Celebrate National Poetry Month with LRACW!

By Linda Scisson

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Yes, indeed, thanks to the Academy of American Poets!

For poetry fans in Little Rock, there is a display of poetry books, quotes, and related items in the entranceway of the Terry branch library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive, in west Little Rock, across the street from Pulaski Academy. The display will be there through April 30, 2013.

I was fortunate to display poetry items at the Terry branch in February 2010, and you will find similar and new features with my current poetry display.

As a member of the Little Rock chapter of American Christian Writers, I would choose poetry as my favorite genre. Often I have turned to this form of writing to find literature that is pure, lovely, admirable, noble, truthful, righteous, excellent, and praiseworthy, as these attributes are what our sacred text tells me that I am to think on (Philippians 4:8).

By God’s grace, I have found a number of poems that tend to hoist me on the highway of holiness (Isaiah 35:8) and, as a lesson in contrast, I suppose, other poems that point in lesser directions.

While my poetry display in a public library is not distinctively Christian in nature, I certainly attempted to keep the guidelines of the Central Arkansas Library System in mind: To display “material that is “of educational, cultural, civic or recreational interest to a broad spectrum of the general public.” Also, I am not to “proselytize specific religious or ideological views” or include “materials that would be offensive to the prevailing moral standards of the community.”

The Terry Library is open 9 AM to 8 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday; and 9 AM to 6 PM on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.

Besides the availability to see this poetry display at the Terry Library in April, a number of published poets will take part in the Arkansas Literary Festival, a four-day event from April 18-21, 2013.

And April is one month of each year that various chapters of the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas (founded in 1931) have their monthly meetings throughout the state.

And did you know that April 18 (a Thursday) is “Poem in Your Pocket Day”? This is an event created by the Academy of American Poets, with these instructions: Select a poem you enjoy, carry it with you, and share it with co-workers, family, and friends. While it’s a simple idea, I find it to be quite a challenge to select only one poem. Right now, it’s a toss-up among three: Scott Cairns’ “Possible Answers to Prayer”, Richard Wilbur’s “A Christmas Hymn”, and Susan Ludvigson’s “The Lilies of Landsford Canal.” 

Next Meeting: April 2 (Tuesday)

April 2

12-1 p.m. in the Vonette Bright Room at FamilyLife

The Little Rock Chapter of

American Christian Writers will be conducting

Critiques

You are invited to bring

something that you have written for

input from fellow writers.

For more information on LRACW,

please go to our website at:  LRACW.org

March 12 Meeting Details

                                                            

March 12, 2013

12 - 1 p.m. at FamilyLife

 

Helen Austin 

Proofing and Editing

Helen Austin was food editor at the Arkansas Democrat for six years and has since been a contributor to Active Years and the Arkansas Times. Some of her true stories have been published in Tales from the South.

                                            Visitors are always welcome!

February 12 LRACW Meeting Details

February 12, 2013

12-1 p.m. at FamilyLife

Madelyn Young

 

Mastering POV in Fiction

 

Arkansas author Madelyn F. Young's interactive presentation, “Mastering POV in Fiction,” will address the following topics:

• The three basic kinds of literary point of view
• The advantages and disadvantages of each kind
• Choosing the right point of view for a story
• Changing point of view within a story
• Avoiding the most common errors when using point of view
• Skillfully using dialogue and internalization to reveal point of view

Madelyn has won numerous state and local awards for her short stories, memoirs, and essays. Her book, Views from an Empty Nest: Award-Winning Tales Written after Fifty, was published early in 2012. In her collection of 20 fiction and 11 nonfiction tales, Madelyn shares stories of family loyalty and love, discord, and intrigue. She takes real-life experiences and transforms them into compelling accounts that sometimes take surprising twists in the end.

A retired teacher and school administrator, Madelyn is active in the Village Writers’ Club in Hot Springs Village where she lives with her husband, Robin. They have three children and five grandchildren.

To learn more about Madelyn and her writing, she invites you to visit her blog: http://southernstorylady.wordpress.com


Visitors are always welcome!

From Sharecropper to the White House

By Carla Adair Hendricks

She entered the world a daughter of a poor Arkansas Delta sharecropper.

Decades later she worked in an office three doors down from President Bill Clinton.

Janis F. Kearney has risen to heights that her parents had dreamed for her, and on this past Tuesday, January 8, she shared her journey with the Little Rock American Christian Writers. In case you missed it, I thought I'd share her story here.

Before Janis began sharing the details of her life, she declared her calling to write. "Writing is what God called me to do. That's what I'm on earth to do."

Throughout her childhood, she used her hands to pick cotton in the hot fields of Gould, Arkansas. But she always knew that when she grew up she wanted to use her hands and her mind to impact her community and world.

Her parents -- her 106-year-old father is stilling living today -- encouraged her and her 18 brothers and sisters to dream of more prosperous lives for themselves. "The three lessons my parents taught us were hard work, education and faith."

It was in this spirit that she applied for a secretarial job one summer during her high school years with the late Daisy Bates (leader of the Little Rock Nine). She felt immediately drawn to Mrs. Bates, but unfortunately failed the typewriting test miserably. Though she didn't land the job, she says she knew the moment she met Mrs. Bates, that she was "in the presence of greatness."

Little did she know -- she and Daisy Bates would meet again.

Janis went on to major in journalism at the University of Arkansas, where she honed her writing craft. She graduated and moved on to a lucrative state government career, and continued that for nine years.

She was content and making a good living, but there was more she'd be called to do.

In 1984, Janis applied for a job with a local newspaper, the Arkansas State Press. The newspaper was owned by, none other than, Daisy Bates. Mrs. Bates and her husband were searching for a managing editor, and when Janis interviewed she reminded Mrs. Bates of their previous meeting years before.

This time Janis landed the job.

Things were going well until the Bates decided to sell the newspaper just months after Janis had quit her steady government job to join their staff. Janis was devastated, but thinking back on her parents' lessons of hard work and faith, she and her husband put in a bid for the Arkansas State Press.

Mrs. Bates turned down all other offers for the newspaper and accepted Janis', saying "I can see the fire in your belly."

That fire in her belly has ignited many experiences in Janis' life. In 1992, Janis began working with President Bill Clinton's campaign. And when he was elected the 42nd president of the United States, she followed him to the White House as his personal diarist.

This job was a dream come true. Her responsibility was to shadow the President throughout the day and write about his life. And write she did. One day her writings will be included in the annals of history in President Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock.

Janis reads from her presidential biography in 2006

Until then, Janis has published an award-winning memoir, Cotton Field of Dreams and a presidential  biography, Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton, From Hope to Harlem.

Oh, and she also founded her own publishing company, Writing Our World Press.

Janis has come a long way from the cotton fields of Gould.

Janis Kearney to speak at January 8 Meeting

Can't wait to hear Janis Kearney (left) speak at next Tuesday's meeting at FamilyLife (January 8).     

She'll tell us why she and her husband began WOW! Books, a micro-publishing company. And she will  also give us a glimpse into what she calls her "Alice in Wonderland" experience, being the personal diarist to President William Jefferson Clinton from 1995-2001.

Janis is the author of Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir.  She will have some of her books at the meeting, if you would like to purchase one.