Sunday, December 31, 2017

Gratitude

Gratitude. The word, the sense and deep feeling it evokes, sums up our experience of 2017 at Bloodroot Mountain. We had the inaugural Laughing Heart Literary Festival in early August in Hot Springs, North Carolina. In September we launched our fully funded fellowship writer in residence program at our Writers' Studio. In November we announced our Book Prize award. Throughout the fall we have been gearing up for our upcoming publishing projects, along with improvements to our library/loft.  All this is to say we have had an eventful year. However, it is only eventful because of the kind and caring  support on many levels we have received.

It is with sincere Gratitude that we can say Thank You to many who have helped us move our non-profit and the individual initiatives forward. Our ethos of inspiring modern Appalachian living though the literary arts serves as our compass for the year to come.  An excerpt from our Modern Appalachia: A Self-Portrait says it well: We invite you to travel with us along the mountain trail-ways, back roads, gaps, hollows, forest and fields as we embark upon this literary pilgrimage. We hope in the process our worldview and yours will be expanded. We hope you continue to join in and be a part of Bloodroot Mountain. We are Grateful that you have.


OUR DECEMBER BOOK RECOMMENDATION:

Maranatha Road - Heather Bell Adams


From Bloodroot Mountain - Wishing All a Joy filled New Year,

Trent & Amy

Friday, November 3, 2017

Read, Reflect, Write

Friends we are off to a great start since our last dispatch of October 1st!  We have already completed our lineup of authors & schedule for our Laughing Heart Literary Featival (see our festival page on our website) which will take place August 3-5, 2018. Additionally we just announced our first Prize winner, North Carolina writer Wiley Cash. He will be participating in the festival, as well as many wonderful folks including bestselling author Adriana Trigiani as our keynote conversation with Amy Clark, and music by Caroline Herring. 

Now to our Writers' Studio which we are so pleased to be able to share. This program offers an emerging and or aspiring writer-in-residence a fully funded fellowship for one week. The Studio is located at our base camp, a 17 acre forest farm in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Our aim is to provide writers the opportunity to hone their craft in a quiet setting down a long gravel road along creeks, ponds, and trees, finding their voice on Bloodroot Mountain on their trail to publication. 

The studio is a coverted timber frame (former pottery studio) barn with a bedroom, kitchen, and living space downstairs, and we are currently in the process of developing a library and reading/writing space on the second floor loft. The 2018 summer writer-in-residence dates will be from May 15 - August 15. 

We feel this fully funded program is unique and we hope it will make a difference for new voices to be read and heard. If one is an aspiring songwriter, it lends itself to this space as well as it is buffeted by 17 acres of forest. so bring your guitar, banjo, or violin (fiddle in these parts)! 

We hope this program can help many who seek a solitary reading & writing experience. We have already had a wonderful response to this program and encourage you to apply ASAP (deadline is December 15). Please visit our Writers' Studio page on the website for specific details. 


OUR NOVEMBER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: 

The Last Ballad - Wiley Cash

From Bloodroot Mountain, 

Trent


Thursday, September 28, 2017

Welcome to Bloodroot Mountain

The name Bloodroot Mountain is significant to us for more than one reason. Not only was it the setting of Amy's first novel, it has since become the name of the 17-acre forest farm where our Writers' Studio is located. We began our efforts last year under the title of our annual literary festival, the Laughing Heart Literary Festival. Now that our emphasis (and non-profit Charter) has shifted, and because the name has such significance to us, we’re calling our non-profit organization Bloodroot Mountain. 

So, we would like to welcome you to Bloodroot Mountain, and to our updated website, created to keep you informed of our efforts. We have an exciting year ahead as we embark on our first publishing endeavor, Modern Appalachia: A Self-Portrait Series, and roll out our Writer-in-Residence Program. Our festival last year was a wonderful experience for us, and the feedback we received suggests participants shared the same sentiment. We anticipate next summer’s festival to be every bit as meaningful. Once again, as part of the festival, and in partnership with several Appalachian regional universities, we will include scholarship-funded workshop opportunities for a small group of college students. We are also pleased to announce that our inaugural literary prize, the Bloodroot Mountain Book Prize, will be awarded at the 2018 festival as well. 

We believe individuals steeped in the mountain geography, culture, and environment throughout Appalachia--South, Central, and North--have so much in common. We’re all formed and informed by the same unique terroir, and our shared sense of place. We hope you’ll join us on our journey, our trek along the Appalachian Trail, as we begin to deepen our roots in a modern Appalachia, and widen our reach for emerging writers from Georgia to Maine, in hopes of inspiring new authors, readers, and communities. 
 
OUR OCTOBER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: 

The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings 
- Wendell Berry


Welcome, Friends, to Bloodroot Mountain, 

Trent Thompson
Director