49 Writers Weekly Roundup

We have just been notified that our application to participate in the Anchorage Centennial has been accepted! Anchorage Remembers: A Centennial Memoir Project is now an “Official Anchorage Centennial Event.” Beginning in fall 2013, 49 Writers will offer free memoir writing classes to help local residents, including senior citizens, transform their memories into compelling poetry and prose as a means of documenting their experiences in Anchorage. In 2014, we’ll call for submissions to an Anchorage Remembers anthology to be published and distributed in 2015. In order to make this happen, we need volunteers and sponsors! If you are interested in becoming involved in any way, we want to hear from you! Just contact us and we’ll get back to you to discuss how you can engage with this exciting project. Look for more details soon as Anchorage Remembers evolves.

As we announced last week, we are currently accepting proposals for our fall term classes – deadline June 15. If you are interested and would like more information, check out the Teach for Us page on the 49 Writers website for instructor guidelines and the proposal form.

Meanwhile, we are pleased to bring you another teaching opportunity: 49 Writers and F Magazine have partnered to plan a Summer Arts Camp that includes Writing Creatively workshop intensives. If you would like to teach any of the following topics, we encourage you to apply by the May 31 deadline.

Workshops for Youth (12-18), Tuesday, June 18 through Friday, June 21
Each workshop totals 6 hours and will be taught in four parts (1.5 hours a day). Instructors are needed for two topics: Word Building and Putting Magic in Your Dragon (characters). For more information and to apply, click here.

Workshops for Adults, Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16
Each workshop totals 2 hours. Instructors are needed for three topics: Writing for Children, Creating a Sense of Space, and Defining and Developing Characters. For more information and to apply, click here.

Huge congratulations to poet and writer Joan Kane for reaching 157% of her USA Projects fundraising goal with two days to go! Click here for more information about this exciting project, which involves her first trip to remote King Island, home of generations of her ancestors, which has been uninhabited for 50+ years.

If you have been
following Shannon Huffman Polson’s “Notes
from a Border Life
,” you’ll know that her recently published memoir, North of Hope: A Daughter’s Arctic Journey, has
become the Seattle Times and Elliott Bay Book Company #1 nonfiction
bestseller. Congratulations, Shannon! Don’t miss the Alaska launch of North of Hope on June 20, 5:30 pm, at Blue Holloman Gallery in Anchorage. On June 26, time TBD, Shannon will also
appear at the Sheldon Denali Education Center, Denali National Park.
On Memorial Day,
you can help to say thank you to people serving in uniform. Shannon’s
publisher, Zondervan, has agreed to donate up to 100 copies of North of Hope to
veterans to match purchases from independent booksellers. If you don’t have a
local favorite in your area, check out other indies in Alaska here (not
100% current but a good starting point). 
Talking of book
launches, save the date too for Don Rearden’s The Raven’s Gift USA
edition book launch at Tap Root on June
27, 6 pm
.

Ever wonder what an editor or agent would think of your manuscript? During the First Pages session of the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, the first page, or an outline, of fiction or nonfiction books will be discussed for 5-10 minutes each by professional agents and editors on the conference faculty. This is an anonymous opportunity to receive a genuine reaction to your work, together with constructive suggestions for how to make it stronger.Send a first page to iyconf@uaa.alaska.edu by May 30.

Registration is now open for the Alaska Writers Guild annual fall conference, to be held Saturday September 7 and Sunday September 8, with optional sessions on Friday September 6..

In case you entered for the AWP WC&C Scholarship Competition, here are this year’s winners. Nobody from Alaska, alas, but do keep trying!

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