This week we reached a new milestone: our current membership is more than double what it was this time last year! Thank you to the 28 new members who have joined since the beginning of 2014, who hail from not only Anchorage but also Douglas, Juneau, Skagway, and Wasilla. We’re just a few short of …
I’d guess it was about a thirty-foot drop. Objects fall at thirty-two feet per second, according to my physics book, but it sure seemed like one long-ass second. The jokulhaup saved me. Without the pressure flood, the creek would’ve been like the Arrigetch, and I would’ve probably landed on the rocks. Even if I got …
Spotlight on Alaska Books: Lost Frontier, by John Foley Read More »
As I sign off here as January blogger for 49 Writers, I’d like to thank Deb Vanasse and Linda Ketchum for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for your patience and thoughts and communication – it has been a true privilege. Through the blog comments, and individual emails, I also feel like I’ve started to …
John Straley has been a writer and a criminal defense investigator in Alaska for thirty years. In a 49 Writers workshop on Feb. 6 from 1 – 4 pm, he will talk about the practical talents it takes to do both kinds of work and how he has disciplined his life to be able to complete long …
John Straley: An Excerpt from Cold Storage, Alaska Read More »
I started writing Fools Gold in 2006. It was published in 2013. Each writer’s journey is different, but mine is one of perseverance, planning, and a little luck. During those years, I revised, listened to critiques, revised, learned about publishing, queried, revised, then queried again. And even that long sentence leaves out a few steps. When people …
Lynn Lovegreen: Journey of a Novel: How I Got from Unpublished to Published Workshop Read More »
This week saw the last of our 2014 Resolve to Write gatherings and the first get-together of 49 Writers members and other writers in Mat-Su. Members from Houston, Wasilla, Chickaloon, and Palmer gathered at the welcoming home of Debra McKinney and Paul Morley for an informal potluck and to share of the joys and challenges …
One bitter cold night my older brother Paul and I went to the Beer Can Lake area to get a Christmas tree. This was around 1979. There had been about three inches of snow earlier that day and I really did not want to be out in the cold deep snow in sneakers getting a …
Alaska Shorts: Tree Poaching at Beer Can Lake by Mike Byers Read More »
One of my first memories of arriving in Sitka, Alaska, was walking by the water down to the Totem Park Visitor’s Center and reading an exhibit label describing the arts culture of the Tlingits, the indigenous people of the Alexander Archipelago. The label pointed out that the arts and storytelling tradition was so strong among …
To commemorate the historic rise of Anchorage from the first sale of town lots in 1915 to Alaska’s largest city in 2015, 49 Writers will publish a memoir anthology—Anchorage Remembers: 1915-2015—that celebrates the history of Anchorage in the words of those who have lived it. We are currently offering a series of FREE memoir writing workshops …
Lynn Lovegreen: Free Memoir Writing Workshops Start Soon! Read More »
Facing the Stars for David Ignatow I face the stars in an empty tundra flat, no one for miles near, no one knowing I am here so that I do not exist other than in memory and expectation; except to the dogs that pull me, the snow, the tussocks that bear our weight, air sucked …
Alaska Shorts: A Trio of Winter Poems by Mary Kancewick Read More »
