Rereading Ice Palace: Old Myths and New Context by Nancy Lord When I first arrived in Alaska in the early 1970s, I eagerly read everything I could about my new home. That meant that I read Jack London, Rex Beach, homesteader accounts, and Edna Ferber’s novel Ice Palace, published in 1958 and credited with helping […]
Guestblogger Nancy Lord on “Ice Palace” Read More »
The optimism was short-lived. Nielsen reports book sales for the first week of December are down 2 million as compared to last year. The bright spot is children’s fiction, up 24%, mostly attributable to a couple of blockbusters. We won’t detail all the latest layoffs and pay freezes in publishing. Suffice to say no one’s
ALASKAN AUTHORS WEEKLY ROUND-UP Read More »
David Marusek sends this urgent request: he is auctioning a pet (yes, as in dog or cat kind of pet) cameo, to raise money for a writer in dire financial straits. The auction closes Sat. Dec. 13 at 11:47, so I had to post this quickly! Short explanation here, or link to David’s blog for
Breaking News! Immortalize your pet and help a writer in need! Read More »
Fairbanks author Debbie Miller reports from Boston, where she’s doing school visits – the children’s author’s version of a book tour. In the works, she has: Survival at 40 Below: Life in the Arctic: illustrated by Jon Van Zyle. (Walker, 2010) This picture book explores the unusual adaptations of animals that live above the Arctic
Nothing, according to the ever-prescient Onion, source of this humor piece last March. It seems even funnier now — oh wait; less funny I mean — in the light of recent publisher news about acquisitions freezes and firings. LOS ANGELES—The Novelists Guild of America strike, now entering its fourth month, has had no impact on
What does a freeze on “fiction production” mean to society? Read More »
Winter solstice is just eleven days away. For us Alaskans, that’s a big deal, because it means that we’ll turn the corner and start gaining daylight. Right now, we’re down to about five hours of daylight in Anchorage. Make that close to three in Fairbanks. And the folks up in Barrow – well, let’s just
BRING ON THE ALPHA Read More »
MAIA NOLAN!!! (Hear cheers of delight, jeers of envy, the clink of glasses, a murmuring crowd.) (Note to others turning 30 soon, or 50, or 80, please feel free to request that your name be added here quickly. Now, on to the letter that follows.) Dear Maia, While searching for Alaska writer blogs to add
Most Promising Emerging Alaska Novelist Under 30 Goes To… Read More »
Last week, I listened to two great author-lecture podcasts of about one hour each, thanks to UAA and the Northern Renaissance Arts & Science Series. Listening to them, I felt like I was getting a little piece of the grad-school experience without paying a cent or leaving the comfort of my kitchen. I devour craft
UAA MFA for free (or at least little pieces of it) Read More »
I’m glad Alaska’s Writer Laureate Nancy Lord spoke of John Haines and his take on Alaskan Literature over at 49 Writers yesterday, because it spurred me to think some more about the question of whether there could be a serious course in Literature of the North. Regional lit courses are nothing new. There’s Literature of
Did you know blogs can be personality-tested? Frightening, but it’s evidently true. I found a link on a blog called Shrinking Violets Promotions to this Typealyzer.com website that crunches and scrutinizes the language style of a particular blog (at least that’s how I’m understanding it) and slaps on a Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator Label. 49 writers
If this blog were a person, it would be a firefighter! Read More »
