Last year I unexpectedly received a large nondescript cardboard box in the mail. It was nearly a yard square and weighed 35 or 40 pounds. There was no return address. I lugged this awkward, heavy enigma home from the post office, wrestled it through the door and up the stairs into the middle of our […]
Lawrence D. Weiss: Rogna and the Wax Cylinders Read More »
As you read this, I’m heading overseas on a personal working holiday (with opportunities to promote Alaskan writers) in Austria (which has no kangaroos: they even sell a postcard asserting this). The adventure will culminate in a weekend in Krakow with none other than Alaskan writer Kathleen Tarr. While I’m gone, the roundup will be
Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup Read More »
You’ve written your book. You’ve gathered responses from first readers. If you haven’t proven your chops as a developmental editor, you’ve found one to work with. You’ve revised, several times. If you’re not a good line editor, you’ve brought one to your project. Now you’re ready to publish. You submit and submit and submit until
Deb: Six Components of a Successful Book Launch Read More »
Tomorrow, my wife Joan and I will begin a slow drive south, to Anchorage and then the Kenai. Homer is the destination, though not really the point. I often create this way. In motion, my mind clears, and, as in sunlight after a storm, worlds both fictional and real reappear. At every stop, I pull
Daryl Farmer: On Journeys and Journals Read More »
First thoughts aren’t always best thoughts. When I taught collage comp, I repeated this mantra again and again. Creative writers would also do well to heed this simple advice. As proof, I offer two of my forthcoming books, each of which strayed a long ways from my original vision, and each of which is better
Deb: A Writer's First Thoughts Read More »
Write-a-thon fundraiser for the 49 Alaska Writing Center Recently, I joined four other authors in a panel that discussed “Isolation and Community: How We Live It, How We Write It.” At a conference that drew some 12,000 writers, the topic felt especially fitting. Were we all one big tribe, a la Seth Godin? Or was belonging
Deb: Writing Culture and Community Read More »
Thank you to everyone who turned out for the Wednesday Crosscurrents event featuring Sherry Simpson and Christine Byl—we were treated to a fascinating conversation on the topic of Essaying Alaska: Beyond Images of the Last Frontier and what it means to write authentically about this place we love and call home. Special thanks to our
Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup Read More »
It’s hard to believe (with many of us still experiencing post-AWP syndrome) but the 4th Annual 49 Writers Write-a-thon is fast approaching. Friday, April 11, to be exact about the date. The main time and place: 6-10:30pm, Snow City Café – our gracious hosts since the event’s hopeful beginnings in 2011. Now it’s a firmly
It's Write-a-thon time: get creative to support your literary community! Read More »
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it’s understood.” T.S. Eliot Earlier tonight, I sat at a table with four poets. They are each successful and brilliant, and each came to poetry in their own unique way. One of them stumbled into a prestigious graduate program only after dropping out of school. “The last thing in the
Daryl Farmer: To Write Good Prose, Learn to Love Poetry Read More »
Sherry Simpson On Wednesday, Mar. 12, 7 pm at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center (W. 7th Avenue entrance), local author Sherry Simpson (Dominion of Bears: Living with Wildlife in Alaska) joins Healy writer Christine Byl (Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods) for an onstage conversation about “Essaying Alaska: Beyond Images of the Last Frontier.” This
Sherry Simpson: Essaying Alaska Read More »
