Tom Kizzia’s long-awaited book, Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier, is now in bookstores! You can read an excerpt here on the Anchorage Daily News website and check out Jeremy Pataky’s July 16 interview with Tom Kizzia on this blog. There are several upcoming opportunities to learn more about the writing of the book and to meet the author:
- Tuesday, July 23, 10 am: “Talk of Alaska,” radio call-in show, Alaska Public Radio Network
- Tuesday, July 23, 7pm: Reading, talk and signing at Anchorage Museum auditorium
- Wednesday, July 24, 4-6pm: Book signing at Fireside Books,720 South Alaska St., Palmer
- Wednesday, July 25, 4-6pm: Appearing on Mike Porcaro radio talk show, 650 KENI AM:
- Saturday, July 27, 5pm: “Talk of Alaska” rebroadcast on 360 North, Alaska’s public affairs channel
- Tuesday, July 30: Reading, talk and signing at Homer Public Library, Homer
- Tuesday, Aug 13, 7pm: Book event at Anchorage Loussac Library, Wilda Marston auditorium
- Thursday, Aug. 15, 7pm: Book talk at Kennecott Recreation Hall, Kennicott/McCarthy
We are delighted to announce that the
University of Alaska Press and
Epicenter Press have both signed on again as sponsors for
Alaska Book Week 2013. We very much appreciate their ongoing support, which covers the cost of printing and distributing posters and bookmarks, as well as other outreach and coordination expenses (which keep rising as participation in the event increases year-by-year). This year, the Anchorage
Barnes & Noble store has committed to supporting Alaska Book Week for the first time! We appreciate the enthusiasm of the Anchorage staff for creating a special event around this annual celebration, with a percentage of book sale proceeds going to Alaska Book Week (ABW). Look for more details as plans take shape. Another new sponsor is
VP&D House, the Anchorage publisher of
Weathered Edge: Three Alaskan Novellas. Thank you to these fine organizations for their support this year. If you would like to become a sponsor, just email us at 49writers@alaskabookweek.com for more information.
Plans are taking shape for the First Annual ABW Book Fair in Anchorage (
Friday, October 11, 10am to
Saturday, October 12, 5pm) organized by the Alaska Writers Guild and Alaska Pacific University, with assistance from 49 Writers. The event will take place in the atrium of Carr-Gottstein Hall on the APU campus and will be free to the public. All published Alaska authors in the realm of creative writing are invited to participate. Authors must be residents of Alaska but your book doesn’t need to address or mention Alaska. Highlights will include guest speaker
Don Rearden (
The Raven’s Gift) in APU’s Grant Hall Theatre on Friday night, and author readings throughout the day on Saturday in the lecture hall and adjacent classrooms. Author registration will be $20 for a half-table and $35 for a full table. Registration opens soon – watch for an announcement on this blog and the
Alaska Book Week website. For up-to-the minutes news, be sure to “like” the
49 Alaska Writing Center Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @49writingcenter.
July 24, 4-6pm, UAA Campus Bookstore: Kris Farmen and Martha Amore come together to read and discuss their stories in Weathered Edge: Three Alaskan Novellas, published by VP&D House. Free and open to the public. You’ll find free parking for bookstore events in the South Lot, the West Campus Central Lot (behind Rasmuson Hall), and in the Sports Lot.
The Alaska Center for the Book will be attending the 2013 Bookfest of the Library of Congress in DC in September. If you have postcards of your latest book available for display on their table, please mail them to 49 Writers, Inc. at P.O. Box 221086, Anchorage, AK 99522 by August 15 so they can be included. Great opportunity to draw wider attention to your work!
More good news on the Alaskan author front: Heather Lende’s If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name has now climbed to number 7 on the New York Times eBook Best Seller list after only three weeks. Way to go, Heather – keep up that trajectory! Also, Jan Harper Haines would like you to know that Cold River Spirits is now available as an eBook, so spread the word.
