First, many thanks to Marybeth Holleman, our featured author for March, for her insightful posts. With the turning of the calendar arrives award-winning author David Vann, whom we’re featuring during April. By clicking on his photo in the sidebar, you can link to previous posts by and about David. We’ve also posted a photo of his most recent book, Legend of a Suicide. Look for guests posts from David beginning next week.
Denali Park is absolutely one of my favorite Alaskan places, so I was thrilled to get news from author Tom Walker that the park has instituted a Writers-In-Residence program. For this, the inaugural year, poet John Morgan has been selected as the first participant. He will enjoy ten days at the East Fork Cabin, known as
the “Murie cabin,” and will give a reading and public program at the end of his stay. Writers interested in this program can contact Ingrid Nixon, Chief of Interpretation, at the park next winter.
While our governor engages in a little cat-and-mouse with the federal government and our state legislation over economic stimulus funds, other states are taking an energetic and proactive approach to stimulating the economy by means of the arts. As the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices reports, “In seeking a competitive edge, several states are incorporating arts and cultural exchanges in their economic development approaches. The arts are a potent force in the economic life of cities and rural areas nationwide. Many states have invested in the arts as a strategy to attract the “creative class” and reverse brain drain.” Dream on, Alaska.
Thankfully, we have more control over efforts to stimulate our own personal economic situations. Check out the great suggestions in Bookend LLC’s recent post on What Authors Can Do to Sell Books.
In keeping with National Poetry Month, one of readers reports that the Kenai Community Library will be holding a Poetry Night, with twelve people reading poems on April 23, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Speaking of poets, Ken Waldman checks in with news that he’ll be in Sitka from April 10-14, Petersburg from April 15-16, Juneau from April 17-20. In all communities he’ll be doing a mix of events, including concerts accompanied by Anchorage guitarist and fiddler, Peter Johnson. In Sitka, he’ll be at Kettleson Library, Friday evening, April 10, for a solo reading. Saturday morning, again at Kettleson, he’ll be doing a children’s show. Saturday evening, he and Peter will do a concert. Monday and Tuesday they’ll be in schools and will do a kids’ writing workshop on Monday night at Kettleson. In Petersburg, he’ll do a solo reading at the library on Wednesday. Thursday, he’ll visit the middle school and then he and Peter and will do a concert Thursday evening. In Juneau, he’ll emcee a kids’ concert at the Alaska Folk Festival on Saturday morning, will do a short set with Peter that afternoon, and will lead a workshop about the business of being an artist on Sunday afternoon. Not to mention that Ken’s gearing up for five library shows in and around Anchorage for the summer reading program, plus the Beluga Days concert series at UAF. Also, he’ll soon be celebrating his second children’s CD and his first children’s book.
Of course! David Vann! (Our next feature author). Can’t wait to read a post by him and also, I’ve added him to my 100-title book list. I’ve been meaning to read more short stories and the reviews really piqued my interest.
(I also added another Alaska book, Army of the Republic, which was on my private TBR list but was one of those books I wasn’t putting on this particular “Filling the Gaps” list — but if it’s not on THIS list, my fellow Alaskans can’t see it. So there.)