12 - 2017 - 49 Writers, Inc.

Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Publishing (and Learning) with Ooligan Press

December 27, 2017 December 26, 2017 / By 49 Writers

This is the final post from our December guest blogger Meagan Macvie. 49 Writers was pleased to sponsor Meagan’s southcentral Alaska book tour this month. I was nearly forty when I got serious about writing creatively, and once committed, I did so with a fierce urgency. I left full-time employment, joined writing groups, attended conferences, …

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Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | A Certain Necessary Faith

December 22, 2017 December 22, 2017 / By 49 Writers

The first time I visited New York City, people asked me (after I revealed I was from Alaska) if I’d ever lived in an igloo. The truth disappointed them. I’d never even seen a real house made of ice. An igloo would’ve been much more exciting than our unremarkable middle-class house on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. …

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Dawnell Smith | Opening in 2018: The Writer’s Block

December 15, 2017 December 14, 2017 / By 49 Writers

By Dawnell Smith (and on behalf of her Block partners: Vered Mares, Teeka Ballas, Kathy McCue) In the fall of 2015, we walked into the Adults Only sex store on Spenard Road in Anchorage to lay the groundwork for building a community bookstore art space and cafe. The property held not just a storied past, …

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Deb Vanasse | Writer, Interrupted

December 14, 2017 December 13, 2017 / By 49 Writers

Last week, my husband and I made a trip we didn’t want to make, back to the Midwest to visit a friend who’s failing fast with early-onset Alzheimer’s. A good visit, but under incredibly sad circumstances. You’ve made trips like that, too, for all sorts of reasons. Life doesn’t stop. We make room. I hauled …

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Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Wading Into Deeper Water

December 12, 2017 December 12, 2017 / By 49 Writers

There are so many reasons I chose to quit my full-time job, start writing fiction, earn my MFA, and complete a novel. In part, I was frustrated by inequalities I observed in the world and angry about how helpless I felt to change them. I wanted to talk about racism and sexism, ask questions, challenge …

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Spotlight on Alaska Books | Court of Twilight by Mareth Griffith

December 8, 2017 December 8, 2017 / By 49 Writers

The cold was back with a vengeance; she almost expected to see her breath hanging in the air like a frosted cloud. Very carefully, Ivy looked around the room, peering into the corners and shadows. She only saw her various twinned shadows twitching as she turned her head, tiny whirlpools of dust spinning at her …

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Active Voice | Barbara Hood: Stand in the Cold for Human Rights

December 7, 2017 December 7, 2017 / By 49 Writers

This piece was originally published in Anchorage Daily News and is reprinted here in our Active Voice series with permission. In the wake of World War II, as the extent of Nazi atrocities came to light, many nations of the world came together to articulate the basic rights of all human beings. The Universal Declaration …

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Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | The Fabricated Truth

December 5, 2017 December 5, 2017 / By 49 Writers

I was a teen in 1990s Soldotna, Alaska—the setting for my debut novel—so people often ask me if The Ocean in My Ears is a thinly disguised memoir. The short answer is no. Sure, I was probably every bit as frustrating, angsty, and confused as Meri, my teen protagonist. She attends a high school that …

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Active Voice | Bradford Philen: Trumping Linguistics

December 4, 2017 December 4, 2017 / By 49 Writers

Sure, language always changes. And, the fiction writer—the poet and essayist, too—needs time to process.

December 2017