antiquing with Sterling and Emyl.

Some of her other published works include: Why You're Richer Than You Think, (later reissued as Emyl Jenkins' Appraisal Book), Southern Christmas, Southern Hospitality and From Storebought to Homemade.

WRITERS STUDIO GUEST SPEAKER 

Erica Derr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

North Carolina-born food writer Erica Derr knows her way around the kitchen, the library, and the magazine publishing industry. Derr worked for a regional publisher (Our State) for six years before realizing her life’s mission to become a librarian in June 2005. Working for Our State provided valuable insight into the world of editing and publishing magazines and ultimately provided a foot in the door to landing a cooking column. Derr has written the Carolina Kitchen column for Our State since September 2000 and began a restaurant review column for Latitude magazine in January 2006. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Radio, TV and Film Production and a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from the same institution. A firm believer in lifelong education, Derr hopes (one day) to earn a Master’s in Asian Studies and to return to the writing that first interested her: screenplays.