From High Country Press:

Boone Author Selected As Recipient of the Pat Conroy Literary Center's Fall 2023 Writer's Residency

Boone Author Selected As Recipient of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Fall 2023 Writer’s Residency

Published: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 9:03 am

Updated: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 9:04 am

Boone’s own Kaye Wilkinson Barley was chosen from writers across 20 states as recipient of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Fall 2023 Writer’s Residency. Photo submitted.

By Sherrie Norris

Kaye Wilkinson Barley of Boone has been named recipient of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Fall 2023 Writer’s Residency.

Barley will spend a week in Beaufort, SC, at the MarshSong cottage, in conjunction with the 8th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, held in late October.

Barley was chosen from a large pool of talented writers — representing 20 states —who applied for the residency program,  one of two opportunities offered twice each year by the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.

The residency is available to writers of all genres, published or unpublished.  Located on a salt marsh on St. Helena Island, approximately 15 minutes from historic downtown Beaufort, the residency cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved low-country for an eight-day stay. 

Barley will also have the opportunity to attend up to three writers workshops during the literary festival.

When High Country Press spoke with Barley on Monday, just hours after she was notified of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she said she was “still wiping tears.” Tears of joy, for sure, at her latest accomplishment.

A longtime fan of Conroy, the late American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs, Barley and her husband, Don, traveled around the southeast to attend his signings and purchase his books.

Barley, an award-winning author of several books and anthology contributions, in 2015, was a finalist in the Southern Writers Magazine short story contest. “Picnics with Aunt Kathryn,’ is one of her all-time favorites among her many works. She was honored “and tickled pink,” she said, to have a story included in the 2016 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Greg Herren. “I was further gratified when Blood on the Bayou was awarded an Anthony in 2017.” 

Blood on the Bayou was published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which was held in New Orleans in 2016 and includes stories by best-selling authors Gary Phillips, David Morrell, Alison Gaylin, Elaine Viets and many others.

A self-described “voracious reader and lover of books, a long-time blogger, an indie author, an amateur photographer, dabbler in mixed media collages, and fiddler of fiber arts,” Barley believes creativity is essential to the soul.

Retired from Appalachian State University since 2011, Barley was the Department Secretary in the Dept. of Philosophy and Religion for 14 years, and prior to that worked in Human Resources.  

She and Don, her husband of 35 years, moved to Boone from Atlanta in 1987, continuing to reside here with their “princess of a pup”—Annabelle, a fluffy Welsh Corgi.

“We’re both retired and spending time doing things together we both enjoy—photography and traveling,” Barley shared. “We both, of course, have individual interests that we pursue on our own. While Donald is off exploring the world on his motorcycle, I might be reading, writing, or cooking up a big pot of chili. I’m a collector of ‘things’ pretty and sparkly. I’m opinionated and mouthy, but a marshmallow at heart. Loyal to a fault. And have strong (very strong) political opinions.

While we’re not always in agreement on all things, we (Don and I) do agree on what we both believe are life’s most important concerns—trying to live by The Golden Rule and doing no harm to others while accepting no nonsense.”  

As music lovers who have managed to see most of their favorite bands and musicians in concert, the couple also spends a great deal of time in search of the perfect pizza.

Applying for the Residency

Applying for the Writer in Residency opportunity was a rather simple process for Barley, she said. “I saw the application on-line, and filled it out, hit send, and received notification this morning (Monday) that my submission was the winning entry. 

The requirements were easy for her, Barley admitted: From telling a brief story of how she “found her voice” the first time, expressing how being in the lowcountry for a residency will benefit her writing, and how her presence will benefit the people she will meet there; also, a short bio, her favorite Pat Conroy quote, (of which she has so many!), and a writing sample of her work, which, as one would expect, greatly impressed the selection panel. 

The Pat Conroy Literary Festival began as Pat Conroy’s 70th birthday celebration in October 2015 and continues as an annual signature event of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. 

The 8th Annual Conroy Festival will be held on Thursday, October 26, through Sunday, October 29, as a series of free and ticketed events in Beaufort, SC, featuring author discussions, writers workshops, a poetry reading, a screening of the film The Lords of Discipline, a musical performance, and a ribbon cutting for the new Witness Tree Park.

Conroy’s books, which include The Water is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into films, the last two being nominated for Oscars. Born October 26, 1945 in Atlanta, Ga., 

Conroy was 70 when he died on March 4, 2016 at his home in Beaufort, SC from pancreatic cancer. He is buried in a small cemetery on St. Helena Island near the Penn Center, where as a teenager he first met Martin Luther King and where he was honored in 2011 for his dedication to social justice.

To learn more about Barley, visit her Facebook page, her website at www.kayewilkinsonbarley.com, or email info@kayewilksonbarley.com 

 For details about Pat Conroy, his life, impact and the literary festival, visit www.patconroyliteraryfestival.org.

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A Day in Town

 Yesterday was a gorgeous day and I spent most of it in town running errands, shopping, and having a "Kaye Day."

Manicure, hair cut, and a cute new denim dress from TJMaxx.  

It was a good day, one that included an over-due visit with my friend Ellie Miller in her new salon, Muse.  THE most perfect spot for Ellie and her clients.  Welcoming, relaxed, intimate, professional.  

But, honestly?  I almost cried at how very ugly some of Highway 321 from Boone to Blowing Rock has become.

How many car washes and quick oil change places does one small town need?

Ugly.  Ugly.  Ugly.  

"Progress" has hit Boone big since we moved here in 1996.

I miss the look and feel of the small mountain town Boone was.

Which is why I'm perfectly content to spend most days at home in Meat Camp, which I love dearly.

Life is good in Meat Camp.

May 1st

This has been an enormously sad week for my little town of Boone, NC.

Police sent to a home in a quiet neighborhood for a wellness check ended with five people dead.

Two police officers, a mother, a father, a son who died by his own hand after a thirteen hour stand-off.

Donald and I did not personally know any of the people involved, but share in the pain felt by our community, all of whom have been deeply affected.

As it is in small towns we, of course, know people who are closer to this than we are.  We have read their stories, and we have shed tears.  Realizing how many people are affected and changed forever by these deaths is sobering and almost incomprehensible. 

Boone being Boone has stepped up as a community of support. 

There are many stories about what the community is doing to honor those we've lost.  

After hours of following the story as it unfolded, reading every update posted on-line by local news sources, the one story that seemed to have been that proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was the one I read last night and could not stop the tears.  I thought I was all cried out.  There is, apparently, a never ending font of tears in each of us along with that ever expanding heart full of love.

This from The Pet Place.  A local pet store.

Our hearts are with the families and friends of Sgt. Chris Ward, K-9 Deputy Logan Fox, George and Michelle Ligon.

Community Night of Remembrance Planned for May 10th.

July 4th - Now and Then

Childe Hassam

This year we're observing a different sort of Independence Day than the one I've written about below.

One that has many of us sheltering while trying to stay healthy during this coronavirus pandemic.

Sadly, because so many, including the so called "leaders" of this country have failed quite miserably in protecting its citizens during this global pandemic, we are not even close to where we could be in terms of flattening the curve and coming to the other side.

And, sadly, because even though wearing masks is a proven way of protection, that has become a political issue of great divide.  A dumb divide.


A statement I've read and completely agree with - "Wearing a mask in public is more of an IQ test . . . "


So.  How many of us plan on "celebrating" the 4th of July at home this year.


We have, in years past, gone into town, had brunch at Melanie's and watched the Boone 4th of July Parade.


Not this year.



Borrowing words from political historian Heather Cox Richardson -

Heather Cox Richardson Jul 4 And on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." For all the fact that the congressmen got around the sticky little problem of black and Indian slavery by defining "men" as "white men," and for all that it never crossed their mind that women might also have rights, the Declaration of Independence was an astonishingly radical document. In a world that had been dominated by a small class of rich men for so long that most people simply accepted that they should be forever tied to their status at birth, a group of upstart legislators on the edge of a wilderness continent declared that no man was born better than any other. America was founded on the radical idea that all men are created equal. What the founders declared self-evident was not so clear eighty-seven years later, when southern white men went to war to reshape America into a nation in which African Americans, Indians, Chinese, and Irish were locked into a lower status than whites. In that era, equality had become a "proposition," rather than "self-evident." "Four score and seven years ago," Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans, "our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In 1863, Lincoln explained, the Civil War was "testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure." It did, of course. The Confederate rebellion failed. The United States endured, and Americans began to expand the idea that all men are created equal to include men of color, and eventually to include women. But just as in the 1850s, we are now, once again, facing a rebellion against our founding principle, as a few wealthy men seek to reshape America into a nation in which certain people are better than others. The men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 pledged their "Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor" to defend the idea of human equality. Ever since then, Americans have sacrificed their own fortunes, honor, and even their lives, for that principle. Lincoln reminded Civil War Americans of those sacrifices when he urged the people of his era to "take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Words to live by in 2020. Happy Independence Day, everyone.

And borrowing more words from Steve Schmidt, Republican Public Affairs Strategist - 

"His Presidency is ending soon. He stands as a colossus of malfeasance, incompetence, ineptitude, delusion and malice. The worst President in American history will be his eternal Epithet. His name will be a synonym for failure and toxic stupidity. His incompetence is lethal."

Wayne Thiebaud

So. 

I'll serve up some bbq for us, but in other ways, today will just be another day in the  (once)United States of America during a global pandemic with a divisive "leader."

Here's to next year, may it be better.


Kinda like what it was a few years ago when I  posted this Fourth of July piece - - -

A HAPPIER FOURTH

(Originally posted at Jungle Red Writers several years ago)

I was raised in a small town, but then ended up in the big city of Atlanta for 30 + years.

We moved to Boone in 1997, and I must say - I was happy to be back in a small town.  And still am.

I am most definitely, at heart, a small town girl.

And one of the things that brings all this home to me, in case life in general causes me to forget, is the 4th of July.

Come enjoy a very special parade and a few street scenes from the small town in the North Carolina mountains Donald and I call home.


First of all, you should understand that it's virtually impossible for me to go into town for any reason and not have breakfast at my favorite restaurant, Melanie's Food Fantasy.

This is Melanie.  She has owned this
Boone landmark since before we moved here.
Melanie rocks.

And so does everything on her menu - especially the Eggs Benedict

A perfect day for a parade!

A parade for everyone.  

Old trucks and cool old cars.
Kids riding bikes & littler kids being pulled in little cars by their dads.
WWII vets getting loud cheers and whistles.
Local Democrats playing kazoos on a float.
A friend dressed as a watermelon.
Fire trucks and a drill team.
Smokey the Bear and tractors and horses.
Dogs, dogs dressed as Uncle Sam, the "real" Uncle Sam.
A lot of flags
and a lot of smiling faces.

There's a lot of political stuff I'm pretty mad about right now, but a small town 4th of July parade still brings up a lump in my throat and tears to my eyes.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's been a great day.

But . . .

The 4th isn't over until that big firework finale - 

Last Night at the Lights for Liberty Vigil in Boone, NC

Donald and I attended our local Lights for Liberty vigil last night.

On our way into town, stopping to admire the flowers along our driveway I couldn't help thinking of children unable to enjoy simple things such as these, or a hug from parents while locked in cages by the most evil among us.

Locked in cages.

In the United State of America.

Words I never thought I'd hear, or say.

Because, after all, seeking asylum is NOT a crime.

These childred DIED in CUSTODY - in our government's custody:

Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle: She died on September 29 in our government’s custody. She was 10.

Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin: She died on December 8 in our government’s custody. She was 7


Felipe Gómez Alonzo: He died on Christmas Eve in our government’s custody. He was 8.

Juan de León Gutierréz: He died on April 30 in our government’s custody. He was 16.

Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez: He died on May 14 in our government’s custody. He was 2 1/2.

Carlos Gregorio Hernández: He died on May 20 in our government’s custody. He was 16.

This is on us.

And will ALWAYS be on us.

The shame and the horror, all coming from corruption in our leadership.



It's nice  having a partner who is as outraged and heartbroken about the state of the country as I am and who will stand by me in protest. Don Barley, I love you to the moon and back.

THIS is what democracy looks like.

Nancy Wells Shannon is a hero of mine

Todd Carter

 And then, breakfast for supper

There's strength in numbers. 

I felt that strength, along with hope, at last night's vigil. 

I will continue prodding each of you to join with your community members in participating in events of this sort as they happen. 

If we want our country to be a place we're proud of, we need to fight for it. 

These vigils and protests may seem silly to some of you. 

Some may think it's a waste of time. 

I think you're wrong. 

I've read comments from some of you at Facebook saying things like "Why aren't we taking to the streets about this?" 

Well - DO IT.

#RESIST

#DontLookAway 

#CloseTheCamps
#lights4liberty 

#NeverAgainIsNow