Cold is what our early Anchorage winter has delivered, but it’s not how most of us want to characterize our careers, unless we’re professional skiers or snowmachiners like the newly-illustrious Todd Palin. With the economy sending pre-Halloween shivers down most every spine, the book industry is not exactly in fine shape. Indeed, as the New […]
BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE Read More »
With the election less than three weeks away and the gap in the polls widening, it looks like Alaska may get its governor back – or some semblance of who we thought she was. Having penned coming of age novels, I hope we’ll look back on these past few months as a coming of age
I thought sending Obama one Alaska book was a good idea. I hadn’t heard about Canadian author Yann Martel’s wonderfully quixotic project: sending Canada Prime Minster Stephen Harper a new book every two weeks. Martel, author of THE LIFE OF PI, was offended by an overly perfunctory parliamentary reception he and other Canadian authors received
Yann Martel is pelting Stephen Harper with good books Read More »
Today we’re celebrating new Alaskan authors, a whole book full of them, from Alaska’s Kuspuk School District along the middle Kuskokwim River. Last fall, mystery author Donna Moore visited Aniak, Kalskag, and Sleetmute as part of Alaska Sisters in Crime’s Authors to the Bush program. There it’s safe to say she fell in love with
NEW ALASKAN AUTHORS Read More »
Eleven percent of Alaskans function at the lowest level of literacy, according to the National Institute for Literacy. Sad to say, it appears our governor may be among them. The same woman who claims to read everything put in front of her reportedly hasn’t bothered to read the 263-page report on her Troopergate misdeeds. And
ILLITERATE ALASKA? Read More »
Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin created buzz during her VP debate by shouting out to third-graders in her brother’s class at Gladys Wood Elementary, just down the street from my house. Was it cute? Silly? Hometowny? Hillbilly? We won’t decide that here. Instead, as guest blogger for Andromeda, I want to shine the spotlight for a
ALASKA’S SHOUT-OUT TO YOUNG READERS Read More »
Name a few recent Canadian novels on your TBR list. (Too hard? I couldn’t think of many either and naming only Margaret Atwood books shouldn’t count.) OK, here’s one I’ve meant to read: THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO by British Columbia writer Steven Galloway. How to catch up on Canada books? Here’s one idea. At The
Canada Book Challenges Read More »
We’re in the midst of a meltdown. Not just on Wall Street, which is alarming enough, but on Main Street Anchorage. Okay, Anchorage has no actual Main Street, but we’re riding a roller coaster of early winter snow and a major meltdown thereof. Seasonal shifting, not so strange. May the market recover as quickly as
ALASKAN AUTHORS WEEKLY ROUND-UP Read More »
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be turning this blog’s binoculars not west (as this wonderfully witty New Yorker cover suggests) but the other direction — toward Canada — which, as we’ve been reminded a lot lately, happens to be another country. And very close to us, too. In honor of my upcoming
CANADA SPECIAL: Book news from our foreign neighbor Read More »
So many great books have been written in and about Alaska. With a few notable exceptions, most are nonfiction. It’s not that we don’t recognize the value of book-length fiction. Seth Kantner’s novel Ordinary Wolves was chosen by readers at 49 Writers as the best book to send to candidate Barack Obama to help him
