On Monday, Feb. 17, at 6:30, the series “Where We Live: History, Nature, and Culture’” will present a reading by two mountain poets at Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center, 51 Cowee School Drive, Franklin.
Rose McLarney grew up in Franklin and, though she has moved out of state, in her thoughts and poems continues to return to her homeplace. Jessica Jacobs is from Florida and moved to North Carolina, where she is a part of the Asheville area literary community.
Jacobs and McLarney both published new collections of poetry — “unalone” and “Colorfast” —in the past year. They are both mountain poets in their own ways, and their poems both connect this region and heritage to the larger world and greater histories.
The book “unalone,” by Jacobs, “draws on the Book of Genesis as a living document whose stories, wisdom, and ethical knots can engage us more fully with our own lives — whatever your religious tradition or spiritual beliefs,” she said.
McLarney’s “Colorfast” is a “haunting, intimate, and beautifully-crafted collection of poems rooted in southern Appalachia that reflects on loss and remembrance — and reaches beyond the constraints of time and place.”
Jacobs leads workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, and Writing Workshops in Greece, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.
McLarney has been awarded fellowships by MacDowell and Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences; served as Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place; and, is winner of the National Poetry Series, the Chaffin Award for Achievement in Appalachian Writing, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ New Writing Award for Poetry, among other prizes.
Both poets will speak about their new books and the process of writing poems, and they will have books available for sale on Feb. 17.