49 Writers Weekly Roundup

We are pleased to announce at last the details of our fall literary season, which brings you a mixture of genres and classes of varying lengths, as well as favorite instructors and new faces. Registration opens Sept. 1, when the details and registration links will be up on the 49 Writers website. You have the choice of two weekly class series, starting in October. 49 Writers co-founder and blogger extraordinaire Deb Vanasse is back with a Thursday class called Sound and Fury: Find and Free Your Writer’s Voice, which will appeal to writers of fiction and non-fiction. On Wednesdays, we’re welcoming a new instructor to our faculty, Kate Partridge, who will teach Fundamentals of Poetry. Kate recently joined the English Department at UAA as an adjunct professor, and earned her MFA in Poetry from George Mason University. Kate will also offer a two-week class on Writing from Research, Saturday, Oct. 19 & 26. On the topic of research, look too for a series of guest blog posts about archives by Erin Wahl, last year’s instructor on Innovation & Inspiration through Primary Resources.


If you’re in a writing group but not getting what you need or want to join a group but can’t find one, Debbie LaFleiche will present Creating and Sustaining an Effective Writing Group on Saturday, Oct. 5. Debbie, a 49 Writers volunteer who last taught Getting Published for us, has plenty of great ideas that will get you on the right track as we head into another winter.


We’re delighted and honored that UAF professor emeritus Frank Soos will be joining us in November to teach a weekend course on Art of the Essay, Nov. 15 & 16, in which we’ll explore the possibilities of form and content through reading and study and through our own experiments in writing. Frank has also graciously offered to conduct a follow-on session for participants in the spring semester to provide further support for our work-in-progress. Spring is already shaping up to be an impressive season, as several of the great instructors who’d like to teach for us couldn’t fit it into their busy fall schedule and deferred until then.


We have been looking into various options for delivering classes online, consulting with other writing centers around the country and with instructors who have online experience, and plan to debut at least one online class later in the season. So stay posted for more information, all of you out there who would like to take classes but don’t live within easy distance of Anchorage or the other population centers.


This season we’ll miss 49 Writers co-founder Andromeda Romano-Lax, who is heading overseas with her family on an extended trip to far-flung parts of the world, as her popular classes have been a regular feature of our instruction program. But we look forward to her monthly blog posts with news of what she’s experienced en route that inspires and excites her creative imagination!

A new Reading & Craft Talk coordinator is joining us for the fall season: Matt Caprioli will be taking over from Lucian Childs (who needs to devote more time to his own burgeoning writing career) and Lorena Knapp (whose teaching and consulting projects are taking off). Do give Matt a warm welcome at our first event of the season, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 7pm, which will feature Alaskan author Jim Sweeney (The List, Alaska Expedition Marine Life Solidarity). And please thank Lucian and Lorena for all their hard work in building up this signature 49 Writers series. Other scheduled talks are by Tom Kizzia (Pilgrim’s Wilderness), Thursday, Oct. 24, and David Abrams (Fobbit), Saturday, Nov. 9 – all at Great Harvest Bread Company.


Today, Aug. 30, is the
deadline for applications for the biennial Connie
Boochever Fellowship, which recognizes and supports Alaska emerging artists
of exceptional talent. This year, it’s the turn of the Performing and Literary
Arts, with musicians, composers, choreographers, dancers,
playwrights/screenwriters, actors/directors, writers and poets all eligible to
apply. Sponsored by the
Alaska Arts & Culture Foundation and administered by the Alaska State
Council on the Arts.

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 7-8:30pm, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center (7th Ave. entrance). Don’t miss our first Crosscurrents event of the fall season, featuring Tutka Bay Retreat leader Ron Carlson (Return to Oakpine, The Signal) and local author Don Rearden (The Raven’s Gift). “Surviving the Story” will address the questions, “Where do stories come from?” and “How does a writer find and survive a story?” Join us for a stimulating onstage conversation about the process of discovery in writing fiction. Q&A and book signing to follow. Free admission but donations welcome! Our next Crosscurrents will take place on Thursday, Nov. 14, and feature the novella authors of Weathered Edge in “On the Edge of Publishing: A conversation with three ground-breaking writers.”

Friday, Sept. 20, 4-6pm, UAA Campus Bookstore: Sudarsan Rangarajan presents “Michel Butor, the French New Novel and Experiments in Writing.” Sudarsan Rangarajan is Professor of French and Coordinator of the French Program in the Department of Languages/ UAA. At this event he will discuss his new book called Critical Essays on Michel Butor’s L’Emploi du temps. Described as a “novel within a novel,” L’Emploi du temps is considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. And it lends itself to the examination of multiple literary genres including detective, Gothic, journalistic, narrative, rhetoric, existential and post-colonial literary theories. If you enjoy reading or are a challenged writer, come to this fascinating event where the best in modern fiction is critiqued.