Our latest episode was recorded with the keynote speaker for the 2025 Northwords writers conference in Skagway, Alaska. Pulitzer prize nominee Eowyn Ivey talks with guest host Summer Christiansen about her writing discipline, the challenges and joys of writing from rural Alaska and why her latest book, Black Woods, Blue Sky, is her most personal yet. […]
AVP 28: Eowyn Ivey, Author, Black Woods, Blue Sky Read More »
Shauna Potocky is a poet and painter who spent a decade as park ranger in Yosemite National Park. She is now a devoted resident of the community of Seward, Alaska. Along with the Kenai Peninsula, it is the inspiration for her second collection of poems and artwork, Sea Smoke, Spindrift, and Other Spells. In this episode, she
AVP 27: Shauna Potocky, Poet, Sea Smoke, Spindrift, and Other Spells Read More »
Katie’s guest Josh Fortenbery plays live tracks and reflects on the writing of his debut album. Southeast Alaska grown and produced, No Such Thing as Forever is getting strong reviews in Americana circles from across the country to across the pond. Fortenbery’s songwriting is informed by both his immediate and the greater human family. “I’m
AVP 26: Josh Fortenberry, Writer-Musician, No Such Thing as Forever Read More »
EPISODE SUMMARY Katie’s guest for this episode is Kate Troll, author of a memoir with an unusual focus. It chronicles, as she entered her seventies, meeting two siblings for the first time. And how these discoveries both challenged and strengthened her newfound family and her relationships with the siblings she grew up with. All in
AVP 25: Kate Troll, Author All in Due Time Read More »
EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, host Katie Bausler chats with Lucian Childs, author of Dreaming Home, a powerful collection of six linked short stories on the outing of a gay teenager by his younger sister, his father’s violent reaction and how that trauma ripples through the course of four decades. The stories, set in Texas,
AVP 24: Lucian Childs, Author, Dreaming Home Read More »
EPISODE SUMMARY In her debut album, Sisters of White Chapel, Alaskan writer and musician Annie Bartholomew brings a fresh approach to traditional folk music, channeling the under told stories of some of the working women of Alaska’s Gold Rush. And as she tells 49 Writers Active Voice producer and host Katie Bausler, sex work was
AVP 23: Annie Bartholomew, Writer-Musician, Sisters of White Chapel Read More »
The Covid 19 pandemic is isolating Alaskan writers. We can no longer attend workshops or public readings. The coffee bars where we met with other writers are closed. To bridge these physical gaps, 49 Writers is providing this on-line forum for Alaskans writing the distance. Mar Ka starts us off with her poem, “THE WAY.”
Writing the Distance: Mar Ka Read More »
I’m a current public radio volunteer DJ and former journalist and producer, so when the idea came up to create a 49 Writers podcast, I thought it was fantastic. We decided the podcast would be a series of interviews with writers sparked by their response to the effect of the 2016 election on our psyche. The
Katie Bausler | An Active Idea: 49 Writers Active Voice Podcast Read More »
If you’ve been following the news lately about Alaska’s poor salmon returns, you may have heard of a phenomenon with an unassuming moniker but potentially devastating consequences: The Blob. A mass of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska that biologists are linking to this summer’s weak salmon runs. But we are still only learning
Active Voice | An Interview with writer Jessica Shepherd Read More »
You know the old saying: federal decision-makers who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in rural Alaska. (Wait, maybe that’s not quite it.) In our latest installment of Active Voice: Writers Respond, essayist Erica Watson does not hold back as she examines the actions of the current federal administration to move
Active Voice | Bursts & Craters, Past & Present by Erica Watson Read More »