Andromeda: You're invited to a literary afterparty on Friday!

Where I live in South Anchorage, the lights are fluttering, the wind is howling, and that’s on top of a viral attack on my desktop computer late last night (all offline documents and thousands of photos lost, at least I think so; anyone who knows more than I’ve been able to Google about the ‘Fake Windows Restore Virus,’ can you let me know…?)

What is the world telling me? That it’s National Poetry month and I should be able to write without a computer — even without electricity? Well, maybe. Whether you plan to write on a laptop or in a notebook, we look forward to seeing you at the Raven Write-a-thon at 5 pm at Snow City Cafe in downtown Anchorage. (Doors will open a little early if you want to get a favorite booth.)

You’re invited to a Post-Write-a-thon Afterparty: And for those who are not officially registered to write, eat, and hang out for the full 4.9-hour stretch, please consider this invitation: We’d love to see dozens more of you (room for 80!) at the official afterparty. Arrive at 9:30 to quietly grab a drink, and hear the write-a-thon portion of the evening end with a bang at 9:54.

Then, at 10:00, the games start. What happens when a politician (Ethan Berkowitz) and a Rage City Rollergirl (Shocker Khan) face off to write the best poem, mini-memoir, or story opener in 3 minutes? What will happen if we give them some tough words that they must use: say, “petroleum,” “luscious,” and “genome”? Maybe you have better word ideas. Well then, come on out to Snow City and join the game. In place of tickets for the afterparty, we’d like to ask non-write-a-thon party guests to “buy” their ticket this way (honor system, of course): just donate any amount, big or small, to any write-a-thon participant by 4 pm on Friday. (Click here or use the “view all participants” link at right.) If you’d rather not go online to donate, then bring a 5-dollar bill (or two, or ten) to participate in the writing games. $5 gives you the chance to offer a word that the celebrity game-players must use in their poetry or prose. We hope to see you there!

P.S. Potential Write-a-thon Participants in Homer Ela has put out the word that she’s looking for last-minute Homer participants. Contact her if you’re interested!