Mental Kudzu

Sahara
Arabian
Great Victoria
Rub'al Khali
Kalahari
Syrian
Chihuahuan
Thar
Great Sandy
Gibson
Sonoran
Mohave
Atacama
Namib
Gobi
Patagonian
Great Basin
Kara-Kum
Colorado
Taklamakan
Iranian

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature is damn skippy proud of her daughter, Rebekah Cowell for this article about Carrboro, NC in the Chapel Hill News.

“Yes, the changes are disturbing to watch, but it’s all part of the evolution of our town,” he said. “My impetus for collecting Carrboro’s history comes from my desire to share with people what created the character of Carrboro: working class people who were dedicated to making a good place to live.”

Read the entire article here.

Kitchen Klatter magazine from 1954.

Another item in my Top Ten for 2008.

This one features the new Mrs. Donald Driftmeir.

I’m sure she was thrilled to make the cover. I wish I could have been so aptly featured on the cover of a major publication. This is going to make a swell background for a collage. Just you wait…

Well… the Prof put me in my place over Jim Carroll’s book. Sitting in his salon this past Friday, I bring up the Sword.

The Prof, ever himself, scoffs. “The man’s in love with his mother. Read it! Read it! Every time he describes his mother, prostrate in prayer, he can’t help but remark on her ass. Where’s the scholar in that?!”

I ask, “Are you talking about Constantine’s Sword? James Carroll?” He’d said, The Sword of Constantine so perhaps we’re speaking of two different books? No. Just a misspeak.

The Prof removes himself from the James Street Salon, steps into the formal library, grabs his copy of the creative non-fiction tome and hands it to me. “Take it. There are less than three chapters in here worth reading. The rest is … well … you’ll see.”

Oh pish toddle. I shall link to our dear Prof’s blog as soon as Phoebe Kate sends it. She controls the knowledge and will have the correct URL as she is all-things.

As above. So below. Spencer just sighed when I told him of my brief professorial encounter. “You know naught of religious matters, dear one. You, I fear, can be swayed by a tilt of the sword and a lilting step,” he said.

He is correct. Maybe Serinbellum’s video entry is correct. Click around on it to find out where S got it. I hope the Professor listens to it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Registration Opens for the 2008 North Carolina Writers’ Network

Spring Conference

Charlotte, NC – Registration is now open for the 2008 North Carolina Writers’ Network Spring Conference, which takes place Saturday, April 26, from 8 a.m. until 5:45 p.m. in the Elliott University Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The annual event draws hundreds of writers for intensive workshops in fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, poetry and publishing led by distinguished writing faculty from across the nation. Participants also attend panel discussions, faculty readings, and benefit from networking opportunities with publishers, editors, and other writers.
“Bringing together North Carolina’s writers is the most important thing we do,” says Ed Southern, the Network’s executive director. “The state as a whole has a stronger literary tradition than any one of its towns or cities. Writers from every corner of the state benefit from being a part of that tradition.”

Southern adds that while the Internet has forever changed the literary marketplace, writers’ essential challenges remain the same. “Writers work alone,” he says. “But we’ll always need opportunities to improve our craft, to find an audience, and to share ideas and inspiration with other writers. The Network’s conferences provide that sense of community.”

Critically acclaimed poet Linda Gregg—author of six books and recipient of such honors as a Guggenheim Fellowship, Whiting Award, National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the PEN/Voelcker Award—will provide the keynote address. Gregg’s one-hour talk, which begins at 3:30 p.m., is free and open to the public, as are the faculty readings, which begin at 4:30 p.m.

Conference participants may select from half- and full-day workshops covering such craft issues as plot, characterization and dialogue in fiction and creative nonfiction, and using sensory imagery in poetry and developing creative momentum from one poem to the next. Additional workshop selections feature instruction for screenwriters and playwrights.

Registration for the conference—made possible with support from the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, UNC-Greensboro, and the North Carolina Arts Council—is $110 for Network members, $145 for non-members.

To register, visit www.ncwriters.org, or call (704) 246-6314 for more information.
# # #
About the North Carolina Writers’ Network

Founded in 1985, the nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the largest statewide literary arts organization in the country. The mission of the North Carolina Writers’ Network is to connect, promote, and lead emerging writers and established writers through workshops, conferences, and other programs and services. The Network builds audiences for literature, advocates for the literary arts and for literacy, and provides information and support services for writers of all kinds and at all levels.

###

and now for something completely different:

Now this just sounds absolutely incredible. What a great opportunity for writers in North Carolina. Just got this email from Ellen Rosenberg about the Kenan Writers’ Encounters.
It’s rather lengthy, but that’s necessary for so much information.

Dear Member of the Writing Community,

I am very excited to announce this year’s Kenan Writers’ Encounters program: Earth: Writers and Artists Engage the Environment. The speaking schedule may be found at the end of this letter, and I have attached a program PDF for your convenience.

Four renowned authors and artists will gather at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) and elsewhere in Winston-Salem on April 12-22 during the annual Kenan Writers’ Encounters to engage university students and faculty and the broader community on the important issue of environmental stewardship and the arts.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist W.S. Merwin; author and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams; environmental scientist and ethicist Jonathan Gilligan; and environmental sculptor Herb Parker will address the crucial subject of arts and the environment, and what authors and other artists can do to raise community awareness and to help facilitate dialogue and debate about saving the planet.

Funded by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, The Kenan Writers’ Encounters is a series of public lectures and receptions, master classes, workshops, and multimedia presentations devoted to the exploration of creativity across the arts. Inspired by the perspectives of renowned and rising authors and artists whose visions bridge the world of letters and other arts, The Kenan Writers’ Encounters invite local and state communities, NCSA conservatory artists-in-training, faculty and interested members of the public to share an extraordinary conversation with our participating writers.

W.S. Merwin has become one of the most widely read – and imitated – poets in America. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator. His youth also helped develop a career that has produced renowned works and a parade of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1970, as well as the Tanning Prize, Bollinger Prize, Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evening Festival, and Golden Wreath Award. Merwin’s recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from his deeply held beliefs and an intimate awareness of the natural world.

Merwin will present a public lecture on Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m., at the Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village, followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby, beginning approximately at 8:30 p.m. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations for this event.

In addition, Merwin will conduct a reading on Tuesday, April 22, 7:00 p.m., at Reynolda House. This event is a joint program hosted by The Kenan Writers’ Encounters and Wake Forest University’s Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. Admission to the reading at Reynolda House is free, but tickets must be reserved by calling Reynolda House at (336) 758-5150, or Conor O’Callaghan in the Wake Forest University Department of English at (336) 758-3914.

Terry Tempest Williams, who is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, is a fierce advocate for freedom of speech. Williams has consistently advocated how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. She received the 2006 Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, the organization’s highest honor given to an American citizen. She has received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by the Center for the American West. She also received the Lannan Literary Fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction.

Williams will present a public lecture on Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 p.m., at the Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village, followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Jonathan Gilligan, Ph.D., is a professor at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences who specializes in science, ethics, and public policy. Gilligan works primarily at the intersection of science, ethics, and public policy with a focus on the ways in which scientific knowledge and uncertainty affect policy decisions about the environment. A 1991 Ph.D. recipient from Yale University, Gilligan has a broad background in many areas of science. He is currently pursuing research in three areas: the role of individual behavior in mitigating climate change; interactions between science and religion regarding environmental issues; and the use of rhetoric at the intersection of science and public policy. In addition, he partnered with his mother, Carol Gilligan, to produce a stage adaptation of The Scarlet Letter.

A conversation with Gilligan on the environment, spirituality and ethics will be conducted on Saturday, April 12, from 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in the Special Events Room, 10th Floor, Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Herb Parker, a native of Elizabeth City, N.C., is one of the nation’s premier environmental sculptors. Currently a professor of art at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Parker has two concurrent bodies of work, which maintain separate identities, but are of equal importance in his life. The nature-based installations, which began in the mid-1970s, are created to enhance a viewer’s perception of the environment and our relationship with nature. These environmental installations evolved from his thoughts on the mechanism of natural systems in time. This series serves as an ephemeral memento to the resilience of nature and an affirmation of the continuum of systems within the natural order. Parker’s object-oriented work employs a variety of materials and is somewhat autobiographical. The work reflects the insecurities, fears and exhilarations of life. These works are fueled by social and political developments, as well as interpersonal and familial relationships and the expectations and antagonisms inherent in that association.

Parker will conduct a public lecture and unveil environmental art by NCSA students on Thursday, April 17, 3:45 p.m., at the NCSA Welcome Center Presentation Room. Seating is limited. Contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945 for ticket reservations.

Ellen Rosenberg, Ph. D., the Project Director for The Kenan Writers’ Encounters, said: “The arts Community has the power to advocate for change, to raise our awareness, and to ask the necessary questions about global warming, environmental stewardship and ethical responsibility. The planet is every person’s temple, laboratory and sculpture studio, everybody’s kitchen and backyard. We all have a stake – and we should have a say – in the way the future unfolds.”

“The Kenan Institute for the Arts is thrilled with the development of this fourth season of The Kenan Writers’ Encounters,” said Executive Director Dr. Margaret Mertz. “The series of events over a concentrated ten-day, intensive period will allow students, faculty and the greater community an opportunity to focus their attention on serious issues surrounding our planet’s resources, while also encouraging artists from all backgrounds to imagine the influence they might bring from their work to environmental concerns.”

For more information about The Kenan Writers’ Encounters, call (336) 722-0030 or visit www.kenanarts.org.

The Kenan Writers’ Encounters is a project of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, which builds partnerships to support creative projects, many of which are associated with the North Carolina School of the Arts.

The 2008 Kenan Writers’ Encounters schedule of the five public events follows:

(There is no charge for these events, but tickets are required. For tickets reservations, contact the Stevens Center box office at (336) 721-1945)

Friday, April 12, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Special Events Room, 10th Floor, Stevens Center
Jonathan Gilligan, Conversation on the environment, spirituality and ethics

(coffee served)

Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village
Terry Tempest Williams, Public Lecture

(followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby)

Thursday, April 17, 3:45 p.m., NCSA Welcome Center Presentation Room
Herb Parker, Public Lecture, Unveiling of student environmental models

Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, NCSA Film Village
W.S. Merwin, Public Lecture

(followed by a reception and book signing in the BB&T Lobby)

Tuesday, April 22, 7:00 p.m., Reynolda House
W.S. Merwin, Reading

Joint program of The Kenan Writers’ Encounters of NCSA and the Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series of Wake Forest University.

(followed by a reception)

# # #

We hope you will join us.

P