July 1 is a big day at 49 Writers. First, it marks the end of our members-only registration for the 49 Writers Tutka Bay Retreat featuring David Vann. This retreat is an incredible value – two nights at a lodge where rates normally run $800 per night plus four instructional sessions with one of the most highly acclaimed authors to come out of our fair state – all for only $395 plus the cost of a water taxi.
July 1 is also the last day your $100 donation (and membership) will make you one of our esteemed Founding Donors. And it’s the date we’ll be raising ad rates here at the blog, so if you haven’t already reserved an ad for $10 per month (what a deal!), you’ve got six more days to do so. After the 1st, they’ll still be a great value at $20 per month to reach the perfect target market for your project.
Thanks go out to not only KSKA and APRN for running radio coverage of the 49 Alaska Writing Center, but also the Homer News for spreading the word.
If you’re in Anchorage, be sure to stop by our first Raven Place First Friday book signing on July 2 from 6-8 p.m. Kris Farmen will be signing copies of his new book The Devil’s Share, published by McCoy and Blackburn. Kris has lived in Fairbanks, McCarthy, Ninilchik, and Homer, as well as overseas in Australia. His writing has appeared in The Surfer’s Path, Mushing magazine, Cirque, The Ester Republic, and The Anchorage Press. He still lives in Alaska, with no fixed address. His novel tells of a young man’s action-filled year in the Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness, where he faces the dangers hidden behind both the smiles of humans and the beauties of the vast country where Canada and Alaska meet.
More good writing news comes from Bill Streever, whose well-acclaimed Cold debuts in paperback next month, and from Fairbanks poet John Morgan, who recently learned that Poetry Daily plans to feature Spear-Fishing on the Chatanika and include a poem from it on Friday, July 2.
Issue # 2 of Cirque is now live online and also on sale at MagCloud. This month Cirque hard copy prices are 25% off the full price: Issue #1, normally $16, is now $12 through June, and Issue #2, normally $24, is now $18 through June.
Last but not least, please welcome our new 49 Writers round-up editor. An ‘Alaskan by marriage,’ Ela Harrison Gordon came to live in Homer in 2008. She is trained as a Classical scholar, and is primarily a poet. In addition to her own writing, she works as an editor, columnist and translator. Homesteading and the wilderness are also keynotes in her life. Her personal blog is http://ulteriorharmony.blogspot.com/. Next week Ela will start drafting round-up posts, freeing me up to get to work on fall programming concerns. News can still be emailed either to 49writers@gmail.com or to debv@gci.net; I’ll happily forward all of it to her. Thanks to Ela and to all of our fine volunteers – there’s literally no way we could do all of this without you!