Roundup for Literary Alaska

Have news, events, or opportunities you’d like to see listed here? Email details to info (at) 49writers.org with “Roundup” as the subject. Spread the word. Your message must be received by close of business the Wednesday before the roundup is scheduled to run at the latest. Unless your event falls in the “Opportunities and Awards” category, it should occur no more than 30 days from when we receive your email. Thanks! 

 EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

We had one last minute cancellation for Julia O’Malley’s “Writing Motherhood” workshop, which means there’s one seat left. The class starts tomorrow morning, Saturday, November 5, 2016, at the AKHF offices in Ship Creek at 10 am and ends at 4 pm. Learn more and register here (scroll down). Questions? Email info@49writers.org or text 907-244-7717.

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Writing Motherhood: A Workshop

SOUTHCENTRAL

ANCHORAGE | November 4-6, 2016 | Anchorage Public Library fall book, music, and movies sale. Details here.

EAGLE RIVER | November 9, 2016 The Living Room reading series meets monthly, every second Wednesday from September through April at Jitters Coffee House, 7-9 pm. Sign up in advance to read, or just come listen. Learn more. Seven readers per evening, 5-10 minutes each. This month The Living Room honors active military, veterans, and military families. Seven readers were connected with The Living Room by Alaska Humanities Forum staff. 49 Writers board member Matthew Komatsu will be among the readers.  

SEWARD | November 9, 2016 | Cirque Reads with Friends – Writers and poets from Seward, Anchorage, and beyond read original work. Poetry, prose, music, prizes, and a special menu at The Cookery and Oyster Bar. Doors at 5, program begins at 6.

ANCHORAGE | Thursday, November 10, 2016, | 49 Writers Reading and Craft Talk Series presents Bryan Allen Fierro – Place and Images: Writing Home. Fierro is the author of Dodger Blue Will Fill Your Soul (The University of Arizona Press). We’ll be at a *new venue*, also in the Metro Mall: Indigo Tea Lounge (530 E Benson Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99501). Bryan Fierro received his MFA in fiction from Pacific University in Oregon in 2013. He won the Poets and Writers 2013 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award in Fiction, and placed in both the 2013 Hemingway International Short Story Contest and Masters Workshop at the Tucson Book Festival. His stories have appeared in the literary journals Copper Nickel and Quarterly West. Originally from Los Angeles, California, he has lived in Alaska for thirteen years, and currently works as a firefighter/paramedic for the Anchorage Fire  Department. Dodger Blue is his debut book of stories.

Bryan Allen Fierro kicks off this season's 49 Writers Ready & Craft Talk Series
Bryan Allen Fierro kicks off this season’s 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series

ANCHORAGE | Friday, November 11, 2016, 7:30 pm, Anchorage Museum | Polar Nights: Charles Wohlforth’s Beyond Earth Book Launch – Author Charles Wohlforth presents his new book, Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets. A leading planetary scientist and an award-winning science writer offer groundbreaking research and argue persuasively that Titan (a moon of Saturn with a nitrogen atmosphere), a weather cycle, and an inexhaustible supply of cheap energy offers the most realistic and thrilling prospect of life without support from Earth. Included with Museum admission.

ANCHORAGE | Wednesday, 7 pm, November 16, 2016 Poetry Parley featuring Jeremy Pataky reading original work and others reading poems by marquee poet W.S. Merwin. Becky’s Gallery (in the same complex as blue.hollomon).

ANCHORAGE | Saturday, November 19, 2016 from 1-3:00 pm at the UAA Campus Bookstore | Seals and Alaska Native Life:  An Event in Honor of Agnes Mayac and Ted Mayac Sr. – Esther Koezuna (Inupiat artist and skin sewer from King Island), Shaaxsaani (a Tlingit artist using traditional materials in contemporary ways), Ilarion Merculieff (author of Wisdom Keeper: One Man’s Journey to Honor the Untold History of the Unangan) and Aron Crowell (The Arctic Studies Center’s Yakutat Seal Camp Project) discuss their work and relationship with seals. This event is held in honor Agnes and Ted Mayac Sr.  and in celebration of Alaska Native/American Indian Heritage Month. Agnes and Ted Mayac grew up in the now abandoned village of King Island, 90 miles northwest of Nome and 309 miles off the coast of the remote Seward Peninsula. Agnes Mayac is a renowned skin sewer and doll maker, and Ted Mayac Sr. is a highly acclaimed traditional ivory carver and artist.  Both are deeply involved in preserving their King Island heritage and are members of the King Island Traditional Dancers. This event is sponsored by the Alaska Center for the Book and the UAA Campus Bookstore. All UAA Campus Bookstore events are informal, free and open to the public.  There is free parking at UAA on Saturdays.

ANCHORAGE | March 31-April 1, 2017 | Organized by the graduate students within the English department, the Pacific Rim Conference on English Studies invites submissions in literature, rhetoric and composition, linguistics, anthropology, history, journalism, gender studies and other related fields. See the call for proposals here.

ANCHORAGE | Do you know daily reading with your preschooler and toddler is the best thing you can do to prepare them to learn to read? Join the Anchorage Public Library and take the challenge to read 1,000 books before Kindergarten! Pick up (or print off) a reading log. Every 100 books, your child will get a sticker. At 1,000 books they will get a free Alaskan picture book! Join any time at any location. http://libguides.anchoragelibrary.org/1000Books

ANCHORAGE | The Mountain View Library is hosting a write-in event for NaNoWriMo! Come join for three evenings of writing fun. They will provide laptop computers for any writer who needs one during the write-in.

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INTERIOR 

FAIRBANKS | Fairbanks Arts Association hosts the oldest literary reading series in the state. Every month, writers reading their own work publicly at a community meet-up where people can connect with other lovers of literature. Readings are held on the day after First Friday, usually the first Saturday of the month at 7 pm. Most reading are held in the Bear Gallery in Pioneer Park, although occasionally in the summer (June, July, and August) the weather is beautiful reading are held outside to another spot in Pioneer Park. Upcoming:
November 5: Nicole Stellon O’Donnell
December: TBA
Additional readings and events may be held, but the First Saturday Literary Reading Series is monthly at 7 pm the day after First Friday (except February).

SOUTHEAST

JUNEAU | Tidal Echoes is open to submissions. See Opportunities section, below.

JUNEAU | Friday, November 5, 2016 – Trickster Company will host Ernestine Hayes with her latest book, The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir for sale and signing as well as Crystal Worl’s art prints that match the book cover. Ernestine Hayes is a member of the Wolf House, Kaagwaantaan clan. Born and raised in the Juneau Indian Village, she moved to California at the age of fifteen, where she stayed for 25 years. At the age of 40, Ernestine, homeless and broke, left San Francisco on an eight-month journey to come back to Alaska, standing in food lines, sleeping in shelters, and living in her car. Her first book, Blonde Indian, an Alaska Native Memoir, winner of the American Book Award, tells the story of her return, as well as the return of the seasons, the return of the bear and the salmon, and the return of the land. Ernestine’s second book, The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir, carries those stories forward with the perspective of someone who was gone and who has now returned. Great-grandmother of three, she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast and makes her home in Juneau only a few blocks from the village where she was born.

JUNEAU | 6:30 pm, November 18, 2016, at the Walter Soboleff Building – Woosh Kinaadeiyí will collaborate with UAS Leadership Club Wooch.een in hosting the first Open Mic of the non-profit’s 7th season. The Open Mic is a non-competitive event open to poets and performers of all ages and all abilities.  Signups to perform start at 6 pm. Woosh Kinaadeiyí is a nonprofit organization committed to diversity, inclusive community, and empowering voice and organizes these free to low cost monthly events for the community. As a leadership club, Wooch.een works closely with the University of Alaska Southeast and community organizations to foster a better understanding of our State’s wonderful tribes and promotes an awareness of our State’s cultural and social issues. Together, the two organizations hope to create a space that encourages new (as well as the familiar) poets, writers, and thinkers to share their words with the community. Donations are welcome. Learn more at www.facebook.com/wooshpoetry. Questions? Contact Christy NaMee Eriksen, Woosh Kinaadeiyi President, christynamee@gmail.com.

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ARCTIC 

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CONFERENCES, RETREATS, and RESIDENCIES

The entirety of Southeast Alaska is encompassed by the Cascadia bioregion. The fourth Cascadia Poetry Festival occurs November 3-6, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. http://cascadiapoetryfestival.org/

Alaskans interested in becoming an Audiobook Narrator can join Professional Narrator Basil Sands at The Alaska Audiobook Narrator’s Workshop with top rated Voice Acting Coaches Christa G. Lewis and Sean Pratt. Saturday, December 10, 2016, 9-5, Sandman Production Studios of Alaska, $100 per person, 15 Student Max. Learn more.

OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS for WRITERS

On behalf of Byron Mallott, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, Alaskans are invited to contribute brief essays (150 words or less) to  “150 Reasons We Love Alaska,” a publication to be distributed in early 2017 during Alaska’s sesquicentennial year. Alaska Dispatch News will publish and distribute a booklet with entries. Submissions may be edited and then published with your permission. Also, if a photo and caption tells the story, send that. They welcome your thoughts about Alaska music, art, books, science, food, relationships, adventures — whatever describes who we are as Alaskans and what we want to be. This is modeled on the cover story of Time Magazine in July — “240 Reasons to Celebrate America”. They are not just soliciting affirmations, but also overlooked history, the things we as a state can improve in the future, or humorous anecdotes about failure — all are welcome. You may write about your occupation or specialty, but please don’t limit yourself. For example, in the Time Magazine issue the great jazz musician Wynton Marsalis celebrated Route 66, and many others gave shout-outs to their favorite regional foods or restaurants.  All points of view will all be honored – whatever your heritage or background might be – the more diverse the better. This event was a turning point for Alaska Native, Russian, and American cultures. Email Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy at kathy.ruddy65@gmail.com or call 907-321-7558 with questions. Sooner is better, with 150 word pieces due no later than December 10, 2016.

The Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities ceremony will be held in Juneau on Thursday, January 26, 2017. Visit ASCA’s website here for information about last year’s Governor’s Awardees, and here for the Alaska State Writer Laureate program.

Tidal Echoes, Southeast Alaska’s literary and arts journal published through the University of Alaska Southeast, is currently looking for submissions from all of Southeast Alaska and we hope to see people from all communities share their creative work. Our deadline is December 1st, 2016. They accept prose, poetry, paintings, drawings, photography, ceramics, and more. Everything must be in a digital format, which means you need to scan art pieces or take photographs of them, so that they can be easily uploaded to our submission page on Submittable. The website is a quick and easy way to upload your work. A short bio will need to be provided alongside your contact information. http://www.uas.alaska.edu/arts_sciences/humanities/tidalechoes/

Alaska Women Speak is accepting submissions.

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